CHARACTERS OF TREES. 11 



■wlaichj curiously enough, was amongst the Eomans con- 

 sidered the highest and most valuable accomplishment of 

 the gardener — still finds some admirers in this country. 

 But it is easy to conceive how repugnant it must have 

 been to a man who had passed the greater part of his life 

 amongst some of the wildest and most beautiful scenes of 

 Nature. — Ed. 



Not only all forms that are unnatural, dis- 

 please ; but even natural forms, when they bear 

 a resemblance to art, unless indeed these forms 

 are characteristic of the species. A Cypress 

 pleases in a. conic form ; but if we should see an 

 Oak or an Elm gi'owing in that, or any other 

 constrained shape, we should take offence. In 

 the Cypress, Nature adapts the spray and branches 

 to the form of the tree. In the Oak and Elm, 

 the spray and branches produce, naturally, a 

 different character. 



Lightness also is a characteristic of beauty in 

 a tree : for though there are beautiful trees of a 

 heavy, as well as of a light, form, yet their 

 extremities must in some parts be separated, and 

 hang with a degree of looseness from the fullness 

 of the foliage which occupies the middle of the 



