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. 
Vlll 
