2i6 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



contain was constantly superseded by newer books ; 

 faith in herbalism died out; and the beautiful herbaceous 

 plants were swept away from our gardens. I suppose 

 I did not look out for these books, knowing nothing of 

 them ; but I never saw one of them till I began to be 

 interested in them and to collect them five or six years 

 ago. 



1825. ' The Manse Garden,' which has long been 

 out of print, I have. Canon BUacombe praises it most 

 warmly and justly at the end of his 'Gloucestershire 

 Garden,' published last year. It has no name and no 

 date, but he says it was written by the Eev. N. Patter- 

 son, at that time — nearly seventy years ago — Minister of 

 Galashiels and afterwards a leading member of the 

 Scotch Free Kirk. ' It is altogether,' Canon Ellacombe 

 adds, ' a delightful book, fuU of quaint sentences, shrewd 

 good-sense, and quiet humour ; and the cultural directions 

 are admirable.' This praise I entirely endorse. The 

 chapter at the end, called 'The Minister's Boy,' is 

 especially human, in the modem sense of the word. It 

 is a modest, non-old-fashioned-looking little book, and is, 

 I expect, to be found hidden away in many an old Scotch 

 house. 



1825-1830. 'Cistineae: the Natural Order of Eock 

 Eose,' by Eobert Sweet. This, once more, is a book 

 entirely confined to one family, the extent of which is 

 such a surprise to most of us. Who would have expected 

 that there are thirty-five Cistuses, seventy-eight Heli- 

 anthemums, and about a hundred Eock Eoses? The 

 drawings are good ; but the colouring, though still 

 by hand, compares very badly with Eedout6's lovely 

 Eose book. Cistuses are such charming plants, opening 

 their papery blooms in the sunlight ; they do very well 

 in the light Surrey soil, but very few of them are really 

 hardy. Gistus IcmrifoUus is hardy vnth me, and C. 



