ON WOOD AND PLANTATIONS. 



89 



the colouring ; and if, in addition to this, oblong-headed trees, 

 or pyramidal trees, were also placed near and partly inter- 

 mingled with the spiry-topped ones, the unity of the whole 

 composition would be still more complete.* 



Contrasts, again, are often admissible in woody scenery, and 

 we would not wish to lose many of our most superb trees, 

 because they could not be introduced in particular portions of 

 landscape. Contrasts in trees may be so violent as to be dis- 

 pleasing ; as in the example of the groups of the three trees, 

 the willow, poplar, and oak : or they may be such as to pro- 

 duce spirited and pleasing effects. This must be effected by 

 planting the different divisions of trees, first, in small leading 

 groups, and then by effecting a union between the groups of 

 different character, by intermingling those of the nearest sim- 

 ilarity into and near the groups : in this way, by easy trans- 

 itions from the drooping to the round-headed, and from these 

 to the tapering trees, the whole of the foliage and forms, har- 

 monize well. 



[Fig. 17, Example in grouping 



* We are persuaded that very few persons are aware of the infinite beauty, va- 

 ried and endless, that may be produced by arranging trees with regard to their 

 colouring. It requires the eye and genius of a Claude, or a Poussin, to devel- 

 ope all these hidden beauties of harmonious combination. Gilpin rightly says, 

 in speaking of the dark Scotch fir, " with regard to colour in general, I think I 

 speak the language of painting, when I assert that the picturesque eye 

 makes little distinction in this matter. It has no attachment to one colour in 

 preference to another, but considers the beauty of all colouring as resulting, not 

 from the colours themselves, but almost entirely from their harmony with other 

 colours in their neighbourhood. So that as the Scotch fir tree is combined or 

 stationed, it forms a beautiful umbrage or a murky spot." 



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