THE DECORATIVE CHARACTER OP CONIFERS. 



55 



Fir — the Scotch Fir, however, we will consider accurate enough 

 for our reference — in the Highlands the tree is particularised by 

 the title "King of the woods." It is so. And what a right 

 royal assemblage of kings does a Pine-wood present ! A Pine- 

 wood has a majesty and dignity quite its own. There is nothing 

 else in the vegetable kingdom like it. Those stately shafts bear- 

 ing splendidly balanced branches and crowned heads of dense 

 deep foliage, standing back on the hillside, present a grandeur 

 which cannot be surpassed by any other picture in the Book of 

 Nature. Whilst there is the distinctive form so readily observable 

 in the Pines, and whilst they command our attention, and secure 

 our admiration, as they cover the mountain-side, or adorn the 

 crag, or stretch away until, mingling with the purple haze of the 

 horizon, lost in the indistinctness of the distance, there is an 

 equally marked individuality about the Cedars, the Cypress, the 

 Yew — all have their sharply defined characteristics which give 

 variety of a quality which cannot, after all, be secured by 

 deciduous trees, or even by evergreens outside the genus we have 

 under present consideration. 



But, in addition to this splendid diversity of form in the 

 dignity of the mountain Pine, the stately grace of the Cedars, or 

 the dense rounded symmetrical beauty suggested, rather than 

 defined, by some of the smaller Conifers, there is an indescrib- 

 able richness in the colour tints peculiar to this race. Here it 

 is fitting to remind ourselves that Conifers are not dependent 

 upon the gay glory of inflorescence for decorative qualities. 

 They have no conspicuous flowers to attract, but they possess 

 a wealth of colour-suggestiveness that captivates not merely by 

 the delicate gradations which mark the passing of one shade into 

 another, but many of the species possess a distinctive charm in 

 a marvellously beautiful glaucous haze, equivalent to the bloom 

 on carefully grown fruit, too ethereal almost to be defined as a 

 character of the foliage, so delicate is it that it looks as though 

 it is an attribute of the atmosphere rather than a possession of 

 the plant itself. There is then the grace of the form of feathered 

 plumes in the tenderness of the new foliage standing out distinct 

 and clear against the denser background to which it is such a 

 rich relief, but this background itself has its blendings of beauti- 

 ful colour with the deeper shades where the sharp outlines of 

 defined foliage are lost in the misty shadow, where the greens 



