112 



JOURNAL OP HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ August 9, 1864. 



Fancy Pelaegoniums. — Anne Page, very round outline ; 

 bright crimson-rose top petals ; lower ones lighter, all white- 

 edged. Edgar Turner, dark crimson upper petals, with a 

 brighter crimson edge ; lower petals same colour, but shaded 

 off paler, until in the throat quite white. Both raised by 

 Mr. Turner, Nursery, Slough. — (Floral Mag., pi. 205.) 



Ehododendbon. — Princess Alice. Eaised by Messrs. Veitch 

 by crossing R. Edgeworthii with .E. ciliatum. Flowers large 

 and pure white. — (Hid., pi. 206.) 



Ibis. — Mademoiselle Patti. Eaised by Mr. Salter, Versailles 

 Nursery. Upper petals orange ; lower petals claret, darkly 

 veined : bases of petals yellow veined with claret. — (Ibid., 

 pi. 207.) 



Sabeacenia Dedutmondii. — Pitchers green ; tops white 

 veined with green. — (Ibid., pi. 20S.) 



Eose. — Lord Macaulay. " Full, deep, and richly coloured, 

 it takes an honourable place among the thoroughly good 

 crimson Eoses which have been rather bountifully added to 

 our collections during the last two or three years. We owe 

 the opportunity of figuring it to Mr. W. Paul, of Waltham 

 Cross, by whom it was obtained from the continent, and 

 who first introduced it to the notice of British rosarians in 

 the spring of last year ; the flowers then exhibited winning, 

 most deservedly, a first-class certificate. 



"When recently lecturing on Eoses at South Kensington, 

 our friend and correspondent, Mr. Eadclyffe, observed with 

 much truth, that none but vigorous-growing Eoses were 

 suitable for our English climate — this vigorous character 

 being, however, just what it too often happens that Eoses 

 of continental origin are deficient in. In this respect we 

 are glad to be able to attest that Lord Macaulay will fully 

 meet the requirements of English growers ; the habit being 

 strong, the foliage bold and ample, the flowers of full average 

 size, the form cupped, the petals firm and smooth, and the 

 colour a rich crimson. As regards colour, indeed, the flowers 

 are variable. Sometimes they are richly shaded with very 

 deep, almost maroon crimson, and sometimes they are of an 

 almost uniform deep crimson, as our figure represents them ; 

 and sometimes, as was the ease with the blooms shown on 

 the occasion of Mr. Eadclyffe's lecture, the margins of the 

 petals are of a glowing crimson scarlet. In any of these 

 conditions it is a beautiful Eose of hig'h merit. We have, 

 therefore, no hesitation in recommending it heartily to the 

 notice of Eose-growers as a flower of quality and refinement, 

 combining with the richest colouring a perfectly free and 

 vigorous habit of growth." — (Florist and Pomologist, iii., 169). 



THE EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 

 A well-educated eye is always an advantage to its pos- 

 sessor, but few professions afford greater scope for its ac- 

 quirement and exercise than that of a gardener. Most 

 gardening operations require a clear discriminating eye, and 

 a steady hand. Wherever you find an amateur whose pro- 

 ductions and general management are equal to those of 

 many practical gardeners, you at once set him down as one 

 who is " quick to learn and wise to know," for his skill and 

 taste are the result of his own observations and experiments. 

 Although a liking for a pursuit generally leads to some 

 degree of skill in it, yet there are men who do one or two 

 things well, and the rest of their work very indifferently. 

 Take, for instance, your amateur friend who makes Dahlias, 

 Pansies, Marigolds, or any particular flower his chosen 

 hobby. He shows you some very fine flowers on robust 

 plants ; but then you must shut your eyes to the rest of 

 his garden, or else your admiration of his flowers will be 

 extinguished by your dislike of disorder and weeds — that is 

 to say, if you have an educated eye. Some people say this 

 class of men are incapable of more than one idea — it is 

 Pinks and nothing but Pinks with them (or some other 

 flower, as the case may be) ; and although their Pinks may 

 be good, their gardens are far enough from being the pink 

 of perfection. Is it not strange that the eye that can admire 

 the symmetry and charming combination of colour which 

 distinguish florists' flowers, should sometimes be wholly 

 insensible to the enhancing beauty of cleanliness, neatness, 

 and order in garden management ? Yet so it is, and there 

 is no accounting for it, otherwise than by the want of what 

 may be termed eye education. Tou will often enough see 



men put away their spades, trowels, or other tools without 

 cleaning the dirt off them. Now, not to speak of the plea- 

 sure there is in using a bright implement, and the finer 

 work you can make with it, some people would clean it and 

 make it bright after use simply for the pleasure of seeing 

 it so. This sort of thing is illustrated by the saying that 

 one sometimes hears regarding the mistress of a house, 

 " She has a keen eye for dirt." When you see a plot of 

 Dahlias so well staked and tied that every shoot is brought 

 into the best position for receiving light and air, and the 

 straggling or useless branches carefully pruned away, you 

 are the more surprised if you find the border flowers that 

 grow along by the walk all hanging in tangled masses, 

 entirely at the mercy of the wind and rain. In a ease like 

 this you say, " Well, this man maybe a good Dahlia grower, 

 but he has no eye for anything else in his garden;" and you 

 are not far wrong. It is not unlike what housewives call a 

 " clean middle and dirty corners," when they want to point 

 out a sister's deficiency in the domestic virtue of cleanliness. 

 These are results of defective eye education that no Diogenes 

 would require a lantern to discover. They are open, glaring, 

 obvious, and wherever they exist they are as ugly as they 

 are apparent. Again: when an amateur takes you to see 

 his favourite plot of flowers, and you have to pass along a 

 road that is barely passable, you naturally suppose that 

 gravel and engine-ashes must be at a high premium in that 

 quarter, and entirely beyond your friend's reach. But, on 

 the other hand, it must be conceded that where these garden 

 defects are to be found, they are not always to be taken as 

 indications of defective eye education, or want of taste. 

 Amateurs are often hard pressed to get their favourite 

 flowers attended to, and however much they may desire to 

 have everything trim and shipshape, the time they are 

 enabled to bestow on their gardens is wholly inadequate. 

 Tou can generally see, however, whether a man is of a tasty 

 turn by the way in which he does what his time permits him 

 to do, and eyesores will, under every circumstance, remain 

 eyesores to the educated eye. The very fact of there being 

 such a word as " eyesores " proves that some eyes are more 

 defective than others. 



Most men have heard or used the expression, " He has not 

 a straight eye in his head," at some time or other ; and this 

 very common, but not very complimentary phrase, indicates 

 either the careless use or the imperfect training of the eye. 

 One ploughman makes straight furrows, and another makes 

 crooked ones; one man makes even work with his spade, 

 while another leaves the ground in hills and holes ; one gar- 

 dener can clip a Box-edging as straight and clean as if he 

 had chalked a line to go by, as a tailor has when he cuts out 

 a coat, but his neighbour performs the same operation in an 

 out-and-in style, which is less pleasing to the eye. This 

 may not be so much a defect in the education of the eye, 

 as in the hand and eye not working- together, or the hand 

 not being trained to obey the eye. He may perceive that 

 his work is not well done, and be dissatisfied with it. But 

 when a gardener can go complacently past the jellow and 

 decayed leaves on his greenhouse plants, when he has time 

 to remove them, you may be sure his eye education is 

 defective. So in bedding-out for summer decoration, you 

 will find one gardener make far nicer work than another, 

 not in arranging colours and sizes for back or front posi- 

 tions, for that is often done according to a fixed plan, but 

 in the regularity with which he places each plant at the 

 proper distance from its neighbour when he has only his eye 

 to guide him. The same thing may be observed in a hun- 

 dred different forms. One eye cannot bear to see a crop of 

 weeds and moss growing along with plants in pots, nor 

 slimy vegetation covering the sides of the pots, nor gaining 

 a foothold on the flags of a greenhouse, while to another 

 these things are no eyesores at all. So with the plants in a 

 greenhouse or stove ; a gardener with what is called a good 

 eye will make a far more effective arrangement than one 

 who has neglected his eye education. It is the same in 

 potting : one man will detect a wirewonu, or anything else 

 of an injurious character, and cast it out, while another will 

 shovel everything into the pots, perlectly unconscious that 

 he is doing his best to spoil his own work. 



Budding and grafting require an educated eye, for on the 



skill and nicety with which these operations are performed 



, depends, in a great measure, their success. But for all that, 



