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THE FLOKIST AND POMOLOGIST. 



Last of all — and I have not enumerated the whole of the designs my fancy has fastened 

 upon for widening my sphere of operations— last of all, I have a box outside the sitting-room 

 window planted with a background of Hyacinths, and a foreground of Tournesol Tulips. 

 Covered with ashes, they will rest quietly for a few weeks, till they, too, shall be summoned 

 by Nature's inexorable law to present themselves among the gathering the opening spring 

 will invigorate and smile upon. 



And thus_ to the end of the homily ; to be read by others, to be put into practice by 

 some, I trust, in accordance with the fancy that shall direct them. Thus anticipating spring- 

 arid summer in-doors, it becomes in some degree another of those benign home influences that 

 give a bright side to many a lowering aspect of everyday life, and softens some of the 

 sternness that clings to it like a parasite, side by side with its gentler contrasts. 



Qoo. 



FRUIT-JUDGING AT KENSINGTON. 



Beading- in your November Number an account of the International Show of Fruits* 

 &c, I find that Mr. Bousie has led you into a sad mistake. The paragraph referred to 

 reads thus : — 



" Mr. Bousie seemed quite at a loss to discover why, if his fruit was disqualified because 

 of being wrongly named, Mr. Lumsden's fruit, who was placed second, was not also 

 rendered ineligible to compete, two of his dishes containing eight fruits each instead of six, 

 as stated in the schedule." 



I beg publicly to inform Mr. Bousie that such is not the case. The three dishes of 

 dessert Pears exhihited by me were properly named, and contained only tix fruit each, as 

 stated by the schedule. 



I can inform Mr. Bousie that the three dishes of dessert Pears placed first had two 

 dishes which contained eight fruits each — viz., Golden Russet and British Queen. 



JBloxholm Hall, Sleaforcl. D. Ltjmsden. 



REVIEWS. 



The Gardeners? Annual for 1863. Edited by the Rev. S. Reynolds Hole. London : 

 Longmans. 



This is the first issue of a publication which it is purposed shall appear annually. It 

 contains some excellent papers by the Editor and several other gentlemen well known in the 

 horticultural world ; and, though they are void of novelty, some of them possess a freshness 

 of style which, to some, will make them acceptable. The Editor discourses of " Roses: How 

 to Grow and Show Them." Mr. Rivers supplies a few " Fragments," a sort of fireside chat 

 about odds and ends. " D., of Deal," gossips about some of the novelties of 1862. Mr. W. 

 Paul has a paper on the Hollyhock. Somebody who seems to have a lot of names, to judge 

 by the number of his initials, has a paper on " Cottage Gardening," without any gardening in 

 it. Mr. Turner, generally a man of few words, gives us the pith of his practice in growing 

 the Cineraria in two pages. Rev. Joshua Dix wades through ad the Metropolitan Exhibitions 

 of the season, gathering here and there the most attractive objects, and presenting them to us 

 in a sort of literary bouquet. The Editor has an article on " New Roses," which tells us 

 nothing about them. Mr. Standish treats us agreeably to the creme de la crSme of the 

 Japanese novelties. Mr. Dean, of Bradford, gives a selection of the best Pansies. A notice 

 of " Greenhouses for "Working Men by the Editor ; " Select Lists of the Most Popular 

 Flowers ;" and a capital Florist's Calendar complete the volume. 



"We had almost forgotten the illustration by John Leech, which represents five of his 

 " girls " seated in a Rose garden sipping an infusion of flowery Pekoe, a chubby little Cupid 

 handing round materiel; and this is called "Love among the Tea Roses." 



Flower and Fruit Decoration. By T. C. March. London : Harrison. 



Ie we had been asked what work connected with decorative gardening was most wanted 

 in the present day, we should have answered, " Such a one as would instruct us how to 

 arrange flowers and fruits for in-door ornament." Almost every other gardening subject has 

 been already treated upon over and over again ; but never do we remember seeing this one 

 made so much a matter of system as it is represented in the work before us. Mr. March 

 has done good service to all those who, having a refined and elevated taste, do not know how 



