12 
THE LADY’S MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
the packets of seeds were all botanically named. It is a common observa¬ 
tion, that, if you get one good plant out of fifty kinds of foreign seeds, you 
may consider yourself fortunate. I have repeatedly sown five hundred 
kinds of foreign seeds without being so fortunate as to get one good plant 
out of the whole; and I have for years recommended those concerned, to 
get these seeds from residents, and if possible from such residents as know 
little or nothing about plants, because such persons never think of gather¬ 
ing seeds except of such plants as bear very striking flowers or foliage, or 
both; whereas a botanist is often content if he procures novelty, whether 
good or otherwise. 
These seeds, containing about a hundred and fifty species, were gathered 
under the circumstances I have been recommending for a long time, yet, 
upon examination, I was quite disappointed with them ; and as the lesson 
I have thus learnt may be of use to some of the readers of the Ladies 
Magazine of Gardening , I think I shall be seconding your views, by 
sending you the following observations respecting them, to which I shall 
add, on a future occasion, some hints on sowing foreign seeds generally, 
and rearing the young plants. 
These seeds were all of very good kinds, many of the plants to which 
they belonged bearing magnificent flowers, and others very sweet ones, 
and all of them possessing very desirable qualities ; but unfortunately all 
of plants of so large a size, that after all the care and trouble that could be 
taken with them, the greater portion can be of no use whatever in this 
country, being seeds of some of the finest and largest trees of the Indian 
forests. After this example, I shall henceforth recommend that all foreign 
correspondents residing in tropical countries, the plants of which require a 
stove in Great Britain, may be requested to send the seeds not only of fine 
flowering plants, but those of moderate size. No seeds should be gathered 
of any tree which is more than from fifteen to twenty feet high; not 
including climbers, however, as plants of that description, though they 
may attain a great height in their native country, may be grown here for 
a long time in pots, before they get too high for our ordinary stoves. 
I would not be so particular with regard to countries the plants of 
which will thrive in the greenhouse; because, when plants get too large 
for a greenhouse, they may be planted out against a conservatory w T all, 
which is the best way of treating tall showy greenhouse plants. I hope 
you, Madam, will strongly recommend this way of growing plants to your 
readers; and if you, through this Magazine, could enlist the ladies of this 
country in favour of conservatory walls, your work would do more real 
good than all the books on gardening put together. 
Shrubland Gardens, 
Nov . 27 , 1840 . 
