THE 
OCTOBER 2, 1875.] 
GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
431 
winter. It E long been the opinion of Dr. 
n Tulip cultivator, that it is wet ‘that 
adderton, plants 
is beds, it is his — to placea little sand, 
wdered charcoal about the mare d 
Perhaps, following up the 
tru С it is wet that kills Tulips, 
the excessive Lo о antumn and winter may 
have had something to Bete with the disease ee nui 
its Карренгарсе during the last spring, shortly before 
blooming time 
—— А writer in the Monatschrift (Berlin) records 
a proof of the HARDINESS OF FICUS STIPULATA, 
Having Qno 
he says, to pass through Mingrelia in the autumn of 
1873, he visited the ruins of a fine garden at Sugdidi, 
as overr in 53 
Lose other remarkable things were the north and 
end ad been a magnificent orangery. 
These were literally covered with a luxuriant confu- 
e о S, taria, ap ecoma, 
Pass ; but mot noteworthy was a large ma: 
ora, &c, 
of Ficus stipulata, n the gardens around Dahlias 
tips 
cathed 
es "Although Sugdidi i is Pe dE irap x the 
idi T that the thermometer must fall a 
tas low as 14? Fahr. is pretty E Lu 
therefore ond s of the Unite 
— We understand that the arrangements of the 
Hogri CULTURAL Ст, e now completed, bed- 
ac dation, &c., been secured by 
the extension of members 
the premises. The 
ogether at the igo on Wednesday next. Any 
wishing to list should communicate 
to the Secretary at on 
—— According to the accounts which are reaching 
us from - great grass-growing districts d 
especially th ose of Germany and Aus stria, | the Cro 
RASS § 
scarce] i 
Fiorin, Cocksfoot, pom © and all the Fescues, w 
ples 
of the earlier of the later sorts were similarly affected, 
harvest of late Peas has proved better than 
that of the ear rly kinds, 
—— Among EDGING PLANTS n forthe ане 
and kitchen garden, sho uld be mentioned a fine-lea 
tuca viri TR aces & тылай. 
summer, and it is so hardy 
| Sand through the severest weather without i fiu It 
Ri COUTE m Muy аз where grass does not 
| Cowell, 
Я А report ha been extensively circulated 
| that the West END м наа AND BUSINESS 
advertised for sale, is the Royal Exotic 
_ Nursery, King’s Road, Ch we have 
| = жалы Messrs, VEITCH & SONS to deny the 
| Bor of mour ; and to state that ve not, 
$e. ever have had, the slightest intention of relinquish- 
ing , on the co be 
THE t жун sre OF 
NTS.—No. 
NOTWITHSTANDING the immense DEA е 
late years, of botanical knowledge, it is curious, if n 
regretful, to observ rve how imperfectly practical € 
deners are em nted with one of the most importan 
departmen 
s of the science jd plants, namely, the true 
principles je classificat Th 
time of the first promulgation of the natural system. 
People were told, what is quite true, that the natural 
system is the only key to the actual affinities of plants, 
such as for a Pool everyday purposes every hor- 
ticulturist needs to air 
, to all ap- 
pearance, with so many difficulties that to master it 
in any moderate length of time was thought impracti- 
cable, oe ~ bes at іаѕ an immense boon, 
gardeners and aoe allowed themselves to 
be frightened. сан: і dim anists have long since 
learned how to appreciate it, этү happy will be the 
One reason for its Age nee 
slow progress is no doubt to be found in the antago- 
nism it seemed to offer to the Linnean system, which, 
from almost the beginning of the reign of George III., 
had in England been regarded as the very perfection 
of bonds . Hence it is that even yet y people, 
whose first ideas of botany were derived from Linnean 
books, consider the natural system fanciful and calcu- 
lated to render the study of plants h than ever, 
e the being exactly the reverse. 
it customary to point to the 
es s and 
For 
Er of the per ocess of counting th 
pistils of a flower; and, on the other hand, to the seem- 
into near neighbour and proposal to do this 
last was consid conclusive proof of the wildness 
f the doctrines of t ho affected, so disloyally to 
the immortal Swede, to talk abou LA a < 
ment. Ап ol d of mine ver, 
has never yet surren cya me antipathy r^ m: suh 
orders, the ‘‘natural nonsense," as he somewhat 
petulantly teftis them ; "e even within this last year 
or two I have been requested by staunch — of 
to their 
conformity with th 
more rem anything else, recen one's eyes to Nature's 
unity in variety. "The quickening of our intelligence 
е ceive this is one noblest uses 
if no other end were eed by studying the 
waters] orders of plants this one sufficien 
patient working sdb 
as those which link a Gloir 
Nettle to the Hop, and the Hop 
accustoms the t ro search for — € first prin- 
hey are so often bly sup- 
external мй su реалй features, 
but in the inmost анада of structure, It is 
ed, at the same time, that in orde 
actual afinity, = the contrary, things mus com- 
ared, no «E acia ce of life on nor, as is usual, 
t 4-6. he pride of 
but at many different = "s of Алерин, and that 
they are never too or а пз o en 
tion. То make progress іп the accurate knowl 
, 
it one of his chief and most enduring intellectual 
recreations, -I al esteem it one of the soundest 
and most pleasing indications of useful and careful 
work on th y pupils, when 
of the specimen, and a momen 
can refer to its natural order such a plant, say, as 
elegans, though the the order was 
found first in forms so ke in general figure, as 
Daisy and the Thistle, For a purely Linnean botanist 
to take the span and altitude of the scien plants 
it to-day is hopeless, and ii 
a joke for a gardener to say 
knowledge of botany, and be unable at the same tim 
sega укан ЗЫ: а е, proper 
and recognised place system, and to 
his reason why it ord be located у" Зети 
sessed о acquire а 
siderable jor re of dan as to 
assumed by c &c., th qualifying т to 
talk okoren a bo pronciyme and Бо 
and neither 
tology ext i in the least degree afford to be аме phy. 
the botanist, however legitimately am 
called, the most substantial result of work and rae 
taking p of the mag of species, or = 
the vegetable пасе eithe — itself in 
ting de. fac р 
Е orders are nit or, at 
events, illustrations ; and until he is fairly abreast of 
a t 
One of the 
ould have very little hope of anything else being 
сы. ин Ma an except, | [o 
e 
о earlessness 
odily pain—which last, to a kind-hearted 
d Р 
тап, ways render у more attractive 
the study of animals. The natural orders, in a word, 
are like good books—thin ngs that we se and re- 
ways finding something new, approaching 
constantly with the sense of a keener understanding ; 
things that are open and ready at every season of the 
becomi PM me, crowded 
knowledge, and, bes all, competent to excite one 
to constant iligence, a and to engender habits of exact 
pi recien thou 
what I чет ave as to the insufficiency of the 
innean pets to introduce a man to the broad and 
ойу ж їп e natural I desire merely to put itin con 
< 
The c merit is another — and this к. 2 
but I S "acknowledge armi, he memberi 
what purp gs it was designed, and how superbly tha 
een answered, At its 
pec 
т ment, an opportune 
p so to speak, just when азотты 
was urgently in want of one. The science, no 
so роону and easily moving onwards, was a5 blocked, 
a workin 
longer needed by science, might as 
Franklin and his kite. SUE E Jam 
Flora y oaa and th 
adapted, an 
of Pent 
easy grasp, 
— would be all too vast, and the application of 
it bewildering and uninte 
The difference between the Linnean syst 
e demand 
our command of — vibe s As for the charge 
of *‘ inconsistencies” in the Linn ey are 
twentyfold e tert e natural 
system does not pretend to be a fait accompli, or any- 
thing more a thing in pr S. it is far 
m useful, as well as m ified, to 
and merit, tl tobealw I foret d 
imperfections, Instead 
sistencies " of the natural 
himself does his best to reduce 
