THE 



ilSE' 



2£J|jUSJ- 



March, 1859. 



HEN" Government took pity on the people of Lon- 

 don, and issued its decree that factory-chimneys and 

 steam-boat funnels should cease to deluge the town 

 with showers of blacks, it was hoped that gardening in 

 W^W I'O^^'i'^^i might rise to the dignity it deserved to enjoy in 

 ^ a city already overgrown, and the continued extension 

 of which was, year by year, thrusting the green fields 

 farther and farther away from it. AVhatever fallacies 

 may have been fostered by the leaders of the sanitary 

 movement, the very agitation of the sanitary question 

 has resulted in many changes for the better. One 

 thing is certain, that though the main di-ainage scheme 

 maybe a huge mistake — as every scheme which diverts 

 sewage to water instead of the land must be — nevertheless the public mind 

 has been brought to a more just appreciation of piu'e air, and of the value 

 of vegetation as a prodiicer of oxygen in places where animal life makes 

 extraordinary demands upon the atmosphere. In regard to food, clothing, 

 cleansing, and breathing, the inhabitants of our great towns have niade 

 great progress both in knowledge of principles and the putting of those 

 principles into practice ; and the love of flowers, which is' one of the most 

 constant of our human sentiments, has added to the desire for the more 

 frequent presence of plants in cities as means of purifying the common air. 

 No sooner had the Smoke Act passed the Legislature than two small books 

 were issued to meet the anticipated demand for instructions in the cultiva- 

 tion of plants in towns, and these works were admitted to have been most 

 useful in stimulating townsmen to take to gardening in earnest, as well as iu 

 directing them how to proceed Avith safety. Since those works were pub- 

 lished, the Temple Gardens have become famous under the skilful hands of 

 Messrs. Dale and Broome, who have both committed their experience to 

 pnnt, and so added to the literature of town gardening. Mr. Broome's 

 capital work on "The Chrysanthemiun" has had an immense sale; Mr. 

 Dale's little book on " City Gardens" has not perhaps sold so extensively 

 as it deserved, but it has sold, and its merit entitles it to mention here as 



VOL. II. NO. III. D 



