32 



THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



from all quarters. "Whoever can contribute a new fact 

 adds a brick to the building, and renders material aid 

 towards its completion.— F.L.S. 



TRADE CATALOGUES. 

 We have received a batch of Trade Catalogues, from 

 which we select one or two for special notice. 



Carter's "Vade-Mecum" for 1875. This is a large, 

 well-known and well got-up catalogue of vegetable, farm, 

 and flower seeds, interspersed with a great deal of reliable 

 horticultural and botanical information. The issue for 

 the present year, though containing particulars of several 

 new and valuable vegetables and flowers, appears to us to 

 be more hastily got up than usual, and the coloured 

 plates (specially the new beans and cucumbers) not up to 

 the mark. The wood-cuts are nearly all familiar to our 

 readers; some are good, but others (as the Lily of the 

 Valley, p. 81) could hardly have been taken from nature 

 at all. The cultural directions are confessedly sound and 

 good, and the descriptions as exact as possible; in fact, 

 the latter are sometimes too full, as no one cares any- 

 thing about the Linnsean orders now, to which a page of 

 explanation is given, as well as a column in every page 

 on which the flowers are described. The natural orders 

 are more useful, but the cuts should be made to agree 

 with the descriptions ; for instance, the Liliacese have 

 parallel veins to their leaves, whereas in No. 1630 (Lily 

 of the Valley) the leaves are shown as " netted." As 

 examples of hasty production, we may call attention to 

 the fact that the cut of Convolvulus mauritan'reus (p. 49), 

 which is a gracefully pendulous basket-plant, is inserted 

 upside-down, with the stems all growing sky- wards, 

 instead of in an earthly direction. Fig. 092, on p. 70, is 

 also upside-down ; but these are minor defects in an 

 otherwise thoroughly good book. 



" Descriptive Catalogue of Flower, Vegetable, and 

 Agricultural Seeds/' B. S. Williams, Upper Plolloway. 

 This is an octavo catalogue of ninety-six pages, with a 

 few good illustrations on wood, duplicates of which (with 

 one or two exceptions) we have not seen elsewhere ; the 

 descriptions and cultural directions are brief and to the 

 point. This catalogue is valuable from its conciseness, 

 and notwithstanding its brevity, contains all the first- 

 class new flower and kitchen garden acquisitions. 



" Descriptive Catalogue of Garden Seeds." Charles 

 Sharpe and Co., Sleaford. This handsome quarto in- 

 cludes plants for the flower and kitchen garden. It is 

 well and fully illustrated with engravings, mostly original, 

 well printed, and furnished with a good index. The 

 cultural directions are also well written, in a fresh and 

 readable form, and Messrs. Sharpe wisely print the uses 

 of some of their salad and other herbs, for it is not every 

 one who knows the use of the now almost innumerable 



plants at times used in salads, soups, stuffings, teas, and 

 pickles. This is one of the best catalogues issued. 



" Descriptive Catalogue, Bellevue Nursery Company." 

 Peterson, New Jersey. Henry E. Chitty superintendent, 

 1875. This is a large-sized octavo catalogue of garden, 

 field, and flower seeds, which reaches us from America : 

 it is well printed, and contains a few good illustrations, 

 together with cultural and descriptive matter of good 

 quality. It shows what our American neighbours are 

 doing with stove, greenhouse, and hardy plants; for 

 besides several of their own novelties, this nursery has in 

 its stock all the best and newest European horticultural 

 acquisitions. Mr. Chitty will be remembered as the 

 introducer of the new Coleus " Duchess of Edinburgh," 

 figured by us in our last volume. 



We should like to see a real advance made in some of 

 our English nursery catalogues, especially in those which 

 treat of new, rare, and beautiful plants. Year after year 

 we notice with regret that the first house in this country 

 (if not in the world) issues a catalogue with neither title- 

 page nor index, the catalogue opening at once with an 

 illustration. Other plant merchants give first promi- 

 nence to long lists of patrons, as if additional lustre 

 could be given to a grand new orchid because " Prince 

 Salm Salrn " bought one and could not keep it 

 alive, or a new fern were more graceful because one 

 was purchased by the " Hon. Miss Struggles," who soon 

 killed it. In describing new plants, why so much 

 " new and choice," " choice and popular," " select and 

 useful," &c. &c. ? Plant-buyers know well enough that 

 if they go to a first-rate house they will only be served 

 with first-rate and useful plants. The illustrations to 

 catalogues, again, are often very bad, and do no sort of 

 justice to the originals, in fact, they are often quite 

 burlesques on the plants they pretend to represent, and 

 are frequently much too big for the page, so that the 

 edges of the pictures are shaved off by the binder. 

 Some nursery lists are furnished with no index, whilst 

 others give such a voluminous one that if you look 

 for pelargoniums, azaleas, or other plants in it, you 

 will be referred to half a dozen or more pages in 

 diverse parts of the book. This has the effect of so con- 

 fusing the ideas, that the probability is the person who 

 intended to use the list and become a purchaser, shuts it 

 up in perplexity, and leaves the selection of plants to 

 mere chance. Large sums of money are spent every 

 year in the production of those Trade Lists, and if the 

 money could be better directed (as it certainly could) in 

 the production of well printed, well illustrated, well 

 written and presentable books, these works would have a 

 permanent interest and value, and be preserved in the 

 library instead of being at once pitched into the waste- 

 paper basket — a fate which we well know finishes the 

 career of too many of these works now. W. G. S. 



