The American social historian and antiquarian Alice Morse Earle (1851–1911) published this work in 1901. She was a prolific writer of books and pamphlets on pre-revolutionary New England, and her writings were very popular with readers who took great interest in the social history and material culture of their country. In this work, which contains more than 200 illustrations, Earle describes the historic and modern gardens of the north-eastern seaboard, the gardening activities - for pleasure as well as for food - of early settlers, and the progress of plant-hunters and nursery-men such as John Bartram in discovering and categorising new specimens, as well as the introduction into the United States of cottage garden favourites from Europe and exotica from the Far East. Earle's Sundials and Roses of Yesterday (1902) is also reissued in this series.