Art Out -of -Doors 



grounds is to keep and grow for us plants 

 not in our woods, and mostly from other 

 countries than our own." But this, it seems 

 to me, is a very mistaken decision. I quote 

 it simply because so many American garden- 

 ers and amateurs consciously or instinctively 

 adopt it, and, so doing, usually spoil the 

 home-grounds which they are anxious to 

 adorn. 



The true use and first purpose of the 

 home-grounds is to grow for us beautiful 

 plants of such a kind that their right associa- 

 tion will make a beautiful whole, beautifully 

 in keeping with the house on the one hand 

 and with the outer landscape on the other. 

 In fitting them for this purpose we are at 

 liberty to get our trees, shrubs, and flowers 

 where we will, provided we introduce none 

 which, by a discordant note, will mar that 

 general effect which must be determined by 

 soil, situation, and climate, and by the char- 

 acter of the house and of the local landscape. 



To be harmonious, and therefore beauti- 

 ful, grounds over which we see the Berk- 

 shire Hills or the valley of the Hudson must 



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