Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

books and periodicals to landscape gardening and green- house cultivation, for pleasure and beauty alone, and for the ornamentation of the houses of the wealthy, must have been immense. But from that time the books assumed the deteriorated character from which they are only now beginning to emerge. Cheapness became a desirable object — necessary for the propagation of the instruc- tion. This change greatly enhances the interest and value of the older books. The illustrations only served to elucidate the text, and in the case of coloured plates several plants were often crowded into one page for the sake of cheapness in reproduction. The gardener was no longer a botanist and an artist, but employed inferior draughtsmen to illustrate his instructions. The original debt on the ' Arboretum,' published just after Mr. Loudon's death, was 10,000/., which seems a very large sum, considering how poor the illustrations are. It is a book of immense study, great interest, and valuable instruction. The work is in eight volumes — four letterpress and four illustrations. 1842. ' Ladies' Magazine of Gardening,' by Mrs. Loudon, published just before Mr. Loudon's death, has some rather good illustrations of flowers, some certainly not commonly grown now. What she calls the Golden- haired Anemone is quite unknown to me. The illustra- tions for gardens and rockwork are elaborately descriptive of all which should be avoided ; but in every book of the period there is much for the student to learn. Failing income induced Mrs. Loudon, no doubt helped by her early efforts in literature, to publish books on gardening for the use of amateurs. When she and her little daughter were left very badly off, her efforts assumed a more ambitious line. The first edition of ' The Lady's Companion,' which I have, was published by William Smith in 1841. It is a 220 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN delightful little book, alphabetically arranged, with a few useful illustrations, light to hold, and beautifully printed. It always mentions the country from which the plant or flower comes, and it often suggests, most usefully, the soil or locality where the plants do best in England. This is a point too often omitted in modern gardening papers. The book was afterwards enlarged. It went through several editions, and had many imitators. Mrs. Loudon's earlier books are often to be picked up, very cheap, at secondhand shops, and I strongly recommend all ladies interested in gardening to buy them whenever they can lay their hands on them, either for themselves or to give away. It is not that they are really better for the advanced student than the modern books, but that they are more simple. They begin more from the beginning, they teach more what amateurs require, and they are not complicated with the immense variety which in modern books and catalogues drives unfortunate young gardeners to despair. A good deal of this applies as well to the many imitators and humble pupils of the Loudons' school who published between 1840 and 1850. One book I have is called ' Every Lady her own Flower Gardener,' by Louisa Johnson (seventh edition !), published by W. S. Orr, 1845. Any lady with a small villa garden would find most useful instruction in this little manual.