PLANTING 225 



comparable superiority of clipped yew as a back- 

 ing to colour. The green of holly is not amiss, 

 but the glancing points of light off its prickly leaves 

 are restless. A yew hedge presents a surface 

 like rich velvet. Alpine scenery owes much to 

 the quiet masses of dark spruce woods. The little 

 copses of birch that abound on the undulating 

 Surrey commons would be absolutely lost in a 

 Swiss landscape, and yet in size birch and spruce 

 are about the same. The light broken foliage of 

 the birch has no dignity, and in the silver birch 

 the texture is still more broken by the pale bark. 

 A group of well-developed birches looks very pretty 

 amongst the dark foliage of gorse and broom, and 

 such groups can be advantageously placed on the 

 outskirts of more serious planting. 



As with colour, so texture changes with the 

 seasons. In spring the young sparse foliage gives 

 every deciduous tree a broken surface, and spring 

 time has generally a character of activity, which 

 nature shows in colouring and broken lights. 

 But as the foliage develops, each tree takes on its 

 most permanent character, and the landscape 

 gardener plants for this. He must group his 

 different sorts on the prepared ground, choos- 

 ing those of quiet character for backgrounds and 

 distance, while those whose form is their chief 

 charm should not be too far away. Mixtures are 

 better in harmonies than contrasts, especially for 

 distance, and large masses. A breadth of Austrian 







