1S84.] EDITORIAL NOTES. 239 



The vessels rotted idly on the mud 

 Until the spring floods huried all tlieir bones. 

 Great cities that had thriven wondrously, 

 Before the source of thrift was swept away, 

 Faded and perished, as a plant will die 

 With water banished from its roots and leaves ; 

 And men sat starving in the treeless waste, 

 Beside their fruitless farms and empty marts, 

 And wondered at the ways of Providence ! 



* 



Yet how easy is the process of reproduction ! Marvellous indeed 

 are the recuperative powers of the vegetable world, and kind Nature, 

 who first gives us the countless germs of plant life we call seeds, is 

 ever ready and waiting to favour the efforts of the planter. It is 

 all a question of energy, and application, and method on the part of 

 man. There is a good deal of individual action of this kind, although 

 there might be much more ; but the question has long been too 

 urgent in its importance for merely individual action. The States of 

 the world whose forestry is in decadence must take up the question, 

 for it will not brook much further delay. 



* 



The preceding paragraph has been partly suggested by the arrival 

 of a budget of Spring Seed Catalogues from some of the most enter- 

 prising of our English nurserymen. We are especially attracted by 

 the gaily- coloured wrapper? suggestive of spring and growth, of 

 these periodical repertoires of thejpossibilities of plant culture. 



:;: * 



* 



First to arrive and claim notice by the gayness of its dress is 

 the bulky catalogue of the well-known firm of Little & Ballantyne, 

 of the Knowefield Nurseries, Carlisle. The list is capitally illus- 

 trated, and includes novelties and recent introductions in vegetable 

 and flower seeds, as well as everything that the most ardent culti 

 vator of farm or garden could need or desire. Here also are lists 

 of grass seeds, seeds of sub-tropical plants, farm seeds, rye-grass, 

 clover, turnip, mangel, &c., seed potatoes, seed grain, implements 

 and tools (illustrated) for farm and garden, horticultural manures, 

 insecticides, and, in short, as we have said, ererythiny needful for the 

 grower, big or small. 



Next to hand is the bulky list of Messrs. James Dickson & Sons, 

 seed growers and merchants, of 108, Eastgate Street, Chester, This 



