EVERGREENS IN THE LANDSCAPE 



17 



and exposure. When man plants conifers to dress his scene, 

 pictorial and nature-like compositions are rarely brought 

 forth. A natural arbor- vitae swamp has more to please the eye 

 than the collections of conifers that wealth can put around 

 its home. It is a far greater tax on the skill of the plantsman 

 to set out a dozen conifers, even all of a kind, than the same 

 number of mixed deciduous trees. A good artificial staging of 

 conifers is rare ; it is too easy to secure an assorted effect instead 

 of harmony of line and outline. The use of conifers in sections 

 of the country in which some species are native and common 

 seems more happy and 

 related to the site than 

 their use in regions of 

 few native trees. 



It must always be 

 borne in mind that, ex- 

 cept for a few species and 

 irregular old-age individ- 

 uals, conifers present a 

 firm fixed outline against 

 the sky. They make in- 

 dividuals, not masses, and 

 are numbered off by the 

 eye, except when on the 

 large scale of a forest. 

 Spruce and fir, arbor- 

 vitse and red-cedar are 

 clear - cut triangles and 

 cones that will not lose 

 their distinctive shapes 

 unless planted together 



very closely. An array of l. The vegetable solids of topiary work. 



