GARDEN BOOKS 



has ever to my knowledge been given before by 

 man or woman. With her ingratiating pen, too, 

 she is so happy in creating pictures that the gar- 

 den-lover cannot choose but hear and, what is 

 more, follow in the lovely flowery path. Can 

 anything surpass the beauty of description of the 

 various gardens at Munstead Wood in the "Color 

 in the Flower Garden," or the charm of the pho- 

 tographic reproductions used to illustrate? Yet 

 there is something here better than beauty; there 

 is suggestion which amounts to inspiration Miss 

 Jekyll has the faculty of setting all sorts of plans 

 going in one's head as one reads what she writes; 

 and I will venture to say that most of her readers 

 in this country do not attempt to copy slavishly 

 her ideas but use them as points of departure 

 for their own plantings. Miss Jekyll has suc- 

 ceeded not only in so charmingly showing us what 

 she has planned and accomplished in her Surrey 

 garden, but in giving a great impulse toward the 

 finest art of gardening gardening as a fine art. 

 We hear it said: "Miss Jekyll's books are writ- 

 ten for England, and the English climate and con- 

 ditions." Yes; but here is Bailey to set one 

 straight culturally for one's own spot in America; 

 and it is truly surprising to notice the increasing 

 223 



