ON WOOD AND PLANTATIONS. 
105 
different sorts ; and judging from the excellent standard 
here laid down, it will also be seen how much in the eye 
of a painter a tree with a beautifully diversified surface, 
as the oak, surpasses in the composition of a scene one 
with a very regular and compact surface and outline, as 
the horse-chestnut. In planting large masses of wood, 
therefore, or even in forming large groups in park scenery, 
round-headed trees of the ordinary loose and varied 
manner of growth common in the majority of forest trees, 
are greatly to be preferred to all others. When they 
cover large tracts, as several acres, they convey an 
emotion of grandeur to the mind ; when they form vast 
forests of thousands of acres, they produce a feeling of 
sublimity ; in the landscape garden when they stand 
alone, or in fine groups, they are graceful or beautiful. 
While young they have an elegant appearance ; when old 
they generally become majestic or picturesque. Other 
trees may suit scenery or scenes of particular and 
decided characters, but round-headed trees are decidedly 
the chief adornment of general landscape. 
Spiry-topped trees (Fig. 25) are distinguished by 
straight leading stems and horizontal branches, which are 
comparatively small, and taper gradually 
to a point. The foliage is generally ever- 
green, and in most trees of this class 
[Fig. 25. s^||-topped hangs in parallel or drooping tufts from 
the branches. The various evergreen trees, composing 
the spruce and fir families, most of the pines, the cedar, 
and among deciduous trees, the larch, belong to this 
division. Their hue is generally much darker than that 
of deciduous trees, and there is a strong similarity, oi 
