508 ON USEFUL AND BOOK I. 



where variety, or beauty, is the principal object. As grandeur 

 depends more upon the whole than upon the parts, it may be 

 produced where only one kind of tree is used ; but as variety 

 depends upon the parts alone, many different kinds are ne- 

 cessary. This has given rise to a most erroneous opinion 

 and very pernicious practice among landscape gardeners and 

 planters. Imagining that variety is produced by mixture, 

 their rule is, to " mix as many kinds together as they possibly 

 can, and never to let two trees of the same species be seen at 

 once/' This is their recipe for variety in plantations; which 

 they follow as far as possible, in every arrangement of vegeta- 

 bles, from the parterre to the forest. But does it produce va- 

 riety ? No: on the contrary, it produces the most distracting in- 

 congruity. The eye, in examining the parts, finds no connexion 

 — no harmony — no relief— no repose of effect— no difference of 

 composition, nor change of character : or, if from a distance 

 we look upon the surface of such a wood, it is, from the indis* 

 criminate mixture of forms, more dull and monotonous than if 

 only one species of tree had been used. Its outline against 

 the sky is a mere unvaried zig-zag line ; which, except in arti- 

 ficial plantations, is not to be found in the whole range of na- 

 ture. 



This mixture is evidently produced by their ignorance of that 

 which constitutes variety; for it does not, as they imagine, 



