40 
House & Garden 
If you are going to have a water feature, let water be its dominant note and do not overcrowd the planting. Here, on the 
estate of George P. Mellick, Esq., at Plainfield, N. J., this principle has been rigidly adhered to, and the result is a pool 
which serves admirably as a mirror for its surroundings, a place of changing lights and colors which never loses its appeal. 
C. W. Maredydd Harrison, landscape architect 
AS to the WATER FEATURE for YOUR GARDEN 
Some General Principles to Follow, Whether the Effect Desired Be Formal or Naturalistic — Pools , 
Fountains and Other Suggestions for Various Situations 
W HY is it that people linger on a bridge? 
Is it to fish? To chat with passersby? 
Because they are weary from the road which 
led them there? 
Yes—and no. Such reasons can often be 
assigned, surely, but none of them is the great 
underlying one which fits every case. Watch 
anyone who has paused on a bridge, and in a 
little while you will see that it is the water 
rippling below, or lying still and black in the 
shadow of the overhanging trees, which is the 
real attraction. Analyze your own feelings 
as you, too, lean against the rail, and you will 
see that I am right. 
For water in its proper sphere is a place of 
reflections, mental as well as physical. It sets 
the surroundings in proper scale, grading each 
element according to its importance, and by 
contrast bringing order out of confusion. In 
itself it attracts by reason of its motion, its 
ROBERT S. LEMMON 
power of imaging the summer clouds and the 
red flaming cardinal flower on the bank, its 
aquatic life which is so different from any 
other on earth. That these attributes are pos¬ 
sessed by the water feature in the garden as 
well as by the same medium in its natural 
setting is a cardinal principle well known to 
landscape architects and appreciated by thou¬ 
sands of garden owners who perhaps never 
took the trouble to analyze it. 
Two Classes of Water Gardens 
Here in America we have two general classes 
of garden water features: the formal and the 
informal. Which of these is best suited to any 
particular situation depends upon such things 
as the type of the surrounding plantings, the 
effect desired, and very largely upon the con¬ 
tour of the ground and the presence or absence 
of a natural source of water. 
If the garden or lawn is formal in its ar¬ 
rangement, it naturally follows that the water 
feature also should be formal. This means, in 
a few T words, that it must be regular in outline 
—geometrically so, in many cases—and carry¬ 
ing a certain suggestion of artificiality. In 
actual form it may consist of a round, square 
or rectangular pool, with or without a central 
fountain effect; a wall fountain and basin; 
or merely a bird bath on a stone pedestal as 
the pivotal feature of a small garden. 
There are degrees of formality, of course. 
In what might be called an architectural gar¬ 
den, where the color effects of the planting are. 
entirely subservient to the severe lines of path¬ 
ways, benches and closely clipped edgings, the 
water feature without any growth of aquatic 
plants is usually the most effective. In this 
case the water serves merely as a mirror, a 
place of changing lights and colors, a steel en-- 
