68 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



Yet after the landscape gardener has done every- 

 thing within his power, has gathered the last item of 

 horticultural excellence, and has disposed of it with the 

 artist's happiest effect, he is still dependent, in a very 

 great measure, on the favor of the unmanageable ele- 

 ments for the pleasure he may give his patrons. No 

 one will see a delicately penciled sky line or a softly 

 harmonized background through a blinding dust storm ; 

 and a bed of finest roses is apt to look very sorry and 

 drabbled in the midst of a cold rain. Differences in 

 sunshine, light and atmosphere make very surprising 

 differences in the effect of certain views ; and as far as 

 possible, all this should be taken into account by the 

 gardener when he makes his plan. 



And besides the modifying influence which light 

 and atmosphere exercise on landscape views, they are 

 themselves often a very important part of the picture. 

 Who cares to look at any tiling else on a day when an 

 early, feathery snow fills the buoyant atmosphere with a 

 delightful, softening, luminous, hush-compelling haze? 

 And sometimes there are clouds and a sunset as beauti- 

 ful as the woods or as sublime as the ocean. These do 

 not belong to the gardener, but they may fit into his 

 picture, and enhance the pleasure which it gives; and 

 shall he not appropriate whatever of them he can ? 

 Everyone knows that the landscape painter spends his 

 chiefest pains to give accurate representations and stir- 

 ring suggestions of light and atmosphere ; but the land- 

 scape gardener has the real commodities in unmeasured, 

 ever-shifting variety. Let him make all possil)le use of 

 them, and if the elements are commonly unjn-opitious, 

 as they are in some countries, he may have his proper 

 doubts about the ])racticability of undertaking any gar- 

 dening plans at all. Fortunately almost every country, 

 whatever its shortcomings, has some good qualities of 

 climate which may be studied and turned to advantage. 



