126 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



His greatest work, " Origin of Species," and his " Animals and 

 Plants under Domestication " deserve a place in every garden 

 library. 



We may safely say that botany and horticulture after Darwin 

 have both risen to new heights, and both are now freighted with 

 far richer potentialities than it was possible for them to possess 

 before Darwin's studies were published. Of his great life's work 

 it has been truly said that " he turned all the old and ever- 

 winding streams of thought into one straight and broad and 

 clean-cut channel." 



GAEDEN LIBRARIES. 



By F. W. Burbidge, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., F.R.H.S. 



[Kead at Chester, August 4, 1896.] 



The question of garden libraries is complicated by a good many 

 considerations, but the central fact remains that, wherever there 

 is a garden, a library of some kind relating to plants and their 

 health and cultivation is essential. In all cases the books must 

 be selected according to the trend or genius of the place. In 

 one garden it will be fruit and vegetables ; in another Orchids, 

 Palms, or Ferns ; in another Alpine and hardy herbaceous plants ; 

 while in another place trees and shrubs will receive attention, and 

 then the garden library will follow on sympathetic lines. Of 

 course we must use the library as a walking-stick rather than as 

 a crutch, but it must exist in all well-cared-for places. 



Even a cottage gardener or a railway porter who cultivates 

 a bit of embankment will garden all the better if he possesses a 

 little garden calendar and a cheap garden dictionary. 



In all large gardens I believe it would be found to be a good 

 investment, rather than an expenditure, to provide a common 

 room for the young 'gardeners employed well stocked with 

 standard works of reference and the weekly gardening journals. 

 This is done at Kew and Cambridge, and in some of our larger 

 private gardens ; but the garden library is far from being a 

 universal institution, and its use and influence might be ex- 

 tended to advantage. 



