CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 
293 
softness of outline, becomes majestic and noble by the massive 
irregularity of its shadows; while the Lombardy poplars, Fig. 
89, stratified vertically by shadows as of long bundles 
of foliaged faggots, convey an impression of having all Fig> 8 9 - 
been cast in a common mould. The same effect is 
produced by the upright junipers, the arbor-vitaes, and 
other trees of conical outlines and fastigiate shadow 
lines. Such repetitions of the same formal outlines, how¬ 
ever, tend to make them appropriate connecting links 
between the regularity and symmetry of street improve¬ 
ments, of which they form a part, and the wild graces of 
nature which are in contrast with the repetitions and 
parallelisms of architectural art. Such trees are, there¬ 
fore, used with happy effect in connection with garden 
walks and terraces, and near buildings. But they must 
never be seen in numbers together, or they produce the 
effect of a superfluity of exclamation points in composition. Trees 
like the Norway spruce, though less formal in outline and shadows 
than those just named, have still so much of this same uniformity 
and even rigidity of expression, that they need to be introduced 
much more sparingly among other trees, near to architecture of any 
kind, than those of more diversified forms and shadows. One 
spiry-top tree will serve to give spirit to a whole group of round- 
headed trees or shrubs, while a group of spiry-top trees with one 
round-headed tree in it, at once conveys the impression of incon¬ 
gruity. Spiry-top trees should be considered as condiments in the 
landscape—never as main features. Trees and shrubs of formal 
outlines are the natural adjuncts of grounds arranged on a geometric 
plan, while those of freer growth are most becoming where geo¬ 
metric lines are avoided. In speaking of the “wild graces of nature ” 
as in contrast with architectural art, we do not mean to convey the 
impression that such a contrast is undesirable. On the contrary, the 
most perfect works of art in landscape gardening are those in which 
the free graces of nature are so arranged, that the architectural 
features of the place will look as if they had been made for just such 
a setting. Contrast does not imply want of harmony; it is a part of 
harmony; it is rest from monotony; it is as light to shadow. 
