DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF ONE HUNDRED TULIPS. 173 



one's breast, for his beneficence in making man's journey through 

 life so varied and so flowery. 



It is true that we may not be always prosperous and successful. 

 Misfortune and disappointment assail alike with ruthless grasp, from 

 the peasant to the prince ; but as long as we act upon the golden 

 maxim of" doing unto others as we would have them do unto us," 

 we shall always find that 



" The still small voice of Conscience yet will speak 

 Her whispering plaudits to the silent soul ; -> 



and that solitude and Floriculture yield us a balm, of which adver- 

 sity and " the whips and scorns of time" can never deprive us. 



It is on this account that I advocate the cause of Floriculture, and 

 the culture of the Tulip in particular, in the pages of the Cabinet. 

 I wish every man to derive as much pleasure from his garden as I do 

 from mine, being convinced that it is one of the purest pleasures of 

 which the human mind is susceptible. No unavailing regrets cor- 

 rode the mind of the florist. What he does to-day affords him ad- 

 ditional gratification afterwards, when he sees that his favourites are 

 approaching maturity, to reward his industry and attention by a 

 display of their varied beauties. But to preserve this state of tran- 

 cpiil happiness the mind must be kept free from disappointments ; 

 for, most assuredly, nothing can be more mortifying than to find that 

 the roots which we have bought dear, and cultivated with the greatest 

 care, turn out to be worthless. Nothing has such a tendency to dis- 

 courage and cast a damp over Floriculture as this ; and it was my 

 knowledge of it that made me suggest the propriety of publishing 

 accurate descriptive catalogues of tulips, so that every young culti- 

 vator might purchase according to his fancy, and not, as heretofore, 

 to use a Northumbrian expression, be compelled " to buy a pig in a 

 poke." 



It gives me great gratification to find that I am not singular in my 

 opinions on this subject. I have had several communications on the 

 subject from different parts of the country from Tulip growers, since 

 the publication of my " Cursory remarks " in the March Cabinet, 

 so that I trust the readers of that work may calculate with certainty 

 upon being- favoured with at least a few catalogues, sufficiently 

 descriptive to serve as a sort of index to the prevailing tastes in the 



