AUTUMNAL COLOR ON THE LAWN. 133 



the character of the maturity and decay would lead us to 

 look for prevailing dtilness. 



Enjoyment of bright color in peculiar combination I 

 believe to be the keynote of the bulk of all this autumnal 

 pleasure found in the changing hues of trees. No painter, 

 therefore, should prize color effects more highly than the 

 lawn-planter, nor seek to compose more artistically the tints 

 at his command. The limitations of his picture are per- 

 haps broader, more subtle, and less defined than those of 

 the painter, but very much the same in kind. He cannot per- 

 haps count on results years hence, as the painter can on the 

 effect of the strokes of his brush, but nature helps him more 

 generously in the management of his material. The lawn- 

 planter may place himself implicitly under the control of na- 

 ture's wonderful processes, and by simply working on natur- 

 al principles he will attain the most delightful results. They 

 will not be exactly woodland scenes that have at times start- 

 led him by their solemn, luxuriant grandeur. Yet, consisting 

 as they do of cultured and dignified specimen plants congre- 

 gated together on the same principles as those of the woods, 

 they will suit better the association of the home circle. If 

 we could have the bit of attractive autumn woodland trans- 

 ferred entire just as it was to our very doors we would not 

 like its unkempt condition. The more artificial scene re- 

 ferred to would suit us, very properly, far better. We must 

 remember that good lawn-planting must be founded only 

 on nature's methods of accomplishing similar effects ; in a 

 word, the spirit of our new work, as already remarked, 

 though ever so natural, must be cultured and dignified, in 

 proper accord with that of our best homes. 



