PLANTING FOR LANDSCAPE EFFECT. 



Scale and 

 mass in 

 planting. 



Wrong 

 views of 

 scale. 



which are their natural home. The result of disregarding these considerations is well 

 shown in illustration No. 345, which gives a view of a row of poplars divorced from 

 the plain to which they belong, and placed among hills. The straight lines clash 

 horribly with all the undulations and variations of the scene, whereas we have only 

 to remember the works of contemporary French artists who have painted the pastoral 

 scenery of the great French plain, to be reminded how effective such a row may be 

 in its proper place, giving a much-needed line receding from the eye, whereas all the 

 others on an open level plain run directly across the line of sight. The effect in the 

 illustration just referred to would be still worse if it were not for the horizontal lines 

 which water always provides. Contrast this with the other photograph given on the 

 same page, in which there are no hills to compete with the vertical lines of the poplars, 

 but, instead, still water emphasizing them. Nothing could be more delightful, and a 

 careful comparison of the two may teach us much. 



Having thus demonstrated how suitability to environment will influence our planting, 

 there still remains the question of scale, which will also help to determine what we shall 

 plant. This question may be considered in two ways, first as to the size of individual trees 

 when fully grown, and secondly as to the extent of each plantation. Both aspects will, of 

 course, bear a direct relation to the size of the domain which is to be planted, for, in one 

 place, the slope of a hillside may be clothed with timber for half a mile or more in one 

 mass, while in another there may be no opportunity for anything beyond a plantation, 

 say, fifty yards across. Apart from this, however, the proximity of architectural features 

 will have a controlling influence, for it is obvious that planting on a formal balustraded 

 terrace would have to be completely subordinated to the general architectural scheme. 



In the majority of cases, but by no means in all, architecture is much helped by a 

 background or flanking masses of foliage, and even where the building is small, such 

 foliage masses can hardly be on too large a scale, for there is no sense of lack of propor- 

 tion felt on beholding even the tiniest cottage backed up, or even almost overhung by 

 towering elms or pines. Instead, the greater the contrast, the more we are impressed 

 with a sense of protection afforded from Winter storms and Summer heat. 



In the case of a classically detailed mansion this does not apply to the same extent. 

 Here there will have to be a definite relationship between the scale" of the main faade 

 and the foliage back-ground, while in some instances, as in the case of Lees Court, 

 Faversham (111. No. 128), the severely symmetrical arrangement would not allow of 

 competing foliage. 



Apart, however, from their use as a background for architecture, we shall find it the 

 rule that the larger trees and more extensive plantations shall be kept at a considerable 

 distance from the main building, and that, the nearer we approach to it, the smaller 

 the scale of plant employed should be. Even a broad grass avenue of forest trees, 

 leading the eye away from the house to the distant boundary, should have its com- 

 mencement at a sufficient distance from the mansion, as explained in the chapter dealing 

 with this subject. 



In the days of Capability Brown, the reverse was often done in order to create a 

 false sense of perspective. The idea was that, by planting larger trees at the near end 

 of a vista and smaller ones at the other, an appearance of greater distance would be 

 obtained, especially if, as in many cases,- a summer-house or other erection to a reduced 

 scale were placed at the far end of the view. The result may have impressed the 

 spectator with its ingenuity on first beholding it, but the deception would become 

 wearisome on repetition, and would also completely spoil the view of the house from the 

 other end of the vista. 



Repton, in determining the scale of his plantations, adopted a saner course. His 

 plan was to provide a number of poles, say ten feet high, which were then held up 



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