no wonder that persons who have never seen more of 
the astonishing works of nature, than such as are 
displayed at a London entertainment, or are exposed 
for sale in Covent-Garden market, should feel little 
desire after such things. It is natural, under such 
circumstances, to suppose that the cultivation of 
plants is an object unworthy the consideration of any 
but the vulgar; an object which must necessarily be 
degrading, if not dishonourable, to the polished mind: 
Another cause has been the difficulty, not to say 
impracticability, of forming a stove of a proper mag- 
nitude, and at the same time of keeping up a suffi- 
cient temperature at all times, to cause the plants to 
flourish. The: want of this has been in many in- 
stances joined to the negleet of gardeners, who in 
general do not like stove plants, on account of the ad- 
ditional trouble they give by the old system of ma- 
nagement. ET 
For many years have we beheld with the deepest 
concern these and other causes gradually operating, 
to the breaking up of the several respectable collec- 
metropolis. One by one have they fallen, and new 
ones have not arisen in their stead. The buildings 
which once, filled with rare and splendid plants, de- 
lighted and elevated the mind, in not a few instances 
have been degraded into absolute potageries. The 
intellectual pleasures which their owners had formerly 
only as a sort: of manufaetories of.such things as 
early potatoes, French beans, small salad, or mush- 
rooms. 
