PREFACE. 



jOME of the matters treated of in this book have lately 

 been the subjects of much discussion in the Times as well 



* as in all the horticultural papers ; and to give the public a 

 fuller idea of them than could be gleaned from any or all of the 

 journals in which they were described or discussed, is my excuse for 

 writing a work which is so exceptional in its nature. I went 

 to France in January, 1867, with a view to study the horticulture 

 of the country so far as possible, while continuing my connexion 

 with the horticultural press ; and in the course of the season I noticed 

 in the Times, the Field, and the Gardener s Chronicle such of the 

 features of French gardening as seemed to me worthy of adoption 

 in this country. In the correspondence which resulted from this, 

 each journal discussed a single phase of the subject or approached it 

 from its own point of view; and the want of illustrations pre- 

 vented me from explaining in the most effective way several real 

 improvements in our gardens ; thus it was difficult for the public 

 to get more than a vague notion of some of the matters of greatest 

 interest in French gardening. After the close of the discussion 

 in the horticultural journals, it occurred to me that a book, with 

 illustrations, wovdd put the more important points in a clearer light j 

 and the result is the publication of the present volume. The work 



