THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 139 



instrument for jobbery ; the probability is that it must soon come to ruin. 

 Select men who understand all the details of exhibiting, as well as grow- 

 ing the several subjects. When the judges have done their duty, let the dis- 

 appointed exhibitors profit by their loss in noting how the productions 

 are placed. An amateur will gain more instruction by a careful compari- 

 son of his own stands with those above and below them than from any 

 amount of book-reading on the subject. If he cannot see the superiority 

 of the stand before his — which it may be hard to see at the time — let him 

 civilly ask the judges to explain, and if they are practical men they will 

 do 60, and doubtless succeed in convincing him. To the members at large 

 Ave offer one last word — don't quarrel, or you may soon have to say with 

 sorrow, "Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth." The most 

 useful members of a society are not those who are most petulant, but 

 those who are most forbearing. Life all through is a system of give and 

 take : he is a churl who will not accept a favour ; he is doubly a churl who 

 will not confer one. 



The winter commenced in the second week of October, 1859, with 17° of 

 frost, which froze the flowers of chrysanthemums, and put an end very 

 abruptly to the entire display in the flower-garden. It continued with 

 unexampled severity, deluges of rain alternating with Arctic frosts, and 

 maybe said to have fairly ended on the 21st of June, 1860, when the 

 barometer began to push from 29 - 70' towards the safer standard of 30° with 

 a north-west wind, the ground saturated with sixteen hours' rain on the 

 previous day, and the thermometer inclined towards 70\ The "merry 

 month of May" was especially merry from the 18th to the 27th, when 

 there was a season of sunshine, and the thermometer indicated for the 

 period about 1° above the average ; but it was like one of those wandering- 

 glimpses of summer weather that occasionally visit us at Christmas : the 

 sun retired behind the rain-cloud, the earth was deluged again, the ther- 

 mometer fell awfully low, and on the 21st of June the water gods poured 

 out their vengeance on the chilled and saturated ground, and then made 

 way for the entrance of the summer. As to what sort of season is before 

 us, no one can say ; but this is certain, that, let the elements be ever so 

 propitious, it must take some time ere the earth can attain to a summer 

 temperature, and, with the wind at ~N.~W., as it is while we write, cold 

 nights will considerably lessen the effects of the sun-heat imparted during 

 the day. There has not been, in the memory of any gardener living, such 

 a season of trial, such a season of protracted cold and wet, of frequent 

 change, of promise, and of disappointment. The weather in the middle of 

 May turned the heads of the young gardeners, and in the haste of incon- 

 siderate enthusiasm, geraniums, lantanas, verbenas, petunias, salvias, all 

 sorts of things that had been well nursed under glass, were turned out, 

 not to grow larger, but to grow smaller, lose their leaves, cast off their 

 swelling trusses, change their colour for the worse, and altogether lose 

 what it will require at least three weeks of the most genial weather to 

 recover. Barometers and thermometers have no feelings; they never deceive 

 us. The mean temperature of May during the nineteen years ending 1859 

 was 52 - 8", and the mean temperature during June for the same period was 

 59"5\ The mean temperature during May, 1860, was 49 '2°, equal to 3'6° 

 below the average. This at first sight seems bearable, but in truth the 



