DECORATIVE TREATMENT OF THE PINETUM. 359 



needful to say any thing of the position of the groups 

 relatively to each other, as our remarks on the decora- 

 tive treatment of the arboretum will, mutatis mutan- 

 dis, apply to the pinetum. 



In our remarks appended to the lists of species, we 

 have noticed the colors of the foliage and the forms of 

 many of the trees and shrubs there enumerated, to aid 

 the planter in making his selection and fixing his 

 subordinate arrangements. The effect of the various 

 colors is an element which must be taken into careful 

 consideration. Hitherto, the species employed have 

 been principally those with dark-colored foliage — -a 

 property extremely valuable in producing depths of 

 shade, and in affording contrasts where such effects 

 are necessary; but which, in many places and posi- 

 tions, both in the pinetum and 'in the pleasure-ground 

 generally, has imparted a gloomy expression, particu • 

 larly when the masses are unbroken and unrelieved. 

 When, then, the pinetum is planted on a level surface, 

 it is peculiarly needful, in order to lighten the somber 

 effect incident to fir-woods with dark- colored foliage, 

 that some of the lawns between the groups should be 

 of considerable width, to afford effective breadths of 

 light in contrast with the depth of shade yielded by 

 these deep-tinted and embowering trees. There should, 

 besides, be a free use of the species exhibiting silvery, 

 glaucous, and vivid greens; arid the duplicates and 

 nurses, as suggested above, should be principally of 

 this character. It may not be out of place to remark, 

 that the somber effect to which we are now alluding 

 has probably been the cause of the very sparing em- 

 ployment of the Coniferm in parks and pleasure- 

 grounds generally, and- of the corresponding excess in 



