6 INTRODUCTION. 



though willing enough to receive the instruction thus imparted, 

 the boys, on being educated, found avocations that they were 

 enabled to follow far more lucrative than that of a m&lee ; and 

 thus the only object for which the schools were established was 

 defeated. Indeed, the scheme was by no means a feasible one 

 at the outset. It was hardly to be expected that to men 

 in the humble sphere of the malee, much, if any, theoretical 

 knowledge could be imparted. The judicious application of 

 the theory of gardening is not to be acquired but by men of a 

 liberal education, and of a class far above that of mere 

 labourers, such as malees are. Horticulture among the natives 

 will never be carried to any degree of excellence until native 

 gentlemen acquire a fondness for the pursuit, become their 

 own head gardeners, and overcome the scruples they now have 

 of manipulating with their own hands. 



Native nurserymen of two classes are to be found rather 

 numerously in the suburbs of Calcutta ; those of the one class 

 more properly may be termed market-gardeners, devoting 

 themselves exclusively to the cultivation of vegetables for the 

 Calcutta markets, and have their gardens principally at Bagh- 

 Bazar, Mochee Khola, and the neighbourhood of Alipore. 

 They cultivate most of the European vegetables during the 

 cold months, and some, such as Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Knol- 

 kohl, and Carrots, they raise abundantly, and as near to perfec- 

 tion perhaps as these vegetables can be brought. 



Those of the other class cultivate ornamental plants for sale, 

 and have their little nursery-grounds principally in the locality 

 called Manik Tollah. The ordinary plants grown in Calcutta 

 gardens may be purchased of them at a moderate price, but 

 for choice plants they are apt to charge excessively 



A large number of natives also get a livelihood by carrying 

 plants about Calcutta for sale at an exceedingly cheap rate. 

 They are for the most part a very fraudulent class of men, 

 demanding at first far more for a plant than it is worth, or 

 than they ultimately are willing to take for it. They are also 

 little to be depended upon. I have purchased from them for a 

 high sum plants, and on opening the ball of earth supposed 

 to enclose the roots, have found that I have been cheated with 

 merely the end of a flowering branch cut off and stuck in a 

 piece of clay. 



