4X0 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



He expresses his dislike for double flowers with great force, but 

 quite justly to my thinking. Of the Hollyhock he writes : " Look, for 

 instance, at the blossoming of a well-grown single Hollyhock with its 

 central column of white mealy stamens, around which the bees are 

 for ever digging and burrowing, and observe how beautifully this 

 column completes the deep bowl-like corolla, and then stand apart 

 and see how by these columns the whole spire is illuminated, every 

 part of it brought out into clear rehef as by a lamp placed in the centre 

 of each flower. . . . 



" Now would you think it possible that anyone would be willing 

 to throw away these beautiful stamens and have the corolla choked 

 up by a blind, unmeaning mass of spongy petal ? " 



And of the double Snowdrop : — 



" All the characteristic beauty of the Snowdrop, the delicate 

 curvatures of the petals, the contrast betwixt the light, thm, flexible 

 outer petals and the inner, short, stout, unyielding cup, have dis- 

 appeared, in order that that light graceful form may be stuffed out as 

 you would stuff a pillow-case with a bunch of strips arranged like a 

 pen -wiper." 



Thus he fearlessly revealed his love for natural rather than artificial 

 beauty, and greatly influenced those who read the book, and I cannot 

 help thinking it would be well if the present generation of gardeners 

 were more familiar with Forbes Watson's opinions. 



" A Year in a Lancashire Garden," by Henry Bright, 1879, ^^d 

 " The English Flower Garden," 1881, by the same author, are two 

 small books written in a fresh and chatty style, and full of useful hints 

 and a true love of flowers. Both contain passages that carry on the 

 war against the bedding-out system with much vigour. For example : 

 " In the old walled garden, instead of the plants which so long had 

 had their home there, each of which knew its season and claimed 

 welcome as an old friend, there were bare beds till June, and then, 

 when the summer was hottest, a glare of the hottest, brightest colours. " 

 Mrs. Earle has praised the earlier book so highly in her delightful 

 " Pot-pourri from a Surrey Garden " that I feel I ought to like it better 

 than I do, but must confess to preferring the second, though it is more 

 general in scope. 



" In a Gloucestershire Garden," by Canon Ellacombe, published 

 in 1895, contains a series of papers on gardening, which he contri- 

 buted to The Guardian during the years 1890 to 1893. I owe 

 so much of my enjoyment of gardens and plants to alternating 

 perusals of this book and visits to the author and the wonderful 

 garden he has described in it, that I find it as hard to express 

 my admiration of it as one would to describe the graces and virtues 

 of one's nearest relations. 



The author's wonderfully wide knowledge of men and books, his 

 own and other countries, enabled him to take a many-sided view of 

 the plants of which he writes, and I think the chief charm and value 

 of the book arise from the fresh light such a knowledge throw^s on even 



