ON WOOD AND PLANTATIONS. 
105 
tiful when young, from their smoothness, and the elegance 
of their forms ; hut often grow picturesque, when age and 
time have had an opportunity to produce their wonted effects 
upon them. In general, however, the different round-headed 
trees may be considered as the most appropriate for introduc- 
tion in highly cultivated scenery, or landscapes where 
the character is that of graceful or polished beauty ; as they 
harmonize with almost all scenes, buildings, and natural or 
artificial objects, uniting well with other forms, and doing 
violence to no expression of scenery. From the numerous 
breaks in the surface of their foliage, which reflect differently 
the lights, and produce deep shadows, there is great intricacy 
and variety in the heads of many round-topped trees ; and 
therefore, as an outer surface, to meet the eye in a plantation, 
they are much softer and more pleasing, than the un- 
broken line exhibited by the sides of oblong or spiry-topped 
trees. The sky-outline, also, or the upper part of the head, 
varies greatly in round topped trees, from the irregularity in 
the disposition of the upper branches in different species, as 
the oak and ash, or even between individual specimens of 
the same kind of tree, as the oak, of which we rarely see 
two trees alike in form and outline, although they have the 
same characteristic expression ; while, on the other hand, 
no two verdant objects can bear a greater general resem- 
blance to each other, and show more sameness of figure, 
than two Lombardy poplars. 
“ In a tree,” says Uvedale Price, “ of which the foliage is 
everywhere full and unbroken, there can be but little variety 
of form ; then, as the sun strikes only on the surface, neither 
can there he much variety of light and shade ; and as 
the apparent colour of objects changes according to the different 
degrees of light or shade in which they are placed, there can 
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