■ Rules Jor placitig small Groups. 403 



It can be no disparagement to gardeners, to affirm that there 

 is not one of them in a hundred who has acquired the sort 

 of knowledge requisite for the purpose of planting what are 

 called single trees. For this purpose, a painter's eye is in- 

 dispensable ; and a gardener may be at the very head of his 

 profession as a horticulturist, a florist, and an arboriculturist, 

 and be, in addition, an excellent botanist, and yet be alto- 

 gether without a painter's eye. 



The principle on which single trees and shrubs, and small 

 groups of these, are planted, is precisely the same as that 

 by which groups are disposed on lawn, viz. the production of 

 a whole, by heightening the effect of the parts which compose 

 that whole. This principle will give the following rules : — 

 First rule : As no single object can form a whole, because the 

 idea of a whole supposes parts which compose it, a single 

 tree, that is, a tree standing completely detached from every 

 other tree, and every other object which rises above the sur- 

 face, should seldom or never be planted in landscapes where 

 picturesque beauty is an object. A single tree, Mr. Price has 

 observed, is scarcely to be found in nature. In our native 

 woods and forests there is hardly such a thing to be met with 

 as a tree not connected with another tree, or bush, or rock ; 

 and, in the landscapes of eminent painters, a tree apart from 

 other trees is, almost without an exception, connected or 

 grouped with buildings or animals. Second rule: As the idea 

 of a whole includes in it, at least, the idea of commencement, 

 progress, and conclusion ; or beginning, middle, and end ; so 

 the smallest number of trees, or rather of objects, which 

 compose a whole are three. Third rule : As the idea of a 

 whole includes the idea of greater and smaller, no three trees 

 or shrubs, or other objects, should be planted or placed to- 

 gether exactly of the same size, or at regular distances from 

 one another. Fourth rule : As the object of small groups is 

 to heighten effect, they ought never to be planted but with 

 reference to the masses of woods or plantations already ex- 

 isting, the inequalities of the ground's surface, or the situation 

 of buildings, rocks, or water. Fifth rule : Small groups ought 

 to be more frequently planted in front of projecting masses of 

 plantation than in bays and recesses, and more frequently on 

 knolls, or raised parts of the surface, than in hollows. Sixth 

 rule : No small group ought to be so planted as that it might 

 afterwards be moved to the right or left, backwards or for- 

 wards, without injuring the scene to which it belongs. Seventh 

 rule : No small group ought ever to be placed in the precise 

 middle of any scene, unless it be avowedly artificial, or the in- 



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