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THE MEANING OF THE GARDEN 



"A THOUGHTFUL man," says Canon EUacombe, "can read 

 his own thoughts into almost anything, and perhaps into flowers 

 more than anything else, if he is a lover of flowers." Tennyson 

 in the Day Dream says this may happen to any man : — • 



But any man that walks the mead, 



In bud, or blade, or bloom may find. 

 According as his humors lead, 



A meaning suited to his mind. 



The phrase, "The Meaning of the Garden," turns the mind at 

 once in several directions. The garden reacts in many different 

 ways upon the individual. We will pass by the soimd, beneficent 

 qualities Induced by the practice of this occupation and art — 

 qualities such as industry, order, generosity, to name the first 

 that occur — • and consider it rather in relation to other arts, 

 as well as in its connection with letters and with life. 



One of the first meanings of the garden, to those who study it 

 intelligently, is — ^ books. What is a good garden book? Has 

 this question been put before? If not, it is high time for it now, 

 when hardly a season passes without the issue from American 

 presses of a half dozen books on gardening. Not that I am capa- 

 ble of an answer to this question; but some consideration of it 

 will surely be useful, for I doubt if any one of us thinks critically 

 enough of the garden book in use, of those we may be reading. 

 This, however, is a matter of importance. Before the young 

 student of literature we set only the best books; before the child 

 of four to ten we endeavor, if we are discerning parents, to put 

 only books which may properly form his taste in language and 



