466 ON FORM IN TREE SCENERY. 



colours, of which examples are found in the old Provence 

 and Tea-scented, are usually the sweetest. 



In a paper " On Colour in the Tree Scenery of our 

 Gardens, Parks, and Pleasure-Grounds," read at Oxford 

 in the summer of 1870, to which this paper may be 

 considered the sequel, I endeavoured to show that the 

 absence among trees of the bright colours found in the 

 flowers of plants of lowly growth was in part compensated 

 for by the greater breadth and bulk of trees and shrubs. 

 The subject then was colour, the subject now inform ; and 

 apart from the utility of trees for shelter, timber, and 

 various domestic purposes, the almost infinite variety in the 

 outline, in the arrangement of the spray, and in the sizes 

 and forms of the leaves, places the tree world in a higher 

 position than it might at first sight appear to occupy. 



Taken from the decorative point of view, tree scenery 

 may, I think, be divided into the beautiful and the 

 picturesque. As an example of the beautiful may be 

 instanced the avenue of Horse Chestnuts in Bushey Park ; 

 as an example of the picturesque, the groups of Scotch 

 Pines on Hampstead Heath. Variety is the leading 

 characteristic of the tree world. That this has not been 

 recognised, or at least not generally acted on by those to 

 whose lot has often fallen the disposal of our trees and 

 shrubs in what is called ornamental planting, has long 

 been a settled conviction with me. With your permission 

 I shall therefore endeavour to unfold my views on this 

 subject, in the expectation that I shall be enabled to 

 establish this position, and thus lead to higher and more, 

 artistic arrangements in the tree scenery of the future. 



I shall speak, first, of the form or outline of the 

 individual tree ; secondly, of the form or arrangement of 

 the spray ; thirdly, of the form of the leaves. 



i. OF THE FORM OR OUTLINE OF THE INDIVIDUAL 



TREE. 



I have here diagrams of five of the most distinct forms : 



