The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening 



because they are not native to America. It wouldn't 

 be good democratic Americanism, either, for the 

 great bulk of our citizens are derived from foreign 

 stocks. 



The anti-straight-line theory as a fundamental 

 element of the natural style seems to have been held 

 by Downing and by Olmsted, Senior. It has been 

 much emphasized by some of their followers; but 

 careful designers have learned that simply to avoid 

 straight lines and radial curves gets one nowhere. 

 It certainly does not lead to naturalness. Indeed, 

 it seems philosophically impossible to found any 

 positive or constructive method on any purely 

 negative dictum. 



In order to arrive at a perfectly clear conception 

 of what we now mean when we talk among ourselves 

 about the natural style, it seems best to consider 

 more carefully what is meant by style in landscape 

 gardening. It is one of the unfortunate vagaries 

 of language that this term has assumed a special 

 meaning in landscape gardening distinctly differ- 

 ent from what it carries in other arts. In litera- 

 ture, where this other meaning is clearest, style 



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