I X T R D U C T R Y 



3^*^^ HE very real but undirected interest which we in 

 ^; J. SL America have always taken in the development of our 

 •^^-^^■^ grounds has of late become more purposeful and (al- 

 though the word is much misused) efficient. We are 

 beginning to realize the simple fact that a lot of flower beds does 

 not necessarily make a garden, and we as a mass have only very 

 lately discovered that the collection and planting of very beauti- 

 ful specimens of all sorts of trees may detract from, rather tlian 

 beautify, our grounds. Landscape architecture has, like all arts, 

 a certain scientific side, and although its principles are perhaps 

 not as fixed and definite as, let us say, the principles of mechani- 

 cal engineering, it, nevertheless, has basic and fundamental laws 

 which have been discovered through a series of experiments, and 

 landscape work which is not in accordance with these laws will 

 inevitably fall short of the desired result. 



We are far too likely to regard the house and its grounds as 

 being two separate and unrelated problems, employing one ex- 

 pert to design the house and another to design the grounds, and 

 permitting these two to work without any harmonic purpose; yet 

 it is as important to the appearance of the house that the grounds 

 be co-ordinated with it, as it is to the place as a whole to have the 

 house set naturally upon it. Landscape architecture as a pro- 

 fession is still new, in spite of the enormous success which its first 



[vii] 



