PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
It cannot be urged against this work that it travels along a path already well worn, for the subject of trees and shrubs for English gardens, though almost inexhaustible, has never been so fully treated and illustrated as it deserves. The book may have many defects, but its pages will show that an honest effort has been made to offer helpful and instructive information to the many who wish to know more of the beauty of trees and shrubs.
In writing this book, the labour of my spare hours for many months, I have been greatly helped by Mr. Bean, the assistant-curator of the Royal Gardens, Kew, whose deep knowledge of the subject has been willingly imparted; and by Miss Jekyll, to whom I am indebted for many valuable suggestions and notes. Among others to whom grateful thanks are tendered are Mrs. Davidson, Mr. J. Clark, Mr. Dallimore, and Mr. S. W. Fitzherbert.
Some of the chapters have already appeared in the Garden, with the object of making known as widely as possible the importance of the most beautiful trees and shrubs for English woodland and pleasure-grounds.
The illustrations will show how a shrub, so often stunted and mutilated by unwise pruning, becomes beautiful when allowed to develop naturally.
The illustrations have their own teaching value, and in this matter also I desire to thank many willing helpers, especially Miss Jekyll, Miss Willmott, and Mr. Crump, of the Madresfield Court Gardens. Many of them are from photographs taken in the Royal Gardens, Kew. Under the present director (Sir William Thiselton-Dyer) much has been done in the judicious grouping of plants. Here is a living place of instruction open to all.
Those who desire to know more about trees and shrubs than it is possible to give in this book should consult such famous works as Loudon's "Arboretum Britannicum" (8 vols.), and "Encyclopædia of Trees and Shrubs"; Professor Sargent's "Silva of North America," and "Forest Flora of Japan"; "Manual of Coniferæ," by Messrs. James Veitch & Sons; "The Pinetum," by George Gordon; The "Bamboo Garden," by Lord Redesdale; Sir Joseph Hooker's "Rhododendrons of the Sikkim Himalaya"; and the excellent Kew Hand-list of Trees and Shrubs. Much information can also be gleaned from the volumes of Garden and Forest (American), edited by Professor Sargent, but not now in publication.
The nomenclature at Kew—that is, according to the Index Kewensis—is that adopted in this book.