116 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



this; and so I ask you to consider, in place of such detailed study, 

 a few of my own inadequate generalizations on the subject. 



1. Landscape gardening now enjoys unprecedented oppor- 

 tunities in America. I'hese opportunities come both through the 

 presence here of many excessively wealthy patrons of the art, and 

 through the democratic patronage of municipalities and public 

 institutions. 



2. There are a large number of landscape architects now in 

 the field, and a considerable number of these are capable, well- 

 trained men. Of course there are still many quacks and impostors, 

 but they exert a diminishing influence. 



3. The old controversies over styles have been hushed and 

 instead of them we now enjoy a remarkably catholic taste and 

 eclecticism of treatment. We have all grades of the natural style, 

 every shade of adaptation of the Italian style, examples of the 

 Japanese style, and hundreds of excellent works which meet the 

 requirements put upon them frankly and adequately without 

 reference to any set "style." This breaking away from set and 

 conventional styles indicates that American landscape gardening 

 has now taken root in its own soil. 



4. The services of the profession have passed largely from private 

 into public fields. The leading problems now are not private 

 estates of "gentlemen," but municipal parks, playgrounds, and 

 city planning. So broad a field of benevolent humanitarianism 

 was never before opened to any art. 



American Landscape. 



And what of the future? ^Ye are prepared nov.- to look ahead. 

 Let us give ourselves that pleasure. 



My own judgment is that American landscape architecture, as it 

 comes more and more to its proper estate, will be influenced more 

 and more by the native landscape. It will conform itself in a larger 

 and more fundamental way to the topography and the scenery of 

 the continent. What then are the outstanding characteristics of 

 the American landscape? 



The American landscajie is first of all large. This sounds like 



