The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening 



The only possible way to compose groups in land- 

 scape gardening is to select one species for the 

 dominating element in each group, and then to 

 build the other material on to this controlling quan- 

 tity. Naturally the dominating element will be the 

 main factor in relating the group to its paragraphic 

 control and to the leading motive of the entire com- 

 position. 



No survey of Nature's methods of grouping 

 would be complete without mention of a landscape 

 form which classifies with difficulty into our poor 

 human categories. This is the scattered distribu- 

 tion which presents individuals, yet presents them 

 in such constantly obvious relationship that the 

 usual effect is not that of the individual, neither is 

 it the effect of the mass. The most striking exam- 

 ples of this are to be found in the scattered oaks 

 along the hills which follow the Mississippi river 

 from St. Paul to Cairo, and in the widely spaced 

 pines on the pine barrens of central Florida. There 

 are, however, hundreds of good examples of this 

 scattering habit in the natural distribution of wild 

 species. 



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