loo Landscape Gardening 



tical uses, the tree, even if it would yield any available timber, 

 is very nearly if not altogether worthless. 



But I cannot and do not profess to comprehend why 

 gentlemen should impoverish their plantations, and strip 

 their gardens of the first element of beauty, by cultivating 

 only a few particular species of plants, and not merely har- 

 boring, but cherishing a dislike to all others. A garden or 

 plantation denuded of half or three-fourths of its proper 

 ornaments, is much in the same predicament as an individual 

 with only a portion of his ordinary garments. It is imper- 

 fectly clothed, insufjEiciently furnished, weak in its expression 

 of the beautiful. 



Beauty of lines and forms is possibly less powerful than 

 that of association, but it is more prevalent, and better 

 apprehended by the mass. A wavy, or undulating line, has 

 been styled the line of beauty, and the assumption may be 

 true that it is the most beautiful of all lines. But in 

 averring that there is no other line at all beautiful, it is of 

 course far wide of the truth. Every one will acknowledge 

 that the lines of a dove's body, when in full plumage, are 

 exquisitely beautiful, and that a circle is one of the most 

 pleasing of figures. But few, I should think, will deny that 

 a cube possesses beauty, or that a triangle is not destitute 

 of it. An avenue is the subject of universal admiration, and 

 so is a long straight road, that conducts up a gentle ascent, 

 to a church, or other sufficiently dignified and commanding 

 object. Still, an avenue to a common workhouse, as I have 

 witnessed, loses its influence; and a long road, ending in 

 nothiKg, may simply be a dreary blank. 



'i'h-i truth sfems to be that some kinds of lines require the 

 acco^npaniments of fihiess and association to render them 

 interesting, while others have an inherent power of impressing 

 men. A wavy line i- the most truly graceful; it is the thing 



