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OF WOOD.

XII. In these instances, the ground is the principal consideration: but previous to any enquiry into the greater effects of wood when it is itself an object, an examination of the characteristic differences of trees and shrubs is neces ary. I do not mean botanical distinctions; I mean apparent, not essential varieties; and these must be obvious and considerable, to merit regard in the disposition of the objects they distinguish.

Trees and shrubs are of different shapes, greens, and crwoths.

The varieties in their shapes may be reduced to the following heads.

Some thick with branches and foliage have almost an appearance of solidity, as the beech and the elm, the lilac and seringa. Others thin of boughs and of leaves seen light and airy, as the ash and the arbele, the common arbor vitae, and the tamarisk.

There is a mean betwixt the two extremes, very distinguishable from both, as in the bladder-nut, and the ashen-leaved maple.

They may again be divided into those whose branches begin from the Eround, and those which shoot up in a stem before their branches begin.* Trees which have some, not much clear stem, as several of the firs, belong to the former class; but a very short stem will rank: a shrub, such as the althaea, in the latter.

of those whose branches begin from the ground, some rise in a conical figure, as the larch, the cedar of Lebanon, and the holly. Some sewll out in the middle of their growth, and diminish at both ends, as the Weymouth pine, the mountain ash, and the lilac: and some are irregular and bushy from the top to the bottom, as the evergreen oak, the Virginian cedar, and Guelder rose.

There is a great difference between one whose base is very large, and another whose base is very small, in proportion to its height: the cedar of Lebanon, and the cypress, are instances of such a difference; yet in both the branches begin from the ground.

The heads of those which shoot up into a stem before their branches begin, sometimes are slender cones, as of any firs: sometimes are broad cones, as of the horse-chestnut; sometimes they are round, as of the stone pine, and most sorts of fruit trees; and someties irregular, as of the elm. Of this last kind there are many considerable varieties.

The granches of some grow horizontally, as of the oak. In others they tend upwards, as in the lamond, and in several sorts of broom, and of willows. In others they fall, as in the lime, and the acacia; and in some of these last they incline obliquely, as in many of the firs; in some they hang directly down, as in the wooping willow.

These are the most obvious great distinctions in the shapes of trees and shrubs. The differences between shades of green cannot be so considerable; but these also will be found well deserving of attention. Perhaps their are few, if any, which do not put forth branches from the bottom; but in some, the lower branches aro, from various circumstances, generally destroyed and they appear. at a certain period of their growt

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