General Principles 93 



soil or the climate being uncongenial can be rectified by 

 improving the one and using such plants only as will thrive 

 in the other. Experience and attentive observation of what 

 succeeds in the neighborhood will supply the requisite infor- 

 mation as to climate. Hereafter, however, a few guiding 

 suggestions will be given with reference to both climate and 

 soil. Poverty in the aspect of a country may be greatly 

 relieved and atoned for by an extra amount of furniture 

 within a place and by restricting the views from it. A 

 barren and unsightly waste, common, or moor can be made 

 to subserve the purposes of art, if only glimpses of it be 

 here and there afforded through masses of rich foliage; for, 

 with such a foreground, its extreme poverty will be neutral- 

 ized and become a foil to set off the richness and cultivation 

 inside the place. 



17. Styles of Gardening. — No garden should be alto- 

 gether destitute of manner and style, however feebly or 

 indistinctly they may be expressed. Purity and correctness 

 of feeling in regard to any given style are the most important 

 things to be sought after, for it is barely possible to give rules 

 which shall embrace every variety of detail. In little matters, 

 indeed, the properties of dififerent styles may be associated, 

 under special circumstances, without any breach of rule; a 

 right appreciation of the spirit of each alone being wanted 

 to enable any one to adapt parts of the others thereto. A 

 close analysis will show that some features are common to 

 two styles, or even to all of them, the great distinctions con- 

 sisting in larger characteristics. 



There are three principal styles recognized in landscape 

 gardening, — the formal, geometrical or Italian style; the 

 natural or English style, and the picturesque. Of each of 

 these I shall offer a brief explanation in the succeeding 

 chapter. 



