SckeU's Landscape-Gardening. 411 



speedily obtained on the theory of the action of manures, sur- 

 rounded, though it be, with so many difficulties. 



Art. III. The Landscape-Gardening of F. L. von Sckell of Munich. 

 Translated from the German for the " Gardener's Magazine." 



{Continued from p. 355.) 



II. Selection of Natural Scenes suitable for the Adaptation of the Landscape- 



Gardener. 



1. Nature extends her pictures in an endless multitude over our 

 mother earth ; and these sometimes exist as they were originally 

 formed, or have undergone a change from the early or recent re- 

 volutions of the earth's surface. An infinitely varied flora is 

 found in the different countries that compose the quarters of our 

 globe. All these plants have a peculiar character, and it is but 

 seldom that one is found on a spot in which it will not thrive. 

 The tops of the highest mountains are decorated with a peculiar 

 kind of vegetation, among which many plants are found which may 

 be looked for in vain at the base of these elevations. Some, 

 again, are only found in poor soil, or in moist situations ; others 

 on rocks, or in their chinks, or even on plants themselves. Thus 

 Nature operates, and so, also^ must those who wish to imitate 

 her. 



2. She proceeds almost in the same manner with inorganic 

 form. She produces the most stupendous mountains, the most 

 terrific abysses, the very aspect of which is scarcely supportable 

 by man, plains of immeasurable extent, valleys the ends of 

 which the eye can scarcely reach, oceans of infinite surface, and 

 lakes, with rivers that issue from high mountains as if from the 

 clouds, and seem to be lost in the air. All these gigantic works, 

 however, of the great God of Nature are not within the com- 

 pass of the landscape-gardener to produce ; but where they 

 have been created by Nature, they should gi'atefully be taken ad- 

 vantage of by art, and joined to its smaller artificial productions, 

 by bringing the romantic distance into harmonious connexion 

 with the garden scene. 



3. Nature, however, does not always proceed with such power- 

 ful masses. Her highest mountains gradually decrease to the 

 smallest declivity ; all of which, from the highest to the lowest, 

 are so harmoniously united by a continuity of wavy lines, that 

 the line of separation is never perceptible. 



She also proceeds in the same manner with her valleys, forests, 

 lakes, rivers, streams, and waterfalls : their variety of size and 

 form is endless, and no two are found to have the least resem- 

 blance to each other. The landscape-gardener, therefore, may 

 select and create, according to his taste, whatever picture suits 



