268 The Canadian Horticulturist 



)}( F^ope^tr^y 



GROUPING TREES IN PARKS. 



T is one thing to plant — and almost anyone may in some 

 way accomplish the task — but it is another thing to 

 plant effectively, for it needs a true artist to do this 

 successfully. A wide range of acquaintance with the 

 aspects, habits and dimensions of plants, their devel- 

 opment of special features, times of flowering, alter- 

 nation of tint, the positions best suited to bring out their beauties, or to be 

 beautified by them, are all matters of importance, and calculated to tax the 

 skill and taste of the most experienced and accomplished. Grouping is a 

 department of ornamental planting at once the most effective and the most 

 difficult. There is a wide difference between a group and a clump. A clump 

 is usually a mass of planting, formal and monotonous in aspect ; whereas a 

 group should present an infinite variety of form and outline, all the material 

 of which it is composed retaining a certain amount of individuality, and yet 

 blending in happy and graceful unison, free from trim formality, as also 

 from absurd incongruity ; and he who would accomplish the art of thus 

 planting cannot do better than become an earnest student of Nature her- 

 self. As a rule, groups should be bold and dense ; anything like thinness 

 has a mean and poverty-stricken aspect, which should be carefully avoided. 

 The outlines of groups both on the ground and against the sky should be 

 carefully designed ; the ground lines should be easy and flowing, free from 

 false curves and anything approaching to rigidity ; the sky line widely 

 diversified, but ever harmonious — here rendered strikingly by the upshoot- 

 ing of some plant of distinct character, anon merging easily and naturally 

 into lines of smoothness, graceful as those of Nature herself. Thus will be 

 secured those exquisite effects of light and shade so full of charm and beauty 

 to the eye capable of their appreciation. These features are of the greatest 

 importance in the immediate vicinity of water, where shadows and reflec- 

 tions are ever changing and ever new. Again, park and other like groups 

 should always be accompanied by a few irregularly-planted trees, such as 

 Thorns, etc., especially at their salient points ; this happily removes all stiff- 

 ness, and gives a natural expression to the whole. The composition of 

 groups should always be ruled by the position they occupy. On the lawn, 

 the plants employed should be rich and elegant ; in the park or on the hill- 

 side, noble and majestic ; near water partially pendulous : and not only so, 

 but the general aspect of the locality and the style of the house should also 

 be taken into account, as certain trees are more in unison with wild and 



