38 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



State of cultivation is the predominant characteristic. The 

 trees and shrubs are grown to the highest possible perfection, 

 and every angle is, as it were, rounded with a species of ele- 

 gant art. The object is, therefore, mainly to produce highly 

 elegant and polished forms. 



The gardenesque imitation, and what we have termed a 

 simply beautiful imitation of nature, may at first sight appear 

 to be the same. But there is a strongly marked difference. 

 In an imitation of beautiful and of picturesque nature, the 

 expression of the whole scene is the object never to be lost 

 sight of. It is characterized no less by the form of the 

 ground and by the individual character of the trees them- 

 selves, than by the mere arrangement of the trees singly or 

 in groups, and the cultivation to which they are afterwards 

 subjected. Thus, as we shall hereafter point out, the expres- 

 sion of the larch is different from that of the willow, the 

 oak from that of the elm, and so in numerous other trees 

 both native and exotic. Now the gardenesque mode of im- 

 itation, readily admits in the same scenes every species of 

 tree, provided it is planted separately and afterwards grown 

 in the manner required by that mode, — because it depends 

 for its character mainly on the beauty of form as developed 

 by culture. But in beautiful or picturesque imitations of 

 nature, a predominance of such trees and other objects is 

 requisite, as in themselves are intrinsically expressive of either 

 graceful beauty, or picturesque beauty. The art of culture, 

 as in thinning, pruning, etc., is directed rather to heighten 

 those peculiar expressions, whether in the single tree or in 

 the group, than to endeavour to produce luxuriance, or the 

 beauty of culture. 



In the imitative scale, viewing the different modes of Land- 

 scape Gardening as works of art, fac-simile imitations of na- 



