1869.] PARIS FLOWER-SHOW. SlQf 



unfortunate stranger is consigned to the stove and dies. But tliere is 

 no need to multiply illustrations. 



It- is my firm conviction — a conclusion formed from a review of daily 

 practical handwork during the last six years — that such a knowledge, 

 let us say, of the functions which leaves perform in the vegetable 

 economy as any intelligent young man may get by reading over the 

 chapter devoted to the subject in Lindley's ' Theory and Practice of 

 Horticulture ' three or four times, with a week's interval between them, 

 and thinking over in the mean time, will raise the value of his work, or 

 at any rate of his capability for any gardening which is not mere 

 drudgery, by at least ten per cent. This is the view which I trust is 

 penetrating by slow degrees the minds of employers and employed, 

 and which I think is the duty of- all who wish well to the interests of 

 gardening to enforce by precept and example at every practicable 

 opportunity. 



And as regards the range of subjects, I think that a gardener ought 

 to take an unfeigned delight in becoming acquainted with every science 

 that has a bearing on his profession. 



From the making of effort in almost any direction the mind ought 

 to receive tone and strength, just as the bodily condition is improved 

 by reasonable exercise. Intercourse with the best authorities through 

 books hardly ever fails to result profitably, and of course no honest or 

 truly earnest man will let study interfere with the right performance 

 of any portion of actual duty. Further, a very powerful instrument, 

 known as hunger, urges most men, even those of an indolent disposi- 

 tion, into a state of activity ; and as no gardener has yet learned the 

 famous trick of economy the man wanted to teach his horse, profes- 

 sionals are pretty certain to keep on doing, however much they may 

 neglect thinking. J. D. 



PARIS FLOWER-SHOW. 



This exhibition, which opened on the 18th May and extended over a week, was 

 held in the Palais de I'lndustrie, and as the French system of showing is so very 

 different to what is seen in this country, perhaps a few remarks on the above may 

 be interesting to the readers of the ' Gardener' who have not had an opportunity 

 of witnessing a Parisian flower-show. Wherever an exhibition is to be held, 

 either in or about Paris, the ground is carefully measured and laid off in the style 

 of a flower-garden, with broad walks intersecting, the figures being allotted to 

 the different exhibitors according to the space they may require. In the flower 

 department the centre of the figure is generally filled with fine foliage-plants, 

 edged with dwarf Azaleas, Geraniums, Coleuses, &c.; the pots plunged entirely 

 out of sight often leads the uninitiated to believe that the plants are permanently 

 bedded out. Fruit-trees, again, are shown in different modes of training — hori- 



