238 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



tion and partly from the unsympathetic harshness of their 

 tint. But surely in gardening, as in all else in life, the 

 broadest view is best, and the wisest attempt is to please 

 as many as we can. The taste of the ignorant and the 

 critical taste of the cultivated never can be the same on 

 any subject, but both are better than indifference and no 

 taste at all. I know one man who dislikes any flowers, 

 and only has stunted Portugal Laurels growing in green 

 square boxes on his lawn. I know another who will not 

 plant anything that does not flower or fruit in the autumn 

 months, because that is the only time he intends to live 

 at his country place. All tastes are respectable, though 

 we may each of us find it difficult to admire the taste of 

 the other. 



1872. ' My Garden : Its Plan and Culture,' by Alfred 

 Smee. Second edition, revised and corrected. This book 

 is one I can really recommend to beginners. It is modern 

 in illustration, and yet it retains some of the character- 

 istics of the older books. It really teaches you what to 

 do, and gives a very fair idea of all that a good-sized 

 garden requires ; it names and illustrates hardly any 

 plants not worth growing; it includes kitchen garden, 

 flower garden, Alpine garden, greenhouse, stove, and 

 water plants ; and it winds up with garden insects, animals, 

 and birds. The illustrations are much above the average. 

 Those who want to buy one single book likely to help 

 them, especially at first, could not do better than get this 

 one, which is often to be seen mentioned in catalogues 

 of second-hand books. 



1874. ' Alpine Plants,' edited by David Wooster. This 

 work, which is in two volumes, contains a great many 

 colour-printed illustrations of Alpine plants not, however, 

 as they grow in the fissures of their mountain slopes, but 

 as they may be seen in Mr. Backhouse's most interest- 

 ing gardens in Yorkshire. The drawings are rather 

 exaggerated in size and harsh in colour, but the book is 



