18 THE FLORIST. 



British art in every department embraced by the work, — that is our 

 opinion : our advice is, — make it such, regardless of expense, and it 

 will repay its spirited proprietors. 



We know some little of the anxieties and trouble attendant upon 

 a publication where artists are so much concerned. We know also 

 how to sympathise with men to whom art should be a pleasure, not 

 a trial ; but those halcyon days when it was such (if ever they ex- 

 isted) are gone ; and its votaries, with a few exceptions, are now 

 amongst the number of the hardest- worked and worst-paid labourers 

 of these toiling times. 



The Midland Florist ; conducted by Mr. Wood, of the Coppice, 

 Nottingham. 



Threepence per month, or free by post for fourpence, and the pur- 

 chaser has, in the above, an amusing and instructive little work, 

 which may be bound up for a trifle at the end of the year, and will 

 form a book of reference upon floral and gardening subjects. It 

 is not very creditable to Florists of all classes, that it does not con- 

 tain much more original matter. In our opinion, considering its 

 large circulation, it should be crowded with such communications : 

 that it is not so, cannot be laid to the Editor's charge ; the fault lies 

 with his readers. 



A PACKET OF SEEDS SAVED BY AN OLD GARDENER. 



This little work, a portion of which will appear monthly in our pages, was 

 originally published by Chapman and Hall, and has sold very largely. Being 

 nearly out of print, the Superintendent effected an arrangement for its repub- 

 lication in the Florist^ combined with a portion of the remaining Jis. from 

 which the selection was originally made. In doing this, he would offer one 

 word to those who have attributed to him the authorship of the Packet of 

 Seeds, and have thence taken occasion to say that he has desired to degrade 

 the character of gardeners in the eyes of their employers. If such is the 

 tendency of the work, it ought to have been conclusive evidence that he 

 was not the writer, as his views on the relation of the employer and employed 

 are pretty well known to gardeners through many of their own number. 



Many talk about the good old times. I remember times sixty years 

 ago, and I can't call them good times ; and if what I write is read 

 by young gardeners, I think they'll say M'ith me that my times, any 

 how, sixty years ago, were bad times. I shall never forget them till 

 I forget my mother. She was a good poor man's wife ; did for him 

 well ; fetched him from the public-house on Saturday nights ; took 

 out of his pocket what money she could find when she got him home 

 to bed, and made the best of it. Little schooling I got ; and what 

 I did get cost nothing, and M'as worth less ; for the master, who was 

 too stupid for sexton and clerk of the parish, and so lost the place, 

 made us all learn by heart what we did not understand with the 

 head more than the hazel-stick that he thrashed us with. But if 

 my schooling cost nothing, I can't say so of my victuals ; and my 

 mother dying, my father took more to drinking, and less found its 



