Landscape Gardening. 



The ash and the acacia floating bang 



Tremulous and pale. Like reetlcss H;rpents clothed 



In rainbow and in fire, the parasite?, 



Starred with tea thousand blossoms, flow around 



The grey trunks, and as gamesome infants' eyes, 



With gentle meanings and most innocent wiles, 



Fold their beams round the hearts of those that love. 



These wind th^ir tendrils with the wedded boughs, 



Uniting their close union : tbo woven leaves 



Make net-work of the dark blue light of day, 



And the nighfs noontide clearness mutable 



As shapes in the wierd clouds. ISoft mossy lawns 



Beneath these canopies extend their swells 



Fragrant with perfumed herbs, aud eyed with blooms 



Minuter, yet as beautiful." 



Our engi-aving entitled a primitive fove.<t, .strikingly illustrates tlio iin- 

 polish and tortuous picturesqueness of original condition. Here we have 

 trees that ramify and interlace one another in every possible direction ; ad- 

 ded to this wc have a sub-growth of vegetation, altogether in appearance 

 and nature too savage to be pleasing. And then again, minute pools of 

 stagnant water a.ssist to make a disagreeable prospect. This semi-barbarous 

 a.-ipect can be astonishingly ameliorated, and made to assimilate the more 

 charming and graceful work of nature, in her cheerful moods. 



In the first place, it is absolutely necessary to annihilate a great portion 

 of the undergrowth, in order to obtain an uninterrupted vista. By thi.T 

 means we shall be enabled to discover those trees whose development is in 

 consonance with our requirements. And also that natural gi'oups may be 

 selected with an eye to their subsequent relative effect. This is the criti- 

 cal moment to mar or make the landscape, for if this all important opera- 

 tion be illy performed, no amount of after improvement can obviate the 

 stiff and unartistic effect. Nature is rarely consoled by patchwork. It will in 

 consequence be imperative to scrutinize carefully every tree on the ground?, 

 to estimate its value in the landscape, and to ascertain as nearly a.s possi- 

 ble, the result of robbing it of its present companions. As different vari- 

 eties of trees present a multiplicity of shapes and contrast of color, and va- 

 riation in form of foliage, branch and trunk, it will be essential to consider 

 well the species which will contribute the most enlivening appearance to 

 the future effect. It is also a matter of delicate discrimination, whether 

 round headed deciduous trees would tend to produce a greater degree of 

 beauty in cci-tain localities, or on the contrary if spiry-topped evergreens 

 would not be more harmonious, and in keeping with objects in the vieinity- 

 As a general rule pyramidal evergreens should be used sparingly. Intro- 



