Book Reviews 
The Small Place. Putnam's, West Forty-Fifth Street, N. Y. 
ElSA K.EHMANN 
This work of Miss Kehmann's, published in 1918, has, let 
us hope, had a wide distribution. It is valuable from many 
standpoints. Its plan is that of presenting fifteen problems in 
landscape architecture "to show in a simple and popular manner 
the fundamentals that underlie the planning and planting of 
the small place." Free use of plans and photographs and a 
particularly clear explanatory text make these gardens and 
their tree and shrub plantings all but visible in reality to any- 
one with one spark of imagination. And where is the use of 
anyone who has no imagination indulging in any form of plan- 
ning, planting, or reading on these things? 
If one were to speak of individual examples of work in this 
book or to mention two or three which seem to be of outstand- 
ing interest, one would take Problem XI, by Miss Marian 
Coffin, a garden in Flushing, Long Island, "A Study in Flower 
Color." where the surprise of seeing what can be done on a 
property 300 x 150 feet is only equalled by the pleasure in the 
description of the multitude of fine flowers and good flower- 
effects thereon. Or Mr. Shurtleff's "Colonial Forecourt and 
Garden of a Farmhouse at Shrewsbury, Massachusetts," (the 
garden 34 x 38 feet only) where delightful pictures have 
resulted from highly intelligent and sensitive planning. In 
the illustration opposite page 42, "The Garden," which recalls 
a little those lovely small gardens that Wallace of Colchester, 
England used to set up for the Chelsea Shows in London before 
the war, the example of quiet beauty is delightful. Whether 
the rounding wooden arch of the gateway in the wall is not a 
trifle out of harmony with tbe roof of the Engli\^h hooded seat 
at right angles to it, is a question ; but the tv>'o smaller 
photographs of the same features, separate from each other, 
one wishes might be repeated in many gardens. 
"In a small garden," says Miss Rehmann, "the design Mans 
approval through sheer simplicity." This good sentence is 
the keynote of the book ; and while some of the pictures and 
designs cannot have from this pen at least the admiration called 
out by those described, it is to be hoped that "The Small 
Place" will find its way into every Club library of the 
Garden Ciiini op Amti^iitca and that many individuals 
will procure it for the fine suggestion in its excellent text and 
clear and interesting illustrations. 
Louisa Y. King 
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