36 LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



serving to enhance the entire scheme rather than 

 insisting upon its own importance. 



The disposition of areas in landscape falls, 

 broadly speaking, into two large classes, known 

 technically as the formal and the informal ar- 

 rangements. In each case the handling of the 

 areas is distinctive. The points of primary con- 

 sideration are the same, whichever type of design 

 is to be employed ; but the style chosen determines 

 the method of approach, which differs markedly 

 in the two classes. Informal design may be called 

 a study of space relations, and formal design a 

 study of lines. 



No one can listen to a conversation about land- 

 scape design, even for a very few minutes, without 

 hearing the "formal and the informal schools" 

 mentioned, probably with no slight degree of bit- 

 terness on one side or the other. It is the survival 

 of an ancient feud between those who claim that 

 every planting scheme should seem to be the work 

 of nature herself, without suggestion or interfer- 

 ence from man, and those who are equally positive 

 in asserting that every piece of planting should 

 bear the impress of the designer, nature being 

 quite evidently subordinated to his will. 



Those who really understand informal planting 



