PREFACE vii 



ful notes, kept for many years and constantly com- 

 pared with like notes in English journals. I wish 

 we might impress upon the American gardener (and 

 by gardener I mean of course the amateur) the fact 

 that the good English book carries as much value 

 for him as for the Englishman. It is easy to learn 

 the distinctions between English climate, English 

 soils and the soils and climate of this country; and 

 while good sense compels us to believe in the use of 

 those subjects known to be suited to our country, our 

 own estates or bits of ground, we must still look across 

 seas for most of our finer garden books, and in so 

 looking, we invariably find fresh and excellent ma- 

 terial for our beds and borders. 



Many imfamiliar names occur in the course of the 

 book. It chances that nineteen varieties of Dianthus 

 are brought into the dissertation on Pinks. I ven- 

 ture to think most of these unknown to the average 

 gardener, but why should he not add them to his 

 present knowledge of the genus.'' Bailey lists twenty- 

 six ! Nurserymen will respond to calls for these 

 things. Here is a little foot-hill of horticulture which 

 any one may climb if he will. Let us not level it by 

 means of notes, but rather urge the ambitious gar- 

 dener to ascend the slope and there achieve a view so 

 fair, so satisfying, that he will wonder that he thought 

 the climb a heavy or laborious thing. 



And how accustomed are we in America, those of 

 us who garden, to being written down to ! How sel- 

 dom in our young literature of gardening may we 



