7 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



Design in 



Landscape 



Characters 



always displeasing. The lower land, being the better soil, is usually 

 that chosen for open pasture, while the knolls and higher lands are 

 crowned with trees. The short-cropped turf displays to the full the 

 gentle undulations of the ground, accented by the long shadows of the 

 isolated trees and enframed by the adjacent woodland. The esthetic 

 possibilities of these compositions of forest edge and free-standing trees 

 and turfed ground surface appealed to the English people, and in the 

 parks of the great English estates (see Plate 10) this pastoral land- 

 scape character was copied, intentionally for its esthetic effect, as a 

 landscape style, which on account of its adaptability to so many of 

 man's uses still forms the basis of much of our modern park and private 

 place design. In studying such landscapes as this we find ourselves in 

 a border land, where it is sometimes a matter of academic definition 

 rather than one of important distinction to say whether the organiza- 

 tion of the scene should be called style or character. 



The landscapes which we have briefly discussed have depended 

 primarily for their character some on ground form, some on vegetation, 

 some, in a relatively slight degree, upon the hand of man. Further 

 consideration of landscape character particularly as it is affected by 

 ground forms will be found in Chapter VIII : Natural Forms of Ground, 

 Rock, and Water as Elements in Design. These examples of landscape 

 characters are but a few out of a great number, not necessarily the most 

 important, but given because they are typical of many, and because 

 the character in each case is distinctive and striking. Each student 

 of landscape will have his own field of experience in this regard, and he 

 may learn reverence for Nature and gain information for use in his 

 own designs from any considerable experience of Nature's works, in 

 whatever part of the globe he may have obtained it.* 



The greater and more striking examples of Nature's handiwork will 

 serve the designer as inspiration and as training in appreciation, and 

 he may by his knowledge of their peculiar value to the race have the 

 duty and the great opportunity of defending them from destruction. 



* See Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.'s, application of ideas from tropical scenery 

 to the planting of portions of Central Park, in a letter to Mr. Ignaz A. Pilat, 1863, 

 published in Landscape Architecture, April, 1915, v. 5, pp. 124-133, under the title The 

 Esthetic Value of Tropical Scenery. 



