This paper is to define what characteristics of modern landscape architecture are in terms of garden design. It is important to understand the characteristics of modern landscape architecture, not only for practical design works but also for design ideology. The characteristics were investigated by anlayzing several crucial drawings of modern landscape architects from the later ninteenth century to the early twentieth century. It is found that modern landscape architecture had been evolved after Neo-classicism in its design language, use of materials and principles. And modern landscape architecture was formulating its own design language not only by borrowing the language from other design fields, such as modern architecture but also by making own vocabulary itself the characteristics of modern landscape architecture were defined as collapse of genre, organic structure, pictorial composition, change of living thing, including those of modern architecture. Modern landscape architects drew their humanistic image on "the garden palette" which pursued artistic sense of creation.