452 IHE 
GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[OCTOBER 9, 1875. 
show you." On our way to the cottage, which, 
to him, was a fountain discovered in a desert, 
the wanderer confessed that, after residing 
twelve years in Boulogne-sur-Mer, he was able 
to produce no larger stock of French than 
that. 
Business people of the middle class, living in 
Channel, 
chip of the paternal block, destined to continue 
the concern, extend its connection, an crease 
its prosperity. Jacques Bonhomme has a rising 
Young Hopeful of about the same age and with 
Often, before p it into execution, Mrs. 
Smith takes the boat comes over, to inspect 
` the materi насат» and see whether she 
likes the looks of the people ; Madame Bon- 
е less frequently does so, being harder to 
draw out of her lair. If b ms and faces 
up satisfactory, the cross өрге: ы 15 
effected forthwith. = Bonhomme junior, forming 
one of Smith's family, is is ege sent to day- 
school exactly as if he an English boy, 
and gradually, through iin necessity, learns 
O Soup, ме taken 
in the multiplication table at home, finds t 
а m 
о the other. 
you my son treat yours. 
And, "should political tempests be brewed, the 
Bonhommes may not be sorry to have tried 
friends on this side of the water. There seems 
no valid reason why like interchanges should 
not extend further into the interiors, and through 
re numerous social strata, both of those and 
other countries. 
Many people hesitate to venture on Pei 
c mes language until they feel su at they 
eee Itlessly ini йын; in which 
ess they Vin their diffidence, it is 
tolerábly clear that they will never speak it at ` 
all They are like those over-cautious mother 
who forbid their children to bathe until they 
have learned to swim. But the thing must 
be done by girding up one's loins zieh € 
resolution to perform an act of 
like MA or taking. а dip pon 
When em ment arrives you must say to 
yourself, “ Pmi in for it at last ; now or never ; 
[ees goes! " Andin nine cases out of ten the 
outcome is not so bad as was feared. There 
may be a little splashing and spluttering ; one 
is apt to turn red ; but, after all, one survives 
the она Besides which, with language 
There are domestics, strangers whom one 
never see again, secluded opportunities, friendly 
téte-a-tétes, with ipa and when, the linguistic 
trial-trip can be m 
Your or correspondent, long ago (Consule Louis 
a ding in a hack cab from Paris 
to Denis on 
is who 
you speak French! 
Lord Chose's, in ‘Fra Diavolo; ” 
torted your correspondent, “as badly as I speak 
French, you will cp a little right to find fault. 
At present you have 
As the soldi ci was never set eyes on 
from that day to this, the sting of his criticism 
did not rankle long. The truth is that the 
Greek, but without a single word of any living 
language to help him in his hour of need; a 
linguistic fund which cool reflection pronounced 
to be inconveniently limited, and whose defici- 
ency ought to be remedied forthwith. But it is 
easier to fill the memory with new words than to 
train the oral organs to utter them properly. 
That is a work of time, patience, and practice. 
*'To learn the pronunciation," says Cobbett, 
* there is no way but that of hearing those, and 
speaking with those, who speak the language 
well." 
With grammatical knowledge and a fair stock 
of words, writing a foreign language correctly is 
far easier than speaking it. In writing you can 
proceed leisurely, can stop when in doubt ; can 
reflect or consult your dictionary when uncer- 
tain about genders, orthography, or — 
tion, But in speaking you must go on and on. 
When once mounted on the back of a cire irn 
you must take the fence before you, heedless of 
consequences and defiant of accidence. You 
must keep your seat on it till you reach the end. 
In the middle of a ee you can neither change 
horses nor form phrase. Even if you 
stumble a little hs must still push forward. 
Study and perseverance will make the feat 
every day an increasingly easier performance; 
but both those conditions are indispensable. 
To no branch of knowledge can Lord Bacon's 
axim be more truly applied than to languages: 
“Reading maketh a full man, conference a 
ready man, and writing an exact man 
Essayers of strange tongues should be en- 
couraged by the thought that sensible people 
make full allowance for their shortcomings, and 
that for people who are not sensible they would 
be foolish to care. If everybody were equally 
susceptible aa uns our public speakers 
come from ing orators, like tickled 
snails, died н in their horns, and, unlike 
5 
Bar 
made. 
English ?" was a question put by a 
French captain's wife respecting a young 
Euglislivonan who had married their chef de 
musique, the regimental band-master. “ Very 
good ааз h indeed," was the reply ; and it 
influence on the D status 
зломе the ladies of the regiment. For lan- 
guage is a touchstone of race and per as well 
as of nationality. Nice distinctions show who 
. f When you speak English, zuo» cher, re. 
is who, and immediately betray the false pre- 
tender. To tag this long digression aptly : * As 
many P cis as a man can speak, for so 
many different men does he count, instead of 
for a single individui" f IE. aS. D. 
New Garden Plants. 
НоопА Gondolt Sweet, 
A DWARF bushy succulent, with erect, ——" 
us-green stems, 12—18 inches and abou 
dete nick, the les vertical and closely beset 
e a | freshly cut the ap flows 
а gp geal Raber oh Bh id 
ln ome taste, somet like starch and 
iquorice, that remains in the mouth for a considerable 
E: 
The 
apex ‘of the stems ; th are of a very mai. 
orm, bine it is difficult to кй in words, M 
cone with five broad, slightly hooked wings attached 
from apex to bas 
; concave be flat with 
revolute margins, pale purplish with rad iating pale 
greenish yellow nervures, the disk covered with 
inut rk з everywhere else qui 
glabrous, but presenting a velvety appearance to the 
naked e dar rple-black double corona is 
ing space, whi 
decaying fun 
A fine LA of this rare, remarkable a 
unknown Asclepi 
time in 1874 by 
DT who collected it Es Namaqu А 
ormant unti ut six v ee 
#чабенү pushed into rund and vigor 
дада ng one flower with several abortive ч. d 
me apes still likely to come to perfection, 
"The ief point of interest enge to Hoodia Gor. 
doni is the great length of tim 
remained utter 
years, and it was erts n by many to bean i 
ae when it к discovered by Burke 
Zeyher about 1841-42 n ear 
River ; perdes were ане, and living plants were 
sent . Bur employer, the Earl d: 
Derby, but it probably died ut, for there seems to 
be no further record of it than that given in E 
5-9 7 АШЫКЕ 
=. 
"3 
о 
[^ 
Я 
Б 
Fane 
AAEE 
y 
rope; and possibly this specimen, and 
9 dew priori from it, are the only ones in cul i 
"Besides Stapelia, three other distinct Hc names 
чер been proposed for it, viz. :— Hoodia by Sweet in 
ortus Britannicus (1830), ш under which name it 
te at present ; afterwards, in ignorance of S 
having ge e y i 
1837 м Беу the name Monothylaceum 
in 18 i . Hooker S it, 
NOTES касм. E LANCASHIRE. 
viale 
September 14.— TRS col rainy weather, of 
which we have now had so Pen has been fatal to 
the proper ripening and flavour of our wall-fruit. 
es are watery, and some are woolly ; 
some fall off, d = and we have to make 
Peach-tart of them has not 
Uu 
Drop Plums in linen bags, and 
we have been able toget at. We have got the bet 
of the fight on the м. and yet, only the — 
ook Franklin's Golden Pippin, and 
two усон grey- speckle Apples fell upon the g! 
I foun 
iy 
ern had onna him, Ree sos dt 
The iae ме pariicehaly fone; юа Rm Keswick | 
Codlins I сарай saw ; 
red Delawares t their best. The Бан . 
Pippins aiid the 1 King ^ de Pippins promise wel) 
but they are later : 
The only рај we have 
