ON AMERICAN GARDENING 



production of a characteristic and indi- 

 genous style in literature, art or gardening 

 is the function of a mature and fully accli- 

 matized civilization, something which it has 

 taken two centuries to establish in America, 

 and which, in fact, is not yet fully ripened. 

 It is even now a question whether we have 

 attained to a national character in litera- 

 ture; and landscape gardening certainly lies 

 beyond letters in this respect. 



But lest all these big reasons may make 

 it seem absurd for us to look for anything 

 American in landscape architecture, it may 

 be noted that there are some very power- 

 ful influences at work on the other side. 

 The greatest of these are soil, climate and 

 the native flora. The methods of managing 

 the land which succeed in England do not 

 succeed in America. The difference in 

 climate is very much more important. An 

 English garden can not grow in America 

 because the climate will not allow it; and 

 the meteorological prohibition is still more 

 insuperable against the French or the 

 Italian garden. But the greatest influence 

 at work upon the gardening of the new 

 world,— or what should have been always 

 the greatest influence, — ^is the native flora. 



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