II 



plan may at times be improved by decoration, if its defects are thereby some- 

 what hidden ; but this solution does not make it more convenient, and the result 

 is seldom interesting in appearance. Careful planning is not only necessary for 

 convenience, but its contribution is essential to the achievement of the beauty 

 desired. 



In a collection of articles on the early history of landscape architecture, written 

 some twenty-five years, ago appeared the following definition ; and though these 

 articles dealt largely with the extensive parks and gardens surrounding royal 

 palaces, the fundamental principles expressed therein are sound: 



The art of gardening means the art of arranging surfaces of land and water, with all the forms of 

 vegetation they support and all such works of architecture or sculpture as may be thought desirable , 

 according to some settled design or scheme. Its productions may vary in character between the 

 most formal and the most natural looking effects; and in size between the smallest bit of verdurous 

 ground in a city street and the widest rural park. But they may always be distinguished by the 

 fact that organized beauty has been sought in their creation. Horticulture aims at the development 

 of beautiful individual plants. Economic gardening, like the sister craft of agriculture, so dis- 

 poses of the surface of the ground and the individual plants that cultivation can most easily be 

 pursued; but when we speak of the ait of gardening, we imply a result in which, though individual 

 plants are valued and usefulness is largely served, a beautiful general effect has been the main 

 concern. Mrs. Schuyler Van Renssalaer . 



While the point of view of twenty-five years ago is somewhat different from that 

 of today, nevertheless this interesting definition presents the subject very clearly, 

 and is wanting only in those very practical aspects which confront landscape archi- 

 tecture today in our very practical age. 



The following quotation from the diary of Charles Eliot, written about the 

 same time as Mrs. Van Renssalaer's article, defines landscape architecture as, 

 "the art of arranging land and landscape for human use, convenience, and enjoy- 

 ment." In a letter written in 1890 he says further: "The scope and breadth of 

 my profession is not often recognized. As I understand it, all conscious arranging 

 of visible things for man's convenience, and for man's delight, is architecture." 

 Then he quotes from Morris: "A great subject, truly, for it embraces the consider- 

 ation of the whole of the external surroundings of the life of man: we cannot es- 

 cape from it if we would, for it means the moulding and the altering to human need 

 the very face of the earth itself." Further on in his letter, Mr. Eliot continues: 



This building of convenient and beautiful structures is thus but a part of architecture. The 

 arranging of these structures in streets, in neighborhoods, on seacoasts, in the valleys of the hills, 

 the careful adjustment of the structure to its site and its landscape, the devising of ways and roads 

 so that they may either be impressive through order and formality, charming through their subordi- 

 nation to natural conditions, the development of appropriate beauty in the surroundings of build- 

 ings, whether by adding terraces and avenues or by enhancing natural beauty all this is. or ought 

 to be at least, one-half of the art and profession of architecture. This is the landscape architect's 

 part; for the field is so wide that it can hardly be comprehended by one man, and two professions 

 are necessary, each approaching and helping the other. 



In another letter, written in 1896, to one whose article on the function of the 

 landscape artisi had confused landscape architecture with landscape gardening, 

 Mr. Eliot wrote: 



Landscape architecture includes and covers landscape engineering, landscape gardening, and 

 landscape forestry. A formal avenue or parkway is a work of landscape architecture; so is a well- 

 designed picturesque park. The engineer and the gardener will each have his share in both pieces 



of work ; but each must labor for the perfecting of the general design if a successful result is 



to be achieved. 



