66 JOURNAL OF TfiE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



have melted into liquid greys and neutral tints which the eye of 

 the artist discerns everywhere pervading, save in the play of 

 light upon those parts of the plant brought into relief and 

 prominence. 



If the Pines derive little interest, and no decorative effect, 

 from inflorescence, they have a distinctive gain in their cones. 

 The name of the genus is an indication of the fact that this is 

 a feature which ought not to escape observation, and indeed it is 

 an investiture that cannot fail to arrest attention just at this 

 season. How splendidly studded are the branches of Cedrus 

 atlantica with the soft purple-tinted tips standing up on the 

 flat fields of foliage like mushrooms in the meadows of the 

 fairies ! 



Take in your hand the symmetrical cone of Pinus excelsa^ 

 and see what a study it is in purples and greens. Cast your eye 

 along the straight shaft Abies nobilis, and see the great cones 

 levelled along the branchlets high up, almost like the tubes of a 

 telescope, directed some this way and some that, a marvel of 

 construction, and filled with that most refreshing odour of balsam 

 which is full of the spirit of the Fir wood, and seems to waft 

 suggestions of cleanliness and health — why I never could see, 

 excepting that we seem to have the capacity for uniting certain 

 experiences with certain odours and certain conditions which 

 come within the range of one sense with certain facts suggested 

 through the medium of another. And how can I attempt to 

 describe the slender grace of the drooping branches of Larch ? 

 Some things by their simple grace and delicate harmony defy 

 description. Nature then will not be brought within the limits of 

 language. 



The growth and habit of Conifers, again, necessarily enter 

 largely into their decorative character. The Pines love the 

 heights. They seem to have been made for the mountains. 

 The Yew stands fittingly about the corners of God's acre. 

 The lawn is graced by the sweep of the Cedars. The avenue 

 would look all the tamer, and the poorer, but for its fringe of 

 Austrian Pines, for the brighter green of the tender tasselled 

 Larch, and for the erect presence of the sober Spruce. 



What should we say of the Araucarias at Bicton, of the 

 Golden Yews, the Junipers, the noble specimens in the Pineta 

 of many of the notable grand ancestral homes of the English 

 nobles, and what dare I say of the topiary work at Elyaston ? 



