Aims and Methods 
true of spots where Nature has contented 
herself with few species, for such spots have 
an unusually distinct character of their own, 
an unusually well-marked individuality. 
In such spots what is an owner or his 
gardener likely to attempt ? Most often to 
“makeup,” as he would say, for Nature's 
niggardliness — to supply the deficiencies of 
her limited nursery. He strives to repro- 
duce, on a soil unfit for the purpose and 
amid inappropriate surroundings, the varied 
and luxuriant effect of the average inland 
country-place. And, as a consequence, he 
misses the chance to get a good result which 
would be characteristic of the country-side 
where he has chosen to make his home, and 
gets only a bad imitation of results proper 
to very different regions. 
A true artist would go to work in quite 
another way. He would accept Nature’s 
frame, outlines, and materials, and paint his 
pictures according to her local specifications. 
He would strive to re-unite her “scattered 
excellences,” but not all of them, and not an 
assortment chosen at random — only such as 
she herself might here have brought harmo- 
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