602 Florist's Journal. 



Art. II. The Florist's Journal. In 8vo Numbers, monthly, with 1 

 coloured plate to each Number. Nos. I. to VII., pp. 168, each 

 Number containing a sheet and a half. London, 1840. 6d. 

 each. 



This work is understood to be edited by Mr. Mudie, which is a guarantee 

 for the correctness of the language, eloquence when he writes himself, and 

 for sound sense in regard to general opinions either of himself or of others. 

 Among the names of the contributors, we observe Mr. Main, Mr. Henchman, 

 Mr, Don, Mr. Plant, Mr. Groom, Mr. Ansell, Mr. Green, and Mr. Gaines. 

 The work, to use a technical phrase, is remarkably well got up, in regard to 

 paper, print, and the coloured plates, and, without making any invidious 

 comparisons, we certainly think it better deserving of patronage than some 

 other magazines of the same kind sold at the same price. It is something 

 to be able to take up a gardening book with the foreknowledge that in 

 reading it we shall not be offended by vulgarity or obscurity of language, 

 or by local or technical terms not generally understood ; and though a 

 work thus purified may not be filled with papers by practical men, and, 

 therefore, not always very suitable for the gardener, it is unquestionably the 

 most suitable for the amateur. We shall now take a glance at the numbers 

 before us. 



In No. I., there is an eloquent introduction, showing the pleasures and 

 advantages of cultivating flowers in a moral point of view, and noticing the 

 " principle according to which flowers are improved by cultivation. The 

 principle is this. Our power of improving flowers, that is, of breaking 

 them from those characters which they have in wild nature, depends in no 

 small degree upon the difference of the circumstances in which they grow 

 naturally, and those in which we rear and train them artificially. It is 

 true that some plants will bear only a limited change, while others admit of 

 change to a very great extent ; but, notwithstanding this, it is a general law 

 in floriculture, that the more different treatment it can bear from that 

 which nature gives it, the more it may be improved by the cultivator. 

 There is also another general principle : — Plants, including flowers, ever- 

 greens, and all others, of what description soever they may be, can bear 

 much better to be transported from warm latitudes and situations to cold, 

 than from cold to warm," We might notice some trifling mistakes in the 

 first number, such as wild hyacinth for Oriental hyacinth in p, 8., mis- 

 spelt botanic names in p. 19 and 20., and other places ; but such errors 

 will doubtless be avoided in future numbers. 



No. II. contains an article entitled " Colours of Flowers and their Con- 

 trasts," in which a right view is taken of the subject, viz., that " the 

 arrangement of flowers will be best in which colours and their complements 

 are brought together, because in this case each will, from the nature of the 

 eye, impart lustre to the other." (p. 28.) 



In a paper on Tulips, by Mr. Groom, in No, III., he states that " the 

 shape of the cup of the flower, when fully expanded, should be a semi- 

 oblate spheroid (or the half of a somewhat flattened globe), the stalk 

 being inserted in the pole, which pole should be a little depressed," This 

 Mr. Groom considers the best form to retain the beauty of the flower 

 during all its stages, " The petals," he says, " should be all level on the 

 top, and' not the three outer ones turning back from the others, nor the 

 inner higher than the outer. The ground, by which is meant the white or 

 yellow on which the other colours are marked, should be pure and rich, 

 without spots or stains; and it is of the greatest importance to have it 

 quite clear of any colour or marks at the base of the petals round the stamens, 

 for a stain there is a permanent defect which no cultivation can remedy." 

 (p, 56,) An article on the Selanthi, or flowering plants with the organ- 

 isation apparent, though still different from the flowering plants properly 



