176 THE GARDENER. [April 



" ' The vast increase of labour which has arisen in consequence of preparing 

 and cultivating so many tender |)lants as are demanded by modern llower- 

 gardening, and all without anything like corresponding resources in the way 

 of houses and pits for propa^jating and growing such numbers of plants.' 



" The ideal paradise desired was a village of big glass-houses for the produc- 

 tion of tender plants to })e put out in summer, so that our author takes him- 

 self precisely, in his book, the view as regards cost that he was angry with 

 us for urging. 



"What he himself thought of the future of flower-gardening in those days 

 may be gathered from an article of his own written in the ' Scottish Gardener ' 

 in the palmy days of his bedding-out at Archerfield. In an article on the 

 future possibilities of (lower-gardening it 



" 'Appeared to him t^en that some of the sections of plants which are used 

 for our borders and parterres will scarcely bs susceptible of much further im- 

 provement ; and as to arrangement, they have been used in almost every con- 

 ceivable relationship to each other, and it would almost appear as if there 

 were nothing further left to achieve in the matter of arrangement ' ! 



" ]\[r Thomson has so often raised the question of his own doings and prac- 

 tice in relation to hardy plants and their employment — and he has certainly 

 had opportunities such as fall to the lot of few men — that we might ask what 

 he did in that direction in those Archerfield days. Did the famous flower- 

 garden at Archerfield contain one single bed of good hardy plants? or was 

 any attempt whatever made to show what could be done with numbers of 

 beautiful subjects to be found among them ? Very little indeed ; four-fifths 

 of the plants were of the most ordinary kind — making a very fine show, no 

 doubt. 



"Even the villagers of Dirleton came under the influence of the great bed- 

 ding movement : — 



"'The flower -plots which invariably encircled the cottages were filled 

 with Geraniums, Calceolarias, Hydrangeas, and the favourite Mignonette, all 

 scenting the air, and spreading their heaven-like influence alike on the inmates 

 and observers.' 



"The writer (in the 'Scottish Gardener') describes the nature of the in- 

 fluence on himself :■ — 



" ' Each bed was one mass of bloom ; so regular had the plants grown that the 

 entire beds were covered. There were three beds of yellow Calceolarias that I 

 think it was impossible to excel for compactness, — not a leaf was seen — nothing 

 save the golden blooms, the bed resembling a large honeycomb. Looking at 

 these beds for a few moments, the eyes became almost of the same colour, and 

 magnified them larger still, until gradually they were relieved by the shrubby 

 habit and purple foliage of the Perilla nankinensis, with which the beds were 

 edged.' " 



The quotations here made use of — as any one can see by referring to the 

 Introduction to the ' Handy Book of the Flower-Garden ' — are taken out of 

 their connection ; their real application is disguised and distorted. It is very 

 well known that it does not take many words to misrepresent any writer. By 

 taking odd sentences and phrases, and making them appear absolute, a 

 critic, with only a very little talent and a lamentable want of principle 

 and fairness, may make a writer say or prove almost anything desired. It is, 

 of course, much more convenient to traflBc in partial and prejudiced views of 

 isolated passages dislocated out of their connection, when the object is to mis- 

 represent, than to refute the particulars of your opponent's writings. What 



