hedge with a few trees in it, that has been suffered to grow wild, is a much more varied and effectual screen; but there are hedges, where yews and hollies are mixed with trees and thorns, so thick from the ground upwards, so diversified in their outline, in the tints, and in the light and shade, that the eye, which dwells on them with pleasure, is perfectly deceived; and can neither see through them, nor discover (hardly even suspect) their want of depth.

This striking contrast between a mere hedge, and trees planted for the express purpose of concealment and beauty, affords a very useful hint not only for screens and boundaries, but for every sort of plantation, where variety and intricacy, not mere profit, are the objects. We may learn from it that concealment, without which there can be no intricacy, cannot well be produced without a mixture of the smaller growths, such as thorns and hollies; which being naturally bushy, fill up the lower parts where the larger trees are apt to be bare. We may also learn in what manner

such a mixture produces variety of outline; for in a hedge such as I have described, the lower growths do not prevent the higher from extending their heads, while at the same time by their different degrees of height, more or less approaching to that of the timber trees, they accompany and group with them, and prevent that formal disconnected appearance, which hedgerow trees left alone, after every thing has been completely cleared from them, almost always present.

If by such means a mere single line of hedge becomes an effectual and varied screen, of course a deeper plantation conducted on the same principles would be a much more varied boundary, and more impenetrable to the eye; and it seems to me, that if this method were followed in all ornamental plantations, it would, in a great measure, obviate the bad effects of their being left too close, either from foolish fondness, or neglect. Suppose, for instance, that instead of the usual method of making an evergreen plantation of firs

only, and those stuck close together, the firs were planted at various distances of ten, twelve, or more yards asunder, and that the spaces between them were filled with the lower evergreens. All these would for some years grow up together, till at length the firs would shoot above them all, and find nothing afterwards to check their growth in any direction. Suppose such a wood upon the largest scale, to be left to itself, and not a bough cut for twenty, thirty, any number of years; and that then it came into the hands of a person, who wished to give variety to this rich, but uniform mass. He might in some parts choose to have an open grove of firs only; in that case he would only have to clear away all the lower evergreens, and the firs which remained, from the free unconstrained growth of their heads, would appear as if they had been planted with that design. In other parts he might make that beautiful forest-like mixture of open grove, with thickets and loosely scattered trees; of lawns and glades of various shapes and

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dimensions, variously bounded. times he might find the ground scooped out into a deep hollow, forming a sort of amphitheatre; and there, in order to shew its general shape, and yet preserve its sequestered character, he might only make a partial clearing; when all that can give intricacy, variety, and retirement to a spot of this kind, would be ready to his hands.

It may indeed be objected, and not without reason, that this evergreen underwood will have grown so close, that when thinned, the plants which are left will look bare; and bare they will look, for such must necessarily be the effect of leaving any trees too close. There are, however, several reasons why it is of less conse quence in this case. The first and most material is, that the great outline of the wood formed by the highest trees, would not be affected: another is, that these lower trees being of various growths, some will have outstripped their fellows, in the same proportion as the firs outstripped them; and, consequently, their heads will

have had room to spread, and form a gradation from the highest firs, to the lowest underwood. Again, many of these evergreens of lower growth succeed well under the drip of taller trees, and also (to use the figurative expression of nursery-men) love the knife: by the pruning of some, therefore, and cutting down of others, the bare parts of the tallest would in a short time be covered; and the whole of such a wood might be divided at pleasure into openings and groups, differing in form, in size, and in degrees of concealment; from skirtings of the loosest texture, to the closest and most impenetrable thickets.

This method is equally good in making plantations of deciduous trees, though not in the same degree necessary as in those of firs; and though I have only mentioned ornamental plantations, yet, I believe, if thorns were always mixed with oak, beech, &c. besides their use in preventing the forest trees from being planted too close to each other, they would by no means be unprofitable. If they were taken out before