ON WOOD AND PLANTATIONS. 
113 
which, while they differ from the willow in some 
particulars, agree in others. The elm has mucn larger 
and darker foliage, while it has also a drooping spray ; the 
weeping birch differs in its leaves, but agrees in the pensile 
flow of its branches ; the common birch has few pendent 
boughs, but resembles in the airy lightness of its leaves ; 
and the three-thorned acacia, though its branches are 
horizontal, has delicate foliage of nearly the same hue and 
floating lightness as the willow. Here we have a group 
of five trees, which is, in the whole, full of gracefulness 
and variety, while there is nothing in the composition 
inharmonious to the practised eye. 
To illustrate the second case, let us suppose a long 
sweeping outline of maples, birches, and other light, 
mellow-colored trees, which the improver wishes to vary 
and break into groups, by spiry-topped, evergreen trees. 
It is evident, that if these trees were planted in such a 
manner as to peer abruptly out of the light-colored foliage 
of the former trees, in dark or almost black masses of 
tapering verdure, the effect would be by no means so 
satisfactory and pleasing, as if there were a partial 
transition from the mellow, pale green of the maples, etc., 
to the darker hues of the oak, ash, or beech, and finally 
the sombre tint of the evergreens. Thus much for the 
coloring ; and if, in addition to this, oblong-headed trees 
or pyramidal trees were also placed near and partly 
intermingled with the spiry-topped ones, the unity of the 
whole composition would be still more complete.* 
* We are persuaded that very few persons are aware of the beauty, varied 
and endless, that may be produced by arranging trees with regard to their 
coloring. It requires the eye and genius of a Claude or a Poussin, to 
develope all these hidden beauties of harmonious combination. Gilpin rightly 
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