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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



horn, and was never more heard of. But, in fact, what we do 

 well to take from the Alps can be got with the trowel. The 

 deep-rooters which want the spade you can rarely establish in 

 your garden or nursery when you have got them, and they are 

 better let alone. What kind of case to use for your spoil when 

 collecting is a fairly moot point. It is certain that it should be 

 something stiff, to minimise the crush and jam of the plants. 



The usual tin botany-case, slung to the back, is well enough on 

 occasion, but it is generally inadequate for one's serious and 

 concentrated annual effort. It almost goes without saying, that 

 what is wanted must be as handy and portable as possible ; 

 strong enough, yet light, and must open and close conveniently. 

 I run the danger of amusing you — a danger from which I recoil — 

 when I say that I have found the desiderated qualities best con- 

 centrated in — shall I say it — a small portmanteau ! or, rather say, 

 in a valise. But not in a British one, for the typical British one 

 is, like the Britisher, heavy, solid, and tough. But in most towns 

 on the Continent can be bought, in all sizes, small and large, 

 cheap valises (from two francs and upwards), rather "thin" — 

 canvas and cardboard predominating in their structure — and 

 which admirably unite the desiderated qualities before tabulated. 

 You prod holes in them freely for ventilating purposes. Such I 

 use as well on my collecting rambles as on the return journey. 

 And on it they have a final merit which crowns all (although I 

 believe I selected them irrespective of this quality) — I mean that 

 they enable you yourself to carry your plants home as " passen- 

 ger's luggage." Only thus are you sure of them, and not always 

 then. The perils of their journey home are many. For instance, 

 I recall many years since arriving at my Paris hotel with my 

 precious freight, which, as usual, I had cared for like a mother 

 all the way from the Alps, by day and by night. At Paris I thought 

 it wise to direct that my charge should be " made to descend," as 

 the French say, to the ice-cellar. I " gave command" accord- 

 ingly, in what I have still no reason to doubt to have been 

 quite unimpeachable French. A lucky mistrust seized me five 

 minutes later as to whether my instructions might have been to 

 the letter obeyed ; and, penetrating promptly to the recesses of 

 the lower regions, I found my parcel of plants placed before a 

 cheerful fire in the middle of the kitchen, while " Monsieur le 

 Chef" received me equally cheerfully, and needed to have it 



