viii PREFACE 



gather the grateful inference of a little practical knowl- 

 edge on our part and a bit of taste to boot ! We need 

 books to lift us, not to continually presuppose our 

 ignorance. We need books to stimulate our search 

 for garden learning, to send us hunting meanings of 

 names new to us. America is passing from her gar- 

 dening infancy to her gardening youth. This youth, 

 filled with the romance and beauty of the newly dis- 

 covered art, is ready for the best in garden writing. 

 Wherefore a book like this is thrice welcome. Its 

 writer has that wide outlook upon the subject denied 

 to all but few. The book has a virility seldom en- 

 countered in writings of this character. It shows a 

 large practical and personal acquaintance with plants, 

 and an equally wide knowledge of the principles of 

 fine gardening. Joined to these qualities a love of 

 beauty shines through every page, a charming humour 

 will out upon occasion, and an entirely delightful 

 English style enwraps the whole. American gar- 

 dening cannot but be richer, finer, for every reader 

 of this book. "It is" exclaims a correspondent lately, 

 "the Englishman at his highest and best. Hear these 

 words: 'But a single flowering shrub rightly placed 

 in front of a dark barrier of greenery has your eye 

 to itself and satisfies it, like an altar piece in a quiet 

 church.' Can we forget a sentence like that? I have 

 seldom read a book with an intenser pleasure." 



The chapters of this book appeared in the form of 

 letters to the Times (London) . The subjects seem to 

 have been taken at random, for in three instances 



