DECEMBER. 301 



on barren trees as their representatives to shew their disinterested- 

 ness, he commended Minerva's choice of the OUve-tree above that of 

 all the Olympic conclave, because she had given honour to what was 

 useful as well as ornamental. And in like manner, it is plain that 

 m a Garden Miscellany the fruit has intrinsically as good a claim 

 to attention as the flower. The care of either is equally an exercise 

 of skill, and the improvement of the one as much a demand on the 

 intellect, and as rational a recreation, as that of the other. Nor is 

 it less a pleasure to read of what has been done and is doing in the 

 one department than in the other. And I am sure that neither the 

 beauty nor the fragrance of a well-ripened Pine is in any degree 

 impaired by the fact that this monarch of garden productions is 

 as pleasing to the palate as to any other of the senses. You were 

 therefore at full liberty, if you deemed it desirable, to add the depart- 

 ment of Fruits to the range of your lucubrations. And I am ready 

 to repeat publicly what I have said privately, that though you thereby 

 vastly increase your responsibilities, and the extent of what will be 

 expected from you, I think you have done wisely. It is just, and it 

 is natural, that, having conducted with credit and acceptance one 

 division of garden operations to the close of a natural series of your 

 magazine, you should ascend to a higher position, which will em- 

 brace the other also. It is not for the purpose of resting on your 

 oars, but of more extended labour and greater usefulness. You have 

 made your way to the position you occupy by the best method, — by 

 steady perseverance in your course, and by giving money's worth for 

 money received. You have triumphed over indifference and competi- 

 tion, and, I am sorry to add, over somewhat of unprovoked hostility. 

 But let that pass. I know you agree wdth me, that the best way to 

 overcome that, is to live it down ; not altogether disregarding it, but 

 when compelled to notice it, by doing so with the dignity of one 

 who knows it to be undeserved. And the truth is, you can afford 

 to do so. 



I suppose it is advisable when the early numbers of a periodical 

 are no longer to be procured, to recommence the series, in order that 

 new purchasers may not be compelled to content themselves with an 

 imperfect set. And as a change in the subject-matter itself was in 

 this case independently contemplated, there is the more reason for 

 its adoption. But as this course gives its detractors an opportunity 

 of expressing suspicions of its vitality, it may be as well to notice 

 the objection at once, and meet it with facts. 



For myself, I hope the outward change will not be great, and the 

 inward one no greater than is necessarily caused by an increase of 

 matter. The Florist has become to me a " household word," and 

 its appearance a household face ; so that if from any cause the 

 monthly number has not come from my bookseller by the usual con- 

 veyance, I have felt it as a disappointment. Its matter has been 

 instructive as well as amusing, and its spirit unexceptionable. I 

 have been a gardener for a quarter of a century, and there is no 

 operation of the craft in which I have not received instruction from 

 your pages. And as one ranged on the side of religion, of morality, 



