ON LANDSCAPE GARDENERS 



principle most quickly acclaimed and 

 adopted by others. It has had a tremen- 

 dous vogue in this country. It is the point 

 in which Olmsted has been most fully, 

 successfully and sometimes slavishly 

 imitated. 



5. The native plants were used in 

 large quantities. Common dogwood and 

 viburnums were put in by carloads. For 

 the first time in the history of landscape 

 art, plants were adequately massed. This 

 principle was not carried to an extreme, how- 

 ever; and, in fact, it has not yet received the 

 development which it merits. While it re- 

 ceived less popular approval than item 4 

 above, its intrinsic importance from the 

 standpoint of good art is much greater. 

 — 6. Indigenous plants were given their 

 natural environment. Much attention was 

 given to the development of this principle, 

 especially by some of the followers of 

 Olmsted. Up to this time, along with the 

 preference for exotics, had gone the gar- 

 dener's pride in growing plants out of 

 their altitude, latitude and longitude. The 

 Alpine garden was the gardener's pet, and 

 Downing himself nursed his lonely fig-trees 

 through the cold New York winters. 



165 



