68 Planting Villa Residences. 



which they have attempted to reduce the principles of the 

 art, while the real object, visible through all the specious 

 pleading* is simply to compile a vohime, — to make a book. 

 In forming a piece of scenery, for instance, we must have it 

 grave or gay, warm or cold, moving or stationary, hard or 

 soft, rough or smooth. We must regulate the odors, too, — 

 we must have them soft and fresh, as the smell of hay, 

 lavender, roses, &c., — or strong, as of pine or birch. We 

 must produce a grateful mixture, too, — as in spring, with the 

 open buds of the trees, and violets, primroses, hyacinths, &c. 

 Again, we must have Truth, Utility, Fitness, Proportion, 

 Symmetry, Conformity, Unity, Uniformity, Order, Confu- 

 sion, Contrast, Variety, Intricacy, Harmony, Light, Shade, 

 and we know not what else beside, within the compass of a 

 few acres of ground, and for an outlay of a few hundred 

 dollars. If practical landscape gardeners in the country must 

 produce the expressions, and satisfy the fanciful conceits of 

 plagiarian theorizers, with the means and materials generally 

 at their command, they have truly a difficult task before them. 

 The application of the principle of the recognition of art, 

 to the laying out of the numerous class of residences most 

 generally abounding in this country, must, as this recognition 

 is at present understood, be attended with universal failure, 

 as there is probably not a dozen residences in the Union 

 where the recognition of this principle can be applied with 

 any hopes of success ; and even there we want the rich and 

 dark glossy masses of evergreen foliage, which so strikingly 

 characterize the European landscapes ; and this is a desid- 

 eratum which the Conifers of this country, however majestic 

 and beautiful, never can supply. We have not, in the whole 

 sylva of America, a plant that Avill take the place of the 

 common Bay in forming the foreground of landscape scenes. 

 We have comparatively few of the large foliated shrubs, 

 which so soon after planting produce those striking effects of 

 light and shade, of variety and intricacy, spoken of in the 

 works of English landscape writers, and therefore their copied 

 directions cannot be applicable, because their results camiot 

 be produced. 



