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 
58 
