The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening 



ment of principles will at least be suggestive. 



It seems possible to distinguish seven different 

 types of plant groups classified as to form. These 

 are (1) the single specimen, (2) the group of two, 

 (3) the group of three, (4) the larger group of 

 five or more, (5) the row, (6) the mass, (7) the 

 social group. 



The single specimen is, strictly speaking, not a 

 group, of course, but it demands treatment in this 

 same connection. Early landscape gardening dealt 

 largely in specimens. Writers often emphasized 

 the importance of giving each individual room for 

 complete development. Many of the old time gar- 

 dens were nothing more than collections of indi- 

 vidual specimens. This tendency toward specimen 

 planting has not wholly disappeared. In botanic 

 gardens it is appropriate and necessary. But in 

 pure landscape gardening, where the idea of pic- 

 torial composition prevails, the specimen method 

 must be curbed. The single fully developed tree, 

 standing by itself, is an abnormality and a rarity 

 in nature. It is, however, a rarity wdiich is very 

 pleasing to the human eye, and the landscape gar- 



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