HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP. 



203 



a chemist, his conclusions on this point are worth 

 attention. " Some organic bodies," he says, " ap- 

 pear to silicify with ease, others with difficulty. A 

 sponge throws down silex readily. He has been 

 able to silicify a blood-corpuscle so perfectly that 

 when incinerated and its animal matter destroyed, 

 it showed its structure. Bones do not appear to 

 throw down silex readily." 



The reader will linger with pleasure over the 

 chapter devoted to the " General Plan of my Gar- 

 den," as he feels that here the greatest labour of 

 the author was bestowed. There he learns of 

 ferneries, alpineries, &c., and is assisted in liis com- 

 prehension by most charmingly- executed plates of 

 spots that might serve for copies to " Eairies' 

 Dells," or " Wood-Nymphs' Grottos," in the Christ- 

 mas pantomimes. Mr. Smee's object was (after so 

 laying out his gardenias to obtain the greatest 

 amount of picturesque effect) to have such plants, 

 native and foreign, as would be in bloom the whole 

 year round. The greater number of woodcuts is 

 devoted to the illustration of the favourites ; and, 

 coming from the pencil of Mr. Worthiugton Smith, 

 they are gems of wood-cutting art, as the following 

 examples will show. 



Fig, 131. Variegated Pink. 



flourishes to the exclusion of hundreds of little 

 gems which should have their place in the garden 

 of every lover of natural objects." Our sympathies 

 are with him also when he condemns the common 

 fashion of making rose-trees look " like a mop, with 



Fig. 132. Coreopsis tinctoria. 



We cordially agree with the author in denouncing 

 the common practice of gardeners confining all 

 their floral efforts to crowding one particular 

 summer month with flowers, to their exclusion 

 the rest of the year. " At the present time all 

 gardens look alike ; the inevitable scarlet geranium 



Fig. 133. Dianthus ckincnsts, 



Fig. 131. Mimvlus. 



the handle stuck in the ground ! " This is termed 

 a " standard," and is about as ugly a form as art 

 can twist nature into. Instead of this, Mr. Smee 

 trains his rose-trees into a pyramidal form, four to 

 six feet high, one far more elegant, and which, 

 when adorned by the "Queen of flowers," is a 

 most charming object. He states: "I think that 

 no one who saw my pyramids would ever tliink of 

 growing standards again." 



We have frequently come across excellent bota- 

 nists whose horticult ural knowledge was ridiculously 

 small. Nay, there are few good English botanists 

 who appear to care about '■' garden plauts." Many 

 of these, however, are of a most curious nature, and 

 well illustrate the flora of other lands and the 

 physical circumstances, extending over long periods 

 of time, which have caused organic forms to be so 

 modified as to assume their often outlandish nature. 



Fig. 135. Darlingtuiiia Californica, 



Eig. 135 is one of these, one of the fly-catchingplants, 

 having hairs in the middle of the tube, so arranged 

 that when the flies get in they cannot escape. 



