60 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



require continuous attention. A few times a year they would 

 need the gardener's care in pruning, keeping clear of weeds, 

 and so on ; and if some of the culinary necessaries were added to 

 the list they would provide abundant occupation for the rest of 

 his time. 



And then what shall we say to such a fact as this ? Our 

 British plantations of Lavender and other useful flowers have 

 gone the way of so many other things — viz., to France and other 

 continental gardens. Why, nobody seems to know, except this, 

 that, like most other cultivated plants, Lavender needed some 

 attention ; but being a plant requiring only a very little care, 

 that little it did not get, and so it has emigrated to the lands of 

 more careful gardeners. 



We have also attended the early morning sales at Covent 

 Garden Market, and noted the vast quantities of flowers which 

 are introduced from other places across the water, many of which 

 we could easily grow ourselves. We have to go to Holland for 

 bulbs ; they would be just as good if grown within fifty miles of 

 London. Many of the best varieties of Daffodils, Irises, Narcissi, 

 Anemones, and the like are already largely grown by specialists, 

 and their system might be made a national one if we were not so 

 indifferent about such matters. 



We are always crying out that we do not do this, and we do 

 not do that ; and it is evident that, if shareholders were alive to 

 their interests, their waste lands would yield them profitable 

 returns, and a great deal more than at present. The subject is 

 worthy of the attention of those who rejoice in railway dividends. 

 Probably timid directors would mention the element of danger 

 about such invasions of their embankments. It need not disturb 

 any director or shareholder, as this objection, and others which 

 might be suggested, would all be minimised in a systematic 

 undertaking such as we have hinted at. If the various railway 

 stations have been turned by speculators into huge advertise- 

 ment depots, so that it is almost a puzzle to discover the name 

 and place of the usual arrangements of a station, there would be 

 some compensation for what we have to endure in the intervals 

 of arrival and departure if the travelling hours were lightened 

 by some pleasing sights of useful life, or refreshed by the fragrant 

 breezes from a few acres of Violets, Strawberries, or Lavender. 



One of our English sayings, trite and threadbare as it is, is, 



