ROUND-HEADED TREES. 



157 



Sect. III. — The Ornamental Character of Trees 

 in Combination. 



The massing of plantations obscures to the eye the 

 peculiar forms of the trees which compose them, and 

 indeed, modifies the actual forms to a great extent. It 

 is only when standing detached, or in thin groups, or 

 at most on the margins of plantations, that trees fully 

 develop their natural characters. In the depth of a 

 forest or thick wood, they are usually so crowded to- 

 gether, and so drawn up toward the light, that their 

 forms have little resemblance to the figures produced 

 by their free and unimpeded growth. Still, there is a 

 distinct character in each ; for a mass of oaks has not, 

 in any circumstances, the same aspect as one of 

 beeches or elms ; neither does a dense, dark plantation 

 of Scotch firs present the spiry and serrated outlines 

 of a wood of larch and spruce. There is, therefore, 

 still abundant character remaining, even in combined 

 and crowded trees, to allow scope for design, and to 

 afford materials for scenic beauty, to one who has suf- 

 ficient skill to seize and employ it. In this part of our 

 subject, we shall -content ourselves with adverting to 

 what we have called the round-headed and the pyra- 

 midal trees; the other two classes are so sparingly 

 used, and planted so much for the production of those 

 particular effects which we have already noticed, that 

 we need not recur to them. 



Round-headed Trees. — Of these we may remark, 

 generally, that they are to be employed when conti- 

 nuity of outline, in the clump and plantation, is the 



