xxii 



INTRODUCTION. 



they are placed insure by rotting a perpetual^ if trifling, 

 expense. These proved that any kind of tree may be 

 placed in the streets of London as safely as in any other 

 city ; but they also showed the very short-sighted, dis- 

 heartening nature of the whole scheme of our public gar- 

 dening. Not one single thing could these costly green 

 toys do for our streets or open spaces that could not be 

 effected infinitely better by hardy trees, requiring no atten- 

 tion after planting; and when one thinks of the vast areas 

 of this world of London, that are almost impenetrable, mise- 

 rable is the only term that can be applied to such remedies 

 as this ! It is simply doctoring a wart while a horrid 

 abscess is sapping away the life of the patient. And ascend- 

 ing from contemptible things of this tree-in-tub sort, the 

 same reasoning holds good with mnch of our higher public 

 gardening. 



Who would not forego the trifling gratification of seeing 

 large portions of our parks so elaborately decorated as to 

 require almost as much attention as a drawing-room, if 

 the small sacrifice were accompanied by the knowledge 

 that tenfold greater good was being carried out where the 

 want of it was the blackest spot on our social condition ? 

 Are not the materials of nature in our own latitudes 

 good enough for us ? See what is done by a few materials 

 in her own gardens ; reflect what privileges we have in 

 being able to cull her varied riches from the plains and 

 mountains all over the temperate and cold and alpine 

 regions of both hemispheres ; and then consider whether 

 it is wise to spend the public money for glass-houses and the 

 annual propagation and preservation of multitudes of costly 

 exotics. A better and a nobler system than that which is 

 at present the rule in our parks I have endeavoured to point 

 out at pages 22 to 29. 



The purposes to which the greater portion of our future 

 expenditure in city gardenii\g ought chiefly to be devoted are 

 the making of wide tree-bordered roads and small simple 

 squares, open to the public at all reasonable hours. The 

 squares should not be embellished in a costly way ; but if 

 the persons to whose care their design may be entrusted 



