noirncuLTUEAL progress d luring the 19th century. 33B 
mention should also be made of the marked improvements of recent^ 
years in the various species of flowering bulbs, as Liliums, Gladioli, 
Narcissi, l^c, the greatest skill again having been exercised with splendid 
results. 
During the summer I read the report of the Annual Prize Distribution 
to the scholars of one of the Norwich Schools for their " Garden Plots." 
In this branch of education we have advanced somewhat, for we have in 
the closing years of the century made a start, but we are hardly across 
the threshold, as it were, with this most important work, and if our sons 
and our daughters are to grow up God-fearing men and women, we can- 
not do them a greater service than to include in their education the 
study of the wonderful works of Nature as evinced in plant life and 
growth. This study will give them patience and encourage them to 
persevere in whatever they take in hand, for the art of gardening calls 
for an extraordinary amount of faith — we cannot see the results until 
some time after our work is done. I would urge the attaching of a 
horticultural class to the curriculum of all our public schools, whether 
city or country ; such study cannot fail to be most beneficial. 
It is w^ith the greatest pleasure I notice the work being now under- 
taken by means of experiments, demonstrations, and practical classes in 
agriculture and horticulture under the auspices of the various County 
Councils and local authorities all over the kingdom. The age has now 
passed when men can afibrd to ignore the scientific work and methods of 
advanced horticulture, and the thorough practical gardener of the future 
will no doubt be the man who combines theory of the highest order with 
practical experience : this work will be crowned with success. 
Glass Houses. 
What a revolution the greeiihouse has wrought in our land ! When I 
read that one firm of renowned market growers possesses 130 acres of glass 
houses ! — why, if our grandfathers could see those enormous areas covered 
with glass they would hardly credit their senses that such a revolution 
could have taken place in a century. Beyond doubt a great impetus in 
the erection of these miles of glass has been the adaptation of heating by 
means of hot-water pipes, a plan unknown to our grandfathers, which has 
worked a veritable revolution in many of our methods of gardening. We 
smile now whan some dear old gardener telis us of the watchful care and 
terribly hard work expended on growing and forcing fruit or flowers when 
the only known means of heating the houses was by diverting the flue all 
round the house before it was allowed to enter the upright of the chimney. 
We wonder how it ever was done, and we hardly realise the transforma- 
tion now when the merest amateur can have his tiny greenhouse heated 
by an up-to-date method of hot-water pipes, easily fixed, in a manner 
which fifty or sixty years ago the gardener of the king could not command. 
Mention must also be made of the improvements in the style of 
buildings. We still see in some of the old-fashioned houses the tiny 
panes of glass which were used years ago when there was a tax on panes 
of glass over a certain size, and w^ien it could be remarked that " God 
gave the light, but man put a tax upon it." Now, in place of these tiny 
squares we have large ones, and consequently light airy houses instead 
