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the perfect level of a plain maj bo given, by a similar selection, 

 the appearance of an midulating or varying surface. 



By the careful study of its character, every tree may be dis- 

 played to the greatest advantage. Spiry trees may be planted in 

 the vicinity of steeples and other tall buildings, not to conceal, but 

 to bring them forward ; picturesque trees, with climbers and 

 striking shrubbery, may be planted along steep slopes, and quiet, 

 round-headed or drooping trees may clothe the low-lying sides of 

 a lake or river. The various trees may be thrown into obscurity 

 or brought prominently forward by their position in reference to 

 roads and paths. These may be laid out so as to give the ap- 

 pearance, with the reality, of subserviency to mere convenience, 

 or, when leading up into the woods, to favor the impression of 

 Avildness and intricacy, so pleasing to the imagination. 



To get command of the materials for this form of landscape 

 painting, the student must go into the forest not only every day 

 in spring, but he must go in midsummer and in midwinter, and 

 every day of autumn. He must study in the open glades and 

 in the thickets, and he must look at the forest at a distance. 

 He must learn the peculiar character of each tree standing by it- 

 self, and of the trees of each species, as seen growing together in 

 masses ; and he must watch the effects produced by the combina- 

 tion and various grouping of the several trees ; how they are 

 affected by the vicinage of rocks and of water, and how by climb- 

 ing vines, fantastic roots, and other accidents of landscape. 



Consider for a moment the changes which will take place in a 

 forest just planted. Suppose that it occupies the summit of a 

 hill and runs along down its side, accompanying the path of a 

 brook, Avhich is known formerly to have had a voice of music 

 through the year, but which has, of late years, failed to to be heard, 

 from the improvident felling of the trees which once covered the 

 hill. We have had it planted with larches and other deciduous 

 trees and with evergreens ; and we hope to hve to see it make a 

 conspicuous figure in the landscape, i'or the first few years it is 

 beautiful chiefly to the eye of hope. The fences or hedges in- 

 tended to screen the young trees from the sun and winds are the 

 most prominent objects. Eut even in these earliest years, a walk 

 to the hill will be well rewarded by the sight of the visible pro- 

 gress which many of the young nurslings have made. Every 

 spot unusually protected or unusually moist, will offer points of 

 emerald green more beautiful and more precious to the eye of 

 the planter than jewels. In the autumn, some of these spots will 

 send out a brilliant gleam of scarlet, or orange, or purple. 



In a few years more — a strangely short time — some of these 

 trees will be distinctly visible at a distance, at all seasons, and Avill 

 assume an individual character. They will overtop the fences 

 and attract and fix the eye. The little rill will prolong its winter 



