A comprehensive reference work, the book's ca. 1500 entries written by an international team of experts, cover the history and design of gardens all over the world from the earliest known examples to the present day. Over 700 gardens are described individually as to layout, special characteristics, and significance. There are entries for special types of garden -- roof-gardens, gardens for disabled people, and even prison gardens; for garden elements, such as fountains, herbaceous borders, hedges, and follies; and for those plants like roses and bamboos that have a particularly significant role in garden design. There are also biographical entries on professional designers, on plant-collectors whose introductions revolutionized the range of available plant material, on important patrons, and on a number of amateur designers and enthusiasts better known in other walks of life -- Catherine de Medici, George Washington, and William Pitt, for example. Coverage of the twentieth century includes the work of the new profession of landscape architecture and the development of public parks and international garden exhibitions, as well as corporately owned gardens and a great increase in the number of small gardens -- and is particularly valuable since the little material published so far on the modern period is mostly confined to specialized periodicals. It is also a unique reference volume for students and practitioners of garden and landscape design and those in related professions, including architects, garden historians, conservationists, architectural historians, interior designers, and archaeologists. -- AATA