Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

He married at twenty- seven, and his father-in-law seems to have put small faith in his botany, and advised him to apply himself more exclusively to the theoretical and practical study of physic. After his marriage he made money as a doctor in Stockholm, and it is not otherwise than interesting to know that when attacked with very severe gout at forty-three, and the doctors who attended him began to despair of his recovery, he cured himself by eating nothing but Strawberries for a time. Afterwards he kept the gout entirely in check by taking a Strawberry cure every summer. In several ways the book gives an interesting picture of life in the last century. Linnaeus's books are characterised by religious sentiment, neverthe- less they had the misfortune of being considered at Eome as heretical and materialistic productions. In 1758 they were inserted in the catalogue of forbidden books ; no one durst either print or sell them under pain of having every copy confiscated or publicly burnt. This proceeding was implicitly condemned during the papacy of the excellent and truly enlightened Ganganelli, Pope Clement XIV. Linnaeus himself mentions this occurrence in a letter to the Chevalier Thunberg in the following terms : — ' The Pope, who fifteen years ago ordered those of my works that should be imported into his dominions to be burnt, has dismissed the Professor of Botany who did not understand my system, and put another in his place, who is to give public lectures according to my method and theory.' 1797. ' The Botanist's Eepository, by H. Andrews.' This is a rare book, I believe, and ought to be in ten quarto volumes. I have only the first eight. It contains coloured engravings only of new and rare plants, many of which cannot, I think, have flowered in England, as there are several Proteas, which are exceedingly difficult of cultivation under glass, Andrews' great fondness for MARCH 69 plants from the Cape of Good Hope makes one almost think he must have been there — Gladioli, Ixias, and curious Cape Pelargoniums, which are the parents of all our greenhouse varieties. On the bottom of the title- page is a charming little drawing of that humble plant the Linnea borealis (' Twin Flower,' Mr. Eobinson calls it), which I have never yet been lucky enough to flower. The design represents two little flowering branches raised on either side like two arms. 1 feel much drawn to the man Andrews, who so skilfully placed it there, just a hundred years ago, to do honour to his great master. Andrews' other book is ' The Heathery, or a Monograph of the Genus Erica.' Again I have only the small edition published in 1804. The folio one is very scarce. This is a pretty, interesting book, with moderately well-drawn plates, coloured by hand. The Heaths are such a large family, and nearly all apparently come from the Cape of Good Hope. I cannot understand why people who have several greenhouses should not grow more of these charming plants. They require a certain amount of special treatment, a very cool house and plenty of air. It seems such a pity that private gardeners only care to grow the few plants which they can exhibit for competi- tion— markedly, just now, Orchids and Chrysanthemums. These Cape Heaths look lovely picked and wedged, or growing in the greenhouse, and, I should imagine, would do especially well in houses by the sea.