PREFACE. 



through my head like lightning. And now we went to 

 work. In eight days this pamphlet of mine was writ- 

 ten, which I called " The Public School Garden ; " for 

 at that time I did not dare to express aloud that I was 

 thinking of gardens for all kinds of schools. In eight 

 days, Herr Machanek had also three plans ready, one 

 for Redweis, and two ideal ones for villages, and also 

 for small cities. 



The pamphlet made a kind of epoch in Austria. 

 People were charmed with the text, and transported 

 with the colored pictures which, at the expense of Herr 

 Machanek, brought out so beautifully, clearly and loving- 

 ly, the idea of the school garden suited to time and 

 place. The public reproached both gardeners for having 

 dared to surround nurseries and beds for field produce 

 with neat borders, /'. e., with curved lines ! As to the 

 rest, they were pleased that the plans, putting to shame 

 the time-honored stiff symmetry of straight lines, and 

 avoiding the taste of modern gardening, had an easy 

 grace and an agreeable harmony. Thus the little pam- 

 phlet, plainly the birth of a moment, awakened in geo- 

 metrical progression the interest of the public for the 

 founding of school gardens. 



Tolerably useful school gardens there certainly were 

 here and there in Germany as well as in Austria, before 

 the appearance of the first edition of this pamphlet ; but 

 they found no imitators, so that they brought no results 

 except to the person of the teacher. No wonder that 

 many of them soon relapsed into a wilderness and at- 

 tracted no attention ! 



But whence this sad experience ? On the one side 

 it may be explained by the indifference of the general 

 public, and the apparent want of means for a proper lay- 



