On preserving a7id iticreasing Collections of Plants. 327 



our chief source of recreation and amusement, when in the 

 country. 



I have mentioned that 200Z. a year is the sum allowed for 

 |)urchasing new plants. In order that the collection may be 

 increased by such outlay, Mr. makes it a rule in purchas- 

 ing, to order a duplicate of plants of difficult or doubtful pro- 

 pagation, but having once purchased any species or variety, 

 never on any account to purchase it a second time. If the 

 species purchased should become lost, he makes it a rule to beg 

 it from some brother gardener, to make an exchange for it, or, 

 if it cannot be got otherwise, to purchase it out of his own 

 pocket, as a sort of penance for having lost it. My friend, the 

 nurseryman, says, he would recommend this practice to all 

 gardeners, and to some gentlemen, who, being their own mas- 

 ter-gardeners, purchase all their plants themselves, and abso- 

 lutely expend more in keeping up a collection, than would 

 procure all the first articles of novelty. Purchasing to sup- 

 ply what has been lost, he added, is like pouring water into a 



leaky vessel ; purchasing in Mr. 's manner is a positive 



acquisition of riches. He would recommend all proprietors 

 to keep two copies of interleaved plant catalogues, and to 

 have a mark put against every plant purchased, the master 

 keeping one copy of the catalogue himself, and depositing the 

 other in his garden library. The gardener ought to be re- 

 quired to undertake, like Mr. — — , to make good all deaths 

 which arise from neglect of management or propagation, al- 

 ways excluding deaths of large plants, which, in many cases, 

 are unavoidable or unaccountable. Of course, such a gardener 



must, like Mr. , be an enlightened man, well paid, well 



supplied with all that is necessary for carrying on a garden, 

 and well treated by his employer. Were the imitation of the 

 practice of this excellent gardener insisted on by every gentle- 

 man who lays out money in purchasing new plants, I am 

 persuaded our country collections would soon be in a very 

 different state from what they are in at present. Gardeners and 

 nurserymen, even on the principle of self-interest, ought to 

 unite with you in endeavouring to effect this, since, whatever 

 increases the value of a garden, increases the value of a gar- 

 dener. I am. Sir, &c. 



Philo-Botanicus. 



Bristol, June, 1828. 



Y 4 



