1878. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



347 



Literature, Travels \ Personal Notes, 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



"Our Chromo." — If our readers will only 

 Avait patiently tell next month, we think they 

 will be pleased with a present we shall make 

 them. It is not generally known that we started 

 the chromo gift business. We cannot find out 

 neAV customers, but each one of oyr readers 

 knows his neighbor, and can easily introduce our 

 magazine. So we wished to make our acknow- 

 ledgements by a present, and determined 

 to give each something handsome for the 

 good services in our behalf. So we started the 

 chromo — not '' true copies of Love-in-a-mist," 

 or what's his name " In-a-bush," and Avhich "the 

 receiver could not buy for five dollars," but 

 Avhich was generally sold in the end for a half 

 cent per pound, " all ma'am that sich paper is 

 bringing now," but sometliing that may be con- 

 sidered, if so chosen, a part and parcel of the 

 work. Of course those who come in " at the 

 eleventh hour," and get no subscribers for us 

 under this system, get paid as well as those 

 who endure "the heat and burden of the day," 

 and make the jDublisher smile as he reads 

 "with my subscription, on tliis occasion, I 

 take pleasure in adding one for my neighbor ;" 

 but then Ave have good example for this gener- 

 ous treatment, and feel that we have at least a 

 right to expect to say, " thank you" besides, and 

 those Avho don't send fail to get Ibis. But — Avell, 

 Sinclair promises to put forth bis best eftbrts on 

 our "chromo," and good reader be patient, and 

 wait, and see. 



The Postal Laws. — There is nothing more 

 to be dreaded than the political grumbler. The 

 Avrongs of which he complains are generally 

 unbearable, until he or his party is in power, 

 and then they are beds of down, on which not 

 even bad di-eams trouble him. But we really 

 think the postal laws of a great nation like tliis 

 might be amended, without interfering one cent 

 Avitli its prosperity. In an editor's otHcc, or for 

 the matter of that, the office of any large horticul- 

 tural establishment, plants are sent for name. 



j for opinions, and these and other things are sent 

 1 for all sorts of reasons, but no writing must be 

 ! inside. They come to us by the dozen, and it is 

 almost impossible to tell till Ave find the letter, 

 what they are sent for. It is often two or three 

 days before the letter, and the package relating 

 thereto are brought together, and the care and 

 labor this bringing together involves is no mean 

 tax on the busy man's life. If a few lines of 

 explanation Avere permitted in such package, 

 what a Avorld of trouble it would save. As a 

 postal card only costs one cent and a letter three 

 cents, what does the Government lose by the 

 writing inside the package ? When a letter cost 

 a shilling, there might be some objection, but 

 what does it amount to under our modern rates 

 of postage? The suggestion made in our col- 

 umns, sometime ago, by Mr. E. Hall, at least 

 seems unobjectionable, that a person be allowed 

 to put a three-cent postage stamp in addition to 

 the legal postage on the package, to be taken 

 as a sign that the sender has a letter inside, and 

 the package be allowed to pass, Avhether the 

 ends be "gummed" or not, without further mo- 

 lestation or detention. What possible objection 

 , can there be made to this plan ? If there be 

 ■ any objection that Ave do not see, Ave should be 

 glad to give place to it. 



KoYAL Love for Wild Floavers.— The 

 following from an English paper is only the 

 story of a few Avild floAvers, and yet it has its 

 thoughtful features Avhich make it well Avorthy 

 of a place in our columns. It is said that one 

 touch of nature makes all the world of kin, and 

 both prince and peasant may perhaps find their 

 kinship in nature more readily among Avild 

 floAvers than an3fwbere else : 



"On the ?>lst of August, Mr. William Cosstick, 

 section of the Eastbourne Cemetery, had the 

 i pleasure of presenting a collection of Avild 

 ! floAvers to the Princesses of Hesse, and their Royal 

 Highnesses showed their heart}'^ acceptance of 

 the present by sending a messenger to Mr. Coss- 

 tick, requesting him to come to High Cliff 

 House and explain the nature of the flowers, 

 and also to plant the Drosera amongst the sphag- 



