W. SATCHELL 6- CO., 19 TA VISTOCK STREET. 

 Crown 8vo. Price, paper cover, is. ; cloth, 2s. (Post free.) 



THE ART OF GARDENING: 



A PLEA FOR ENGLISH GARDENS OF THE FUTURE, WITH 

 PRACTICAL HINTS FOR PLANTING THEM. 



BY MRS. J. FRANCIS FOSTER. 



PRESS NOTICES. 



" In this pleasant and original little book the authoress not only enters a 

 vigorous protest against the bedding-out system and the so-called ' natural * 

 style of gardening, but gives very good practical advice for gardens of a 

 different sort." Gardener's Chronicle. 



"This little book proceeds from a true lover of flowers, and will be 

 welcome to all who take an interest in their care and culture." Civilian. 

 " A pleasant and unpretending little volume." Saturday Review. 

 "The charm consists in its author's evident love of her subject. Like 

 a true lover, she has gone far and wide in her search for old plants and old 

 plant lore. We agree with Mrs. Foster that the most perfect herbaceous 

 border is one that has an old wall behind it. Blue larkspurs and white 

 lilies, roses, phloxes, and evening primroses never look so well as when 

 they are seen against a. background of wall, mellowed with age and clothed 

 with its beautilul garment of wall-growing seedlings. . . . Mrs. Foster's 

 book, too, is most useful in its lists of flowers that bloomed in the days of 

 Chaucer and Shakespeare. She also devotes one chapter entirely to 

 quotations from old poets on gardens, and all the delights that spring from 

 them. If it helps her readers to know for themselves those authors, who 

 found among the flowers of the garden apt similes of all that is truest in 

 human nature, she will have added a very substantial addition to the 

 pleasure already enjoyed by those who love gardens, but yet are unfamiliar 

 with the pages of the poets who knew well how to speak their praises. " 

 Spectator. 



" A pleasant book. " Athenaum. 



" A chai-ming little tractate. . . . a collection of pleasant thoughts and 

 poetical fancies, not incapable, however, of very practical realisation, about 

 gardens and flowers, and the enjoyment that may be extracted from them. 

 Mrs. Foster speaks lovingly of the old-fashioned gardens, and the old hardy 

 flowers, ever changing with the season and ever presenting some new charm, 

 from the first snowdrop peering slyly out of the snow, herald and harbinger 

 of spring, to the last blossoms of the hardy pompones and chrysanthemums, 

 lingering in the rectory garden as if striving to endure till they could lend 

 their aid to the Christmas decorations of the village church. . . . Mrs. 

 Foster devotes one very pleasant chapter to the old herbalists. . . . It is 

 impossible to leave Mrs. Foster's little book without noting her earnest 

 pleading for that purest pleasure of a garden which arises from the capacity 

 for bringing sweet and innocent delights into lives that sadly want some 

 brightness and sweetness brought into them from without." Guardian. 



