DECIDUOUS SHRUBS, 
457 
finite pleasure all the little variations of form and shade that can 
be discovered in them, and appear to place a higher value on a 
single quality which distinguishes a new plant from all others, than 
on any combination of merits in the old. We say appear to do so ; 
but, in fact, the eyes of such lovers of trees and shrubs are like the 
ears of highly cultivated musicians, who do not love pure and 
simple sounds the less because they listen with more rapt and de- 
lighted attention to the intricate play of new chords and harmonies 
that may be interwoven with the simple body of the music. The 
beauty with which we have become quite familiar, like the warmth 
of sunlight, is felt without being observed ; but what is uncommon 
in nature or art creates a sensation of excitement, and if it is a 
thing of beauty, becomes an aesthetic stimulus. But the love of 
intricate melodies, peculiar to highly cultivated musicians, cannot 
be ingrafted suddenly upon the greater number who love simple 
music j nor can the taste of the cultured amateur in trees and 
shrubs be shared by the great mass of persons who admire sylvan 
nature only in a rudimentary way, 
It will be seen, therefore, that several classes of persons and 
tastes must be provided for. First, those who appreciate only 
the most prominent and simple forms of vegetable beauty ; second, 
those (a much smaller number) who have passed the first stage of 
observation, and whose eyes have become educated to take in and 
appreciate a greater number of features or peculiarities at once — 
who have become connoisseurs or dilettanti in natural objects ; 
third, those who may be named the artist-eyed class, who value 
sylvan features not so much for any of their beauties in detail, as 
for those relations of forms and play of lights and shades and colors 
which group into what we call pictures. The last class is the one 
which soonest learns to handle trees and shrubs, so as to make 
homes beautiful. For the first class it would be absurd to describe 
numerous varieties of each species of tree or shrub when one or 
two would answer perfectly their wants ; but to satisfy the second 
class, respectful mention must be made of much that is new and 
rare. It is by the enthusiasm of just such persons as compose the 
second class that most of the beautiful trees and shrubs, now com- 
mon, but once rare or unknown, have been introduced ; some from 
