:;i; 



GILBERT WHITE'S GARDEN KALENDAK. 



[The anxiety with which Gilbert White watched every phase of hij 

 horticultural operations, and the methodical manner iu which he details 

 the daily work of his garden, is so minutely described in hia "Garden 

 Kalendar," and is so characteristic of his habits, that I have though! it 

 would not be uninteresting to the reader to have a portion of these notes 

 in their primitive form. It is therefore printed verbatim from hia MS 

 One of the most amusing features of this record is the interest with 

 which he watches the growth of his Cantaloupe melons, then a novelty 

 to him, his alternate hopes and fears as they advanced, aud the disgust 

 with which he contemplates their ultimate failure. A letter from l'hilip 

 Miller*, the author of the celebrated ' Gardener's Dictionary,' is not only 

 interesting in itself, but as showing the source whence he obtained 

 those precious seeds, and I have therefore thought it worth while to 

 prefix Miller's letter to the Kalendar. — T. B.] 



Sir, 

 I am much obliged to you for your favourable opinion of mj 

 performance! : if what I have published has been of public 

 utility I shall think myself happy. 



The Cantaleupe Melon seeds here inclosed, are from Ar- 

 menia, which is the country from whence the seeds were first 

 brought to Cantaleupe. I have had the seeds from thence 

 several years, and have found them much better than :m\ of 

 those Avhich were sent me from Cantaleupe. 



* [Philip Miller was born in 1691, and succeeded his father as gar- 

 dener to the Chelsea Gardens in 1722. !!-■ was an excellent botanist, 

 and became a correspondent of Linnaeus. He was a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and a member of some of the scientific societies on the Con- 

 tinent. He died in 1771.— T. B.] 



t [It appears by an entry in his account-book of L749 thai in thai year 

 he purchased his copy of Miller's 'Gardener's Dictionan ' for eight 

 shillings.— T. I 1 .. 



