REVIEWS. 
139 
It is not filled with the visionary ideas of a mere theorist, hut the experience of one who has 
realised what she teaches. 
A considerable portion of the work is devoted to the Garden, and abounds with general prac- 
tical hints for the culture of flowers, many of which will meet the wants of those amateurs who 
merely cultivate a small plot, and a few plants in a window. Our space forbids us to indulge in 
many extracts. The following will serve to give some idea of the manner in which each subject 
is handled ; and for further information, we must refer our readers to the work itself :■ — 
a I would advise you to have a few plants in pots in the east window. Remember though, 
you must have only a few plants, as more than five or six would give the window the appearance 
of being a substitute for a greenhouse — a most unpleasant idea at any time, and particularly so 
in the country. They should be in large handsome pots, standing in saucers, for the sake of 
cleanliness ; and care should be taken not to fill the pots with earth higher than to within an 
inch from the brim, so as to leave plenty of room for watering. The space left should be filled 
with water every morning, and the water suffered to run through the pots into the saucers, which, 
after waiting about ten minutes, or more if necessary, so as to allow as much water as possible 
to drain through the earth in the pots, should be emptied, as nothing can be more injurious to 
most kinds of plants in pots than to let water stand in their saucers. If a constant fire be kept 
in the room, so that the air is always hot and dry, the pots in which the plants are kept should 
be set within other pots, and the space between the two filled with moss. This is also a good 
plan with plants in balconies, to prevent the roots of the plants becoming dry and withered. 
Plants in rooms always require a great deal more water than plants in a greenhouse, to coun- 
teract the dry atmosphere of a living room ; and, when practicable, they should be set out in the 
rain, or syringed over head, to wash off the dust, which, from sweeping the room, and other 
causes, will inevitably rest on the leaves, and choke up their pores, thus impeding the action of 
those very important organs. Air also is as essential to the health of plants as it is to that of 
human beings, and both live by decomposing it." 
The Principles of Practical Gardening. By George W. Johnson, Esq. R. Baldwin. 
Although we do not hold ourselves to subscribe to all the contents of this book, we can 
truly say that it contains a fund of useful information on the subjects most essential to those 
who embark in the culture of plants. It consists of nine chapters, following a plant through 
all its stages, from the germination of the seed to its final decay ; and exhibiting the main facts 
in vegetable physiology and chemistry applied to the ordinary operations of gardening, and 
written in a perspicuous and popular style. We may instance the following paragraph (from 
p. 327, where the writer is speaking of chemical affinities) as a specimen : — 
u So long as a plant lives, it triumphs over those affinities. Its roots overcome the affinity 
of the soil, and take from it its moisture ; its leaves overcome the affinity of the atmosphere, and 
deprive it of the watery vapour it has in solution. The internal vessels overcome numerous 
affinities ; and, by the decomposition of carbonic acid and water, perform within their simple 
tube that which can only be effected by the chemist's most powerful agents. These triumphs 
over chemical affinities — and that most characteristic of triumphs, its avoidance of putrefaction 
— endure in the same individual, often for centuries of years ; it i§ the most marked of the 
triumphs of vitality ; its prime distinction as a creature capable, for a time, of defying the laws 
which doom all organic matters to return to the dust from which they were created ; for no 
sooner does that vitality cease, than the heat, the moisture, and the gases which vitality com- 
pelled to minister to the plant's luxuriance and health, now triumph in their turn, and serve to 
destroy that form which they had aided to sustain." 
Here we have an epitome of the life of a plant ; besides its amplification, the author shows 
how the affinities here spoken of are affected by extraneous powers ; in other words, he deduces 
the theory of gardening from the results of its practical operations examined by the lights of 
science. It is a work which every young gardener ought to possess. 
