Mr. and Mrs. London, etc. 221 



The Flower i Fruit, and Kitchen Garden, by 

 James Main, A.L.S., came out in three parts 

 in 1840-1, 1 2 mo, with a few pages of Intro- 

 ductory Remarks. There is a great deal of 

 information in this handy little book, which 

 is still as applicable as when it was written ; 

 and it possesses the advantage of being suc- 

 cinct and intelligible. It bears the same sort 

 of relation to the larger productions of the 

 Sowerbys, Lindleys, and Loudons that Miss 

 Acton's cookery-book bears to those of Ude, 

 Soyer, and Francatelli. 



But before I quit the Loudons and my 

 present subject, I shall extract from Gar- 

 dening for Ladies, sixth edition (1843), a 

 portion of the introduction, because this and 

 the companion book formed nearly the 

 earliest endeavour to bring the treatment of 

 flowers within the comprehension of the 

 possessors of small private gardens : 



"When I married Mr. Loudon," his wife frankly 

 and gracefully says, " it is scarcely possible to imagine 

 any person more completely ignorant than I was of 

 everything relating to plants and gardening ; and, as 

 may be easily conceived, I found every one about me 



