The New York herald., 1921-07-03

endeavors to plan and arrange his own
residence. With but little practical
knowledge and few correct principles
for his guidance it is not surprising
that we witness much incongruity and
great waste of time and money. :.
While we have treatises in abundance
on the various departments of the arts
and sciences. there has not appeared
even a single essay on the elegant art
of landscape gardening. / have
ventured to prepare the present vol
ume in the hope of supplying in some
degree the desideratum so much felt
at present" The book became in
stantly popular and Downing became
recognized authority on landscape
gardening. abroad as well as in this
country. Much of the improvement
in American ideals of gardening and
planting may be traced to his influ-
ence; he laid out the grounds of many
private and public estates, notably
those of the Capitol. White House and
Smithsonian Institution. The present
reprint of his most important essays
on gardening shows him to have been
astonishingly modern in his ideas, so
liidt tllt Dtdulllul pHOloSIdpuS VI lO-
days gardens which illustrate this
edition seem not at all out of place.
AS to a flower garden, for instance,
he says: THE desideratum with most
persons is to have a continued display
of blossoms in the flower garden from
the opening of the crocus and snow
drops in the spring until the autumnal
6rosts cut off the last pale asters. or
blacken the stems of the luxuriant
dahlias in November. This may be
done with a very small catalogue of
plants If they are properly selected.
On the other hand, very large
number of species may be assembled
together and owing to their being
merely botanical varieties and not
bearing fine flowers. or continuing but
short period in bloom, the flower
garden will often have but an insig-
nficant appearance. With "A group of
pansies and spring bulbs. bed of
ever blooming roses, some few escholt-
zias and other ANIMALS, a dozen
choice double dahlias and some trail
ing verbenas n limited spot of few
yards in diameter may be made pro-
ductive of more enjoyment so far as
regards a continued display of flowers
than ten times that space crowded
with n heterogeneous mixture of every
thing the possessor can lay his hands
on"
There are chapters on roses, on
lawns and shade trees, on public and
private planting under various condi-
tions: and the annotations by Prof.
W At e. A .,t.1
tural College increase the books help
fulnessN Not the least of it's charm,
however. lies I'm its flavor of rural
America seventy years ago. and in the
glimpse II gives of the personality of
vivid. kindly gentleman who spent
his life in a practical search for beauty
and who died helping to rescue others
in a Hudson River steamboat fire
There are many Americans who have
made pilgrimage TO Gravetye Manor
TO see for themselves it's phlox and
roses and pinks and TO enjoy Mr.. Rob-
inson first hand In some picturesque
TRADE against garden crimes and fol-
lies; and that Mr.. Robinson's book,
first published i'm 1888. reached twelve
editions before 1914 is proof enough
OF It's popularity among Barun ioNeIS
on this side of the water as we'll as in
England. Mr.. Robinson is one of the
foremost authorities in his subject and
besides is possessed Of pungent style
that makes his essays very readable,
so that this new and revised edition
will be very welcome.
The book Is divided into two parts,
/ the first being discussion of almost
all the aspects of gardening, with
chapters on the hardy border, on bulbs
end ANIMALS and Towering shrubs and
climbers. on rose gardens and Wild
gardens. on gardens for spring. sum-
mer and autumn. on cultivation, gar
den designs, and so on. The second
part is a comprehensive list of plants,
shrubs and trees for the open air gar