no The Art of Landscape Gardeking 



of trees at any distance ; for this reason the importance 

 of a large tree may be injured by cutting the lower 

 branches above this usual standard. It is obvious that 

 the foregoing trees [see Fig. 15] are of different ages, 



Fig. 15. 



characters, and heights, yet the browsing-line is the same 

 in all, and furnishes a natural scale by which we at once 

 decide on their relative heights at various distances. 



Let us suppose the same trees pruned or trimmed by 

 man [as in Fig. 1 6] , and not by cattle, and this scale will 

 be destroyed : thus, a full grown oak may be made to 

 look like an orchard-tree, or by encouraging the under 

 branches to grow lower than the usual standard, a thorn 



Fig. 16. 



or a crab-tree may be mistaken for an oak, at a dis- 

 tance. 



Single trees, or open groups, areobjects of great beauty 

 when scattered on the side of a steep hill, because they 

 may be made to mark the degree of its declivity, and 

 the shadows of the trees are very conspicuous ; but on 



