250 



PARES AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



collected in various parts of the empire will easily 

 imagine the benefit which might be derived from kin- 

 dred collections in public gardens. To these museums 

 we would recommend the addition of a well-chosen 

 horticultural and botanical library, composed not mere- 

 ly of treatises which ought to be in the hands of every- 

 one, but of books of reference, such as the works of 

 Lindley, Loudon, Diel, Hooker, De Candolle, Balfour, 

 and others, to which should be added the various hor- 

 ticultural and botanical periodicals of the day, and 

 many other illustrated works, which persons of mode- 

 rate fortune, unless they enjoy peculiar facilities of 

 access to public libraries, have no opportunities of 

 consulting. There might also be a collection of ele- 

 mentary treatises for the instruction of the operatives 

 employed in the gardens : indeed, such a library has, 

 with praiseworthy liberality, been formed by the Hor- 

 ticultural Society of London for the benefit of the 

 young men in the garden at Turnham Green. It may 

 seem more connected with our present object to recom- 

 mend the keeping of a register of observations made 

 from time to time in the garden. In this book we 

 would insert all the judgments formed of fruits and 

 flowers, the reception of every new plant, with its 

 date, the rejection of every worthless article, and the 

 reasons for the same, and all the comparisons of pro- 

 ducts made in respect to quantity and quality. Selec- 

 tions of the more interesting parts of this information 

 might be published occasionally ; but undoubtedly 

 there would also be much which, though it might not 

 be of sufficient importance to be presented to the eyes of 

 the world, might yet be highly worthy of preservation 



