INTRODUCTION 



\yl rHEN the trees are leafless, and growing 

 things are sleeping in that state which 

 seems like death, then memory brings to mind 

 the beauty of the summer and a longing for 

 its joys. May not this be a reason to browse 

 in the library and hunt for garden lore ? Take 

 down Bacon's Essays and read his quaint des- 

 cription of how a garden should be made. 

 The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is full of the 

 joy and beauty of life in a garden, and his 

 commentator, Richard Le Gallienne, has 

 much to say of gardens. Among the old 

 English writers, Edmund Spenser, Joseph 

 Addison, John Milton, William Wordsworth, 

 John Ruskin and many others love to dis- 

 course on the life in gardens and the profits 

 to be gained thereby. 



Nor are we without writers of our own. 

 Alice Morse Earle, with her charming book 



