NOVEMBER 233 



by the constant desire to extend them into pastures new. 

 Mr. Eobinson's description of a garden at Weybridge 

 ought to open the eyes of everybody as to what can be 

 done in Ught soils. All I wish to point out is that 

 merely buying the plants and sticking them in does not 

 make a wild garden. No one can look at Mr. Parsons' 

 beautiful drawings of the Evening Primrose and the 

 Giant Cow Parsley without longing to grow such things. 

 But the first essentials are space and isolation ; they are 

 worth nothing if crowded up. 



1875. ' The Vegetable Garden,' by M. M. Vilmorin- 

 Andrieux. English edition published under the direction 

 of W. Eobinson. This is one of the books mentioned in 

 January as indispensable to anyone who wishes to be 

 up-to-date or to grow special vegetables in the kitchen 

 garden. The illustrations are from the French edition, 

 and, though not artistic, are admirably drawn, and give 

 one quickly an intimate knowledge of the shape and 

 growth of vegetables, whether they be roots or plants. 



The first edition of the now far-famed ' Enghsh Flower 

 Garden ' came out in 1883, and the one published this 

 year (1896) is the sixth edition. It has been immensely 

 added to, and the present illustrations are among the 

 most beautiful modern wood-cuts I know. It is said that 

 books are now written to be read and understood by the 

 village idiot. If this be so, I must own that the first and 

 second editions, with their quantity of small, gardener's 

 catalogue illustrations of the plants and flowers, are more 

 helpful to the ignorant amateur than is this beautiful 

 illustrating of, let us say, a branch of Hawthorn or a full- 

 blown Tea-rose. This seems a cruel criticism of a beautiful 

 book ; and it should never be forgotten that the fault lies 

 with the ignorant amateur, not with the new edition. 



' God's Acre Beautiful, or The Cemeteries of the 

 Futxu^e ' is a strong plea for cremation. My edition is 



