THE planter's GUIDE. 



41 



united, it will not disappoint tlie planter. In new 

 designs he will find it extremely serviceable for raising 

 the former, if in low and sheltered situations, where a 

 propitious climate is created, and for producing a 

 speedier efi'ect than can be expected by the ordinary 

 methods. 



Although Marshall had too much taste to wish to 

 pollard, or utterly decapitate his trees, still, like most of 

 his predecessors, he lopped and lightened the tops, in 

 order to " proportion them," as he states, " to the ability of 

 the roots.''* Had he advanced the roots to the ability of 

 the tops, and preserved entire the fine forms of the latter, 

 it would have been a more scientific system. But his 

 method of giving gracefulness, and a sort of natural 

 elegance to this operation, is so extraordinary that it is 

 worth while to quote it, for the amusement of the reader. 

 " To head down a tree," he says, " in the pollard manner, 

 is very unsightly ; and to prune it up to a mere Maypole, 

 so as to leave only a small broom-like head at the top, 

 is equally destructive of its beauty. The most rational, 

 the most natural, and at the same time the most elegant 

 manner of doing this, is to prune the boughs in such a 

 way as to form the head of the plant into a conoid, in 

 resemblance of the natural head of the Lombardy Poplar, 

 and of a size proportioned to the ability of the root. 

 Whoever was the inventor of this method of pruning the 

 heads of trees deserves infinite credit. It only wants to 

 be known, in order to be approved, and we are happy to 

 set it growing into universal practice.^f 



In this anxious wish, I apprehend, no planter of taste 

 will now probably concur : neither will he feel disposed 

 to admire the rationality, naturalness, and elegance," of 



* Rur, Ornam. vol. i. p. 43. t Ibid. 



