Particular Objects i8i 



and relieved by contrast with vegetable forms of an opposite 

 character. Without questioning the soundness of the rule, 

 which appears quite unexceptionable, it may be doubted 

 whether, in the case of Grecian and Italian structures, at 

 least, the appropriateness of the fir and cypress tribe is not 

 the result of association. The cedar of Lebanon, the 

 branches of which are purely horizontal, is the most magni- 

 ficent of all accompaniments for any variety of Grecian archi- 

 tecture, but is not at all suited for either of the forms of 

 Gothic. And so perhaps the old ancestral elms and oaks in 

 which many an English Gothic house is often embosomed 

 may, by the commonness and antiquity of the usage, have 

 given a propriety to the employment of that kind of tree in 

 relation to all similar* edifices. 



Still if it be admitted that certain descriptions of trees 

 accord with the forms of certain architectural styles, it may 

 be fairly assumed that the use of those trees in such situa- 

 tions had its origin in their fitness, or supposed fitness, for 

 the purpose; and that, though they may be peculiar to any 

 given country in which the style of building to which they 

 are now allied preponderates, or has at some former period 

 prevailed, that very style may have been founded on its 

 adaptation to the natural characteristics of the country, trees 

 not being among the least significant of these. 



Possibly I may not be far wrong in accounting for the con- 

 nection which has somehow sprung up between particular 

 classes of trees and particular styles of buildings, by a refer- 

 ence to the character of the leaves rather than the distinctive 

 lines of the branches or heads. Light, thin, and feathery 

 leaves characterize all the plants that look best when in con- 

 tact with the varied class of Grecian structures, — the heavi- 

 ness (or rather massiveness) and regularity of Grecian forms 

 demanding some such contrast and mitigation. Gothic build- 



