260 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



decline the laurel wreath, and he content with the fourpence — for this 

 very proper reason, that it is the customers who deserve praise for the 

 success of the undertaking, and if there is to be any sort of testimonial, 

 it must go to our readers, and not to us. Just look back on the pages 

 published during the past twelvemonths, and see how the readers of the 

 work have contributed to it, not only their pence, but their experiences. 

 There was never wanting among tlie friends of this work those who were 

 both able and willing to add to the stores of horticultural knowledge ; 

 and if it had not been so, we should long ago have been found out to be 

 but poor fallible flesh and blood; whereas, by their aid we keep our 

 position of presumed infallibility, and perpetuate on our own counter a 

 greater delusion than the Ghost, or the Crystal Globe, or the profession 

 of fraternity with gorillas. Once we had to ask the timid ones to speak, 

 and they did speak ; now we have to thank them for the aid they gave 

 us, and to hope that amongst our myriad supporters there remain still a 

 few who might follow the example set them, by contributing to the shop 

 some part of the stufl" they intend themselves to purchase, l^ot that we 

 are ourselves worn out. No. We are about fifty years younger at the 

 end of six years' work in these pages than when we begun. Being 

 younger, we have more enthusiasm, and, per contra, have more to learn, 

 and shall set about learning it if our friends will continue to shower in 

 their fourpences, just to keep us at school. 



If any of our readers could peep into our budget, and see what new 

 things we have in store for them, what revelations we intend to make, 

 what excellent vegetarian dishes we are about to provide for their intel- 

 lectual digestion, they would rush off to their booksellers and multiply 

 their orders by fifty, on the principle that one cannot have too much of 

 a good thing. But we will take our risk about the circulation ; it has 

 always been brisk enough to keep our toes warm ; and so, smiling at the 

 office door like polite shopkeepers, we bethink ourselves of the compli- 

 ments of the season, and once more wish all our readers and contributors 

 A Meeet Cheistmas and a Happy New Yeae. 



WATER SCENES. 



When I pass a print-shop on a frosty day, I inwardly condemn the man 

 to death who persists at such a season in exhibiting pictures of nymphs 

 or naiads, or any of that class of creatures, dabbling their pretty feet in 

 crystal streams, or wading chin deep in blue lakes that make one 

 shudder. Printsellers have no feeling for mankind, else they would 

 never torment people who peep into their windows with pictures of 

 nude Venuses shivering on slippery oyster- shells when the wind is in the 

 east, and if your nose touches the Avindow-pane the sensation is like 

 having the tip suddenly shortened by a razor— any more than they 

 would hang up representations of blazing forges, and burning mountains, 

 and interiors of lime-kilns in the month of July, when you wish you. 

 were a dog, only that you might go along with your tongue out, and 

 take a sip at every puddle or horse-bucket, to preserve the palate from 

 a state of incandescence. So it m^y be quite out of season now to talk 

 of water scenes ; and we cannot so much as put a title to this paper 



