164 Remarks on the Coniferce^ 



more minute, more finished, and more centrical productions of 

 the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms, reigns the 

 nicest symmetry of outline and correspondence of parts. And 

 if Art, which can only be founded upon, only spring out of 

 Nature, if Art, I say, should ever only be considered as the 

 further developement of Nature's own principles, the complement 

 of Nature's own designs, assuredly we best obey the views of 

 Nature, and best understand the purposes of Art, when, leaving 

 total irregularity to the more extended, more distant, and more 

 neglected recesses of the park, we give some degree of symmetry 

 to the smaller, and nearer, and more studied divisions of the 

 pleasure-ground. This principle of proportioning the regularity 

 of the objects to their extent, the Greeks well understood. While 

 in the Medici Venus the attitude of the body only displays the 

 unsymmetric elegance of simple nature, the hair presents all the 

 symmetry of arrangement of the most studious art ; and unless 

 this principle also become familiar among us there is great 

 danger that, unable to make the grounds harmonise with the 

 mansion, we attempt to harmonise the mansion with the grounds, 

 by converting that mansion itself into a den or a quarry. 



Economy, no doubt, may sometimes be alleged as an un- 

 answerable reason for leaving even the most important and 

 dignified of our country mansions entirely destitute of the ac- 

 companiments of covered walks, terraces, balustrades, parterres, 

 berceaux, and such like works of art and nature combined ; but 

 that taste should be made the pretence for wholly discarding 

 those numerous additional means of increasing the splendour 

 and the variety of the scene, is an abuse of terms as egregious as 

 it seems inconceivable. 



Art. VII. Remarks on several Species of Coniferie, ivith Reference 

 to the Climate of North Britain. By John G rigor, Forres 

 Nurseries. 



Of the many species of Coniferee which have been introduced 

 into Britain within the last twenty years, it is questionable 

 whether any, or all of them collectively, will yield so beneficial 

 a result to this country as that which is now known to arise 

 from the introduction of the Xarix europas^ oi' common laixh. 

 Although I have a high opinion of many of the new pines, yet 

 I do not think that, from what we know of them at present, this 

 question can be satisfactorily answered. It is, however, already 

 apparent, that whatever qualities many of those of recent intro- 

 duction may possess, scarcely any of them appear to afford, in 

 an equal degree, the means of being propagated with facility. 

 From the natural bareness of their roots, few of them are so 

 well adapted to be grown in seed-beds, and safely transplanted 



