246 THE FLORIST. 



Is there no possibility of their introduction ? We are no ento- 

 mologists, and therefore are ignorant of the difficulties which lie in 

 the way. Of tropical cockroaches we have imported an abundance, 

 to the sad cost of many a beautiful orchidaceous flower in this and 

 many other establishments ; would that we could as easily obtain 

 the interesting insect alluded to ! 



But the time has arrived for cur departure ; and so let us walk 

 to Richmond, and from the pubUc room of the Star and Garter, as 

 we get our bodily refreshment, let us dwell upon some of the most 

 charming features of our own dear Old England, spread out beneath 

 the windows of our friend Ellis's hotel. 



We shall find that, much as we have enjoyed the visit to the 

 tropics in miniature, we should gain nothing by the exchange, if we 

 were to transport ourselves to where, in the words of the poet, 

 " The Palm, the loftiest Dryad of the woods, 



Within whose bosom infant Bacchus broods ; 



The Cava feast, the Yam, the Cocoa's root 



Which bears at once the cup and milk and fruit ; 



The Bread-tree, which, without the ploughshare, yields 



The unreaped harvest of unfurrowed fields. 



And bakes its unadulterated loaves 



Without a furnace in unpurchased groves. 



And flings off famine from its fertile breast — 



A priceless market for the gathering guest." 



The Erratic Man. 



ON FLORAL TASTES, AND THEIR RESULTS. 



NO. VII. 



FLOWER-SHOWS, AND THEIR GENERAL INFLUENCES. 



All that has been said in preceding papers of the results of a love of 

 flowers and floriculture concerns man as an individual, and would 

 be true if, like Robinson Crusoe, he tended his garden in solitudes 

 where he was the only rational inhabitant. The effects of this taste 

 for the beauties of the vegetable kingdom are pre-eminently con- 

 fined to the individual, although not exclusively so ; and we shall 

 now endeavour to illustrate the results of it upon men in a state of 

 society, or in combination. This design will occupy three distinct 

 papers : the first of which will consider the general influences of 

 horticultural societies ; the second, their influence upon the labour- 

 ing and poorer classes ; and the third, the bearing of floral tastes on 

 the national welfare. 



The most obvious remark on the first of these subjects is, that 

 competition tends to improved cultivation ; and this is true wherever 

 men patronise gardening pursuits under the observation of each 

 other, even when no organised society exists to stimulate their zeal 

 and elicit their talents. If my neighbour, like myself, is growing a 

 bed of Ranunculuses, and I can see his movements over my fence or 

 wall, I shall naturally watch his procedure with interest ; and if at 



