LANDSCAPE GARDENING 327 



enhance the appearance of their buildings by beds of 

 flowers or clumps of shrubbery and a velvety lawn. 

 Surely the farmer should do as much for the farm 

 home. 



Ornamental plants do much to make the home surround- 

 ings more beautiful and satisfying, and to make the envi- 

 ronment of the church and school more in keeping with 

 their high mission. 



239. Where to Plant. To know just where in a yard to 

 place the ornamental plants in order to secure the best 

 effects, may not always be easy to decide. Neither the 

 farmer nor his wife may be naturally artistic, or ac- 

 quainted with the principles of landscape gardening. 

 The school should give some help by calling attention to 

 a few simple principles and by encouraging the cultivation 

 of ornamental plants as a home exercise. 



In general there are two styles of placing plants : the 

 English, or natural ; and the Italian, or geometrical. 



240. English Style. The English style, certainly the 

 more suitable for small lawns, is based on nature's methods 

 as seen in the wild wood. Go to the brook and note its 

 graceful curves, and especially the arrangement of trees, 

 shrubs, vines, and herbs, on its borders. Not a straight 

 line can be seen. Visit the bushy stretches on the margin 

 of an open field and note the irregularities in plant arrange- 

 ment. There is no order, no system of grouping. A 

 clump of alders flourishes here, dogwood there, and 

 willows farther on. Beside them may rise a buttonwood 

 tree. Herbs of many kinds, grasses, sedges, mints, 

 are huddled in an endless disarray. Each plant is most 

 concerned for its own welfare, and is in competition with 

 all the others. Nature plants her seeds with the most 

 careless indifference to the way the matured plants may 

 appear. 



