180 THE GARDENER. [April 



of flower - gardening, and ask if the editor of the 'Garden,' or any man, 

 would undertake and accomplish the task of keeping the same area with 

 an unbroken mass of bloom from the middle of June till the end of October 

 (for we invariably planted by the 20th of May, and had a good show of bloom 

 in June ; and we have seen the i)lants in that climate untouched by frost at 

 the middle of November) with the portion of the r>4s. per week left, after 

 deducting a reasonable estimate for the fruit, &c. From a very extensive 

 experience of both systems here for the last thirteen years, we are more 

 than ever convinced that it cannot be done. Let it be borne in mind that 

 it is not the old fifty-years-ago system, and to which the quotations made 

 by our critic refer, that we are now speaking of, and which would not be 

 tolerated now. 



The quotation from a writer in the ' Scottish Gardener ' is quite in keeping 

 with the spirit that prompts the quotations from our writings. It would not 

 have suited his purpose to have given any other quotations from the same 

 writer. The following, for instance, would not have served him : "When the 

 entrance-door was thrown open, the fairy scene that was opened up before 

 me — for it appeared like nothing else — so completely was I struck with the 

 beauty at first sight that I was at a loss to which hand to turn first," — and 

 so on. 



The same course of unfair quotation, of what the editor of the 'Garden' 

 would fain have his readers believe we have written, is pursued in * Gardening 

 Illustrated.' Time and place only seems to aggravate his penchant ior mis- 

 quoting. He says, "That part of his [Mr David Thomson's] argument is, that 

 we have no charge of a garden establishment." In 'Gardening Illustrated' 

 he also writes that our "claim as a flower-gardener depends on geometrical 

 bedding-out only." Well, it seems we have some claim! Our critic's claim 

 depends on a year or two's practice in the herbaceous ground in the Regent's 

 Park. And we ask any one who knew that patch of ground there, if it was not 

 the only spot in that garden to which the term ugly could be applied. We 

 have to do with twice as much in geometrical hardy herbaceous ground, and 

 produce more bloom on it, than our critic ever had or is likely to have to 

 do with. 



Having thus exposed the questionable tactics of our contemporary, we 

 leave him for ever, thinking that no importance can be attached to any 

 further notice of a man who can resort to such a course of argument as we 

 have been dealing with. Plenty can prove that we were an enthusiastic 

 "hardy-herbaceous plant-man" before our critic was born; and apparently 

 we will complete our gardening career as fond of them, and more extensively 

 engaged with them, than ever— in their proper place. 



ZONAL PELARGONIUM, GUILLON MANGILLI. 



In the March number of the ' Gardener/ "Reader" refers approvingly 

 to the above. Probably, had he seen it as grown by Mr Taylor at 

 Longleat, he would not have dismissed the subject so briefly — com- 



