283 



have had room to spread, and form a gra- 

 dation from the highest firs, to the lowest 

 underwood. Again, many of these ever- 

 greens of lower growth succeed well under 

 the drip of taller trees, and also (to use 

 the figufative expression of nursery-men) 

 love the knife : by the pruning of some, 

 therefore, and cutting down of others, the 

 bare parts of the tallest would in a short 

 time be covered ; and the whole of such a 

 wood might be divided at pleasure into 

 openings and groups, differing in form, in 

 size, and in degrees of concealment ; frofn 

 skirtings of the loosest texture, to the clo^- 

 sest and most impenetrable thickets. 



This method is equally good in making 

 plantations of deciduous trees., though not 

 in the same degree necessary as in those of 

 firs ; and though I have only mentioned 

 ornamental plantations, yet, I believe, if 

 thorns were always mixed with oak, beech^ 

 Slc. besides their use in preventing the fo- 

 rest trees from being planted too close to 

 each other, they would by no means be un- 

 profitable. If they were taken out before 



