18 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



more perfect flowers could not be desired than the majority of the flowers pro- 

 duced within the past six weeks by the plant now referred to. As to their last- 

 ing qualities, this property is so much enhanced, that they will cHng to the 

 plant for a month after the flower has opened, and latterly require to be removed 

 by the hand when far advanced in decay. A. Kerr. 



30th November. 



,THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A GARDENER; 



OE, LESSONS FOR THE YOUNG PROFESSIONAL. 



I AM afraid I have undertaken a work which my limited abilities will leave but 

 imperfectly executed. The natural question, then, will arise in the mind of the 

 reader, " Why attempt a voluntary performance to which you confess yourself un- 

 equal?" I reply, "Scribblers like to see themselves in jjrint, and men of me- 

 diocre attainments [fancy too often that they ought to be teachers where they 

 should be but students." It is in vain that the rough handling of the critic ex- 

 poses their weakness ; their rhinoceros-like hide renders them impervious to his 

 attacks. It is not sufficient that their fame should be eclipsed ere their assumed 

 light had fairly been kindled. It is not sufficient that dearly-bought experience 

 should be gratuitously placed before them ; for, like the moth, they must again 

 and again have their wings singed with the flame ere their literary fame finally 

 perishes in their own mad wilfulness. 



There are a few honest writers whose powers are unequal to their desires, one 

 of whose objects of life seems to be to benefit in some way their fellow-creatures, 

 but whose mental capacities do not enable them to write with the terseness of a 

 Macaulay, with the varied knowledge of an Alison, with the natural touches 

 of a Shakespeare, with the predictive power of a Gumming, or the convincing 

 eloquence of a Chalmers, — whose limited education prevents their writing with the 

 smoothness of a Demosthenes, or in the heroic style of a Virgil, or with the satire 

 of a Juvenal, or the sonorous sweetness of a Horace, and yet who desire to say 

 something in a homely practical way for the benefit of their fellows — who desire 

 to speak from the mining-depth of their own experience in language which shall 

 at least be intelligible to their readers, if not poetically affecting or literary - 

 inspiring. Such a one the author of the present papers professes to be. 



SCHOOL-LIFE. 



"Who can forget the time (I am speaking to the advanced in age) of his ancient 

 school-life purgatory ? Methinks I now see the mottled desks, rich (to the boys' 

 eye) in carvings. Monograms, ornamental devices, and autographs were there ; 

 memorials of some who, it may be, have since attained eminence in arts, sciences, 

 literature, or politics — of some who have served their country in danger, and 

 have lost their lives in battling for king and fatherland, hearths and homes — 

 and of some, alas ! who have stained the annals of our history with moral de- 

 linquencies and flagrant crime. The little world of school-life contains the germs 

 of future power or weakness. The lessons then inculcated, and the impressions 

 then made, model the future man. How important, then, that the principles in- 

 stilled there should be those of the strictest moralit}'-, based upon the everlasting 

 foundation of truth, as discovered in the Book of books ! How important that 

 the mind of the future Englishman should be trained to independence, courage, 

 honesty, and truth in the school-room ! But I am wandering from the picture 



