220 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



delightful little book, alphabetically arranged, with a few 

 useful illustrations, light to hold, and beautifully printed. 

 It always mentions the country from which the plant or 

 flower comes, and it often suggests, most usefully, the 

 soil or locality where the plants do best in England. 

 This is a point too often omitted in modern gardening 

 papers. The book was afterwards enlarged. It went 

 through several editions, and had many imitators. Mrs. 

 Loudon's earlier books are often to be picked up, very 

 cheap, at secondhand shops, and I strongly recommend 

 all ladies interested in gardening to buy them whenever 

 they can lay their hands on them, either for themselves 

 or to give away. It is not that they are really better for 

 the advanced student than the modern books, but that they 

 are more simple. They begin more from the beginning, 

 they teach more what amateurs require, and they are not 

 complicated with the immense variety which in modern 

 books and catalogues drives unfortunate young gardeners 

 to despair. A good deal of this applies as well to the many 

 imitators and humble pupils of the Loudons' school who 

 published between 1840 and 1850. One book I have is 

 called ' Every Lady her own Flower Gardener,' by Louisa 

 Johnson (seventh edition !), published by W. S. Orr, 1845. 

 Any lady with a small villa garden would find most useful 

 instruction in this little manual. The gardening matter 

 in all the books of this time is excellent ; where they fail, 

 like the Loudons themselves, is that they are permeated 

 with that early Victorian taste now thought so execrable 

 baskets and vases, summer-houses and seats, are all 

 tortured into frightful ' rustic ' shapes. The planting and 

 laying-out of grounds are equally bad ; they constantly 

 recommend both kinds of Laurels, which time has taught 

 us are the most destructive of plants, killing all other 

 shrubs in their neighbourhood with their insolent and 

 devouring roots. 



