54 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



the walks and grouping of plants and trees were always 

 artificial. To us men of to-day, who have given serious 

 attention to the subject, it is given to know that gar- 

 dening cannot be successful where nature is left out of 

 the question. 



It is another curious fact that most of our best varie- 

 ties of ornamental trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants 

 have appeared, or else have become known, within the 

 space of a couple of centuries. Although roses and 

 other well-known flowers have been grown for ages, the 

 minds of landscape designers were not, except recently, 

 turned in the direction of their best use. While the 

 minds of professional men were working for ages toward 

 the highest as well as the most rational development of 

 sculpture and architecture, the artistic profession of 

 landscape gardening did not exist. No names of land- 

 scape gardeners and horticulturists have come down to 

 xis from long ago, whereas sculptors and architects have 

 been deified in history and story for thousands of years. 

 To-day, on the other hand, the names of some of the men 

 who grow new plants and design gardens are as well 

 known as those of architects. 



Lord Bacon probably realized the relative standing of 

 these arts with great precision when he said, in his essay 

 on gardening, that " A man shall ever see, that when 

 ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build 

 stately sooner than to garden finely, as if gardening were 

 the greatest perfection." Whether gardening be a 

 greater perfection or not, the art of gardening in this 

 century has been brought to an infinitely higher state 

 of perfection than it has ever been before, and in the 

 last fifty years we have made such gi'eat strides that the 

 forecast of the future indicates the probability of an 



