Art Out-of-Doors 
his place ; all his careful energy ; all his 
wide botanical knowledge and practical ac- 
quaintance with the needs of trees and 
shrubs and grass and flowers, would not 
have helped him to his beautiful results had 
he not had the vision of an artist. 
This means that he had seen Nature with a 
particularly keen eye, had studied her details 
and effects with unwonted enthusiasm as 
well as knowledge, had loved best her most 
beautiful products, and had discovered, 
therefore, that the noblest of all beauties is 
organized beauty — beauty of general effect. 
Acting on this feeling, patiently and cau- 
tiously, yet boldly too, he has made of his 
domain a series of luxuriant pictures more 
perfect than any which Nature herself could 
paint. For, as I have said, no natural scene 
can fittingly surround the home of highly 
civilized people ; and, moreover, every nat- 
ural scene is marked by certain accidental 
blemishes— by signs of death and decay at 
the very least — which detract from the pur- 
ity, if not from the impressiveness, of its 
charm. Here, on the contrary, human 
comfort and convenience have been fully 
