PRIVATE GARDENS 355 



the midst of a great city" than when the Duke of 

 Buckingham described the same spot nearly 200 years 

 ago. 



The Buckingham Palace Gardens show how much 

 judicious planting can do, and how much is lost in 

 many of the parks as well as gardens by not suffici- 

 ently considering the decorative value of plants. The 

 old landscape gardeners, in their desire to copy nature 

 and depart from all formality, forgot the horticultural 

 part of their work in their plans for the creation of 

 landscapes. They had not studied the effects "which 

 skilful planting will produce, and ignored flowers as a 

 factor in their scenery. They had not got the wealth 

 of genera which the twentieth century possesses, and of 

 which, in many instances, full use is made. But in a 

 review of London Parks and Gardens, it is impossible 

 not to notice effects missed as well as success achieved. 

 The immense advance gardening has made of late years, 

 and the knowledge and wide range of plants, makes it 

 easier to garden now than ever before. The enormous 

 number of trees and flowers now in cultivation leaves a 

 good choice to select from, even among those suitable 

 for the fog-begrimed gardens of London. The carpets 

 of spring flowering bulbs, the masses of brilliant rhodo- 

 dendrons, the groups of choice blossoming trees, which 

 so greatly beautify many of the parks and gardens, are 

 all the result of modern developments. Experience, too, 

 has pointed out the mistakes in landscape gardening, 

 which is for the most part the style followed in London, 

 and it should be easy to avoid the errors of earlier 

 generations. In formal designing, also, the recent in- 

 troductions and modern taste in flowers should have a 

 marked influence. In all the parks and gardens, public 



