Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

prodigieusement amples, deviennent, en blanchissant, une de nos meilleures plantes potageres. La culture en a fait des varietes et des sous-varietes, dont deux de'pouille'es d'e"pines sont plus faciles a manier, cependant on pre^fere au cardon d'Espagne, tout inerme qu'il est, le cardon de Tours, arme d'epines longues et tres aigues. Celui-ce est moins sujet a monter; ses cotes sont plus grosses, plus tendres, et beaucoup plus dedicates. Le rofesseur Gilibert a connu un me'decin qui depuis dix ans prenait tous les matins un verre de de*coction des feuilles vertes de cardon, avec la persuasion intime que ce remede 1'avait gueri d'un engorgement au foie, et en pre"venait le retour.' It is curious how, in these old books, the faith seems always to have been in what was put into the water, not in the good tumblerful of any hot liquid — plain water being perhaps the best of all, though no doubt in any decoction of vegetable there would be small quantities of soda. The book is full of all kinds of interesting information, and there are constant allu- sions to the use of vegetables in all sorts of illnesses, especially gout and stone. There is an article in the * Edinburgh Eeview ' of November 1810 on the uses of vegetarianism for the cure of stone. It seems now as if we were once more tending towards the system of Aber- nethy, who lived in the early part of the century. The recommendation he gave to his patients was : ' Live on sixpence a day, and earn it/ 1824. 'The Universal Herbal/ by Thomas Greene. This is an ambitious book in two large fat volumes. It professes to contain an account of all the known plants in the world, adapted to the use of the farmer, the gar- dener, the husbandman, the botanist, the florist, and country housekeepers in general. Mine is the second edition, revised and improved. The frontispiece is coloured and very funny ; it is called ' Wisdom and NOVEMBER 215 Activity collecting the various treasures of the Vegetable Kingdom.' Wisdom is represented by an old woman in the background under a hedge. In the foreground on the left is a youthful Flora, and on the right Activity is represented by a middle-aged husbandman, who does not look active at all. On the title-page is an extraordinary collection of young women without too many clothes, which I should have thought represented the elements or the seasons, only there are five of them. Surrounding these is a wreath of vegetation and flowers, held up at the top by fat winged Loves. The book is alphabetically arranged, and every now and then there is a page with four coloured flowers on it, only moderately executed. Compared to those gone before, these are not worth noticing, but they are not so bad as those about to come. This book certainly contains an extraordinary amount of detailed information and instruction ; its comprehensive- ness may be imagined when I note that sixty-seven Oxalises are described in separate paragraphs. It is exceptionally interesting for the botanical account it gives of garden plants and flowers. The medical pro- perties of many plants which hitherto have been spoken of as certain panaceas are here alluded to in a com- paratively doubtful tone. The treatise on gardening, at the end of the second volume, is very amusing ; and the prints enable me to realise the date and origin of our characteristic villa plantations, approaches, drives, &c.