PART III. 

 ARRANGEMENT. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

 GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



NATURE AS A TEACHER. 



As nature supplies the materials for making gardens, 

 so also we may take lessons from her in arranging tliem. 

 Still the primitive, natural style of arrangement can sel- 

 dom be closely followed in the majority of places that 

 are to be improved. Tiie horticulturist takes the wild 

 plants from fields and woods, and in improving them 

 always finds in nature herself a co-worker, and succeeds 

 in rearing some plants that are more beautiful than the 

 wild. So natural arrangement may be studied, and in 

 planning our comparatively restricted garden plats, the 

 lessons thus gained may be modified to meet the w^ants of 

 every case. Indeed, just so far as our improved plants 

 and flowers are more ornamental than the parental wuld 

 forms, so do we possess more and richer material for 

 creating garden effects, than is seen in nature. We may 

 aim in ornamental gardening to exhibit nature idealized, 

 rather than nature real. 



The fundamental difference between natural land- 

 scapes, and made gardens, is, that in the former only 

 natural materials exist, while in the latter much that is 

 artificial, houses, walks, streets, etc., enters in, as a rule, 

 exerting a strong influence on effects. Such being the 

 case we are often led to a different course of action in 

 gardening, than if we dealt solely with natural effects. 

 (161) 



