II 



THE EFFECT OF TREES 



OF the pleasure and affect of trees no one speaks so 

 wisely as Bacon. Although those who have a feeling 

 for garden literature know his essay on Gardens as the 

 classic of its kind, still many do not recall his thoughts 

 when the planning of a garden is on hand. Too much, 

 I think, is given by the man who is about to make a 

 garden, to his own particular hobby, and many a man 

 wonders why his garden gives him not all the pleasure 

 he expected. You will hear of a man talk of his new 

 Rose beds, of the nursery for Carnations he is in the pro- 

 cess of making, of the placing of his Violet frames, of 

 his ideas for a rock garden (I think the distressful feeling 

 for a rockery of clinkers is dead), but you will seldom 

 hear of a man who deliberates quietly for effects of 

 trees, or who thinks of planting fruit trees as ornaments, 

 but always he places them in his kitchen garden, and 

 ignores their value in their other proper places. 



Bacon rejoices in his arrangement of gardens for every 

 month of the year, and dwells, rightly, just as much on 

 the pleasure of his trees as in the ordering of his flower 

 beds. Naturally he had not such a large selection of 

 flowers from which to choose as we have to-day, but 

 to-day we neglect the beauty of many trees, and es- 

 pecially the beauty of hedges. 



Are there sights in any garden more beautiful that 

 the Almond tree and the Peach tree in blossom, or the 



163 



