TREES 
119 
under the ban. For in these groups there is 
nothing but variation, the idea being to com- 
bine the different specimens so that a bank of 
color and texture and form contrasts shall 
meet the eye. 
Standards are sometimes difficult things to 
explain definitely; just why one thing is good 
while another is bad positively defies expression 
in words, now and then. But in general I 
think a safe guide in garden standards is the 
sense of repose. No design or planting which 
is not restful and unobtrusive is good; and no 
design or planting that is dominated by con- 
trasts is either of these. Above all else a gar- 
den must have unbroken mass — not kaleido- 
scopic variety; and it must be true mass, else it 
will almost certainly degenerate into mess. 
These evergreen groups, for example, are 
called “masses” by their admirers, and they 
are of course a mass — of evergreens. But 
they all are different kinds, therefore they are 
not what I call a true mass. To be this the 
group must be confined to one variety only, 
must be a mass of junipers or arbor vitaes or 
pines or firs ; then it has continuity and dignity 
and repose. 
With no class of vegetation is this distinc- 
tion so aggressive, if I may put it that way, 
