FLORICULTURE OE THE MONTH. 
75 
until a proper test be again established to 
restore it. 
It will be observed that some florists are 
writing industriously in jDublic journals, and 
affecting to give rules for judging the flowers 
in which thej deal ; others are writing treatises 
for their culture, not with any novel ideas, 
but with pi'eviously-known treatises for their 
guide, and merely putting their names to it 
for the purpose of bringing themselves into 
notice. This would be laudable enough if 
there had been nothing of the kind done 
before ; but under the circumstances, it is a 
very questionable proceeding, and it would 
have ten times the weight, and be more 
respectable, if they were really desirous of 
spreading the information, to quote the lessons 
from which they themselves learned their 
practice, and gave the original authors the 
credit ; but this must in time find its level. 
We are obliged to read over again, in these 
questionable treatises, the very practice re- 
commended in this very magazine ; and grati- 
fying as it may be to see this pi'actice adopted 
and taught, it v/ould have been still more so 
to have found the growers, in a fit of honour- 
able fairness, quote the work itself, instead of 
giving out its lessons as their own. When all 
these treatises shall be published in a single 
volume, and dated at the time they first 
appeared, it will not raise the retailers of the 
same instructions, without even a mention of 
them, in the estimation of the thinking public. 
There are some florists' flowers that we hope 
to see again cultivated with spirit. The 
auricula and the polyanthus have been sadly 
neglected ; and it was no small misfortune to 
the floral world when I\Ii-. James Dickson, of 
Acre Lane, had his unrivalled stock of new 
as well as old favourite auriculas destroyed 
by the hailstorm. Some valuable novelties 
were altogether destroyed, and the varieties 
lost ; but when we consider that a single 
garden light would be sufficient for a very 
fine collection, calculated to enable any person 
to exhibit successfully, it is much to be 
lamented that any amateur florist should be 
without them. As a stage flower they are 
universal favourites, and as a show flower the 
properties are well understood. Why then 
should it not be a popular favourite for public 
shows ? The polyanthus is still more neglected 
in the metropolis ; and the ranimculus is 
every way deserving the highest rank as a 
neat, brilliant, and much-varied flower, that 
has been brought to a high state of perfection. 
Lightbody of Falkirk, and Read of Brucefield, 
in Dunfermline, would supply any beginners 
with a good show collection fur comparatively 
a small sum ; and Ave would strongly recom- 
mend anybody who desired to begin, to 
make the best bargain they could with these 
two cultivators, for a hundred or two to com- 
mence with. The tulip fancy is worthy of 
every beginner's notice. A bed of these is 
the handsomest feature in a garden, and there 
is no difficulty in anj'body attending a sale, 
or buying a bed whole, of such men as 
Lawrence of Hampton, Lightbody, Davidson 
of Peckham, or any other fancier ; for they 
would almost give half to any beginner who 
bought the other half. But tbey must attend 
a sale of flowers in bloom, or get some one to 
attend for them, to buy a few of the stars that 
are not always to be had. We were in con- 
versation with a nurseryman the other day, 
and admiring the progi-ess the rose had made 
since florists had taken them up as a florist's 
flower; we excited his jealousy at once, for he 
would not admit it was a florist's flower. We 
were not sorry for his anxiety, but he could 
not alter the fact. The florist, however, is 
content with about eighty or a hundred varie- 
ties, whereas the nurseries in their catalogues 
enumerate from three to fifteen hundred. 
The florists have no wish to claim these ; 
but the improvement of the rose is going on 
rapidly in the hands of the floriir^ts, and it will 
every year now get nearer perfection. Among 
the shrubs which are deservedly popular now, 
we notice two that were our favourites many 
years since, though then scarcely known. 
Garrya eUiptica with its graceful catkins, and 
Andromeda fioribunda with its beautiful ra- 
cemes of delicate white flowers, both elegant 
evergreens, and now as plentiful as they are 
elegant. They are forced upon our notice 
just now because they ar-e conspicuous at the 
earliest season, and ought to be in every 
shrubbery of only a dozen plants. A garden 
of a rod, in front of a suburban cottage, 
ought not to be without them. Perhaps 
January is the flattest month in the whole 
year, and affords least material for notice ; but 
it is in such a season of comparative rest, that 
we are glad to secure an opportunity of a 
rambling sketch of-what is coming, as well as 
things gone by, and giving a few desultory 
remarks upon the general state of the science 
and those who follow it. The rapid changes 
from heat to cold, and frost to thaw, have 
touched a good many tender shrubs, which 
would have borne far greater extremes with 
impunity, had they been more gradually ap- 
proximated. 
