456 ON COLOUR IN TREE SCENERY. 



ON COLOUE IN THE TEEE SCENEEY OF OUK 

 GAEDENS, PAEKS, & PLEASUEE GEOUNDS. 



{Read at the Horticultural Congress at Oxford, July 21 st, 1870]. 



T AST year I had the privilege of reading a paper at the 

 1 ^ Manchester Congress of this Society " On the Im- 

 provement of Plants," which subject may be said properly 

 to belong to the " Science" of gardening. To-day I have 

 the pleasure of submitting to ytou my thoughts " On Colour 

 in the Tree Scenery of our Gardens, Parks, and Pleasure 

 Grounds," and here find myself dealing more directly with 

 the " Art " of gardening. While fully recognising the 

 progress both in the art and science of gardening which 

 has taken place in my day, I yet think that in this out- 

 lying but important province our professors have not made 

 so free and effective a use as they might have done of the 

 various tints of foliage which are to be found amongst 

 trees and shrubs. 



Lest I should be misunderstood, permit me to state at 

 the outset that I hold the prevailing green with which the 

 earth is clothed to be the best colour that could have been 

 devised for the purpose, as blue is the most appropriate 

 colour for the sky. But the sky, which is beyond our 

 reach and power, is naturally subject to constant and con- 

 siderable variation, and is singularly free from monotony. 

 It is not altogether or long together of one colour. There 

 are light fleecy clouds continually breaking up the hemi- 

 sphere of blue, varying in substance and colour; sometimes 

 hanging motionless, but oftener sailing noiselessly along 

 more or less rapidly and every moment changing in form. 

 Then there are the dark thunder clouds, and the golden, 

 silvery, purple, and roseate hues which often give both life 

 and brilliancy to the morning and evening sky. 



But we have the power given unto us to vary and 

 adorn the surface of the earth, and I would here invite 

 public attention and invoke the artist's aid on behalf of 



