A bouquet of garden prose

THE ARMCHAIR BOOK OF GARDENS: A Miscellany. By Jane Billinghurst. Lyons Press. 304 pages. $24.95.

What it is: Oh my goodness, "The Armchair Book of Gardens: A Miscellany," really is a treasure book.

Gathered here are some of the most unforgettable (or rarely tripped-upon) passages of garden writing and garden imagery. A.A. Milne is here, and so, too, is Pliny the Younger. Willa Cather weighs in, and the Emperor Jahangir.

Be it in words or pictures, the pages here capture the myriad reasons some of us ache to get our fingers deep in the Earth. In all, author Jane Billinghurst, who holds degrees from Oxford University and who tends her foxgloves and forget-me-nots in Washington state, gives us 304 pages to turn till we rub them ragged.

What makes it armchair-worthy: It's about as perfect as if we sat down amid the springtime beds and were told to click our heels and dream up a picture-perfect bouquet. Only this comes between covers (with end papers to make you swoon, they are so beautiful). From the William Morris-inspired cover, to the sprinkling throughout of Old World charms (the subtitle, "A Miscellany," to describe its eclecticism), the aesthetics of this beauty draw in the heart and soul of anyone who might delight in finding the key to some forgotten light-filled library. One tucked behind a walled English garden, perhaps. And, certainly, one where a literary gardener had tucked away all the finest tomes. And here they're yours, from the comfort of your coziest seat cushion.

One fine line: "The garden is not the end, it is the beginning, the place where you preserve the wild spirit that will save the world." -- John Hanson Mitchell, from "The Wildest Place on Earth."