460 ON COLOUR IN TREE SCENERY. 



kinds which might prove undesirable on more mature 

 acquaintance. This plan I rigorously pursued, and now 

 find myself in possession of a select list which I believe is 

 sufficient to carry out all that I shall advance. 



In addition to the ordinary or prevailing green, I find 

 that I have five colours or tones of colour with which to 

 work: (i) Light green; (2) dark green; (3) reddish 

 purple; (4) yellow or golden; (5) white or silvery ; and 

 these may be combined in a variety of ways. Dark bluish 

 green has a good effect when placed in contrast with light 

 yellowish green ; white with dark green ; reddish purple 

 with light green ; reddish purple with yellow ; yellow with 

 dark green. And these contrasts by no means exhaust our 

 resources. I merely quote them from among a number of 

 experiments which I have actually tried and found agree- 

 able to my taste. I have indeed no intention here of 

 laying down any precise or definite rules for the application 

 of these principles. I aim at no more than to show that 

 the materials in colour exist, leaving their combination to 

 be dealt with by the ingenuity and industry of a cultivated 

 taste. 



It would be chimerical to suppose, unfair to expect, 

 that any person taking this subject in hand without 

 previous study or without the fullest acquaintance with 

 the materials which exist some of them newly introduced 

 would at once realise any great measure of success. To 

 such an individual the scheme would probably appear 

 Utopian. He might by a momentary effort call up in his 

 mind the short list of old and familiar trees with purple, 

 white, and yellow leaves the purple beech, the white 

 poplar, the variegated Turkey oak, and some few others 

 still among the most valuable, but so few in number that 

 he would dismiss the subject as impracticable. But unless 

 familiar with the black and yellow oaks, the yellow elm, 

 acacia, and alder, the white-leaved Acer Negundo, and the 

 many beautiful maples recently introduced from Japan, the 

 host of richly variegated trees only now becoming plenti- 



