GROUPING OR COMBINATION OF PLANTATIONS. 121 



and secondary combinations, the position of the indi- 

 vidual plantations should be such as obviously to 

 appear portions of their own systems. They should 

 vary in size as well as in form, and should be separated 

 by open spaces of varying breadth. The projections 

 of one may advance toward the recesses of another. 

 In many cases they may be blended into one whole by 

 means of groups of trees scattered round and among 

 them ; these will produce a light and varied effect, and 

 tend to counteract any formality in the general outlines. 



Grouping or Combination of Plantations in the 

 Park. — In our previous remarks, we have taken for 

 granted that some general arrangement of the different 

 bodies of wood should be adopted. It is necessary to 

 insist on this principle, for it is very frequently over- 

 looked or neglected. We often see isolated masses 

 occupying positions for which no apparent reason can 

 be discovered, and which probably were selected from 

 the original low value of the ground in an agricultural 

 point of view. Trees, the remains of old hedge-rows, 

 or of departed clumps, or of woods that have been re- 

 moved, are dotted over extensive surfaces. Fences, 

 dividing the park into separate fields, draw their mea- 

 ger and ungraceful lines, perhaps, through the very 

 center of a fine breadth of view. The effects of such 

 misarrangements are confusion, incongruity, or at least 

 a sad diminution of the pleasure which the other fea- 

 tures of the scene might have afforded; To avoid 

 these unfortunate results, some general system of 

 grouping should be sedulously followed. In extensive 

 parks of from one to two thousand acres, there is often 

 room for three or four, or even more, main combina- 

 tions, such as we have specified in a previous article. 



