PLAN AND PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK 
student of landscape gardening. It has been the custom however 
in many schools to magnify this branch of the subject out of pro- 
portion to the other phases of landscape gardening. In some schools 
this knowledge of plant materials is available in other courses, and 
in such cases this section of the present book may be omitted. The 
plan of having this subject handled in a separate course is to be 
strongly recommended. 
4. Architectural materials and methods must be used more or 
less in landscape gardening. Professional students nearly always 
take collateral courses in architecture. The non-professional stu- 
dent should give such attention to this subject as time and op- 
portunity make possible. 
5. Principles of design: These principles are universal and 
are sometimes well taught in departments of drawing or under the 
name of industrial design, home decoration or other characteriz- 
ations. These principles are exceedingly important and all em- 
phasis should be placed upon their study. 
6. Domestic problems of landscape gardening involving the ap- 
plication of the principles of design to home grounds, farms and estates: 
This field is sometimes assumed to constitute the whole subject of 
landscape gardening and a number of books have been written on 
these particular topics. It is desirable at the present time merely 
to keep this branch of landscape gardening in its proper relation 
to other branches of the subject. 
7. Civic art, including city planning, regional planning and 
country planning, constitutes a large and highly important ap- 
plication of the principles of landscape gardening. 
8. The native landscape not only forms the foundation of 
landscape gardening but also supplies a reservoir of beauty upon 
which the human race has drawn from the beginning of time and 
which is now of the utmost importance to our national culture. 
This natural landscape is therefore one of the principal subjects of 
study in the field of landscape gardening. 
It will be understood at once therefore that the subject of 
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