316 Literary Notices. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Landscape Gardening, or Parks and Pleasure Grounds, with 

 Practical Notes on Country Residences, Villas, Public Parks and 

 Gardens, by Charles H. Smith, Landscape Gardener, Garden 

 Architect, with Notes and Additions by Lewis F. Allen, author 

 of Rural Architecture, &c. New York : CM. Saxton & Co. 



The American edition of this \^ork, brought out under the sanc- 

 tion and with the critical notes of Mr. Allen, deserves more spe- 

 cial notice than it has hitherto received. The author is evidently 

 well qualified by study and practical experience to speak with 

 authoritj' on his chosen theme ; and bis American editor is well 

 known as a tried friend and "able advocate of horticultural im- 

 provement in this countiy. As might have been expected in an 

 English book of this kind, some parts of it are of little practical 

 use to American readers. In particular, the remarks upon the 

 hardy trees and shrubs suitable for parks and lawns must be 

 taken with considerable qualification. What is hardy and thrifty 

 in the mild winters and under the weeping skies of England, is 

 often not so here. Indeed, when j:he author pictures so familiarly 

 scenes of laurels, rhododendrons, hollies, deodars and yews, &c... 

 we sometimes feel a little discontented, because such scenes can 

 hardly be reproduced in the dry, variable and cold climate of our 

 Northern States. And here we must find a little fault with the 

 American editor, for not distinctly informing the general reader 

 which of these trees and plants are too tender for our latitude. 

 He might also, in the same connection, have given us a list of 

 trees of native origin which would answer as substitutes for 

 these fragile foreigners. There is, perliaps, no point on which un- 

 professional planters more need information at present than this, 

 viz., which of the newer trees and shrubs, foreign and native, are 

 hardy in this climate ; in what soils and aspects they thrive best ; 

 what is their general habit, size and value. We wish Mr. Allen 

 would give us such information in the next edition of this work. 



We wish, too, that he would be less general ; instead of giving 

 his " unqualified assent" so frequently, we wish he would qualify 



