of fern or broom. This little cluster produces a pleasing effect, especially when combined with the beeches or oaks in the adjoining hedge-rows or coppices, as they stretch far and wide their sinewy arms, and throw their shade over the surrounding space.

Tum fortes late ramos, et brachia tendens

Huc illuc, media ipsa ingentem sustinet umbram.

VIRGIL. GEORG.

While on the subject of Burnham beeches, I may be allowed to venture an opinion that this very interesting wood would have lost much of its present character, had there been a great admixture of oak and other trees in it. I have long thought that in making plantations and clumps of trees, there should be groups of different species kept entirely distinct from each other in order to produce a good effect. Clusters of beech, protecting the evergreen hollies under them, such as we see them at Bearwood in Berkshire, in some parts of Windsor Great Park, and at Burnham, are more striking than they would be if contrasted closely with other trees. I know nothing finer of the sort than the group of noble Scotch firs in Sir Henry Fletcher's park near Walton on Thames, with its heronry on their tops. The ash neither combines well with the oak or beech, and yet I was much struck with a wood composed en

tirely of fine ash trees in Devonshire, on the slope of a hill, the ground underneath them being covered with the wild blue columbine in full blossom. In the early spring the case is different, for then almost all trees put forth their light and cheerful green leaves; but in the autumn we then see the bare and leafless horse-chesnuts, sycamores and limes, and frequently the ash, if there has been an early frost, while the oak retains its fresh verdure, and the beech is glowing with all the charms of its orange tints. Even a clump of the copper beech, and another of birch, with their silvery stems and pendant boughs, produce a far better effect than they would if mixed with other trees.

In forming shrubberies, on the contrary, there cannot be too great a diversity of flowering plants and evergreens, but these should either be renewed occasionally, or the pruning knife very freely used. When this is done with care and judgment, few things are more pleasing than a well-arranged shrubbery. I have endeavoured to shew what effect may be produced in this way in the plantation by the side of the road leading to Hampton Court from Kingston bridge. In the spring and early part of the summer, nothing can look more gay and cheerful than this plantation, and from the constant use of the knife,

the plants are always happily blended with each other.

Laurels, and also rhododendrons, when the soil will admit of them, have, I think, been too much neglected in forming plantations. They are not only a good shelter for game, but the eye rests upon them with pleasure. The latter also will bear the drip of trees remarkably well, and neither hares or rabbits will injure them, and deer very little. The rhododendron drive in Windsor Great Park, backed as these shrubs are with overhanging trees, produces a fine effect, especially when they are in full blossom. At Escrick in Yorkshire, there are some fine woods filled with these plants. In the neighbourhood, also, of Cobham in Surrey, there are large clusters of them in the woods. They seed freely, and may readily be propagated to any extent.

But to return to Burnham beeches. It is impossible to visit them without feeling that here Nature has done everything, and that in the most pleasing manner. Nothing is formal, and forest scenery may be viewed in all its beauty and variety, without any embellishments from art. Here no distant spires are to be seen, or cottages, bridges, or even fences of enclosures, but as we enter the forest glades, and view the knotted and gnarled trees, and saunter under their shade, the