Penelope Hobhouse's Gardening Through the Ages: An Illustrated History of Plants and Their Influence on Garden Styles--From Ancient Egypt to the Prese

Hobhouse ( Gardens of Europe ), a sort of green grande dame, has a rather grand gardening opus here: while she demurs that ``no actual records exist of garden layouts before the second millennium BC,'' she does her best to trace the history of gardening from its assumed Egyptian sources to the present. (The Egyptians, like all gardeners, had their problems. In 1470 B.C., Queen Hatsepshut moved 31 frankincense trees to her temple from Somalia. They died.) The virtues of this book are precision, modesty, detail, scope, good design and great illustrations--the full-color reproductions of the Unicorn Tapestries, where small flowers entwine dark shadows, and of Botticelli's La Primavera , adorned with 40 blooming species, are superb. And it's refreshing to see North American gardens featured, as well as exemplary Continental and English kinds. Hobhouse works chronologically, taking a chapter each to discuss Islamic, medieval, Renaissance, Italian, French and English traditions, and finally one aimed at the achievements of our century. Her book will entice those who don't garden and confirm those who already do. (Mar.)