ALPINE OR ROCK PLANTS. 
453 
in efficiency. Liberality is the only prin- 
ciple which can succeed in the end, and 
whatever curtails it in the least degree is 
mischievous. Public exhibitions (under some 
trifling restriction) should be thrown open to 
everybody who has a good production to 
show, and then the public has something to 
look at. Confine a show to the people who 
are what is called members, that is, who sub- 
scribe in some way or other, and you cannot 
produce a show worthy of support. And it 
behoves everybody who gives money to be 
shown for, to stipulate that it shall be open to 
competition by people from all the country ; 
otherwise it is awarded to the best of a bad 
lot, which is the best then mustered by the 
few connected with the Society, while persons 
out of it, and totally unconnected with it, per- 
haps, could win with the finest productions 
in the kingdom. This subject will bear a 
good deal of discussion ; but the leading 
points may be carefully studied by the mana- 
gers of country shows, and will be undoubtedly 
the cause of some alteration in those nearer 
London. 
ALPINE OR ROCK PLANTS."*" 
All writers on particular branches of Gar- 
dening are too apt to refer to other branches 
which they do not profess to know anything 
about, and yet give their opinions as glibly as 
if they were the subjects of their book, and they 
were quite at home in them. It did not appear 
at all necessary that the author of a neat and 
useful little work like this, comprising subjects 
with which he seems well acquainted, should 
ramble about among those which he is cer- 
tainly not acquainted with ; and it detracts 
from his merit when he is in error upon plain 
matters of fact. Can anybody imagine any- 
thing more erroneous than the following ? — we 
think not. 
" The period, indeed, has not long elapsed, 
since the culture of flowers was taken much 
into consideration at all. There was no peri- 
odical, and scarcely a standard w r ork on the 
subject ; and any flowers, cultivated about the 
premises, were generally in the borders of the 
kitchen-garden." — P. 19. 
Can there be a greater libel than this on 
our floral forefathers for the last century, not 
to go back further ? Can anything show more 
plainly that the author's knowledge is super- 
ficial, and his reading very limited, when he 
assumes that there was scarcely a standard 
work on the subject of flowers ? Where, too, 
did he find the extraordinary information that 
* Practical Hints on the Culture and General Ma- 
nagement of Alpine or Rock Plants. By James Lothian. 
Edinburgh : W. H. Lizars. London : S. Highley. 
Dublin : W. Curry, Jun. arid Co, 
any flowers cultivated about the premises were 
generally in the borders of the kitchen gar- 
den? He was not obliged to be acquainted 
with all the standard works, most certainly ; 
but he was never more mistaken in his life 
than he was in writing about what there was 
and was not, unless it were when he asserted 
that " any flowers cultivated about the pre- 
mises were generally in the borders of the 
kitchen garden." Our forefathers had their 
fruit, flower, kitchen, and nursery gardens, in 
all good establishments ; and a public writer 
has no business to look at low life, and take 
the habits and manners as those of the people. 
"We could point out to the author standard 
works, in which the very subjects he writes of 
are well treated ; and it is quite a mistake to 
suppose there was so great a dearth of Garden 
literature, or that the modern works add so 
much to our stores of knowledge. Aber- 
crombie's " Every Man his own Gardener" 
has supplied all the matter for one-half the 
Garden works of the day. And Miller's Gar- 
dener's Dictionary alone has more in it than 
all the modern works put together. But we 
are wandering, for we are quarrelling with the 
Introduction, which is the worst portion of the 
work, instead of looking to the main subjects. 
One more passage from the Introduction, how- 
ever, and we have done : — 
" Plants and flowers are greatly attended to 
at the present day both by amateurs and gar- 
deners ; but evidently those more showy, or 
otherwise most conspicuous, receive most 
attention, while other plants equally interest- 
ing, and in themselves quite as beautiful, are 
comparatively neglected. The allusion is here 
made to Alpines or Rock-plants ; for, except- 
ing in extensive establishments, botanical 
institutions, &c, these are very rarely to be 
met with. This disregard very probably 
arises from their being so minute, conse- 
quently less conspicuous and attractive at first 
glance, than some of those going under the 
name of Florists' Flowers." — P. 20. 
Not only are they less conspicuous at first 
glance than some of those going under the 
name of Florists' Flowers, but they are so 
after you have looked at them for a month. 
The truth is, that where anybody wants to 
write about things not Florists' Flowers, they 
had better let Florists' Flowers alone. To get 
to the pleasant part of our office, let us proceed 
to the proposed subject of the work. It is a 
neat and well-arranged lesson to those who 
wish. to adopt a Rockery, Pond, and other 
necessary arrangements for a collection of 
Alpine, bog, and select aquatic plants ; and as 
we are the last to undervalue real service, we 
give the author credit for bringing into a 
small compass a good deal of useful information, 
founded on experience. He has read all he 
