150 Landscape Gardening 



occasional holly or kalmia to vary their appearance, and 

 give them more liveliness in winter. If left unpruned and 

 suffered to take entirely their own course these plants will, 

 after a few years' protection, become quite sufficient guards 

 to the trees, and will have rather a picturesque effect. 

 Unquestionably, however, they will detract from the sym- 

 metry and dignity of the tree. 



That the color of fences is by no means unimportant, will 

 readily be deduced from what has been urged as to giving 

 them a quiet appearance. All light paints, such as white or 

 stone-color, will be exceedingly out of place, unless the fence 

 is very handsome and intended to be made conspicuous. 

 Green, as harmonizing best with the color of grass and vege- 

 tation generally, will be the most appropriate. 



6. Outlines of Beds. — In dealing with the outlines of 

 beds and masses, besides the variation, freshness, easiness 

 and grace of sweep, which it is desirable to procure in 

 respect to such as are to contain shrubs, or shrubs and 

 trees, much may likewise be done by the manner of planting 

 them. Although it is necessary, to secure any degree of 

 order and beauty for a few years, that the shape of irregular 

 masses should be set out in a series of bold, well-connected 

 and flowing curves, the actual outline of the plants, when 

 they have reached some eight or ten years' growth, must 

 never be supposed or arranged to take any such figure. On 

 the contrary, each plant, in the front at least, like the heads 

 of old trees in a forest, should jut forward or retire with a 

 curve of its own, forming an infinitely more numerous and 

 more varied series of little curves, these again uniting, in 

 their general outlines, to fill up and vary the series of larger 

 sweeps at first marked out on the ground. Fig. 47 will best 

 explain this, the dotted fine along the front exhibiting the 

 curved outline of the plantation as it would be set out on the 



