i8o Landscape Gardening 



with close tufts or clusters of shrubs, to cover the walk, and 

 shut in some parts of the view. A few low trees more spar- 

 ingly dotted about will contribute to give it stability and 

 character. The walk should of course be quite narrow, and 

 may ascend by a zigzag route on one side only, or by curving 

 round the entire face of the mound. It might appropriately 

 be composed in its steeper parts of easy flights of rustic 

 steps. 



3. Shapes of Trees. — Among the trees adapted to asso- 

 ciate with different styles of buildings there are three distinct 

 classes easily recognizable by the particular shape their heads 

 and branches assume. The first and largest group produces 

 roundish and clustering heads, when their full growth is 

 attained. The oak, the ash, and the English elm are famihar 

 examples. Another set much more thinly scattered send 

 out their branches horizontally throughout their whole height. 

 The cedar of Lebanon, the varieties of fir or spruce (not pine), 

 the yew less perfectly, the larch, and the deciduous cypress 

 in its usual state, will illustrate this section. The third tribe 

 which has very few members consists of upright or fastigiate 

 trees. The Lombardy poplar is the commonest instance, 

 though the upright elm is another very good example. If 

 such as have pointed or spiry heads be included, many of the 

 second class will come within this also, — the firs especially. 

 Larch, and several round-headed trees, in their younger state, 

 before the upper branches get dense and spreading, will give 

 a pretty clear idea of spiry-topped trees. 



Repton, in his Sketches and Hints on landscape garden- 

 ing, lays it down as a general principle that round-headed 

 trees harmonize best with Gothic forms of architecture, 

 and trees of spiry shape with Grecian buildings, on the 

 ground that the horizontal lines which prevail in the latter 

 style, and the perpendicular in the former, are best exhibited 



