s 
CONTRASTS IN LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
lanceolate-acuminate membranous segments, -which are six to eight inches long, slightly serrated. Sori round 
immersed, uniserial. Fronds lateral, articulated on a scaly creeping rhizome. 
7. P. aureum, E. Brown: Linnaeus. — A noble evergreen stove Fern, from the West Indies. Fronds 
glabrous, drooping, pinnatifid, three to iour feet long, "with lanceolate-acuminate broad undulated membranous 
segments, which are eight to ten inches long, with entire margins. Sori round, biserial, or rather scattered. 
Stipes and rachis very smooth, shining, light' brown or purple ; lateral, articulated on a thick creeping rhizome, 
which is densely covered with bright brown scales. 
8. P. sporadocarpum, J. Smith. (P. glaucum, Sort). — A very beautiful and glaucous evergreen stove 
species, from Mexico. Fronds in outline rather ovate, glaucous throughout, pinnatifid, with stiff coriaceous 
obtuse, almost lanceolate, repand, segments, -with entire margins. Sori large, uniserial, bright yellowish brown. 
Stipes very smooth, half the length of the frond, brownish green ; lateral, articulated on a thick glaucous scaly 
creeping rhizome. 
♦ 
CONTRASTS IN LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
By DAVID GORRIE, Esq..* 
JHONTEASTS are used in the arts of ornamental gardening, painting, oratory, and poetry, for 
vy the purpose of heightening effect — of adding to the force of the forcible — and increasing the 
attractiveness of the beautiful. Instances of poetic contrasts are numerous in those standard pro- 
ductions of the Muse called classical ; but one selected from an old traditionary ballad may be worthy, 
of notice, as indicating an acknowledgment of the principle even where a high style of art has not 
been attempted. A story in rhyme, regarding the " Burning o' the Bonnie House o' Airlie," begins 
thus : — 
" It fell on a day, and a bonnie summer day, 
When the corn grew green and rarely" 
And the calm rural loveliness thus depicted adds force to the succeeding tale of horroi — a tale rendered 
all the more thrilling because of the insulting language said to have been addressed by the victor to 
the mistress of the doomed castle : 
" ' Come down, come down, Lady Ogilvic,' he cried ; 
' Come down and kiss me fairly !' — 
' I wadna kiss thee, cruel Argyle, 
' Though ye leftna a stan'in stane in Airlie.* " 
The effects of contrast in landscape scenery have not been passed over in silence by the pastoral poets. 
Thomson, indeed, describes the monotonous and unvarying scenery of those parts of England where 
hedgerows prevail in favourable terms ; and Dyer, in his view from Grougar Hill, seems to have 
admired scenery of a similar kind, when he says — 
" How close and small the hedges lie ! 
What streaks of meadows cross the eye !" 
but in another part of the same poem it is rendered evident that he was alive to the charms of contrast, 
for he says — 
" The gloomy pine, the poplar blue, 
The yellow beech, the sable yew, 
The slender fir that taper grows, 
The sturdy oak with bruad-spread boughs, 
And beyond the purple prove, 
Haunt of Phyllis, queen of love, 
(..nitlv ;is the op'ning dawn, 
Lies a long and level lawn." 
There arc here the materials of a beautiful Landscape, arranged in an effective manner— more effective 
than if the lives had been placed in hedgerows at equal distances over the lace of the country, with 
narrow "streaks" of meadow-ground tilling up the intermediate space, ami no striking feature, no 
expanse either of light or shade, to form a leading and concentrating object A recent French writer 
compares the monotony — the want of variety — caused by hedgerows dividing Held from held, to the 
English character, about which lie considers there is also something monotonous and unvaried. What- 
ever degree of aptness there may be in the comparison, it is certain that no landscape-painter would 
hesitate long if asked which of the kinds of scenery he would prefer. 
In park scenery, the dotting system, bj which trees are scattered here and there over the lawn, is 
prejudicial to effect: and the ornamental gardener who knows the value of contrasts will provide 
unbroken expanses of grOSS in some places, to set off the scattered groups of In es in others, while both 
the grass and the scattered groups will add to the effect of an adjoining dense forest-like mixture of 
trees and shrubs. Ornamental planters are now generally aware of the fine effect that maybe pro- £ 
, \^\ • From the North British Journal 0} Horticulture. ( 
I 
