PROBLEMS 193 



ings. Wherever space permits, school gardens 

 should be encouraged. 



Greater attention can be paid to the decorative 

 side of planting in institutions of higher learning, 

 which presumably maintain more orderly condi- 

 tions. Natural features are taken advantage of in 

 many cases with charming results. Cornell and 

 Vassar have beautiful campuses because they have 

 utilized the natural topography to the best advan- 

 tage. 



Planting should be of the park-like variety, with 

 some tree masses, in other places small groups, and 

 single specimens of more highly specialized types. 

 It is a mistake to use too great a variety in plant- 

 ing of this sort, for it destroys harmony ; and since 

 American institutions of higher learning are no- 

 toriously irregular, at least in so far as architec- 

 ture is concerned, it is essential that there be some 

 unifying element, which may well be the planting. 



A general informality should characterize the 

 planting unless the plan is symmetrical and the 

 axes highly developed, in which case the formal 

 type is more suitable. An arrangement of build- 

 ings like that at the Harvard Medical School calls 

 for formal planting on account of its uniformity, 



