Preface 



Mr. Olmsted's fellow-countrymen ought to 

 try to understand its aims and methods. 

 But they ought also to try to understand 

 them in the interests of self-protection; 

 for to-day the art of gardening is practised 

 much more often than any other, in ignorant, 

 impulsive ways, by people who never stop 

 to think that it is an art at all. 



M. G. Van Rensselaer. 



9 West Ninth Street, New York, 

 March, 1893. 



viii 



