EDITOR'S NOTE 
Mr Epwin BeEckKeTT’s name is so well known to all 
who take the smallest interest in gardening affairs that 
he needs little introduction to the readers of this book. 
For very many years he has been a most prolific and 
valued contributor to our leading gardening papers, and, 
since he was seventeen years old, he has been a very 
successful exhibitor at flower, fruit and vegetable shows 
of every grade. Like many another gardener of dis- 
tinction, Mr Beckett comes of a race of earth lovers, for 
both his father and grandfather were gardeners before 
him. He was born at Henley-on-Thames, and educated 
at the grammar school in that town. On leaving school 
he started practical work in the gardens of Sir Dudley 
Marjoribanks. Thence he proceeded to Wolseley Grange, 
Esher, where, although only in his seventeenth year, he 
held the post of foreman. In 1884, Mr Beckett obtained 
the appointment of head-gardener to Lord Aldenham, at 
Aldenham House, Elstree, which post he still occupies. 
The number of medals and other prizes which have 
fallen to Mr Beckett at the exhibitions of the Royal 
Horticultural Society and elsewhere is probably greater 
than that of which almost any other gardener can boast. 
He is a member of the Fruit and Vegetable Committee 
of the Royal Horticultural Society, and is the author of a 
very useful little book on ‘‘ Vegetables for Exhibition.” 
The Editor desires to express his thanks to those ever 
courteous florists, Messrs Kelway, of Langport, for 
assistance in illustrating the Logan Berry, Rubus sorbi- 
folius, and the Japanese Wineberry. 
