u 
INTE OB U C TIO N. 
gardening, to illustrate their application to small grounds^ a7id to 
effect in mmiature^ and around ordinary homes^ some of their love- 
liest results. Some of the most prized pictures of great landscape 
painters are scenes that lie close to the eye ; which derive little of 
their beauty from breadth of view, or variety of objects ; and yet 
they may be marvels of lovely or picturesque beauty. The half- 
acre of a suburban cottage (if the house itself is what it should be) 
may be as perfect a work of art, and as well worth transferring to 
canvas as any part of the great Chatsworth of the Duke of 
Devonshire. 
Of the millions of America’s busy men and women, a large 
proportion desire around their homes the greatest amount of beauty 
which their means will enable them to maintain j and the minimum 
of expense and care that will secure it. It is for these that 
this work has been prepared. It is not designed for the very 
wealthy, nor for the poor, but principally for that great class of 
towns-people whose daily business away from their homes is a 
necessity, and who appreciate more than the very rich, or the 
poor, all the heart’s cheer, the refined pleasures, and the beauty 
that should attach to a suburban home. 
In planning home-grounds, a familiarity with the materials from 
which the planter must choose is requisite to success in producing 
a desired effect. This work, therefore, embraces descriptions and 
many illustrations of trees and shrubs \ and is intended to be full 
in those matters which are of most interest to unscientific lovers of 
nature and rural art, in their efforts to create home beauty ; — such 
as the expression of trees and shrubs, as produced by their sizes, 
forms, colors, leaves, flowers, and general structure, quite inde- 
pendent of their characteristics as noted by the botanist. The 
botanical information incidentally conveyed in the names and 
descriptions of trees, shrubs, and flowers, has been drawn, it is 
hoped, from the best authorities \ but, for any errors that may be 
found in them, the author asks the kind indulgence of the more 
scientific reader. 
