The Art of Gardening 
forms but uses colors, if at all, in conven- 
tional and subordinate ways ; but the land- 
scape-gardener depends upon color and form 
in equal measure, and can never dispense 
with the one or the other. Then again, he 
takes from Nature not only his models but 
his materials and methods. His colors are 
those of her own palette, his clays and mar- 
bles are her rocks and soils, and his techni- 
cal processes are the same that she employs. 
He does not show her possibilities of beau- 
ty as in a mirror of his own inventing. He 
helps her in her actual efforts to realize 
them — he works in and for and with her. 
This fact limits and hampers him in cer- 
tain ways ; but, under fortunate conditions, 
it allows him to achieve what no other artist 
can — perfection. “ The sculptor or the 
painter,’ ’ writes a recent critic, “observes 
defects in the single model ; he notices in 
many models scattered excellences. . . . 
To correct those defects, to re-unite those 
excellences, becomes his aim. He cannot 
rival Nature by producing anything exactly 
like her work, but he can create something 
which shall show what Nature strives after. 
9 
