268 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



Tree-shaded 

 Areas 



Natural 



Character 



Units 



The grass surface is usually best when concave, so that it rises to- 

 wards its enframing walls, and thus gives some sequential sweep from 

 floor to wall.* This same form has a further advantage of giving a 

 base on which the surrounding planting can stand much more effec- 

 tively than would be the case if the ground sloped down towards the 

 enframing plantation. 



Even when this lawn is small, the study of its enframement in 

 smaller detail, — breaking it into points and bays, making the points 

 strong, heavy, dark, making the bays lighter in texture, and perhaps 

 decorated with flowers, — will add needed interest without destroying 

 the first essential, the single unity of the whole lawn. 



In direct contrast to the open expanse of sunny lawn, some area of 

 close-grown trees to furnish shade is almost an essential. It may be a 

 formal planting of trees related closely to the house, perhaps terminating 

 one end of an overlook terrace and containing a shelter, it may be a 

 mass of trees related to a formal composition like the Italian bosco, or 

 the French bosquet, or more often it may be a naturalistic grove crown- 

 ing a little hilltop or embowering a valley, and owing its individuality 

 and particular effect to an intentional development of the natural 

 character of its site. Then, too, such an area will have a character of 

 its own through the character of its trees : it may be a pine grove or an 

 oak grove, each of which gives a distinctive effect in sight, in sound, 

 and, in the case of the pine grove at least, in smell. 



On the smaller estate, the shapes and sizes of the separate units 

 of the design may be all determined by the designer almost entirely from 

 the point of view of the economical apportionment of the whole area 

 and the fitness of each subordinate part to its purpose; but if a larger 

 estate is fortunate enough to contain a number of natural landscape 

 units, the designer will usually do his best to adapt these to his nec- 

 essary uses without spoiling their natural character, to enhance and 

 protect these characters,! and present their effects at their full worth. 

 For the freedom which these natural forms suggest is usually one of 



the estate planting found in the adjoining scenery. See his Theory and Practice, 

 Chapter IX. 



* Cf. Chapter IX, p. 183. 



t See Chapter V. 



