SOME BOOKS FOR AN AMATEUR GARDENER'S LIBRARY. 413 



If only the garden I tend possessed a soil of greater depth than 

 two inches before it became coarse gravel, and a climate that was a 

 less successful imitation of that of the Sahara in summer and the 

 North Pole in early spring, I should long ago have been converted 

 from my botanical ways, and the collecting and keeping alive of as 

 man}/ plants as possible, to follow Miss Jekyll's methods. 



This paragraph on p. vi of the introduction makes my horticultural 

 conscience quite uneasy every time I read it. 



" I am strongly of opinion that the possession of a quantity of plants, 

 however good the plants may be themselves and however ample their 

 number, does not make a garden ; it only makes a collection. Having got 

 the plants, the great thing is to use them with careful selection and definite 

 intention. Merely having them planted unassorted in garden spaces, is 

 only like having a box of paints from the best colourman, or, to go one 

 step further, it is like having portions of those paints set out upon a palette. 

 This does not constitute a picture ; and it seems to me that the duty we 

 owe to our gardens and to our own bettering in our gardens is to use the 

 plants that they shall form beautiful pictures." 



The photographic illustrations and the planting plans in this 

 book are of the highest perfection and value. 



" Gardens for Small Country Houses," by Gertrude Jekyll and 

 Lawrence Weaver, is a wonderfully complete guide to the planning 

 of most kinds of gardens. The illustrations and plans make one long 

 to possess a small house in each of the southern counties of England, 

 that one might own a garden planned on the lines of each style de- 

 scribed in the book. Everything advised is so thoroughly good that 

 I fear most of the plans would entail a good deal of expense to carry 

 out. Let us hope a period of universal prosperity may soon follow 

 this troublous one, and every small house may possess a garden as 

 beautifully planned as those in this book. 



