EDITOR'S TAIJI.E. 



Notices of Books, pamp^Itts, itt. 



PjiArnoAi. Lanpscapk Gaki>knint,, with roforonce to llio Improvement of Rural RcFidcnccs, giving Hie general 

 I'rinolpK's of Iho Art, willi full Direelions for I'lanling Shade Trees, Shrubbery and Flowers, and Laying out 

 Orounds. By G. M. Kern. Cincinnati : Mooke, Wilstacii, Keys &, Co. 1655. 



Our first impression on opening this book, is that the pubHshers have done //(f/r part well 

 — so well, indeed, as to be quite equal to the best productions of our largest cities. Mr. 

 Kern did well to put his book in the hands of these gentlemen, and we trust they will have 

 a profitable sale, if for no other reason than that they have displayed such commendable 

 taste. The volume contains 328 pages — about as large as EllioVs Fruit Bool-, or 77ie Fruit 

 Garden — is illustrated with numerous well executed wood cuts, and dedicated to A. II. 

 EiixsT, Esq., a gentleman well known to horticultural readers, and who well desefves the 

 honor intended hira by Mr. Keru. 



The author is, judging from his book, a man of cultivated mind, and one who has had 

 considerable experience as a professional landscape gardener. We cannot give his work an 

 unqualified recommendation, but we can honestly say that gentlemen who are conducting 

 improvements on their own grounds, without having had experience, will find much in it 

 that will be of service to them. The practical part, especially, abounds with useful direc- 

 tions concerning the planting and arrangement of trees, making and keeping lawns, grading 

 and excavating, making roads and walks, lakes and ponds, rock work, &c. This the back- 

 bone of the work, and comprises about one hundred i)ages, or less than one-third of the 

 whole. 



"We will point out what appears to us a few defects which may hereafter be remedied. In 

 the first place, the introduction is quite too lengthy, and too prominent for a small practical 

 work like this. It occupies some thirty page,% instead of simply stating the objects and i)lan 

 of the book as briefly as possible. Then sixty-one pages are devoted to the vegetable gar- 

 den, which should not have been treated of at all, because "landscape gardening" is one 

 thing and "kitchen gardening" another. This is a very common and very grave error in 

 book-making now-a-days. A pocket volume must be an encyclopedia. All that the trea- 

 tise on landscape gardening has to do with the kitchen garden is to provide or point out 

 the most suitable place for it. But while these ninety-one pages are bestowed upon matters 

 that might and should have been omitted, we find no description of ornamental trees and 

 shrubs, such as all inexperienced planters are crying out for more than for aught else. Mr. 

 Kern gives some eighteen pages of bare names of trees and shrubs, good, bad, and indiflfer- 

 ent, without discrimination. Many of them are mere rubbish, which no man in his senses 

 would plant unless in an arboretum, where everything is welcome, while hundreds of the 

 finest things are not mentioned. This is a great error. The "limits" of the volume is no 

 excuse, for we have shown, or can show, that one hudred pages have been thrown away or 

 mis-appropriated. 



Nor is this all. "We find aftei" reading and examining the book attentively, that the divi- 

 sion into two parts — "Principlesof the Art," and "Practical Operations," — though neces- 

 sary and proper in a larger and more comprehensive volume, does not work -w ell in this. 

 It has led to an unnecessary division of the same subject in many instances, and to consid- 

 erable repetition of words as well as ideas. For instance, water, roads, and walks, rock 

 work, lawn, and all these matters, are treated of in the first part and again in the second ; 

 and we believe no man who will read the book will lay it down without wishing that all 

 the author's ideas on each of these subjects had been given in one place. We cannot see 



