June 9, 1S63. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



407 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



Day 



of 



of 



M'nth 



Week. 



9 



To 



10 



W 



11 



Th 



12 



F 



13 



S 



14 



Sen 



15 



M 



Weather near London in 1862. 



JUNE 9—15, 1S63. 



Meadow Clary flowers. 

 K. Brown die"d, 1858. B. 

 St. Barnabas. 

 Wild Clary flowers. 

 Butterfly Orchis. 



2 Sl'SDAY AFTiR TRINITY. 



'Mentzel born, 1622. B, 



Barometer. Thermoffl. Wind. ^J!^'" j Hises. 



29.965—29.931 

 29.937— 29.6S3 

 29.386-29.322 

 29.433-29.137 

 29.575-29.519 

 29.630—29.541 

 29.77S-29.6S4 



degrees. 

 68—34 

 69-44 

 70—47 

 65-44 

 70—43 

 62—40 

 68-45 



S.W. 



s. 

 s. 

 s. 



S.W. 

 S.W. 

 S.W. 



.03 

 .04 

 .20 

 .50 

 .06 

 .48 

 .20 



m. h, 

 46af3 

 45 3 



45 

 45 

 45 



44 

 44 



! Moon . I Clock 



Sun Kises Moon's : after 

 Sets, j and Sets Age. Sun. 



D.iy of 

 < Year. 



12af8 



13 



13 



14 



15 



15 



16 



h. m. h. 



R 



11 







23 



8 



33 







24 



8 



56 







25 



8 



22 



1 



26 



fi 



50 



1 



27 



8 



26 



2 



28 



8 



7 



3 



29 



1 11 



59 



47 



35 



23 



10 

 0bef3 



163 

 161 



162 



is; 



164 

 165 

 108 



Meteorology of the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during tbe last thirty-six ye;irs, the average highest and lowest 

 temperatures of these daysare 71.7° and 4o 0° respectively. The greatest heat, 91', occurred on the loth, in 185S ; and the lowest cold, 30", 

 on the 15th, in 1850. During the period 145 d.:ys were fine, and on 107 rain fell. 



PLANS OF FLOWER GARDENS. 



E have received re- 

 cently from " G. 

 W." and others, 

 many plans of 

 flower gardens,ali 

 more or less cre- 

 ditable, if first at- 

 tempts, but none 

 of suflicient merit 

 to deserve en- 

 graving. 



The failures in 

 these induced us 

 to send them to Mr. Fish, and ask from him a few re- 

 marks generally applicable to such designs. The follow- 

 ing is his reply : — 



•' All of the designers should have taken more time 

 and sent their plans correctly drawn. I mention this 

 because so many young artists and young writers make 

 so many apologies for plans being made in haste, and 

 articles written in such haste, that the haste is to be the 

 apology for all errors and mistakes. Now, the haste is 

 all a mistake. The public can quite well afford to wait 

 their time and leisure if it insures accuracy. Unfortu- 

 nately I cannot always command this leisure, but many 

 of my contributions would be much more to the purpose, 

 and more pleasant reading besides, if I could command 

 the leisure to revise, concentrate, and improve them. I 

 presume that the Journal's correspondents are more 

 anxious about the results of its conductors' judgment and 

 experience than even terse and correct writing, though 

 the latter would always be an advantage ; but that want 

 of leisure must be no excuse for defective plans and care- 

 less writing in young beginners. I state this the more 

 faithfully because there has been much of slovenly round- 

 aboutism, instead of directness and concentration of 

 thought lately. A slight circumstance will better ex- 

 emplify my meaning than a laboured essay. 



" My first attempt at getting into print was in the 

 pages of the ' Gardener's Magazine,' and this secured 

 me the acquaintance, when I was a stripling, of the noble- 

 hearted Loudon. Passing Porchester Terrace, Bays- 

 water, one day with an acquaintance who was somewhat 

 dandified, stilted, and ambitious withal, I introduced 

 him to the worthy veteran, as I had a free permission 

 for entrance there at any time. Amongst diversified talk 

 about Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, Beaton's review of 

 Herbert's ' Amaryliidacese,' &c, we passed into a quiet talk 

 about the writings and the writers to the Magazine, and 

 my friend came out with the statement that if ever he 

 wrote anything he must do it slapdash there and at once, 

 and then send it off at once, for if he took time he was 

 sure to make a muddle of it. I shall never forget the 

 look of the keen-sighted Loudon when he replied, 'It is 

 all very well to write quickly just as the ideas offer, but 

 it is vastly more important to correct and revise at leisure. 

 No. 115. — Yol. 1Y. ; New Seezes. 



All writings that have lived and exercised a potent in- 

 fluence have been the result of patient analysis and care- 

 ful revision. As an evidence, single periods in Hume's 

 • History of England,' are known to have cost their 

 author a whole day before he could finally settle upon 

 the composition and the best arrangement of the words.' 



" I felt there was but little hope for me, though some 

 of my articles had been written some six or teD times . 

 over, every i carefully dotted, every t crossed, and all 

 the rest of it carefully finished. (I think I hear our 

 worthy conductors and the printers say, ' I wish you 

 were as particular now.') 



'" Now, though, unless in some extraordinary case, the 

 labour to me would be too much to rewrite an article or 

 part of an article, the point at which I would arrive is 

 just this, as showing the value of revision and concen- 

 tration at an early period, that scarcely a single sentence 

 that I intended for the public has been written without 

 being ennobled with printer's ink, whilst the writings 

 of my slapdash friend who did everything best in a 

 hurry never appeared in the ' Gardener's Magazine,' and 

 so far as I know only once appeared in the ' Horticul- 

 tural Register ;' and even with respect to that, I well re- 

 collect the worthy Editor of that time, the late .amiable 

 and accomplished Mr. Main, calling upon me and stating 

 that he would be obliged if I could use the liberty of 

 seeing the lucubrations of my friend before they were 

 sent, as but for the bare ideas he would himself have 

 written the article six times over before he couid reduce 

 it into anything like presentable shape. 



"My days of plan-drawing, unless to suit myself, are 

 now over, though I think I have as good ideas as ever as 

 to the suitability of plants for definite purposes, but the 

 lesson I wish to convey is simply this, that with plans 

 and essays, and articles, our young friends who wish to 

 excel should send off nothing to the press in a hurry ; 

 should turn the matter upside down, side to side, each 

 way and evary way, and in reading over what the} r had 

 written, should consult not only their common sense, but 

 the clinking as it sounds upon the ear, as they may rest 

 assured, that everything that seems in the least obscure 

 and inharmonious in the arrangement to themselves, 

 will be ten times more disagreeable and obscure to a 

 stranger reader. Many an article of our young friends, 

 that with a little revision and careful arrangement would 

 stand out as a gem, showing how much the younger 

 generation is progressing over that past and soon to be 

 passing away, is just glanced over, scarcely read, and 

 exercises in consequence no influence. 



"Facts, of course, in our profession are the chief 

 things, and will be valuable, however coarsely or 

 strangely communicated ; but it is no less true, that 

 facts, and axioms, and theories in gardening will gain in 

 force in proportion to the terseness and elegance with 

 which they are communicated, and no young writer can 

 expect to realise that elegance and condensation in a first 

 hurried copy of his ideas." 



Upon flower-garden plans we would also observe that 

 there is comparatively little merit in merely devising a 

 No. 767.— Yol. XXIX., Old Semes. 



