PRIVATE GARDENS 
355 
the midst of a great city” than when the Duke of 
Buckingham described the same spot nearly 200 years 
ago. 
The Buckingham Palace Gardens show how much 
judicious planting can do, and how much is lost in 
many of the parks as well as gardens by not suffici¬ 
ently considering the decorative value of plants. The 
old landscape gardeners, in their desire to copy nature 
and depart from all formality, forgot the horticultural 
part of their work in their plans for the creation of 
landscapes. They had not studied the effects which 
skilful planting will produce, and ignored flowers as a 
factor in their scenery. They had not got the wealth 
of genera which the twentieth century possesses, and of 
which, in many instances, full use is made. But in a 
review of London Parks and Gardens, it is impossible 
not to notice effects missed as well as success achieved. 
The immense advance gardening has made of late years, 
and the knowledge and wide range of plants, makes it 
easier to garden now than ever before. The enormous 
number of trees and flowers now in cultivation leaves a 
good choice to select from, even among those suitable 
for the fog-begrimed gardens of London. The carpets 
of spring flowering bulbs, the masses of brilliant rhodo¬ 
dendrons, the groups of choice blossoming trees, which 
so greatly beautify many of the parks and gardens, are 
all the result of modern developments. Experience, too, 
has pointed out the mistakes in landscape gardening, 
which is for the most part the style followed in London, 
and it should be easy to avoid the errors of earlier 
generations. In formal designing, also, the recent in¬ 
troductions and modern taste in flowers should have a 
marked influence. In all the parks and gardens, public 
