230 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



and heavy-foliaged trees are introduced in small groups at 

 or near the outside. 



But too much cannot be said against the indiscriminate 

 mixtures often seen in plantations of late years, and which 

 are often referred to as " ornamental." Indiscriminate mix- 

 tures invariably produce abrupt contrasts, which do not con- 

 stitute beauty in any scene ; and it is as unnatural to find 

 an isolated patch of a totally distinct species from that 

 constituting the mass of the wood, as it is to see an isolated 

 patch of wood on bare ground or hillside. One species should 

 blend with another in any mixture, and the effect is much 

 better when the general character of a wood, or part of a 

 wood, is present intact, than when it is made up of two or 

 three totally distinct features, without any apparent reason 

 being forthcoming. No native tree, for instance, at all 

 resembles in habit or foliage a Thuia or a cypress, let alone 

 an Araucaria or Wellingtonia ; and such trees in a natural 

 bit of indigenous woodland, give it an incongruous aspect, 

 which is quite out of keeping with the truly picturesque. 

 One or two ornamental trees here and there have a far better 

 effect than a larger number standing at regular distances 

 apart, and a plantation planted with common species only is 

 often far more ornamental than one crammed with expensive 

 trees mixed without harmony or taste. 



ORNAMENTAL CHAEACTER OF TREES, AND 

 TREATMENT REQUIRED. 



Scots Pine. 



In a wood composed chiefly of evergreens the Scots pine 

 has few equals, and probably no superiors, as an indigenous 

 back-ground. Its well-shaped, reddish-brown trunk, its dark 

 green, glaucous foliage, and the beautiful habit which isolated 

 trees or groups exhibit when mature, render this species one 

 of the most ornamental of British trees. Its chief advantage, 

 of course, lies in its ability to grow and develop on soils 



