114 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



siderations of the Justifying Value of a Public Park." With these 

 various works in hand we may be justified in a few generalizations 

 regarding his methods and their results. 



1. He revitalized the natural style. Brown, Rep ton, Downing, 

 and all their followers had professed the natural style, but the 

 works of Olmsted were so much more truly like the best of Nature's 

 work that the whole doctrine of naturalness in landscape art re- 

 ceived a new meaning at his hands. Today, at least in America, 

 the natural style and the Olmstedian style are s\Tion}Tnous, while 

 the works of all his predecessors would be rated artificial. 



2. Olmsted introduced a new appreciation of natural scenery. 

 Other men had been gardeners or improvers on Nature. He first 

 taught us to admire Nature in her OAvn dress. Downing was of 

 course a lover of natural landscape, but this element of his char- 

 acter was not brought strongly forward in his landscape gardening. 



3. Adaptation to site and surroundings was the kejTiote of Olm- 

 sted's work, and this also amounted to a new discovery in landscape 

 art. In this direction Olmsted had a peculiar gift which is every- 

 where recognized as one of his distinguishing characteristics. It 

 will be readily seen that this faculty was closely associated with his 

 appreciation of natural scenery mentioned above. 



4. He discovered the native flora. Though artistically less 

 important than other contributions of Olmsted, this was the most 

 revolutionary of his innovations. Downing was a collector of 

 plants, with a fondness for what was rare and exotic. Gardeners 

 everywhere were planting Japanese magnolias, purple beeches, and 

 Camperdown elms. Olmsted turned boldly, and not without vio- 

 lent opposition, to the commonest roadside shrubs. He adopted the 

 outcast weeds. Peter after his vision could not have been more 

 completely converted to what had previously been thought unclean. 

 Up to this time, strange as it may seem, American plants had been 

 more used in Europe than here. With the richest indigenous flora 

 of any country in the world, we were still planting the species and 

 varieties of European nurseries. We may remark further that 

 this use of the native flora was the one Olmstedian principle most 

 quickly acclaimed and adopted by others. It has had a tremendous 

 vogue in this country. It is the point in Avhich Olmsted has been 

 most fully, successfully (and sometimes slavishly) imitated. 



