THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 103 
But there is another circumstance which will redound to the general 
amusement and instruction of your readers. Many of your correspondents 
have bound themselves, either by accident or choice, to some particular 
section, order, or genus of the science; others to particular species, which 
absorb all their perceptions. Some are medical botanists, others chemical, or 
physiological, or dietetic, or entirely floral. All these are devotees, and so 
completely compressed within their own narrow boundaries, that they can 
neither by desire nor exertion see any thing beyond. They are bound 
hand and foot by their darling studies, and never deviate into variety. 
Now you, madam, are free from all such trammels. You have not 
been trained up in any narrow exclusive path of the science, but have 
been brought almost at once to the “ top of Pisgah,” whence you have 
had a full view of the whole land of vegetation, and of its most striking 
beauties. Over the whole expanse you can roam unfettered and un¬ 
biassed, culling every thing that may be interesting, whether glowing 
from the torrid, smiling from the temperate, or shivering from the 
frigid zone. Whether rare and costly, or common and neglected; whether 
met with on every highway, or drawn from the farthest or deepest 
recesses of the green earth, none of any merit will escape your notice or 
regard, not even if found in the lowest rank of our garden outcasts. 
It is in behalf of one of the latter description that I am now about to 
move your sympathy. There is merit in drawing modest worth from 
obscurity, and it is, I trust, as praiseworthy as enwrapping oneself in 
Dahliaism, or Pansyism, or any other exclusivism. The matter is this :— 
About a month ago I had occasion to call at a public office where 
much business was doing by the officials at the different counters. The 
quiet stillness of the office was only interrupted by the opening and 
shutting of books, the chinking of precious metals, and the rustling of 
paper. But my attention was riveted to a single desk in one corner, on 
which was placed a very ornamental object. It was not a Cereus 
speciosissimus , nor a lovely variegated Camellia , nor a frame of Dutch 
bulbs in full beauty; no—it was none of these, but only a luxuriant 
specimen of the common Christmas rose ! (Helleborus niger.) It occu¬ 
pied a No. 16-sized pot, the surface of which was completely covered 
with its scanty foliage and numerous flowers, in different stages towards 
full bloom. This, though an old familiar face to me, was yet a gay 
and refreshing spectacle, especially as snow covered the streets, and the air 
was rigidly cold. The view of this luxuriant plant v^as really a treat, 
never having seen it in such high health before ; nor was I aware that the 
plant could, by a little extra care, be brought to such perfection. 
This pleasing sight brought a train of ideas which, as somewhat 
practical may arise from them, I shall here put down. Why was not 
