Catalogue of Works on Gardening, S^-c. 281 



and prosperity which, by their actions as well as intimations, they have ever 

 sought to raise." 



We would strongly recommend the formation of Gardeners' Societies for 

 mutual Instruction in every part of the country where half a dozen young 

 men have an opportunity of conveniently meeting together ; but more espe- 

 cially in the suburbs of the metropolis, in which are to be found journeymen 

 gardeners from every part of the United Kingdom. We repeat, that we do 

 not know any other means likely to be so effectual in imbuing the mind of a 

 young gardener with all that is requisite to fit him for rising to the summit of 

 his profession. The personal intercourse and professional discussions carried 

 on in such societies are also calculated to humanise and refine the young 

 gardener as a man, and render him a polished and benevolent member of 

 society generally. 



The Indian Handbook of Gardening, or Guide to the Management of the Kitchen, 

 Fruit, and Flower-G ar den, in India. To which are added a Hindoostanee' 

 Vocabulary of Horticultural Terms, and a List of Plants. By G. T. Frederick 

 Speede. With Illustrations by C. Gran-t. Second edition, enlarged and 

 corrected. 8vo, pp. 602, with several lithographic plates. Calcutta, 1842. 



Gardening in India, Mr. Speede informs us, is considered an art that can be 

 performed by the most ignorant labourer, and therefore books of instruction 

 are considered useless. The Hindoo mallee, or gardener, " estimates that 

 because he had a good crop of cabbages from a certain spot of ground this 

 year, he shall have an equally fine crop from the same spot in the next season ; 

 and would not conceive that there could be any causes arising from this year's 

 culture to depreciate the quality or injure the growth of the like article in the 

 next year. Uninstructed as he is, he looks only on a cabbage as a cabbage, 

 without reference to the variety of the species, or that one kind may be more 

 delicately flavoured, and hence more worthy of his attention, than another : 

 he supposes he reaches perfection when he brings before you an inmiense 

 drumhead, or other large-sized description, that would require a boiler 

 to be made especially for its reception ; and he looks at you, while pre- 

 senting it, with an air of triumph, little heeding that your preference would be 

 given to the small close early York or the delicate Savoy. But at the same 

 time he can hardly be blamed for his mistake, since we have never thought of 

 informing him that gardening was rather to be ranked among the sciences, 

 and that some study of the character, the habits, and the natural locaHties 

 even, of divers plants, must be required to bring it to perfection. The ex- 

 amination and study of these form the science of gardening ; and, combined 

 with the manual labour, or that portion forming the ' art of gardening,' con- 

 stitute what is necessary to perfection." (p. 2.) It is the object of the 

 Indian Handbook of Gardening to exhibit the European practices adapted to 

 India to the European employers of gardeners there, in such a manner as that 

 they may explain them to tfieir mallees, and thus procure an improved de- 

 scription of culture and produce for themselves, and ultimately for the whole 

 countrj'. 



Most Europeans in India, our author observes, complain of the ignorance 

 of their gardeners ; but it cannot be otherwise, since there are no schools for 

 their instruction, such as the nurseries and market-gardens of Europe. " If 

 every gentleinan who possesses a garden were to spare a few minutes daily to 

 instruct his gardener, and explain to him the reason of the operations he directs, 

 much might yet be done for the advancement of horticulture, especially if that 

 were backed by an increase of pay according as the man advanced in know- 

 ledge ; for, after all, it is really too much to demand intelligence and inform- 

 ation where it is not encouraged, or the knowledge of science from a man who 

 is paid and treated like a common labourer." (p. 281.) We have no doubt 

 that this work will effect the useful objects for which it is intended. 



