X INTRODUCTION 



show by plan £ind picture, what I have tried to do, 

 and to point out where I have succeeded and where 

 I have failed. 



I must ask my kind readers not to take it amiss if 

 I mention here that I cannot undertake to show it 

 them on the spot. I am a sohtary worker ; I am 

 growing old and tired, and suffer from very bad and 

 painful sight. My garden is my workshop, my private 

 study and place of rest. For the sake of health and 

 reeisonable enjoyment of life it is necessary to keep it 

 quite private, and to refuse the many appUcations of 

 those who offer it visits. My oldest friends can now 

 only be admitted. So I ask my readers to spare me 

 the painful task of writing long letters of excuse and 

 explanation ; a task that has come upon me almost 

 daily of late years in the summer months, that has 

 sorely tried my weak and painful eyes, and has added 

 much to the difficulty of getting through an already 

 over-large correspondence. 



