Gloucester County Democrat., 1905-02-23

LANDSCAPE GARDENING.
The Natural and the Formal styles
The Lawn "A Beautiful Picture.

The Lawn Beautiful Picture.
AS Mrs Schuyler Van Rensselaer, iii
one OF her books so pertinently re-
marks. two trees and six shrubs, d
scrap OF lawn and Il dozen flower
plants may form either beautiful
little picture or huddled disarray OF
form and color The people should
have ideals in landscape gardening as
well as IN painting. architecture and
music They should be familiar with
the different styles and be able to dis
tinguish between the artistic and the
glaringly bad forms. In manufactur-
ing districts YOU often see blocks of
houses, sometimes of v@y good de-
sign, with the most barren surround
ings. The deadly monotony could be
broken by the concerted action of the
neighborhood. producing a unity in
variety The people must be led to see
the possibilities of such work before
their interest and cooperation can be
secured. \ leading hand must assist
them In the suburbs Of cities there
grounds with every natural advantage.
where there has been 10 attempt at
landscape gardening, not even the two
trees and six shrubs
The two great styles are the natural
or English style and the architectural
or Italian style They are entirely un-
like and could lot be used together
without the greatest discord The di-
yergence is proportional to the perfec-
ton of the types The natural method
or English style is most generally used
in America and England and the one
though the Italian style is rapidly gain
ing in favor and in some situations is
the only appropriate one.
The charm of the natural style is Sc
cured by open lawns. curved lines.
grouped trees. massed shrubbery and
union Of building with grounds. The
naturalness is lost by straight line
artificial constructions, white surfaces
and badly mutilated plants.
The striking characteristics of the
architectural style are the harmony of
arrangement between the building and
the surrounding landscape, including
the gardens. terraces and groves, the
architect Of the house being the archi-
tect Of The garden The unity in the
architectural style is gained by proper
geometrical lines. closely shaven lawns,
trees Ia rows. clipped trees and shrubs,
architectural and statuesque features,
sharp color contrasts or monotones.
terraces fountains, flowers in beds or
pots.
The formal style of landscape archi-
lecture OF the Italian renaissance was
the natural outgrowth of the archi-
lecture and art Of the period, and the
gardens of italy have ever since served
as models
The landscape artist has a wealth of
material on which 10 drawth the natural
contour Of the surface, the erect droop-
ing spreading or massive trees; great
variety Of trees, shrubs and Towering
plants. the marvellous color effects in
ioAasts lbe NlNeFSe texture Ol Tue lO-
iage Of trees, shrubs and herbs; the
change tn color from the gray greens
of the early spring, deep greens of the
summer oriental splendors of the fall;
the subtle c0ioring Of the twigs in win
ter, the grouping of the objects in the
distance. middle and foreground: the
ever changing atmospheric conditions
and cloud effects. the Bit of sea or lake
the gentle but diversified sky line
Louisa X Miller Dayton. o.