This book is the outcome of an Essay on "Town Planting" for which the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society awarded me their gold medal.

Having charge of the grounds of many public buildings in several of the worst smoke-infested parts of London, exceptional opportunities have been afforded me of getting together a list of the most suitable trees, shrubs, and other plants for withstanding the impurities of a town atmosphere and also of studying the conditions under which they may be most successfully cultivated. The need of such a work will be understood when it is stated that in the County of London alone there are 116 square miles of houses and streets.

The Photographs from which the sixteen Plates have been reproduced were taken specially for this volume by Messrs. Ellis & Walery.

A. D. Webster

Regent's Park, 1910.