TWO BOOKS THAT DRAW ATTENTION 
Authoritative Comment by Louise Beebe Wilder, Author-Gardener, Who Has Specialized in Alpines, 
and by E. H. Wilson, Distinguished Collector of Plants for the Gardens of To-day and To-morrow 
“GARDENING IN THE XXth CENTURY” 
E. H. WILSON 
Assistant Director of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University 
Author of “Aristocrats of the Garden,” “ Romance of Our Trees,” “A Naturalist in West¬ 
ern China,” and “Travel Tales of a Plant Collector” now appearing (see pages 33—37) 
Great War and the immense burden of taxation en- 
tailed, not to mention the stupendous loss of human 
Iflfc'Si has changed the aspect of gardening in Britain, 
SrlTHp^ but has also made gardens more sacred to the people, for 
in the garden thousands who had given their all found solace 
during that awful period. To-day there is no money to support 
the large ranges of greenhouses for the cultivation of tropical 
plants. The loss is great but unavoidable, yet out of it some 
good has come since it has forced attention on the value and 
beauty of hardy plant material. After all, the outdoor garden 
is the permanent garden, and is also the cheapest to maintain 
and the most enduring. 
‘‘Gardening for the XXth Century" [by Charles Eley, M. A.; 
E. P. Dutton Co., New York, 1923] is an earnest effort to assist 
all who would make a real garden. Written by one who has 
obviously benefited as much from failures as successes and who 
cheerfully accepts both as part of the game, it is a book of rare 
quality bespeaking the very soul of the author. It is as readable 
as a biography and is permeated with a welcome vein of humor 
which radiates from every page. Any one of the first seven 
chapters is worth the price of the whole book. Never have we 
read sager or saner council on a subject so important to the 
common weal as that contained in the first chapter which deals 
with Public Gardens. The principles enunciated by the author 
are as applicable here in America as they are on the other 
side of the “herring-pond" and the advice in general just as 
valuable. 
As is true for all books on gardening written in Europe, a 
warning, and a strong warning too, is necessary when it comes to 
recommending plant material. American readers, and there 
will be a host if merit in a book counts, must remember that the 
milder English climate admits of the growing out-of-doors of 
many, many plants which cannot succeed in the more extreme 
climate of the United States. English gardens have a great 
advantage over ours in the matter of broad-leafed evergreen 
trees and shrubs. With herbaceous and bulbous plants we are 
here in New England about equal; on the other hand, with deci¬ 
duous trees and shrubs the advantage is all with us, and in our 
gardens these give returns in flower and fruit far beyond any¬ 
thing known in Britain. With this warning one has the utmost 
pleasure in recommending to American garden-lovers a worthy 
and timely production on which both author and publisher are 
to be congratulated. The typographical errors are few, the 
paper good, and the twenty-eight full-page illustrations’excellent. 
“ALPINE PLANTS” 
LOUISE BEEBE WILDER 
Author of “ My Garden,” "Colour In My Garden,” and “Adventures in My Garden and Rock Garden” soon to appear 
TytsflASiH E literature of the rock garden has received a valuable 
addition in “Alpine Plants,” (Scribner’s), by A. J. 
fiUii Macself, founder of the National Hardy Plant Society 
irlrip^ in England. Mr. Macself sets himself “ to the delight¬ 
ful task of telling the beginner, the novice, how these fascinating 
and charming flowers may be grown in any and every garden.” 
This he has most admirably done, dealing with his subject with 
unmistakable knowledge and authority, but in a manner so clear 
and direct that the beginner need not fear that he will encounter 
abstruse terms and mystifying technicalities in his search for 
knowledge. But the book is not alone for the beginner. The 
experienced gardener will be able to glean much that is new and 
inspiring from its pages. 
The chapters on construction and on “Alpine Plants in Small 
Gardens” are especially illuminating and are applicable to any 
climate or locality. And there are chapters dealing with the 
characteristics of these plants, with their propagation, with their 
culture in pots and pans, on wall gardens, all full of helpful in¬ 
formation interestingly presented. 
“Alpine Plants” is concerned not only with the growing of 
true alpines but with a wide variety of plants of a like character 
that may suitably find a home in the rock garden. A most 
comprehensive list is furnished in two chapters entitled “ Easily 
Grown Alpines and Kindred Plants,” and “Choice Plants for 
the Rock Garden”; the first offering a wise selection for the be¬ 
ginner, the second pointing out a selection to which he may 
advance when he has become a little more experienced. These 
lists are very well thought out and constitute a reliable guide to 
many delights. There are also lists of plants and Ferns and 
small shrubs that bloom at various seasons and that will succeed 
in a variety of exposures. The illustrations in the book are 
color photographs, water-color drawings, and line drawings, 
and add considerably to the interest and value of the volume. 
Its moderate price is another point in its favor, placing it within 
the reach of all who are beginning to feel the appeal of this 
class of plants—and surely no others have so strong an appeal. 
Any who have made the acquaintance of even a few of these 
small individuals will nevermore be satisfied with the easy¬ 
going border perennials alone. The farther one makes one’s 
way among them, the more completely is one enchanted, held; 
and we must be grateful for all authentic information shedding 
light upon their caprices, their idiosyncrasies, their needs and 
desires. 
In his introductory chapter Mr. Macself stresses the point 
that alpine plants are not alone for those able to incur great 
expense in the building of elaborate rock gardens. “It is quite 
possible,” he says, “to grow a thoroughly good collection even 
without a rockery at all, and it is this extraordinary adaptability 
of this class of plants to gardens of every conceivable size and 
character that constitutes its exceptional claim to the special at¬ 
tention of all who love gardening. But a real love of plants and 
of gardening is the great essential, for it is not he who, having 
wealth, submits to the whims of fashion or fancy and orders a 
rock garden to be built and planned, who will taste the sweets of 
satisfaction and enjoyment in its possession, but rather the en¬ 
thusiast who learns to know plants individually, and procures 
here one and there another and installs them in the home of his 
own preparation, gradually acquiring a collection with every 
item of which he is fondly familiar.” This is indeed the secret 
of the successful rock-gardener! 
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