The Art of Gardening 



forms but uses colors, if at all, in conven- 

 tional and subordinate ways ; but the land- 

 scape-gardener depends upon color and form 

 in equal measure, and can never dispense 

 with the one or the other. Then again, he 

 takes from Nature not only his models but 

 his materials and methods. His colors are 

 those of her own palette, his clays and mar- 

 bles are her rocks and soils, and his techni- 

 cal processes are the same that she employs. 

 He does not show her possibilities of beau- 

 ty as in a mirror of his own inventing. He 

 helps her in her actual efforts to realize 

 them — he works in and for and with her. 



This fact limits and hampers him in cer- 

 tain ways ; but, under fortunate conditions, 

 it allows him to achieve what no other artist 

 can — perfection. ^^The sculptor or the 

 painter," writes a recent critic, observes 

 defects in the single model ; he notices in 

 many models scattered excellences. . . . 

 To correct those defects, to re-unite those 

 excellences, becomes his aim. He cannot 

 rival Nature by producing anything exactly 

 like her work, but he can create something 

 which shall show what Nature strives after. 



9 



