. In mixed plantations we see Conifers from many climes and all
altitudes, all expected to do equally well in perhaps one small space of
garden ground. If in a projected plantation there is space for only
fifty trees, how much better it would be first to ascertain which out of
a few kinds would be best suited to the soil and general conditions of
the place, and then out of this selection to choose the one that best
fits the planter's own liking and will be most in harmony with the
further planting scheme that he has in view. In this way he will
obtain that unity of effect that alone can make a garden or piece of
planted ground pictorial and restful, and enable to serve as a becoming
setting to the brightly-coloured flowering plants that will then show
their proper value as jewels of the garden.

[Illustration: _LIBOCEDRUS DECURRENS AT FROGMORE (about 65 feet high)._]

In this restrained and sober use of trees, and especially of Conifers,
it is well to plant them of several ages, the youngest to the outer
edges of the groups. If there is plenty of space it will be all the
better to plant the trees in hundreds rather than in fifties, or in any
case in spaces large enough to see one whole picture of one good tree at
a time. Where such a planting was wisely made from forty to sixty years
ago how fine the effect is to-day, as in the case of the grand growth of
Douglas Firs at Murthly. No one seeing so fine an example of the use of
one tree at a time could wish that the plantation had been mixed, or
could be otherwise than deeply impressed with the desirability of the
plan.

One such large group can always be made to merge into another by
intergrouping at the edges, beginning by an isolated tree of group B in
the further portion of group A, then a group of two or three of B, until
the process is reversed and the group is all of B, with single ones of A
giving place to all B. There is no reason why the same principle should
not be used with two or three kinds of combined grouping, but then it
should be of trees harmonious among themselves, as of Spruce and Silver
Fir, or of such things as represent the natural mixture of indigenous
growth. Thus the Yew, Box, Viburnum, Dogwood, Privet, and Thorn of a
wild chalky waste might be taken as a guide to planting some of these
with nearly allied foreign kinds. But the important thing in all such
planting is to have the satisfactory restfulness and beauty of harmony
that can only be o