EDITOR'S NOTE 



The Scottish gardener is well known to be pre-emi- 

 nent in all things relating to the art of " floristry " 

 and horticulture. This valuable and practical little 

 treatise, The Scots Gardner, by John Reid, was 

 published at Edinburgh in 1683. In his book he sets 

 forth in the plainest and homeliest way his idea 

 as to what a model house should be, and how the 

 garden, both profitable and pleasant, should be 

 arranged. Explicit in every detail, and exact in 

 each matter of procedure, John Reid takes those 

 whom he would instruct step by step from the 

 initial moment of planning a new house to the 

 formation of the garden, and still further on to 

 the matured pleasance. 



I give on the opposite page a facsimile of the 

 title-page of the book as originally issued. 



In the second edition of the volume published in 

 1756, and edited by "an eminent hand," we are 

 told that our author was gardener to Sir George 

 Mackenzie of Rosehaugh. The gardens of this 

 mansion, situated at Avoch, Ross-shire, were at 

 this latter date noted for their beauty. We are 

 informed in the pages of a contemporary topo- 

 graphical dictionary of Scotland that " Rosehaugh 



