134 



that the success of the plauter will be nearly in proportion 

 to the fulness of ramification of top and slides, which his sub- 

 jects may possess. 



It is further deserving ^ remark, that, although there is 

 little more which we can do, towards either beauty or utility, 

 where nature regulates the process, than humbly to follow 

 her footsteps, yet experience leads us to beUeve, that in trans- 

 planting (which, however, is a department of art), art may 

 improve the balance, and, of course, the beauty of trees, on a 

 principle, to all appearance, contrary to nature, and certainly 

 opposed to all former practice. It is well known to those 

 best acquainted with Woods, that most trees are unequally 

 balanced, and show what is called a " weather-side," usually 

 to the west and south -Avest, in this island ; from which side 

 they seem to bend, and exhibit, in consequence, a very un- 

 seemly appearance. The same thing also takes place in 

 close plantations, Avhere they are mechanically injured by 

 others. Of this propensity to bend to the gale, the beech 

 and the larch are reinarkalile examples ; and there is scarcely 

 any tree, the sycamore perhaps excepted, which does not ex- 

 hibit a w^eather-side towards the blast, and towards the op- 

 posite side throw out by far the longest and stoutest branches. 

 In other words, all trees growing for a certain time in ex- 

 posed situations, or even in close ones where they cannot 

 equally expand, may be said to be ill-balanced. This, in 

 parks much exposed, is found a very serious eyesore ; as, in 

 such situations, the stems describe very unequal angles with 

 the surface, singularly acute on the one side, and as obtuse 

 on the other. It is true, the painter sometimes makes use of 

 such objects in his landscapes, as being agreeable to nature. 

 Kent, the father of landscape gardening, planted dead trees 

 in his earlier designs, the better to imitate natural variety, 

 until he was laughed out of the practice by his friends or 

 rivals. Rut most planters of the present day will regard it 

 as safer and more judicious to copy Iwautiful rather than de- 



