THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



gardening, and no more makes him an ama- 

 teur in the art than spelling words of one letter 

 makes him a poet. One may raise or love 

 flowers for a lifetime, yet never in any art sense 

 become a gardener. 



In front of the main building of a public in- 

 stitution which we must presently mention again 

 there is a sloping strip of sward a hundred feet 

 long and some fifteen wide. A florist of fully half 

 a century's experience one day halted beside it 

 and exclaimed to the present writer, "Only say 

 the word, and I'll set out the 'ole len'th o' that 

 strip in foliage-plants a-spellin' o' the name: 

 'People's Hinstitute!'" Yet that gentle en- 

 thusiast advertised himself as a landscape- 

 gardener and got clients. For who was there to 

 tell them or him that he was not one ? 



Not only must we confess that youth does not 

 spontaneously garden, but that our whole Amer- 

 ican civilization is still so lingeringly in its non- 

 gardening youth that only now and then, here 

 and there, does it realize that a florist, whether 

 professional or amateur, or even a nurseryman, 

 is not necessarily a constructive gardener, or 



110 



