and Tints of the early Foliage. 201 



emark, that these trees vary no less in the tints which they 

 exhibit on first coming into leaf; and, again, nearly as much so 

 when they are preparing to lay aside their honours in the autumn. 

 " The budding oak," says Gilpin, " displays great variety." 

 Of the vernal tints, which, if not so rich and luxuriant in the eye 

 of the painter, are yet exceedingly tender and beautiful, some 

 are of a delicate green, others rich brown, yellow, bright sul- 

 phur-coloured, red almost approaching to scarlet, with innumer- 

 able intermediate gradations of colour. It strikes me that these 

 obvious facts might be turned to good account by the planter, 

 whether his chief object in planting be profit or ornament. If 

 there be any truth in the received opinion, that, " of trees of the 

 same species, those which expand their leaves last in the spring, 

 and shed them last in the autumn, afford the best timber," it 

 would surely be worth any one's while, who plants for profit, to 

 select his oaks accordingly. Again, in mere ornamental planting, 

 much advantage might result from paying attention to the dif- 

 ferent tints exhibited by the foliage, respectively, both in spring 

 and autumn. It is easy to conceive the happy effect which 

 might be produced either by harmoniously grouping together 

 individuals of the same hues in their early foliage, or by judi- 

 ciously contrasting those of different ones. A whole grove or 

 avenue might be formed, which, at that most interesting season of 

 the year, when the leaves are yet tendei', should display, through- 

 out its entire extent, a regular series of graduated tints, or any 

 other combination of colour, according to the taste or fancy of 

 the planter ; and a corresponding effect would, if I mistake not, 

 be visible also in the autumn. In one part of the park or plea- 

 sure-ground it may be desirable that a particular spot should be 

 occupied by oaks which come into leaf the earliest of their 

 kind ; while, in another, it may be no less an object to introduce 

 such as retain their leaves to the latest period in the autumn. 

 Even in the case of single trees, it may, according to circum- 

 stances, be of some importance to the landscape, whether the one 

 selected for a particular situation be early or late in its period of 

 leafing, of one colour or another. Innumerable, in short, are 

 the arrangements, the agreeable contrasts and combinations, 

 which might be formed by paying attention to the above cir- 

 cumstances. I do not pretend to lay down precise rules for the 

 guidance of the planter ; I merely throw out a few hints, in the 

 hope of drawing attention to an interesting subject, which appears 

 to me to have been more neglected than it deserves.* With 

 most planters, and, I believe I may say, with all nurserymen, 

 oaks are oaks, and that is all : no regard whatever is had to the 

 individual varieties of our native oak, unless, indeed, these be of 



* See Whately's Observations on Modern Gardening, sect, xiii., for general 

 rules as to the massing and disposition of the different tints of foliage. 



