210 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



successfully in Surrey (for it is easy of cultivation, and has 

 a lovely foliage), the York and Lancaster, and the Centi- 

 folia are all in this book. Even my small edition I look 

 upon as one of my chief treasures ; it is bound in an 

 old-fashioned bright-green leather. I suppose few people 

 have seen this book, otherwise I cannot imagine how 

 anyone has ever had the courage to publish the modern 

 illustrated Eose books with pictures that look so coarse 

 and vulgar in comparison with these delicate coloured 

 prints. 



1804. 'Exotic Botany, by James Edward Smith, 

 President of the Linnean Society ; figures by James 

 Sowerby. Two volumes in one.' This book is, of course, 

 an English one, but on the title-page is the following 

 quotation from Rousseau's seventh * Promenade.' I copy 

 it, as it expresses the feeling of the times : 



' II y a dans la botanique un charme qu'on ne sent 

 que dans le plein calme des passions, mais qui suffit seul 

 alors pour rendre la vie heureuse et douce : mais sitot 

 qu'on y mele un motif d'interet ou de vanite .... tout 

 ce doux charme s'e>anouit. On ne voit plus dans les 

 plantes que des instruments de nos passions, on ne 

 trouve plus aucun vrai plaisir dans leur 6tude. . . . On 

 ne s'occupe que de systemes et de methodes ; matiere 

 eternelle de dispute, qui ne fait pas connaitre une plante 

 de plus .... de la les haines, les jalousies,' &c. 



I wonder if it will strike anyone on reading this that 

 the sins of the botanist have been inherited in some degree 

 by the modern gardener ? 



The book is dedicated to William Roscoe of Liver- 

 pool. Bare and interesting plants from all parts of the 

 world are figured here, and many of them are uncommon 

 to this day. Some are familiar garden plants, such as 

 Eosemary-leaved Lavender Cotton, which, the author 

 tells us, ' Clusius says he met with on the sloping sides 



