46 
THE ROSE AMATEUR S GUIDE. 
but is earthed up, and it shows the benefit of it 
in an early development of its fruit. With 
regard to the vine and cucumber, we have 
only to remark that the amateur will not be 
deterred from attempting their culture by any 
real or pretended difficulties. The author can 
be understood by a novice, and we may add 
that there is no waste of words. There are 
few works on gardening, or any of its branches, 
that have the same merit of conciseness in so 
great a degree as the author's little volume. 
A second edition has been published, with ad- 
ditional information. 
Every Lady her own Gardener. — Let 
not any one who has read the work of 
Abercrombie — " Every Man his own Gar- 
dener," fancy for a moment that the little book 
before us is like it. There is nothing to j us- 
tify the title, or tempt any one to buy. 
"Every Lady her own Gardener" is the off- 
spring of some feminine pen, which betrays all 
the weakness of the sex, and we had nearly said 
the vanity of inexperience and self-sufficiency. 
There is nothing new in it — not an idea but 
what has been worn to tatters in all the works 
from Miller's downwards ; and it merely adds 
one to the hundreds of volumes that might 
be burned with great advantage. We do not 
wish to be severe where there is a shadow of 
originality or other value, but it is high time 
that a line were drawn between works of mere 
compilation and works of merit. Nothing 
but a novel and successful mode of treatment 
justifies any one in thrusting a work on 
the public, and adding to the multitudes of 
trashy "Guides," "Treatises," "Observa- 
tions," " Remarks," " Instructions," and 
" Pamphlets," that surfeit even the patient 
reader of garden literature, as it is called. The 
little volume before us may be said, nay has 
been said, to be unpretending. This, how- 
ever, merely amounts to the fact that the 
authoress does not presume, like another lady, 
to find fault with the very works she copies, 
as an excuse for giving us a worse. Still 
there was no occasion for it. There are plenty 
of books that would teach ladies gardening far 
better than this. In short, the abridgment of 
the History of England into a child's book 
would give as much notion of the subject as 
" Every Lady her own Gardener " will of 
horticulture. There are little works of a 
fourth of the price that contain four times as 
much useful matter, and, moreover, written 
by persons that write for the multitude who 
have but scanty knowledge, instead of spinning 
a subject into fine rounded periods of no 
meaning, and garnishing it with words in- 
comprehensible to the million. We are the 
last to decry female talent, or to undervalue 
the efforts of a lady if the least useful, but 
there is a double blunder in this work. Had 
it been written down a little more, and the 
title been " The Child's Guide to Gardening," 
we should have said nothing about it ; but, 
with no pretensions to originality or novelty, 
to assume the title of the best work of the 
kind, and lead to a supposition that it 
was worthy of the same rank among females 
that Abererombie's book was among men, was 
to thrust it into notice under a flag which it 
dishonoured. 
The Gooseberry Register. — This in- 
teresting little hand-book or guide to the 
gooseberry-grower is but partially known 
among the generality of gardeners, whether 
professional or amateur, but it ought to be in 
the hands of everybody who cultivates that 
favourite fruit. It is a complete register of the 
principal shows, with the names, weight, and 
colours of the winning berries, and is conse- 
quently one of the best possible instructors to all 
who intend purchasing the largest and best show 
varieties. It would appear, in a general way, 
that the heaviest berries win ; that they are 
classed in four colours, red, white, green, and 
yellow, each competing together, and not one 
against the other. There are also notices of 
the new varieties to come out, and of shows 
appointed next year. Of course, the reports 
are, to those not in the fancy, very uninterest- 
ing; but there is a summary of each variety's 
winnings, and the weight of the heaviest that 
have been shown during the season. This 
summary is of far greater interest than the 
rest, and is worth the attention of any body 
who has room to grow a few of the most suc- 
cessful kinds. 
The Rose Amateur's Guide. — The only 
fault we find with this little volume is, 
that it is calculated, if not written, to 
induce persons to buy a few good roses 
that will please them, and a great many that 
are worthless ; the common fault, and, we 
much fear, the too common object, of guides 
written by or for dealers. It contains some 
very good hints as to the general culture of 
the rose, and a sort of classification of the dif- 
ferent families, which, however, is becoming 
less useful every season, inasmuch as the 
family distinctions are rapidly fading away, 
and the rose-growers themselves, in many 
cases, do not know with which family to class 
some of the new varieties. By- and -by we 
shall have something more rational than the 
present classification, and roses will be dis- 
tinguished by their striking peculiarities in- 
stead of their real or supposed parentage. 
The moss, the China, noisette, climbing, and 
summer or June roses, are plain enough, but 
whether a rose is a hybrid China, a Gallica, 
or a Provence, is of mch importance (!) 
that doctors differ as to which a new one 
belongs to. 
