INTRODUCTION. XVU 



"damp off" as being constitutionally weak of pur- 

 pose, short of application. "Infant mortality" 

 among new-born enthusiasts is a feature in the 

 records of all our florist societies, and our treasurers 

 are the registrars of these early deaths. 



In the retrospect of a long florist life, such as 

 mine has well-nigh grown to be, I can see, amid 

 grey memorials of many a veteran florist, the tiny 

 footstones, as it were, of those who, though perhaps 

 still Kving men, have yet as florists " died in their 

 infancy." Not as lying here, shall we count those 

 whose love for favourite flowers has outlived their 

 powers to tend them ; or who, in the chances and 

 changes of hfe, have no longer either time or 

 garden space available. We look on men like 

 these as with us yet ; and times come round with 

 flowers, and old friends meet over old favourites, 

 and we feel we are not parted. 



Of course, in the routine of culture here laid 

 down no one will expect to find, with respect to a 

 flower long known and successfully grown, a new 

 scheme of short cuts and royal roads to success. 

 The well-trodden way wiU be pointed out, and 

 there will be the experiences of men who have 

 great difliculties and disadvantages of locality to 

 contend with, and who have proved that love, if 

 only it lasts, can conquer all but the impossible, 

 and a great deal of that which at first and at a 

 distance seemed no less. 



