XIV 



GARDENS 



FROM the discussion of the relative nature of parks 

 and gardens there emerges the idea that build- 

 ings and gardens and parks are in the scheme of 

 landscape gardening only parts of a whole, units in one 

 organized creation made up of natural and artificial 

 features developed in various ways. The law of con- 

 tradictions and contrasts may be made to act here as it 

 may everywhere else in landscape gardening to produce 

 the most happy effects. There should be no evident 

 dividing line between the park and garden where one 

 passes into the other. There should be, however, a 

 distinct contrast established, it may be by plantations of 

 trees or by changing frequently and radically the char- 

 acter of the flowers and shrubs, yet the division line 

 should be nowhere formal and rigid. For this reason 

 hedges as usually seen do not make an agreeable divid- 

 ing line between the garden and the lawn or park. 

 The transition is too sharp and sudden. In a word it is 

 too unnatural, and fails to give the suggestion of blend- 

 ing as well as contrast found so characteristic of the 

 natural scenes of field and forest. 



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