HORTICULTURAL MUSEUM. 



249 



and their decorative value may be clearly ascertained 

 and exhibited to the eye. This is a function properly 

 belonging to horticultural gardens and which, it must 

 be owned, they have as yet imperfectly discharged. 

 The horticultural prints teem with advertisements of 

 flowers, fruits, and apparatus, for the worth of which 

 the editors can not possibly be made responsible ; and 

 if the ill-advised purchaser trusts implicitly to some 

 of these seductive statements, he will soon find that 

 he is paying dear for his experience. We should wish 

 to see all these lauded articles tested in the Horticul- 

 tural Gardens, and marked with the imprimatur of 

 these societies. Surely fair dealers would find it for 

 their benefit to establish such a practice ; at least the 

 protection of the public requires that something of this 

 kind should be done. 



Horticultural Museum. — This is another improve- 

 ment which we earnestly desire to see introduced. 

 Most of the societies, it is believed, possess drawings, 

 and models of fruits, and dried collections of horticul- 

 tural products more or less extensive; but they are 

 seldom so arranged as to be easily accessible to stran- 

 gers, or even to be readily consulted by those in charge 

 of them. Why should there not be a spacious room, 

 well aired and lighted, fitted up with glass cases, etc., 

 for the reception of objects worthy of preservation? 

 "We would assemble there specimens or models of the 

 fruits and vegetables of our own and other climes. 

 "We would have an herbarium of the plants and shrubs 

 that have occupied a place of distinction in the flower- 

 garden, as many of these, through the .influence of 

 fashion, pass away and are forgotten. Those who 

 have examined the agricultural museums now being 



