MAY. 103 



sidering their value, may probably be thought more than enough. 

 But in the multitude of names which now fill the catalogues, some 

 guide is assuredly desirable, and the testimony of a private amateur, 

 however warped by fancy, may at any rate be presumed to be disin- 

 terested. As respects management, I grow them in pure loam, 

 without peat, or any kind of compost, removing them after flowering 

 to a higher temperature in the vinery, where they remain till the 

 young wood is matured, and are then taken out of doors and left 

 there as long as heavy cold rains keep off, the only attention paid to 

 them being, to give them a regular but moderate supply of water, 

 and to leave no more than one flower-bud on a shoot. 



I would observe before concluding, that I have taken the names 

 of the different sorts as sent me, and am not sure they are always 

 correct. My next communication will be on the Azalea indica, of all 

 plants the most varied and splendid in colour. 



Mediterraneus. 



FLORICULTURE AND OUR VILLAGE POOR. 



Neither in head nor heart will any of the readers of the Florist find 

 fault with your correspondent A. S. H. If Floriculture is capable, as 

 I think it is, of being made an auxiliary means of ameliorating the 

 social and improving the mental condition of our village poor, how 

 blameworthy must all true lovers of Floriculture be who do not help 

 the good work forward with all their might ! And with this view, I 

 beg leave to offer one or two ideas that appear to suggest them- 

 selves on the subject. 



And first, we must bear in mind, that as the foundation laid is 

 firm, so will the superstructure be either permanent or temporary ; 

 hence we must take the broadest and soundest views in our power 

 before we make any attempt to carry out our plans. We must base 

 our modus operandi on something less capricious, however generous, 

 than the liberality of " My Lord, Sir John, and the Squire." We 

 must have an independent principle to work upon, which shall be 

 carried out by independent means, and so bear independent fruit, 

 thereby establishing one great step in our scheme of improvement. 

 In short, I would have the beginning and the end emanate and finish 

 with the poor themselves. Not that I would exclude any help or 

 kindness offered in addition by the magnates of a locality ; neither 

 would I lose sight of one of our greatest aims, — the raising the 

 character of the labourer, and so diminishing that slavish rooted pre- 

 judice which separates our class from class. But who can hope to 

 succeed in this, while the poor know far too well, and are in many 

 ways made to feel far too keenly, that while they may bring their 

 flowers to the show, My Lord, Sir John, and the Squire have conde- 

 scended to bestow the prizes ? But once succeed in eradicating the 

 gnawing and debasing feeling of dependence, and you will replace it 



