Book III. 



FORMATION OF PLANTATIONS. 



955 



is so considerable, as to merit the particular attention of the planter. Nothing can be 

 more harsh and unvaried than the serrated outline of the fir tribe, whether planted in 

 rows, strips, or masses ; whereas the rounded-headed trees, even in single rows, pro- 

 duce some variety of sky outline. The difference is equally great between the face or 



651 



front surface of a row or mass of spiry and round-headed trees ; for the great regularity 

 and similarity of the branches of the former, precludes the possibility of breaks in 

 form, or light and shade, and presents one uniform surface of verdure, not unlike the 

 side of a high hedge. The front surface of a row or mass of round-headed trees, 

 on the contrary, from opposite qualities in the branches, produces prominences and re- 

 cesses of different degrees of magnitude, and of different forms and relative positions. If 

 we look on the upper surface of a plantation of each class, we shall find the difference 

 equally great. 



6864. The situations where sjnry-topt 

 trees have most effect is among rocks, 

 and in very irregular surfaces ; and 

 especially on the steep sides of high 

 mountains {jig- 652.), where their 

 forms, and the direction of their 

 growth, seem to harmonise with their 

 pointed rocky summits. Fir and pine 

 forests are dull, gloomy, and monoto- 

 nous in the sandy plains of Poland and 

 Russia, but among the broken rocks, 

 craggy precipices, and otherwise end- 

 lessly varied surfaces of Sweden and 

 Norway, they are full of variety. In 

 tame countries they present most 

 variety when planted so thin as barely 

 to touch each other, and when a num- 

 ber of them are kept low, where the 

 whole are of different ages {jig. 653.) But the variety produced, even by this disposition, 

 is still far short of what would be effected by a similar arrangement of round or oval- 



headed trees {fig. 654.), of different ages, or mixea with shrubs or low growths. The 

 most suitable situation for spiry-topt trees, in ornamental scenery, is as single objects 



■ 654 



or in small groups {fig. 655.), sparingly introduced in the margin of thickets or strips, 

 or sprinkled along the bottoms of dells or dingles. In plantations which comprise masses 

 of all the difiTerent species of hardy tree, there they may come in also in their proper 

 place ; and in mountain and rocky scenery, they are in the places whi<;h nature seems to 

 have intended for them. 



