DECORATIVE TREATMENT OF THE PINETUM. 283 



affording contrasts where such effects are necessary^ but 

 which^ in many places and positions^ both in the Pine- 

 tum and in the Pleasure-ground generally, has imparted 

 a gloomy expression, particularly 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 sombre effect incident to fir-woods 

 with dark-coloured foliage, that some of the lawns be- 

 tween the groups should be of considerable width, to 

 afford effective breadths of light in contrast with the 

 depth of shade yielded by these deep-tiated and em- 

 bowering trees. There should, besides, be a free use 

 of the species exhibiting silvery, glaucous, and vivid 

 greens; and the duplicates and nurses, as suggested 

 above, should be principally of this character. It may 

 not be out of place to remark, that the sombre effect to 

 which we are now alluding has probably been the cause 

 of the very sparing employment of the ConifercB in parks 

 and pleasure-grounds generally, and of the correspond- 

 ing excess in the use of deciduous trees. This is an 

 error to be regretted, and, if possible, to be corrected. 

 By the judicious intermixture of firs possessed of light 

 and vivid green foliage, a considerable amomit of ever- 

 green clothing might be given to the woods, without 

 saddening, but rather, on the contrary, enlivening, par- 

 ticularly in winter, the general features of the place. 

 The effect of light-green foliage may be observed during 

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

 spruce firs, which, at that season, when seen fi-om a 

 distance, are not easily distinguished from their decidu- 

 ous neighbours, 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.^^ 



