March IS, 1S77. 1 



JODENAL OF HOETICULTUUE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



195 



of teaohiag botany. It is a remarkable fact that two years 

 since not one person who went up for the Civil Service of 

 India, on the question being asked, was acquainted with 

 OUver'a " First Book of Indian Botany," which could scarcely 

 have been the case had not teachers been content to travel in 

 the old beaten rat. 



This matter has been brought painfully to our mind by the 

 two publications at the head of this article ; the former destined 

 for school students, the other, in some respects less pretentious, 

 apparently for a slightly more advanced time of study. Both 

 begin with complicated questions as to the nature of cells and 

 their mode of development, before an acquaintance has been 

 made with the more apparent organs of a plant or the slightest 

 knowledge of the objects about which the science is concerned, 

 and the consequence is that the student is either utterly dis- 

 gusted and throws up the matter in despair, or acquires a mere 

 smattering of hard names and ill-digested facts, which he is 

 willing to get by rote for the mere purposes of a competitive 

 examination, with the foregone determination to throw the 

 whole aside when it has answered his self-interest, without in 

 the slightest degree doing what it was intended to do — as to 

 opening his mind or giving him a taste for observing with 

 proSt the stray pleasures which are spread abroad with a 

 bountiful hand, but are no sources of pleasure to the disgusted 

 crammer. There is much philosophy in the words of the 

 great French novelist, " I have always thought that it is more 

 easy to descend from the whole to a part than to ascend from 

 the part to the whole. It is a maxim of algebra that we should 

 proceed from the known to the unknown, and not from the un- 

 kaown to the known." 



The translator of Thomfi's text book has done his part in 

 re?caing it from an objection which we should at once consider 

 fatal in a book placed in the hands of English students, ignor- 

 ing as it does almost everything that has been done in this 

 country ; for though comparatively little attention is paid here 

 to physiology, while we are however, on the contrary, strong 

 in systematic botany, it would be easy to point out many excep- 

 tions, and Darwin at least is the prince of physiologists. But, 

 apart from this, how can a boy obtain a clear knowledge from 

 such disquisitions as that with which the first pages commence, 

 where he will be left without anything save a confused concep- 

 tion of what a cell really i3, and will run the risk of thinking 

 that there may be a cell without any cell wall ? It would be easy 

 to point out matters in which the author is evidently wrong, 

 but this is not our object, but to show that such treatises are 

 comparatively useless as far as F.uglish students go, for we are 

 not looking to what may be suitable to the current German 

 mind ; and if mors advanced students want a manual, we 

 should rather at once recommend Sach'a book, notwithstand- 

 ing its acknowledged diflicnlties. Indeed, we are forcibly con- 

 vinced of this in comparing the one with the other. Nothing 

 is in general so unsatisfactory as a mere compendium. We do 

 not deny that the book contains a great deal that is valuable, 

 and the illustrations are for the most part good, and are often 

 on such a scale as to make them more intelligible ; but we can- 

 not conceive that to a beginner such an illustration as that at 

 page 57 and the accompanying text can convey any idea to a 

 Bchoolboy. If the book is used at all, we should recommend 

 beginning with the fourth chapter, and when that is mastered, 

 with some practical comparison of well-known examples, it 

 will be time to enter on the consideration of the more re- 

 condite structures. 



The work of Dr. R. Brown, as regards the time of publica- 

 tion, appeared three years before the translation of Mr. Thome's 

 volume. As it comes from the hand of a man of great experi- 

 ence it may well bo expected to contain much of interest, and 

 it does not labour under the same charge of ignoring British 

 anthorities, as the copious references in the notes amply 

 testify ; nor docs it attempt in one volume to adopt what he 

 calls the time-honoured conventionality prevailing in text 

 books. 



" The science," he says, " has become now so extensive, that 

 it the student is to have in a manual of this nature anything 

 better than a mere smattering of the well-worn facta of science, 

 BO interlarded as to be most repulsive with technical names in 

 use, obsolete, or which ought to bo abolished, or rather n(3ver 

 to have seen the light of print, it is impossible to cram into one 

 moderately sized volume anatomy, physiology, classification 

 of the natural orders, palfflo-phytology, and pliyto-geography. 

 Either the volume must become inconveniently bulky, or the 

 outline given no meagre as to be really useless." With this wo 

 entirely accord, and we only wish that our author had followed 



the example set by Oliver in his lessons in elementary botany, 

 in which case his volume would have appeared in a useful con- 

 trast with many other manuals. It would bo hero again easy 

 to point out faults ; but in bo extensive a science, where every 

 day is modifying what was supposed to be accomplished yester- 

 day, and in some oases wrong notions might be accepted — as, 

 perhaps from inadvertency, the student might be led to conclude 

 that the elaters of Jangermanuia} and the so-called elaters of 

 Equisetum are of the same nature, from the reference which is 

 given to the figure. But, as said before, this is not our object, 

 but to call especial attention to the best mode of studying and 

 teaching botany, convinced as wa are that till some change is 

 made in this direction we shall have still in the greater number 

 of cases the same unsatisfactory reaults. Still less do we wish 

 for a moment to detract from the valuable mass of information 

 which, in many other respects, this excellent volume oontains. 



EXHIBITION PANSIES. 



Mr. Miller's contributions on Pansies have afforded ma 

 much pleasure. When one reads of special societies for the 

 encouragement of different florists' flowers — Chrysanthemums, 

 Carnations, Auriculas, <S;c., surely something may be done for 

 the purpose of giving an impetus to the cultivation of a flower 

 so beautiful as the Pansy. Is it not possible to offer prizes — 

 adventitious prizes— for Pansies at some of the special shows ? 

 If it is, and competition could be stimulated, those shows 

 would be rendered additionally attractive, and visitors would 

 have an opportunity of enjoying such flowers as they little 

 dream of being in existence. Florists would then be able to 

 appreciate the efforts of such men as Messrs. Downie, Dick- 

 sons, Hooper, &a., who have done so much in rendering our 

 gardens attractive and furnishing varieties of Pansies of snob 

 sterling merit. 



Pansies are, I fear, not sufficiently appreciated in the south, 

 but the time must come when their claims will command the 

 attention of all lovers of hardy flowers, and tho heat and 

 drought which are supposed to be so inimical will only be re- 

 garded as incentives to further effort in perfecting tho culture of 

 flowers which are worthy of a place in every garden in Britain. 



In the north Pansies are regarded as amongst the most 

 beautiful of hardy flowers, and when well cultivated they 

 afford as much gratification to visitors as any other oooupanta 

 of the garden. In the garden which has been under my 

 charge for a number of years, and where flowers of all kinds 

 are appreciated, those which give the greatest amount of 

 satisfaction are Boses and Pansies. 



I am particularly pleased to find that Pansies have such an 

 able champion as Mr. Miller, and I shall anticipate with 

 pleasure his promised cultural notes. I trust they will tend to 

 dispel the delusion that Pansies can only be well grown in 

 Scotland, and perhaps they will remind the patrons of florists' 

 flowers in the south — Messrs. Dombrain, Dodwell, Douglas, ifcc, 

 that there are other flowers worthy of their patronage besides 

 Carnations and Auriculas. As to the mode of exhibiting I 

 concur with " C. R., Notts," that Show and Fancy Pansies 

 are sufficiently numerous and, in their sections, distinct as to 

 merit separate classes. If exhibited in mixture the tendency 

 would be to destroy the distinctive features of two clearly 

 defined types of beautiful flowers, which I think is undesirable. 

 — A Northern Gardener. 



MICE AND BED LEAD. 



Havino the valuable evidence of so large a number of ex- 

 perienced gardeners at your diapoaition you will perhaps scarcely 

 care for that of a lady amateur. Still, I will venture to off'er 

 it as at least practical. Last spring I planted two rows of 

 early Peas, having first thoroughly wetted them with linaecd 

 oil, and then shaken over them red lead until they were well 

 coated. I placed wires over the rows and waited in expecta- 

 tion of the usual promising-looking green shoots. To my dis- 

 may scarcely more than one-third appeared, but ugly gaps of 

 10 or 12 inches were left, and on close inapcction in these gaps 

 I found many remains of my tenderlycared-for Peas in the 

 shape of roots and red skins. In vain I searched for spaces 

 by which sparrows or even blnetits might have entered, and 

 was fairly puzzled uutU on a fine morning, lifting a seed pan 

 placed on a bank some 30 feet distant, a hole beneath revealed 

 two bright black specks, which moved, appeared, and dis- 

 appeared — a mouse! Forthwith my sharp little terrier came 

 to my aid, and turned out a nest of four young mice, and at 



