MIDWINTER GARDENS 



ward lines modified as the square or pointed 

 architecture of the house may call for con- 

 trasts in pointed or broad-topped arborescence. 

 If, at times, I dream behind all this a grove, 

 with now and then one of its broad, steepling 

 or columnar trees pushed forward upon the 

 lawn, it is only there that I see anything so 

 stalwart as a pine or so rigid as a spruce. 



Such is the vision, and if I never see it with 

 open eyes and in real sunlight, even as a dream 

 it is like certain other things of less dignity 

 grateful, comforting. I warrant there are 

 mistakes in it, but you will find mistakes wher- 

 ever you find achievement, and there is no law 

 against them in well-meant dreams. Ob- 

 serve, if you please, this vision lays no draw- 

 back on the garden's summer beauty and 

 affluence. Twelve months of the year it en- 

 hances its dignity and elegance. Both the 

 numerical proportions of evergreens to other 

 greens, and the scheme of their distribution, 

 are quite as correct and effective for contrast 

 and background to the transient foliage and 

 countless flowers of July as amid the bare 



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