14 INTROD V CTION. 



gardening, to illustrate their application to small grounds, and to 

 effect in miniature, and around ordinary homes, some of their love- 

 liest results. Some of the most prized pictures of great landscape 

 painters are scenes that lie close to the eye ; which derive little of 

 their beauty from breadth of view, or variety of objects ; and yet 

 they may be marvels of lovely or picturesque beauty. The half- 

 acre of a suburban cottage (if the house itself is what it should be) 

 may be as perfect a work of art, and as well worth transferring to 

 canvas as any part of the great Chatsworth of the Duke of 

 Devonshire. 



Of the millions _ of America's busy men and women, a large 

 proportion desire around their homes the greatest amount of beauty 

 which their means will enable them to maintain ; and the minimum 

 of expense and care that will secure it. It is for these that 

 this work has been prepared. It is not designed for the very 

 wealthy, nor for the poor,' but principally for that great class of 

 towns-people whose daily business away from their homes is a 

 necessity, and who appreciate more than the very rich, or the 

 poor, all the heart's cheer, the refined pleasures, and the beauty 

 that should attach to a suburban home. 



In planning home-grounds, a familiarity with the materials from 

 which- the planter must choose is requisite to success in producing 

 a desired effect. This work, therefore, embraces descriptions and 

 'many illustrations of trees and shrubs ; and is intended to be full 

 in those matters which are of most interest to unscientific lovers of 

 nature and rural art, in their efforts to create home beauty ; — such 

 as the expression of trees and shrubs, as produced by their sizes, 

 forms, colors, leaves, flowers, and general structure, quite inde- 

 pendent of their characteristics as noted by the botanist. The 

 botanical information incidentally conveyed in the names and 

 descriptions of trees, shrubs, and flowers, has been drawn, it is 

 hoped, from the best authorities ; but, for any errors that may be 

 found in them, the author asks the kind indulgence of the more 

 scientific reader. 



