250 THE FLORIST. 



best of the genus for a greenhouse, where it blooms freely and 

 colours well; and Zauschneria Californica, a plant which we can 

 hardly recommend too highly, for when well grown and covered with 

 its deep crimson flowers, it really forms a most charming bush ; but 

 this is not all, — the property perhaps that recommends it most 

 favourably to the amateur is, that it can be flowered profusely in 

 quite a small state. It is a plant which no greenhouse should be 

 without. Finally, there was a plant of Mimulus tricolor, with which 

 we are not so well pleased as when we first saw it. Its flowers are 

 certainly very pretty ; but then it has an ugly grey aspect, and it is 

 said to be so delicate in constitution, that it is hard to cultivate. 

 It may, however, produce a good cross with some other species. 



REVIEWS. 



We announce with much pleasure the arrival of a welcome parcel from 

 America, containing a copy of the fourth edition of Mr. Downing' s 

 elegant volume on " Landscape Gardening," just published, and ten 

 numbers of The Horticulturist, a monthly periodical conducted by 

 the same distinguished author. We shall reserve our notice of 

 the "Landscape Gardening" for a future opportunity, and for the 

 present will confine our remarks to The Horticulturist. This, like all 

 Mr. Downing' s works, displays much spirit and good taste. Horti- 

 culture (as its title implies), rather than floriculture, forms its chief 

 feature ; but there are nevertheless some good essays in it on the 

 latter, as well as on architecture and rural economy in general. We 

 are glad to gather from its pages — which contain many pretty wood- 

 cut illustrations of villas and villa-gardens — that the taste for garden- 

 ing is on the increase in America, more especially in the northern 

 and middle states of the Union. This is as it should be, and what 

 Mr. Downing, both by his writings and practice, has been long labour- 

 ing to effect. 



He states that those who are not so conversant as himself with 

 the statistics of horticulture and rural architecture have no just idea 

 of the rapid multiplication of pretty cottages and villas in many parts 

 of North America. As with us, the vast web of railroads which in- 

 terlace the continent of America has greatly tended to bring about 

 this result. Hundreds, nay we may say thousands of individuals, 

 formerly obliged to live in crowded cities, now find themselves able to 

 enjoy a cottage in the country, the ultimatum of an American's de- 

 sire ; for country life is with him a leading object, be he merchant or 

 statesman. "Webster," says Mr. Downing, " has his ' Marshfield,' 

 where his scientific agriculture is no less admirable than his profound 

 eloquence in the senate. Taylor's well-ordered plantation is not less 

 significant of the man than the battle of Buena Vista. Washington 

 Irving' s (ah, who has not heard of and admired him !) cottage on the 

 Hudson is even more poetical than any chapter in his Sketch-book ; 



