288 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



wishing to hear of new improvements. Nurserymen's lists of 

 seeds and plants were not then distributed broadcast* and a 

 catalogue such as that of Loddige of Hackney in 1777 was a 

 work of importance. This want of information led to the 

 appearance of a number of periodicals. The first half of the 

 century was remarkable for the quantity of beautifully got-up 

 publications, many of them with exquisitely drawn and 

 coloured illustrations of the rare and new plants which were 

 being introduced. The Botanical Magazine was commenced 

 even earlier, and has long ago kept its centenary, 1 and still 

 continues. Other works were not so long-lived, and it is 

 indeed wonderful that many existed for as long as they did, 

 considering the great expense of bringing them out, and their 

 similarity. Among the most important were The Botanical 

 Register, begun in 1815 by Sydenham Edwards, and continued 

 from 1827 to 1847 by Lindley, and Maund's Botanic Garden, 

 which came out in monthly parts from 1825 to 1850. Paxton's 

 Magazine of Botany began in 1834, Harrison's Floricultural 

 Cabinet from 1833 to 1851. 



John Claudius Loudon was a most persevering writer, and 

 besides his well-known encyclopaedias on gardening, plants, 

 trees, shrubs, and agriculture, he started The Gardener's 

 Magazine in 1826, and conducted it until his death in 1843. 

 His works and those in which he was assisted by his wife 

 covered a very wide field, and involved immense labour. This 

 was an age when those who took to gardening did so in a most 

 thorough manner. The result was a number of very capable 

 men of high standing, whose equals it would be difficult to find 

 nowadays. Some of those employed by the largest landowners 

 came up to a very high standard, but as a whole gardeners 

 were less proficient than at the present time. One reason 

 for this was the serious trouble of obtaining reliable informa- 

 tion on matters of culture. The leading gardeners experi- 

 mented on all the new plants, and discovered their proper 

 treatment, but for those who had not similar opportunities 

 knowledge was difficult of acquisition. The foremost gardeners 

 showed great boldness in the way they took new flowers in 

 hand. Often their efforts were so successful that the feats 



1 Begun in 1787 by William Curtis. 



