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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December u, ISEii. 



Now, the indiscriminate mixture or distribution of ligneous 

 and herbaceous plants on a lawn, leads to no good result, 

 but the effect of one injures the other. They cannot form a 

 picture. The expression of a tree is one of grandeur and 

 dignity, and to be impressed with this the eye must be 

 at a certain distance from the object, so as to compre- 

 hend the trunk, branches, and head, as a whole. As to a 

 shrub or a clump of such, it cannot be denied that its 

 beauty is of a very different kind from that of an herba- 

 ceous plant. On the other hand, the expression of an her- 

 baceous plant in flower is that of brilliancy of colour, and 

 beauty of detail, and to enjoy these, the eye must be quite 

 near, so that it may be directed to the flower and its dif- 

 ferent parts. 



The beauty of any object or scene consists in the unity of 

 expression — that is, in the tendency of all the parts of that 

 object or scene to unite in conveying to the mind a pleasing 

 impression. But, with the mixture of trees, shrubs, and 

 flowers, they each detract from, instead of uniting to form 

 a whole. To enjoy the flowers the eye must look down, and 

 be exclusively directed to them ; and to enjoy the trees the 

 flowers must be overlooked. A picture, a scene, or an object, 

 to be appreciated as a whole, and to produce its full im- 

 pression on the mind, must be capable of being seen with 

 the eye in one fixed position. There are two distinct kinds 

 of scenery — 1st, forest-like ; and, 2nd, garden-like scenery ; 

 and these distinctions are founded on the principle that the 

 mind can only attend to one thing, and one kind of thing 

 at one time. 



To apply this it follows that when flowers are the prin- 

 cipal objects, the trees and shrubs must be kept subordinate, 

 and when the trees and shrubs are the chief objects, the 

 flowers ought to be kept subordinate. In a garden there is 

 no way of doing this but by keeping them apart, so that the 

 one may form the foreground or principal object nearest the 

 eye, and the other be in the distance or farthest from the eye. 

 The effect of dug ground near a tree is to diminish 

 dignity of expression, and shrubs, except when small, 

 having more or less the expression of trees, though less 

 discordant, are so much so as to cause their exclusion from 

 symmetrical flower gardens. In these the greatest effect 

 is produced when the flower-beds are not mixed with shrubs, 

 because these prevent the eye of the spectator discerning 

 the symmetry of the figure, of which the beds form the 

 component parts. 



Where, however, the object is not symmetry, but irregu- 

 larity, variety, and intricacy, then the beds of flowers and 

 groups of shrubs, or single specimens, may be intermixed, 

 and this sort of disposition produces the greatest beauty of 

 which an irregular flower garden is susceptible, providing 

 always that each group is planted with one species, or with 

 similar species of one genus, all attaining their greatest 

 beauty at one time ; and whether flowers or foliage be their 

 chief attraction, they should unite in forming a whole. 

 Every bed of flowers, and group of shrubs or trees, will, 

 therefore, if placed separately, form, of itself, a whole, and 

 bear no relation to forming a whole or picture to be viewed 

 by the eye from one fixed point. It very often occurs in 

 irregularly-formed gardens that there are many straight 

 lines which are indicative of regularity, whilst the main 

 feature is irregularity, and this is inconsistent with a plan 

 which, in all its great features, is irregular. 



I shall not pursue the subject of the many different styles 

 of arranging gardens further than to give the principles of 

 them, which cannot be set aside to gratify individual taste. 

 The different modes of creating artificial landscapes may 

 be distinguished and defined as four — 1st, the geometrical; 

 2nd, the picturesque ; 3rd, the gardenesque ; and 4th, the 

 natural or rural style. The geometrical style consists in 

 laying-out and planting grounds in geometrical figures — 

 that is, in mathematical forms or lines — regularly straight, 

 or regularly curved. French and Dutch gardens are in this 

 style, the majority of our own at present being simply 

 modifications of the French and Dutch styles, especially as 

 regards displaying masses of flowering plants in geometrical 

 figures. For a limited space, and where a variety of trees 

 and shrubs will not grow (as in or near our large manufac- 

 turing towns), or are not desired, no description of garden 

 is better adapted to please the general taste than one laid 

 out geometrically. 



The picturesque style is exemplified by the trees and 

 shrubs being planted at irregular distances, as they are in 

 natural forests and groups, so as exhibit such a general 

 union as would look well in a picture. In planting the trees 

 and shrubs intended for pictorial effect, they should be scat- 

 tered over the ground in the most irregular manner, both in 

 their disposition with reference to their immediate effect as 

 plants, and with reference to their future effect as trees and 

 shrubs. In planting, thinning, and pruning, for picturesque 

 effect, the beauty of individual trees and shrubs is of little, 

 if any, consequence : because no tree or shrub in a pic- 

 turesque scene should stand isolated, each being only consi- 

 dered as forming part of a group or mass. In planting a 

 picturesque plantation trees should prevail in some places, 

 in others shrubs, in some parts they should be thick, in 

 others thin ; two or three, at least a tree and a shrub, ought 

 always to be planted together. The beauty of the isolated 

 tree cannot be, for the beauty of a tree or shrub in the 

 picturesque style consists in its fitness to group with other 

 objects. A tree or shrub obtains its fitness to group with 

 other objects not in the perfection of its form, but in that 

 imperfection which requires another to render it complete. 

 This style is admirably adapted for park and pleasure- 

 ground scenery; some of the best specimens are visible at 

 Studley, near Ripon, and at Redleaf, Kent. 



The gardenesque style is characterised by the trees and 

 shrubs being planted at irregular distances, whether in 

 masses or groups, and so as never to crowd each other, pre- 

 serving the individual form of a tree or shrub at a near 

 view, but at a distance forming masses and groups such as 

 might be painted, though not selected in preference to a 

 picturesque scene by the artist. In planting, thinning, and 

 pruning, in order to produce a gardenesque effect, each indi- 

 vidual tree or shrub should stand at such distances from others 

 that its beauty as a single specimen may be seen, though the 

 whole should group when viewed at a distance. Every tree, 

 shrub, or herbaceous plant, in the gardenesque style of laying 

 out, derives its beauty from the perfect manner in which it 

 is grown ; and gardens arranged in this style may be consi- 

 dered the most beautiful of all, because the gardenesque 

 addresses itself to the lovers of landscape scenery, the 

 botanist, and the gardener, for it enables them to enjoy the 

 beauty of the whole as a garden scene, and look at the 

 trees, shrubs, and plants individually when near. Combining 

 these two advantages, the gardenesque style stands highest 

 in the scale of art, not the least of its merits being the in- 

 struction and pleasure derived from viewing plants grown 

 to the highest state of perfection. 



The natural, or rural style, consists in producing artifi- 

 cially that which appears natural when contrasted with the 

 artificial scenery by which it is, or may be surrounded. 

 Natural scenery, imitated according to art, is the legitimate 

 province of landscape gardening, and includes two modes — 

 the picturesque and the gardenesque, or nature subjected to 

 a certain degree of cultivation. To design and execute a 

 scene in the picturesque style would require the eye of a 

 landscape painter, whilst the gardenesque would not only 

 require the eye of a landscape painter, but the science of a 

 botanist and architect, and the knowledge of a horticul- 

 turist. Every part of nature may be imitated according to 

 art, whether it be rude or refined; but nothing that has art 

 applied to it can ever be mistaken for a work of nature, 

 and if imitations they ought to be avowed as such. 



There is, in addition to the four styles of landscape gar- 

 dening already noted, another known as fac-siniile imita- 

 tions of natural scenery ; but they cannot be considered as 

 belonging to gardening as an art of culture, because all 

 appearance of culture is to be avoided, and they cannot be 

 considered as belonging to gardening as an art because it 

 is intended that the result shall not be recognised as the 

 work of art, but mistaken for a work of nature itself. They 

 are simply impositions. They do not come within the 

 province of a gardener. Any person with a painter's eye, 

 and the assistance of labourers, &o., will form them as well 

 as a landscape gardener, if not better. 



These are the principles which regulate the operations of 

 the landscape gardener, as I have learned them from our 

 best authorities, and in applying them to the distribution 

 of trees and shrubs to be named hereafter, I hope to show 

 that these principles are too often disregarded. At the same 



