176 
The Garden Magazine, May, 1921 
FRANKLIN PARK, BOSTON 
(2) A naturalesque planting so skil- 
ful that only the Japanese Barberry 
betrays its man-made character 
aspect; but, most essential of all, is the character of growth and 
the character and appearance of the foliage, for these are the 
predominating factors that govern the appearance of the in- 
dividual plant and therefore of every grouping. The variation 
obtainable from such selection is almost limitless in suburban 
planting where both native and exotic plants can be used. In 
rustic planting it has a narrower scope, for we can reproduce 
only the effects nature produces in a particular locality, which 
may contain comparatively fewvarieties. 
The exotic flavor of the bit of lane 
portrayed in No. 6 is recognized at once 
and at the same time one senses that it 
is a natural, wild growth. Were you in 
North Devon, where such a scene is in 
character with the entire landscape, its 
naturalness would impress you far more 
than its exoticism. The country roadside 
in No. i has none of the exotic feeling that 
the North Devon scene produces. In 
the photograph the individuality of the 
plants is lost and the landscape might be 
anywhere in the Eastern States, where 
nature has had her own way in planting 
the roadside. I selected this illustration 
because it is such a good example of this 
particular type of landscape as well as of 
the difficulty of illustrating the subject 
under discussion, for it is also a scene in 
England, and, for ought 1 know, there 
is not a plant in it that grows naturally 
with us. 
scape, a unit by itself. Are you not in some fairyland where 
all sorts of plants, from all corners of the earth, grow naturally? 
Drive on into the open country beyond; the vegetation is quite 
different; you no longer see Weigelias, Spiraeas, Forsythias, and 
you realize the community you were just in was an artificial 
creation. 
Again imagine the same community with each place planted 
differently — Mr. A likes tropical bedding plants, Mr. B likes 
A COUNTRY ROADSIDE 
( i ) It happens to be English but we might jog along a 
similar bit of road in Vermont, Kansas, or Canada 
native plants, Mr. C likes plants with variegated 
or colored foliage, and Mr. D likes evergreens — 
would you think for a minute that the plants had 
grown naturally? This is, of course, an exaggeration 
of the individual problem where the distinction be- 
tween plants is ordinarily not so marked. 
Thomas JV. Stars, A. o. L. A., Photo. 
C ONCEIVE a reproduction of a tropical landscape within a 
greenhouse — it is night, and the plants are skilfully ar- 
ranged so that one does not perceive the enclosing glass. The 
illusion of actually being in a tropical land is complete. But 
day comes and you see a winter landscape outside; the illusion 
disappears and your surroundings become artificial. 
Imagine yourself in an ideal suburban community — the 
lawns well kept, the shrubs, flowers, and trees 'selected and 
planted so skilfully it all seems like a single beautiful land- 
C ERTA1N plants are particularly happy in 
combination, others cannot be planted any- 
where near each other without creating a sense of 
artificiality. Take the ordinary small evergreen 
planting, where all kinds of Retinispora, Juniper, 
Arborvitae, etc., are shoved in together in a stuffy 
mass. Some are dwarf, some are shrubs, some are 
trees; in a few years some will be dead, some tall, 
some choked or straggly, and all will have to be 
ripped out. Nature never intended the combination 
of plants of such diverse habits. These same plants, 
arranged according to laws of natural growth, would 
thrive. Such a planting might bear no more rela- 
tion to the local landscape than the original “small 
evergreen” group did; but, set off by itself and made a unit 
apart from the surrounding world, it might become a permanent 
planting of considerable beauty delightfully suggestive of alien 
lands. 
I have always pictured in my mind the possibility of making 
a garden of such weird plants as Castor Oil Bean, Elephant’s 
Ear, and Canna. Such a garden I would absolutely shut off 
from everything else; in itself a new world, perhaps more curious 
than beautiful; though I suspect that it might be more beautiful 
