ON THE ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS IN GROUPS. 
159 
dense, and massy appearance which is so much admired in a wood, particularly in 
one on an eminence. It should therefore be provided that not only their boles be 
concealed, but that a thick mass of branches and foliage, impervious to the eye, 
should descend directly from their summits down to the slope they surmount. 
In wild, savage scenery, where the hills are steep, rugged, and faced with projecting 
rocks which preclude the plantation of more than a few trees, a solitary Scotch 
Pine at or near the apex, or a group by no means well connected, or supported, 
will, by throwing abroad their tortuous and picturesque arms, add a characteristic 
feature to the scene. But this is merely an exception that helps to establish the 
rule. Where knolls or mounds exist in parks, or in the outlying parts of the estate 
that are not far from the house, no tree will form a better termination to them 
than the Beech. The drooping character which its branches take in old age, and 
the readiness with which a number of specimens combine to make up a compact 
and united cone, give it a remarkable aptitude for occupying such a position. 
In looking down on a plantation, which must, from that circumstance, be 
presumed to lie in a valley, the principal desideratum is diversity. To destroy its 
flatness by putting high trees on the rising portions, and leaving unplanted, or 
covering only with smaller trees, the lower parts, is but one of the modes of 
realizing that end. Small glades of turf, occasionally made visible ; specimens of 
trees altogether detached ; a judicious mingling of spiry and round-headed, ever- 
green and deciduous, drooping and fastigiate trees ; with a due regard to the colour 
as well as shape and size of their foliage, will all aid in relieving the uniformity 
that would otherwise be experienced. 
A yet different arrangement of plantations is called for when they have to be 
viewed from drives or roads which pass through them. Here, the chief effect is 
required by the sides of those roads. The most obvious fault in such cases, is that 
which we can aptly describe by saying that the idea is predominant, at every step, 
that the openings were cut through the woods in order to make a road, and not 
that the road was a part of the original design in planting. Nothing is apparent 
but a forest of trunks below, and a continuous roof of foliage above. 
Now, we do not affirm that something of this sort might not give the interest 
of novelty to a very long drive; — all that we exclaim against is its perpetual 
occurrence. Surely, in the neighbourhood of a drive, the trees should be planted 
thinly enough to show their individual characters, or that of their species ; and 
some serviceable hints might be derived from natural forests in this respect. Where 
openings do present themselves in these, the trees at the sides of them generally 
spread their branches nearly down to the ground, affording mere casual glimpses 
into their more secluded depths. We conceive, then, that drives through plantations 
should be flanked with more thinly-planted trees, and isolated specimens ; that 
recesses and more lengthened openings ought to occur with greater frequency ; 
that, in no case, should the line of trees run parallel, for any distance, with that of 
the road, or with the line on the opposite side ; that pieces of wild thicket and 
