312 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



The knowledge that every new plant is eagerly sought after, 

 and that, although gardens have an almost unlimited choice, 

 they are ever ready to welcome novelties, has kept alive the 

 enthusiasm of plant collectors as well as stimulated the energies 

 of florists. Botanists are continually endeavouring to improve 

 the knowledge of the flora of every country, and British 

 workers have not been behind the rest of the world. Thus, 

 in spite of the enterprise of centuries, the world still holds 

 hidden treasures for the garden, which it may be the good for- 

 tune of twentieth-century travellers to disclose. 



The good qualities and the requirements of any new plant 

 are quickly made known to the public through the medium 

 of a host of gardening newspapers, as well as by the more 

 scientific reports of societies or the Kew Bulletins. Garden 

 literature is at the present time unprecedented in quantity ; 

 of its quality it is best to leave future generations to be the 

 judges. The cheapness with which pictures in monochrome 

 or colour can be reproduced to form attractive volumes is 

 apt to prove a snare, unless the writer has some particular 

 information to impart, or is greatly gifted with novel ideas 

 or poetical sentiments, and has a facility of clothing them in 

 appropriate language. 



There have been considerable developments in the fruit- 

 market since the year 1900, not so much from any improve- 

 ment at home, but from the opening up of trade with British 

 Colonies. Exhibitions of colonial fruit have been held in 

 London to familiarize the public with the products of the 

 Empire. Apples from Tasmania or British Columbia and other 

 distant places are so cheap that it hardly pays the home 

 producer to keep the late ripening fruit to sell at a more profit- 

 able season. Custard apples are commonly to be seen in 

 fruiterers' shops, and even the Mango can be conveyed in a 

 fresh state to a London purveyor, so rapid has the transport 

 become, and so complete are the arrangements on board the 

 ships for preserving fruit in cooled chambers. The Plums 

 and Peaches [of South Africa have already established 

 a place in British markets. The most striking change within 

 the last few years has been the cheapening of Bananas. The 



