The Home -Grounds 
parts of an American garden if it has any 
design — any character — at all. 
I do not mean to disparage the cultiva- 
tion of rare or novel or conspicuous plants, 
whether native or exotic. It is a delightful 
task to collect plants for their own sakes, 
without any reference to their relation with 
the surrounding scenery. But collections 
should be arranged on spots specially set apart 
for them, where they will not injure the main 
picture formed by the general environment of 
the house and the encircling landscape. As 
regards the grounds — the “garden” in its 
wider sense — they will assuredly be most 
beautiful, interesting, and enjoyable when 
both native and foreign plants have been 
used in tasteful combination. But, if con- 
fined to one of these classes, it would be 
much worse to choose “plants not in our 
woods and fields and mostly from countries 
not our own,” than to choose our own. 
Using native plants alone, one would miss a 
thousand chances to secure a delightful va- 
riety. But using the others alone, there 
would be the certainty of an inharmonious 
whole — a garden filled with beautiful plants 
ti 
