TREES IN ASSEMBLAGES. 



Open groves, fragments of forest, and inferior groups 

 alone are particularly interesting in landscape. An exten- 

 sive and unbroken wilderness of wood affords but a dreary- 

 prospect and an unattractive journey. Its gloomy uni- 

 formity tires and saddens tbe spectator, after some hours' 

 confinement to it. The primitive state of any densely 

 wooded continent, unmodified by the operations of civil- 

 ized man, is sadly wanting in those cheerful scenes which 

 are now so common in New England. Nature must be 

 combined with art, or rather with the works of man's 

 labor, and associated with human life, to be deeply inter- 

 esting. It is not necessary, however, that the artificial 

 objects in a landscape should possess a grand historical 

 character to awaken our sympathies. Humble objects, 

 indeed, are the most consonant with nature's aspects, 

 because they manifest no ludicrous endeavor to rival 

 them. A woodman's hut in a clearing, a farmer's cottage 

 on some half-cultivated slope, a saw-miU, or even a mere 

 sheepfold, awakens a sympathetic interest, and enlivens 

 the scene with pastoral and romantic images. 



A great part of the territory of North America is stiU 

 a wilderness; but the forests have been so extensively 

 invaded that we see the original wood only in fragments, 

 seldom forming unique assemblages. Especially in the 

 Western States, the woods are chiefly sections of the 

 forest, scattered in and around the spacious clearings, 

 without many natural groups of trees to please the eye 

 with their spontaneous beauty. They surround the clear- 



