XII 



PLANTATIONS 



" r I ^HE first requirement of a landscape is the 

 vigorous growth of all plants. The finest 

 forms of mountains and lakes, all the bril- 

 liancy of the sun and sky, combined with the naked 

 rocks and bare lakes cannot replace the luxuriant 

 growth of various forms of trees, and the diversified 

 pleasing green and rich foliage and meadows. Fortu- 

 nate the man to whom his forbears have bequeathed 

 lofty woods, old oaks, beeches, and lindens, these 

 proud giants of our Northern clime, standing there 

 still untouched by the woodman's murderous axe. 

 He should never regard them without veneration and 

 delight, he should cherish them as the apple of his 

 eye, for neither money nor power, neither a Croesus 

 nor an Alexander, can restore an oak a thousand 

 years old in its wonderful majesty after the poor 

 labourer has felled it. Terrible and swift is the 

 destructive power of man, but poor and weak is his 

 power of rebuilding. May an ancient tree be to you, 

 kind reader, who love nature, a holy thing. And 



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