954 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



6860. Scattered trees. It has been a very common practice among planters to intro- 

 duce, in parks, great numbers of detached single trees (in vulgar technology, dotting), 

 with a view of effecting, by them, wliaX can only be done by groups. Excepting the 

 clump, there is not a greater deformity in the grounds of Briti^ country-residences. 

 Supposing these trees, planted on a level surface, all of the same sort, and all growing 

 equally well, their insipid sameness of form and position must be evident to the mind's 

 eye of every one. Suppose them on the same character of surface, but all, or chiefly, of 

 different sorts {Jig. 648.), it is equally evident they will grow with different degrees of 

 vigor, and assume different characters of stem and head ; and consequently produce an 

 appearance of the most discordant kind. It is only necessary to analyse a group, to be 



convinced of the variety of general form produced, even by trees of one species, but 

 more especially by two kinds, and this, even by specimens that would be unsightly apart ; 

 and to observe a portion of the scattered woody scenery, in the openings or glades of a 

 natural forest, to be convinced how much more variety is produced by that manner of 

 planting, than by distributing over a surface great numbers of single trees. It is ob- 

 served by Uvedale Price, that in the numerous landscapes which compose the liber veritatis 

 of Claude, there is not more than one single tree ; so highly did this artist value the 

 principle of connection. A single tree, however, is not always to be condemned, even 

 as such, for its form, age, or blossom, or some other accidental circumstance may com- 

 pensate for its isolated situation ; and it may often exist singly as a tree, and yet in 

 connection or grouped with other objects, as buildings, rocks, cS^c. ; and in these cases 

 it is not to be condemned, because the grand object of grouping, connection, is maintained 

 by the co-tangent object. 



6861. Placing the groups. Another practice in the employment of groups, almost equally reprehensible 

 with that of indiscriminate distribution, is that of placing the groups and thickets in the recesses, instead 

 of chiefly employing them opposite the salient points. The'eftbct of this mode is the very reverse of what 

 is intended ; for, instead of varying the outline, it tends to render it more uniform by diminishing the 

 depth of recesses, and approximating the whole more nearly to an even line. The way to vary an even 

 or straight line or lines, is here and there to place constellations of groups against it {fig. 649. c) ; and a 

 line already varied is to be rendered more so, by placing large groups against the prominences (a) to 

 render them more prominent ; and small groups {b), here and there in the recesses, to vary their forms 

 and conceal their real depths. 



649 



6862. In all plantations in the natural style above the size of a group, the same general principles are 

 to be followed in the disposition of the trees ; the plants, whatever be their kinds, and whether the mass is 

 finally to assume the character of a wood, grove, or copse, should be placed irregularly ; here thick, and 

 there thin, a.sifthey had sprung up from the accidental semination of birds or winds. "The efFect of this 

 arrangement will not be that composition of low and high, oblique and upright stems, and young and old 

 trees, and low growths, which we find in forest scenery ; but it is all that can be done in imitation of it at 

 the first planting ; and subsequent thinning, pruning, and cutting down, moving, renversing, planting, 

 and sowing, must be used from time to time to complete imitation or allusion, unless the owner will rest 

 satisfied with an inferior degree of beauty." 



6863. The general form of tree employed materially influences the effect of plantations. 

 The capacities of different trees for producing effects in landscape, and the general 

 division of trees into round-headed, oblong-beaded, and spiry-topt, have been already 

 pointed out (6795. et seq.) It has also been observed (6857.), that the greater number of 

 plantations are seen chiefly in profile ; and hence, that the outline which the tops of tlie 

 trees form against the sky or the back-ground, is the most conspicuous feature in their 

 aspect. The difference between this outline, when formed of spiry-topt trees, as the firs, 

 pines, &c. {Jig. 650.) ; of oblong-headed trees, as most of the willows, alders, poplars {Jig. 

 651. h)\ and the round-headed sorts, as the oak, ash, elm, and most trees {Jig, 651. a) 



