PREFACE IX 



adoption; and, to obtain with these, good and last- 

 ing effects that will be the means of ever-increasing 

 enjoyment, yet will not entail the cares and 

 worries that inevitably accompany elaborateness 

 and display. 



In the course of time the furniture of our fore- 

 fathers went out of fashion and was superseded 

 by many different styles more or less fantastic, 

 and generally hideous, yet after a hundred years 

 or more we find the chairs of Chippendale and 

 the mirrors and tables of Hepplewhite just as 

 beautiful as on the day they were made, and 

 just as effective and dignified in a new house as 

 in an old one, because they had merit, because 

 brains and skill and time were given to their 

 making. 



So it is with the gardens, and with the shrubs 

 and trees; those that possessed merit once possess 

 it still, and those that were beautiful a hundred 

 years ago are just as beautiful to-day, in fact 

 more beautiful, because with the passing of Time 

 they have become enhaloed by sentiment and 

 tradition. 



" A thing of beauty is a joy forever; 

 Its loveliness increases, it will never 

 Pass into nothingness." 



New styles and new fashions in flowers have been 

 introduced and have had their day, yet the Roses 



