NOVEMBER 221 



Those who have larger gardens would do well to try 

 and get Mrs. Loudon's six quarto volumes, illustrated 

 with coloured pictures. Though artistically bad as 

 flower-paintings, and inferior to those published now in 

 the weekly gardening papers, they resemble the flowers 

 enough to be recognisable. They most usefully illus- 

 trate the text for the ignorant amateur, who learns far 

 more quickly when pictures and letterpress are com- 

 bined than by any written instruction alone, however 

 good. 



Mrs. Loudon's quarto volumes are now rather 

 difficult to get complete. There are two volumes on 

 perennials, one on annuals, one on bulbs ; this one is 

 perhaps the most valuable of the lot, as it gives many of 

 the best-known bulbs as they arrived from the Cape, 

 before they were so over-cultivated and hybridised by the 

 modern nurseryman. Perhaps the volume on greenhouse 

 plants is the least interesting, as so many things are re- 

 commended for cultivation under glass which have since 

 been proved to be hardy, or nearly so, and grow very 

 well out of doors — at any rate, through the summer 

 months. The volume on English wild flowers, which 

 completes the set, is a little superficial, but helpful. It 

 has rather good pictures of many of our native plants, 

 some of which are now very rare. The best of these 

 wild flowers can be cultivated from seed, even in small 

 gardens, giving us most beautiful effects with very 

 little trouble and expense. 



1828. ' M6moires du Mus6e d'Histoire naturelle.' 

 1834. ' M6moires sur quelques Bsp^ces de Cact^es.' 

 These are portions of two books with most beautiful 

 and curious illustrations of Cactuses, the only examples 

 of old botanical drawings of Cactuses I have been able up 

 to now to procure. They are not coloured, but delicate 

 and precise in drawing to a high degree. 



