THE COUNTRY PLACE 19 



into the open country become not only a part of the landscape plan, 

 but a part of the architectural group as well. 



Architecture that depends upon the masking of trees and shrubs 

 to produce the desired effect is not the type that becomes an aid to 

 landscape architecture. 



The first real departure from the decorative horticultural style of 

 planting was based on the theory of the open lawn, which seems to 

 have originated from a theory in painting, that of an arrangement of 

 three planes, foreground, middle plane and background, or distance. In 

 this type the planting interest is developed by the variety of material 

 used and its arrangement so as to give a variety of sky-line. This type 

 of plant arrangement has been much used in park planting and in 

 small home grounds where the landscape is a created one. 



From this type of planting we have developed the American park 

 type and with it the basis of the American park, which is something 

 that we can well be proud of, as the parks of America are not equaled 

 in the world. All this has formed the big controlling elements of the 

 country place development, which is the. preserving of the natural 

 scenery. 



This style of landscape architecture does not differ much from that 

 of the old world in general arrangement of plant material and the use 

 of the space. The Colonial house with its dooryard garden, which 

 was the controlling unit of its group of buildings, was for general 

 arrangement of plan and plant material almost transplanted from 

 Europe. The space available was used to the best advantage and 

 even in the early days was limited. The buildings were grouped for 

 convenience of use and the settlements made up of these for protection. 

 The tendency of the "protective" grouping was to produce an "en- 

 closed" style of planting, that later became alrrost universal as a style 

 of landscape gardening. Interesting exceptions are found when the 

 view out was carefully considered in the arrangement, as in Mt. Vernon 

 and other estates in the South. 



The country places of this type along the Hudson and throughout 

 Eastern States are familiar, with the open lawn or terrace with mounds 

 and beds of bright flowers, gravel walks winding in and out among 

 clumps of evergreens and past arbors and summer houses, and such 



