Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

The gardening matter in all the books of this time is excellent ; where they fail, like the Loudons themselves, is that they are permeated with that early Victorian taste now thought so execrable — baskets and vases, summer-houses and seats, are all tortured into frightful ' rustic ' shapes. The planting and laying-out of grounds are equally bad ; they constantly recommend both kinds of Laurels, which time has taught us are the most destructive of plants, killing all other shrubs in their neighbourhood with their insolent and devouring roots. NOVEMBER 221 Those who have larger gardens would do well to try and get Mrs. London's six quarto volumes, illustrated with coloured pictures. Though artistically bad as flower-paintings, and inferior to those published now in the weekly gardening papers, they resemble the flowers enough to be recognisable. They most usefully illus- trate the text for the ignorant amateur, who learns far more quickly when pictures and letterpress are com- bined than by any written instruction alone, however good. Mrs. London's quarto volumes are now rather difficult to get complete. There are two volumes on perennials, one on annuals, one on bulbs ; this one is perhaps the most valuable of the lot, as it gives many of the best-known bulbs as they arrived from the Cape, before they were so over-cultivated and hybridised by the modern nurseryman. Perhaps the volume on greenhouse plants is the least interesting, as so many things are re- commended for cultivation under glass which have since been proved to be hardy, or nearly so, and grow very well out of doors — at any rate, through the summer months. The volume on English wild flowers, which completes the set, is a little superficial, but helpful. It has rather good pictures of many of our native plants, some of which are now very rare. The best of these wild flowers can be cultivated from seed, even in small gardens, giving us most beautiful effects with very little trouble and expense. 1828. ' Memoires du Muse'e d'Histoire naturelle.' 1834. ' Memoires sur quelques Especes de Cactees.' These are portions of two books with most beautiful and curious illustrations of Cactuses, the only examples of old botanical drawings of Cactuses I have been able up to now to procure. They are not coloured, but delicate and precise in drawing to a high degree. 222 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 1829. ' A History of English Gardening — Chronological, Biographical, Literary, and Critical — Tracing the Progress of the Art in this Country from the Invasion of the Romans to the Present Time,' by George W. Johnson. This little book is so comprehensive in subject that it is rather dry reading, though Mr. Johnson's introductory chapter abounds in interesting information about the gardens and vegetable cultivation of the ancients. Cato's description of the cultivation of Asparagus is very much the same as what is now recommended. Gardening, at no time in the world's history, seems in any way to have been the especial property of the good and simple, in whose hands alone 'it is the purest of human pleasures.' To sit about gardens in summer sunshine, to listen to the birds, and to enjoy the scent of the flowers cultivated by others may be very enjoyable, but in no sense does it deserve to be called ' the purest of human pleasures.' No one who does not actually work in his own garden can ever really realise the plea