HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE. 
451 
nature so pleasingly exhibits in her own planting. Very 
few attempts, to our knowledge, have as yet been made, 
in this country, in what is called “ artistic planting,” that 
is, where reference is had to those effects attained 
by combination of certain colors ; for instance, in order 
to increase the effect of a vista or opening, by plant- 
ing the darker foliage nearest the eye, and the lighter 
at the more distant point of view, or by planting two 
trees in the same hole in order to produce picturesque 
effects in contrast to the more formal or gardenesque 
planting on the place. We remember to have seen at 
Ouchy, on the Lake of Geneva, that most graceful tree, 
the Weeping Silver birch, planted in the same hole with 
a pretty, drooping, fragile, dark-looking cedar ; and the 
two (some twenty-five years old) had grown up to- 
gether like two loving sisters, and their dark and sil- 
very foliage and graceful arms gently entwined together, 
seemed to cling fondly to each other for support — the 
Minna and Brenda of the woods. 
A selection and blending of trees with reference to 
their autumnal colors, is another refinement yet little 
practiced in this country. A group, for example, of 
our ash, the different maples, the liquid-amber, the sour 
gum, the dogwood, etc., judiciously toned down in color, 
from the darkest and richest to the lightest, will present 
a combination, which, for brilliancy and gorgeousness, 
would be hardly credible to those who had not witnessed 
the result. 
In connection with this subject, we have made use of 
some memoranda of a visit to several places in Italy, 
some years since, as illustrative of artistic planting, 
from which, notwithstanding the advantages of climate, 
it is very easy to see how very far we yet fall short in 
this sort of perfection. 
The place which we have most particularly in our 
mind, at present, is a bold promontory in the Lake of 
Como, called Bellagio , belonging to the Duchess of 
