DECIDUOUS TREES 189 



varnish tree. The light filters down beautifully through their 

 pinnate leaves, and these trees live long. 



We grossly overdo all trees with "tropical 5 or spectacular 

 foliage, such as the large-leaved magnolia and the ginkgo. They 

 are perfectly hardy and are not creations of man, but is that any 

 reason why we should fill a peaceful scene with objects startlingly 

 different from our environment? Our country, as a whole, excels 

 England, as a whole, on variety, but too great variety on any one 

 place is our national failing. I heard some Englishmen complain 

 that the English landscape is monotonous. On the contrary, it 

 is all the more home-like because a few tried and true kinds of 

 trees appear everywhere. Some day our landscape, too, may 

 look like the home of one big, happy family. 



THE EFFECT OF FORMAL OUTLINES 



What possesses us to plant so many trees that are living cubes, 

 globes, cones, and columns? A few may be appropriate in the 

 garden, but rarely on the lawn. The most conspicuous of these 

 forms is the columnar or fastigiate. The Lombardy poplar is a 

 living exclamation point. It was the first ornamental tree we 

 bought in quantity. It spreads like wildfire in America and ruins 

 many a fine landscape. A group of three or five makes a splendid 

 break in the sky line, but whole streets lined with it are most 

 unnatural and tiresome. 



The nurseries are full of "tree pretenders" such as the oak 

 that mimics a cypress in outline. Let us forget these horticult- 

 ural forms. After you have learned to know and love beech, 

 tulip tree, hawthorn, horse chestnut, and other broadish trees, 

 their columnar varieties look pinched and unhappy. When we want 

 cones let us go to the trees that naturally make cones , but " not too 

 all-fired perfect" cones viz., the spruces and other evergreens. 



