808 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. PART III. 



in their plantations, do not, as is the practice of some European gardeners, plant indis- 

 criminately every thing that comes in their way ; nor do they ignorantly imagine, that 

 the whole perfection of plantations consists in the variety of the trees and shrubs of which 

 they are composed : on the contrary, their practice is guided by many rules founded on 

 reason and long observation, from which they seldom or never deviate. Many trees, 

 shrubs, and flowers, they say, thrive best in low moist situations ; many on hills and 

 mountains : some require a rich soil ; but others will grow on clay, in sand, or even 

 upon rocks ; and in the water : to some a sunny exposition is necessary ; but for others, 

 the shade is preferable. There are plants which thrive best in exposed situations ; but, 

 in general, shelter is requisite. The skilful gardener, to whom study and experience 

 have taught these qualities, carefully attends to them in his operations ; knowing that 

 thereon depend the health and growth of his plants ; and, consequently, the beauty of his 

 plantations. 



6146. The perfection of trees for ornamental gardening consists in their size, in the beauty and variety 

 of their forms, the color and smoothness of their bark, the quantity, shape, and rich verdure of their 

 foliage, with its early appearance in the spring, and long duration in the autumn ; likewise in the quick- 

 ness of their growth j and their hardiness to endure the extremities of heat, cold, drought, or moisture ; 

 in their making no litter, during the spring or summer, by the fall of the blossom ; and in the strength of 

 their branches, to resist, unhurt, the violence of tempests. 



6147. The perfection of shrubs consists not only in most of the above-mentioned particulars, but also in 

 the beauty, durability, or long succession of their blossom ; and in their fair appearance before the 

 bloom, and after it is gone. We are sensible, say they, that no plant is possessed of all good qualities ; 

 but choose such as have the fewest faults ; and avoid all the exotics that vegetate with difficulty in our 

 climate ; for though they may be rare, they cannot be beautiful, being always in a sickly state. 



6148. The excessive variety of which some European gardeners are so fond in their plantations, the 

 Chinese artists blame ; observing, that a great diversity of colors, foliage, and direction of branches, must 

 create confusion, and destroy all the masses upon which effect and grandeur depend: they observe too, 

 that it is unnatural ; for, as in nature most plants sow their own seeds, whole forests are generally com- 

 posed of the same sort of trees. They admit, however, of a moderate variety ; but are by no means pro- 

 miscuous in the choice of their plants ; attending, with great care, to the color, form, and foliage of each ; 

 and only mixing together such as harmonise and assemble agreeably. They observe, that some trees are 

 only proper for thickets ; others, only fit to be employed singly : and others, equally adapted to both these 

 situations. The mountain cedar, the spruce and silver firs and all others whose branches hare a hori- 

 zontal direction, they hold improper for thickets : because they indent into each other ; and likewise cut 

 disagreeably upon the plants which back them. They never mix these horizontal-branched trees with the 

 cypress, the oriental arbor vita, the bamboo, or other upright ones ; nor with the larch, the weeping 

 willow, the birch, the laburnum, or any of a pendent nature ; observing, that the intersection of their 

 branches forms a very unpicturesque kind of network : neither do they employ together the catalpa and 

 the acacia, the yew and the willow, the plane and the sumach, nor any of such heterogeneous sorts ; but, 

 on the contrary, they assemble in their large woods, the oak, the elm, the beech, the tupelo, the sycamore, 

 maple, and plane, the chestnut, the walnut, the arbele, the lime, and all those whose luxuriant foliage 

 hides the direction of their branches ; and growing in globular masses, assemble well together j forming, 

 by the harmonious combination of their tints, one grand group of rich verdure. 



6149. In their smaller plantations, they employ trees of a smaller growth, but of the same concordant 

 sorts ; bordering them with Persian lilacs, guelder-roses, syringas, coronillas of various sorts, flowering 

 raspberries, yellow jessamine, hypericum, the spiraea frutex, altheas, roses, and other flowering shrubs 

 peculiar to China : and wherever the ground is bare, they cover it with white, blue, purple, and variegated 

 periwinkle, the convolvulus minor, dwarf stocks, violets, primroses, and different kinds of creeping flowers ; 

 and with strawberries, tutsan, and ivy which climbs up and covers the stems of the trees. 



6150. In their shrubberies they follow, as much as possible, the same rules ; observing farther, to plant in 

 some of them all such shrubs as flourish at one time ; and in some, such as succeed each other : of which 

 different methods the first is much the most brilliant ; but its duration is short ; and the appearance of 

 the shrubbery is generally shabby, as soon as the bloom is off: they therefore seldom use it, but for scenes 

 that are to be enjoyed at certain periods ; preferring the last, on other occasions, as being of long duration, 

 and less unpleasing after the flowers are gone. (Dissert, on Orient. Gard.) 



6151. British practice. Soon after Sir William Chambers's work appeared that of 

 Wheatley, which contains some excellent remarks on the subject (Obs. on Gard. sect.xii. 

 xiii. xiv.), and subsequently Uvedale Price's -excellent .Essays on the Picturesque, vol. i. 

 In 1804 we endeavored to enforce the principle, not only in planting trees, but in 

 arranging herbaceous plants, and the plants in botanic hot-houses. (Obs. on Planting and 

 Landscape Gard. 8vo.) All these efforts were at first treated as visionary by Marshal, 

 Nicol, and other planters and gardeners. But Nicol, in the last editions of his works, 

 allows there may be some merit in grouping ; and Sang, his editor, highly approves of 

 following nature in the arrangement of trees. (Planter's Kalend.} 



6152. Nicol says, " the proper disposition of shrubs, where many are to be planted, is a matter of con- 

 siderable importance to the future welfare of the whole, and that whether they be mixed, or be grouped ; 

 that is to say, whether deciduous or evergreen shrubs be indiscriminately mixed, as is often done, or the 

 evergreens be planted distinctly by themselves. The arrangement of shrubs is a matter, no doubt, very 

 much of fancy. In some parts they may be mixed ; in others grouped ; but, in general, there ought to be 

 plenty of evergreens planted, in order that the whole may be the more cheerful in winter. Generally 

 speaking, however, the method of mixing all kinds of shrubs indiscriminately, prevails too much in modern 

 shrubberies. Much more character and distinctness may be given, by judiciously grouping them, than by 

 following the common methods of planting." 



6153. Abercrombie, or rather his posthumous editor, seems undecided in his observations on this subject. 

 In one place he says, " in the distribution of plants over grounds dedicated to elegance, there are two rival 

 systems, each of w'hich has its practical followers and theoretical vindicators. One proposes the indiscri- 

 minate mixture of many different species ; the other deliberately groups those only which have some 

 marks of affinity. It is still a question, which order of planting is countenanced by the practice of nature 

 in self-sown vegetables ; and which will confer on a garden the stronger claims to character and beauty ?" 

 He elsewhere observes, that " the different natures of herbaceous flowers, shrubs, and trees stand in the 

 way of every attempt to govern their distribution or assemblage by a common principle." In planting 

 trees, however, he subjoins, " theprinciple of unity may be consulted, without losing sight of the advan- 

 tage of variety," &c. (Pr. Gard, 477.) 



