AMONG THE NEWER GARDEN BOOKS 



LUCY EMBURY HUBBELL 



|LL the romance of gardening, the long chronicle of trial 

 . and achievement is held between the two covers of that 

 very solid and illuminating recently published volume, 

 the "Catalogue of the Library of the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society," "believed to be the oldest, most complete, and 

 best organized strictly horticultural library in the world," con- 

 taining more than twenty thousand books and, incidentally, some 

 eleven thousand seed catalogues. Begun in 1829 and enriched 

 by the slow accumulations of nearly a century, the interest and 

 the significance of this great collection of garden literature can 

 scarcely be overestimated, recording, as it does, the thought and 

 effort of many men in many climes in this primal field of human 

 endeavor. A mere turning of the pages of this book (a prac- 

 tical bibliography of gardening now available to the public at 

 a cost of ten dollars) , reveals a fascinating diversity and scope — a 

 diversity and scope echoed in lesser degree in the half-score or so 

 books, newly published, which have recently reached our desk. 



OF THESE let us start with Richardson Wright's "Truly 

 Rural" (Houghton Mifflin Co.) — a perfect cocktail among 

 garden writings with a delicious extra-special flavor quite its own. 

 The reader, whether gardener or just mere man, closes its gay 

 green covers with an appreciative snap — never a dull moment, 

 many a mirthful one, and some that leave him a purged and bet- 

 ter being. In characteristically modern fashion, seriousness is 

 overlaid with a light veneer of flippancy, redeemed on this oc- 

 casion from any suggestion of cheapness by the nimble wit of 

 the author who leads us from laughter to soberness with mas- 

 terly skill and leaves us — after too short entertainment — in 

 stimulated mood. Nor is Mr. Wright merely a magician of 

 words — he knows his plants — is he not specializing in Columbines, 

 and has he not visited Georges Truffaut ! 



By way of appetizer comes Katherine Morse's first bound 

 group of poems linked under the title, "A Gate of Cedar" 

 (The Macmillan Co.), a happily chosen title to lure the lover of 

 outdoors who finds gratification in the light lyricism of "In 

 the Orchard," " Birds," "Colors," and the "Maple Tree." 



MORE solid nourishment is to be had in the recent edition 

 of "The Trees of North America" (Houghton Mifflin Co.) 

 revised with the punctilious exactitude that characterizes all 

 of Prof. Sargent's work. Since its original appearance in 1905, 

 much additional information has become available, research 

 has gone on apace in the South and Southeast, and the Cra- 

 taegus family in particular has been the subject of considerable 

 study, with the result that eighty-nine species (besides many 

 recently distinguished varieties) have been definitely added to 

 the list of trees, making a total of seven hundred and seventeen. 

 The nomenclature conforms to the standards determined upon 

 by the International Congress of Botanists (Vienna 1905, Brus- 

 sels 1910). The manual has in other ways been so thoroughly 

 gone over and brought up to date as to constitute practically a 

 new volume which represents the fruit of the author's forty-four 

 years' continuous study of trees. It is a constructive contri- 

 bution, undisputedly holding first rank in its field. 



FOR mature students there is meat aplenty in Frank A. 

 Waugh's "Textbook of Landscape Gardening" (John Wiley 

 & Sons, Inc.), and for youngsters in A. B. Stout's "Gardening, 

 An Elementary School Text Treating of the Science and Art of 

 Vegetable Growing" (World Book Co.), the salient significance 

 of both lying, it seems to me, in what gardening (using the word 

 in its full sense) as a conscious, organized force is beginning to 



mean in our national life. To learn that in 1919 two million 

 and a half children were actually and actively engaged in learn- 

 ing to plant and till the earth, that even in congested New York 

 space was found (191 7) for eighty thousand little gardens, that 

 the state of New Hampshire has made the teaching of gardening 

 part of the elementary work of all her schools — such facts as 

 these are slowly laying an inconspicuous but none the less 

 sound substratum upon which to build a more fruitful national 

 life. Though Dr. Stout's textbook was prepared to meet the 

 special needs of these juvenile citizens-to-be, it furnishes suc- 

 cinct and safe guidance also for the grown-up who has just 

 become aware of his garden and its potentialities. 



Despite the fact that we might question some of his gen- 

 eralities, Prof. Waugh's latest book on landscape gardening, 

 "designed especially for the use of non-professional students" 

 impresses us not only as a very serviceable working manual 

 upon which to base group study but as a broadly educational 

 conception of the subject. Without in the least minimizing 

 the importance of the personal garden, the far-reaching civic 

 aspect and obligation is brought forcefully to the fore — a 

 timely reversal of emphasis unless swiftly spreading towns and 

 cities are to be left to utter barrenness. Wisely, too, the student 

 is led to serious contemplation of our native landscape for basic 

 lessons in his art, and Prof. Waugh strikes truth when he says 

 that "that native landscape not only forms the foundation of 

 landscape gardening but also supplies a reservoir of beauty upon 

 which the human race has drawn from the beginning of time and 

 which is now of the utmost importance to our national culture." 



HEARTY greeting must be accorded Julia Lester Dillon's 

 "The Blossom Circle of the Years in Southern Gardens" 

 (De La Mare Co.), a sturdy little pioneer in the scant family of 

 garden books for the South. Not only will it prove a boon to the 

 individual gardener now struggling somewhat blindly with the 

 heretofore almost uncharted conditions of growth below the 

 Mason and Dixon Line, but as a harbinger of the reviving in- 

 terest in gardening throughout the "new South" it carries 

 gratification to gardeners everywhere. It is not so much a 

 matter of how or what to plant as when — this is the crucial dif- 

 ference upon which gardening success in the South hinges. 

 Out of an extended and intelligently recorded personal ex- 

 perience Mrs. Dillon offers help to her fellows; and, remembering 

 the parched and spindling lawns of central Georgia, we feel 

 moved to give her a special vote of thanks for Chapter XIX 

 with its practical suggestion on "The Making and Care of 

 Southern Lawns." 



TWO volumes have recently been added to the Scribner 

 "Home Garden" series which, despite their pleasant exte- 

 rior, we regret as not being generally applicable to conditions in 

 this country. " Bulb Gardening "and "Rose Gardening" both by 

 Mary Hampden, with creditable color plates by Maud A. West, 

 are written from the viewpoint of the Britisher who gardens under 

 dissimilar and perhaps more propitious climatic limitations. 

 Though the reader comes upon some treasure among the care- 

 fully arranged lists, he feels nevertheless that Miss Hampden is 

 an interesting personage of the past rather than a constructive 

 prophet of the future. 



THE ORCHARD1ST will find a genial ally in Benjamin 

 Wallace Douglass whose latest book on "Fruit-Growing" 

 (Bobbs-Merrill Co.) has all the earmarks of authority and is a 

 companionable sort of volume as well. 



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