6o Landscape Gardening 



One simple rule of perspective should never be forgotten 

 in dealing with ugly masses of buildings that are both high 

 and near. It is that the nearer we bring to our point of 

 vision any object that we wish to interpose between ourselves 

 and another object, the larger will be the surface of the latter, 

 both as regards breadth and height, that we screen from view. 

 A reference to this fact will often enable the operator to 

 accomplish a good deal with scanty materials and to do it at 

 once. Very large trees, for instance, are not always possessed 

 or to be procured, and if planted they may not thrive so well 

 as others of a lower growth. The knowledge of the above 



Fig. II. Practical Perspective. 



truth, however, will render the use of the smaller ones as per- 

 fectly and as immediately effectual as the larger would be in 

 a more distant position. And in this way a moderate-sized 

 evergreen may be made to answer a purpose which a tree of 

 great magnitude would scarcely be sufficient for in another 

 place. It need hardly be said that evergreens are much more 

 suitable for the office, where they can be had large enough, as 

 they do the work well at all seasons of the year. It should 

 be added, that any extreme application of the rule would 

 probably bring the trees employed too close to the house, or 

 too much on the lawn, both of which have to be shunned. 

 The sketch, fig. ii, inserted here will suffice to convey the 



