PART VIII. PICTURESQUE PLANTING. 51? 



ficial scenery, whether we regard the first expence of planting, 

 the future beauty, or the ultimate utility. None but those who 

 unite a knowledge of botany with painting can conceive the 

 variety and perpetual interest that would thus be created in a 

 place even of the smallest extent, and with the least natural ad- 

 vantages. At present, all improved places have the same ge- 

 neral appearance; because composed of the same kind of 

 mixture. A shrubbery in one estate, is precisely the same with 

 one at a hundred miles distance; and a few square yards of 

 either is a pattern of all the shrubberies in Britain. But, were 

 nature followed in this respect, the variety would be endless. 

 Nothing could then be more interesting than to walk or ride 

 through a place, thus laid out; to view the trees, shrubs, 

 plants, and even the grasses and ferns; the infinite diversity of 

 shapes, colouring, and composition of the trees and shrubs ; 

 and the ever-varying openings and intricate recesses between 

 them — again varied with groups and turfs of flowering plants 

 and ferns, spreading among the grass, in every direction; — and 

 all this independently of every other object, — such as build- 

 ings, rocks, water, animals, distant prospect, and even variety 

 in the grounds. So that, by this mode of planting, a situation, 

 naturally the most dull and insipid, may be made infinitely va- 

 ried and. interesting. And I repeat, that this mode of arrange- 

 ment is not more beautiful in shrubberies, flower-gardens, and! 

 green-houses, than it is profitable in extensive plantations.. 



