Vlll 



PREFACE 



is the citation of current American periodicals, which may look 

 to some like advertising. But Darwin cited the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, and the reader may rest assured that periodicals could 

 not live a day if they had to depend on recommendations made 

 in books. The object of these citations is to help students 

 men and women who can build better than I. At the end of 

 each chapter I have cited the best books on each special subject, 

 but with the exception of Downing's "Landscape Gardening," 

 Olmsted's' scattered writings, Charles Eliot, Bailey's "Cyclo- 

 pedia of American Horticulture," and Blanchan's "American 

 Flower Garden," we have few books that have contributed much 

 toward an American style of gardening. And the bulk of all 

 these is small compared with the bulk of the magazines which 

 give thousands of pictures of American effects. The great land- 

 scape gardeners of the future must, during their training days, 

 pore over the old files of Garden and Forest, Country Life in America, 

 The Garden Magazine, etc. 



The books that seem to be most popular in England are 

 arranged alphabetically. The books that will help Americans 

 most are those which are arranged logically, by natural subjects. 

 The alphabetical method is absolutely necessary in indexes, 

 but nowhere else. We shall not get along very fast or far if our 

 books all begin with Aaron's Beard, and Abele. The alpha- 

 betical method of compiling books is a sign of an old and finished 

 country. New countries need books that are brimming with 

 new ideas, for the ideas must first be invented, then fight, and 

 survive or perish according to the law of fitness. And if nine out 

 of ten new ideas fail, we should not worry about the nine, but be 

 thankful for the one new idea that succeeds. ^ 



I have been compelled to use the first personal pronoun 



