ON COLOUR IN TREE SCENERY. 465 



the outskirts of woods and forests, and the most distant 

 mountains and plains. 



[For lists of trees and shrubs classified under the head- 

 ing of "Colour," see pp. 236, 251.] 



ON FOEM IN TEEE SCENEEY. 



[Read at the Horticultural Congress at Birmingham, June 27 th 1872.] 



THE bountiful Giver of all good gifts has distributed 

 His favours with a more equal hand than those 

 unaccustomed to the study of Nature and Nature's laws 

 might reasonably suppose. Man, the last and crowning 

 act of creative power, wisdom, and beneficence, is variously 

 endowed both mentally and physically ; one excels in 

 action, another in counsel ; to one is given great muscular 

 strength, to another power of endurance ; and as we 

 descend step by step in the scale of creation, we shall find 

 the same rule obtain. Among birds, those endowed with 

 the richest plumage seldom possess the highest gifts of 

 song. We gaze in admiration on the plumage of the 

 Peacock, and we listen in ecstacy to the song of the 

 Nightingale. 



There is more variety in the vegetable than in the 

 animal kingdom, but in the latter there is motion, which 

 compensates or more than compensates for the greater 

 variety in the former. Among trees, the colours of leaf 

 and petal are less vivid and durable than in plants of 

 lowlier growth ; among flowers, the most attractive in size 

 and colour seldom emit the most grateful odours ; the 

 Hollyhock, the Dahlia, the Camellia appeal irresistibly 

 to the eye, but the lowly Violet, the Daphne, the 

 Mignonette, whose flowers one might pass a thousand 

 times unnoticed, fill the air with sweet and delicate 

 perfumes. Even among Roses, the intermediate or pale 



2D 



