Sckell's Landscape-Gardening. 409 



(4.) When the fir tribe, arranged in thin groups of from 3, 7, 

 11, to 13 trees*, and planted along the sides of a road, having in 

 the back-ground, at the distance of from 30, 40, to 50 feet from 

 the road, a thick deciduous wood, from which the firs, so dif- 

 ferent in form, will stand out, they are displayed to great advan- 

 tage, because, by their standing alone, without being mixed with 

 or united to the deciduous wood, they form a contrast as pic- 

 turesque as it is agreeable. It is therefore much better, parti- 

 cularly as regards harmony, keeping, and form, that the fir 

 tribe should always have a distinct place appropriated to them, 

 and never be mixed with deciduous trees. 



9. This agreeable harmony among the forms in plantations 

 will be greatly increased if proper attention be paid to cor- 

 responding outlines and effect of form. When those sorts of 

 trees which have a spreading growth, and large branches and 

 crown, and which have some resemblance in form, are brought 

 together, such as the oak, the elm, the hornbeam, and beech, 

 &c. ; when others, again, which grow slight and conical, such 

 as the Italian and balsam poplar, the birch, the fir (tannen), 

 the larch, and the willow, the bird-cherry, &c, are seen in 

 picturesque masses ; when the waving transparent crowns, the 

 acacias, the gleditschias, the service, and celtis, the willows, 

 the aspen, the birch, the larch, the poplar, &c, are found 

 together; when, on the other hand, attention is paid at the same 

 time to the similarity and form of the leaves ; when the broad- 

 leaved Platanus is united with the maple (^4 N cer ^latanoides, 

 A. Pseudo-Platanus, and A. dasycarpon), and these again with the 

 tulip tree (Liriodendron Tulipifera), &c. ; when the Spanish and 

 horse chestnuts grow with the oak, the common maple and the 

 white fir (Pinus Picea) with the yew (Taxus baccata) ; when the 

 oval and round-leaved sorts, the hornbeam and beech (Carpinus 

 ZJetulus and Tagus sylvatica), the elms (t/'lmus), the alder 

 (/ietula ^'lnus), the cherry, the buckthorn (Z?hamnus Frangula), 

 &c, are in close proximity ; and when trees and shrubs with 

 pinnated leaves are together, such as the ash (Traxinus), the wal- 

 nut (Juglans), the acacia, the negundo, the sumach (22hus), the 

 gleditschia, the service (Morbus), and the laburnum (Cytisus 

 -Laburnum), the Ptelea trifoliata, &c. ; one would soon be con- 

 vinced of the advantage of this method of grouping trees and 

 shrubs, and find it far preferable to uniting the acacia with the 

 horsechestnut (yE'sculus Hippocastanum), the birch with the 

 oak, the horsechestnut with the aspen, the yew (Taxus baccata) 

 with the catalpa (Bignonza Catalpa), the maple with the willow, 

 or the acacia with the fir (Pin us yf bies). 



* In planting single trees and groups, an uneven number should be taken, 

 because that forms better and more natural groups. 



