THE GARDEN WEEK BY WEEK 



Jan. During the progress of my chapters from January to 



December I shall have occasion to refer to a good many 

 varieties of flowers, fruits, and vegetables, many of which 

 are raised from seeds. Let me save repetition later on 

 by offering some practical suggestions about seed-buying 

 at the outset. 



How to get Catalogues. — Is the reader a beginner in 

 gardening ? Is he ignorant of the names of seedsmen ? 

 Is he one of those unhappy beings who own no member- 

 ship of gardening societies ? The way to invite a cataract 

 of catalogues is to join the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 or some other prominent horticultural body. What 

 happens is this : The Secretary prints your name and 

 address in his list of members (members are "Fellows" 

 in the case of the Royal Horticultural Society, you can 

 become a Fellow for one guinea), and a horde of enter- 

 prising seedsmen extract them and post you lists. If, 

 however, you have no membership or fellowship, and 

 catalogues do not pour in spontaneously, there is a 

 simple way of getting them. It is to buy a gardening 

 paper the next time that you are at a railway bookstall, 

 or in a newspaper shop, and send postcards to some of 

 the advertisers. 



The Price of Seeds. — The catalogues come. Some of 

 them are small octavo publications, with a few illus- 

 trations. Others are thick quarto volumes of several 

 hundred pages, with numerous photographic figures, and 

 possibly some coloured plates also. There is more 

 of interest in the richly illustrated quarto than in the 

 plain octavo, and possibly the latter is put aside in the 

 first place, only to be turned to again if it is found that 

 the order made up from the larger volume has run into 

 several pounds more than it was expected to do. Can a 

 buyer safely turn to a small dealer for his garden seeds ? 

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