The picturesque controversies of the late eighteenth century arose as landscape connoisseurs and designers made claims for differing boundaries for the picturesque. Comparisons between current popular usage of this term and previous meaning begin to suggest the devolution of the term from a category rich in tactile, temporal and emotive association to, by to the twentieth century, one solely concerned with the visual. In addition to theories the bridge between empirical and general principle, there are treatises that bridge the particulars of certain designer's oeuvre (whether written or built) and design practice by others-often in a different country or region. J.C. Loudon's suburban Garden (1838), A.J. Downing's treatises on the theory and practice of landscape architecture as adapted to North America (1841and 1865),and H. W. S. Cleveland's landscape architectural as applied to the Wants of the West (1873) are examples of treatises that bridge the gap between the exemplary built landscape of Britain and the ''wants'' of America cities. The bridging describes familiar categories as beautiful, picturesque, or sublime, but emphasizes convenience, fitness, and expression, thus opening up the older categories to invention and interpretation based on the circumstances of the young democracy.