Preface 



The Garden, however small, is so delightful 

 an adjunct to the house, and gardening yields 

 so many pleasures to its votaries, that it is a 

 matter for regret that so few gardeners attempt 

 to give artistic shape to the plots which they 

 cultivate with such care, and not infrequently 

 with every success, so far as the flowers and 

 plants are concerned. 



Their gardens are too often left in the form 

 dictated by the speculative builder, when by 

 the exercise of some thought and by the in- 

 dustrious use of a pair of hands, their little 

 flower-lands might be made doubly beautiful 

 and interesting. 



This state of things doubtless results from 

 lack of knowledge how to set to work to im- 

 prove upon the builder's ideal. 



