360 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



the use of deciduous trees. This is an error to be re- 

 gretted, and, if possible, to be corrected. By the 

 judicious intermixture of firs possessed of light and 

 vivid green foliage, a considerable amount of ever- 

 green clothing might be given to the woods-, without 

 saddening, but rather, on the contrary, enlivening, 

 particularly in winter, the general features of the place. 

 The effect of light-green foliage may be observed dur- 

 ing summer in the young shoots of the Scotch, silver, 

 and spruce firs, which, at that season, when seen from 

 a distance, are not easily distinguished from their de- 

 ciduous neighbors, except from their dissimilarity of 

 form. As to the general effects of form, in the fir 

 tribe, the reader is referred to our chapter "On the 

 Ornamental Character of Trees." 



The necessary expansion of the lawns in a regular 

 and well-ajDpointed pinetum, tends to discourage some 

 proprietors from allowing the ample space which is 

 requisite for their formation ; and where land is very 

 valuable, we can not wonder that it should be so. In 

 hilly or upland districts, there is often much more 

 space than is required for this purpose thrown away on 

 useless or promiscuous woods of little character or 

 value. In such cases, want of room is no valid objec- 

 tion. But even when his territory is limited, the pine- 

 fancier need not be wholly discouraged, as he may 

 have a considerable collection of his favorite trees, and 

 derive much pleasure from their cultivation, if he is 

 content with the opportunity of admiring them when 

 they are young, or during the first twenty or twenty- 

 five years of their growth ; but after that period, he 

 may expect to see them disfiguring and destroying 

 each other by their mutual pressure, or he must be 



