HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE. 451 



nature so pleasingly exhibits in her own planting. Very 

 few attempts, to our knowledge, have as jet been made, 

 in this country, in what is called "artistic planting," that 

 is, where reference is had to those effects attained 

 by combination of certain colors ; for instance, in order 

 to increase the effect of a vista or opening, by plant- 

 ing the darker foliage nearest the eye, and the lighter 

 at the more distant point of view, or by planting two 

 trees in the same hole in order to produce picturesque 

 effects in contrast to the more formal or gardenesque 

 planting on the place. We remember to have seen at 

 Ouchy, on the Lake of Geneva, that most graceful tree, 

 the Weeping Silver birch, planted in the same hole with 

 a pretty, drooping, fragile, dark-looking cedar ; and the 

 two (some twenty-five years old) had grown up to- 

 gether like two loving sisters, and their dark and sil- 

 very foliage and graceful arms gently entwined together, 

 seemed to cling fondly to each other for support the 

 Minna and Brenda of the woods. 



A selection and blending of trees with reference to 

 their autumnal colors, is another refinement yet little 

 practiced in this country. A group, for example, of 

 our ash, the different maples, the liquid-amber, the sour 

 gum, the dogwood, etc., judiciously toned down in color, 

 from the darkest and richest to the lightest, will present 

 a combination, which, for brilliancy and gorgeousness, 

 would be hardly credible to those who had not witnessed 

 the result. 



In connection with this subject, we have made use of 

 some memoranda of a visit to several places in Italy, 

 some years since, as illustrative of artistic planting, 

 from which, notwithstanding the advantages of climate, 

 it is very easy to see how very far we yet fall short in 

 this sort of perfection. 



The place which we have most particularly in our 

 mind, at present, is a bold promontory in the Lake of 

 Como, called Bcllagio, belonging to the Duchess of 



