288 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
wishing to hear of new improvements. Nurserymen’s lists of 
seeds and plants were not then distributed broadcast, and a 
catalogue such as that of Loddige of Hackney in 1777 was a 
work of importance. This want of information led to the 
appearance of a number of periodicals. The first half of the 
century was remarkable for the quantity of beautifully got-up 
publications, many of them with exquisitely drawn and 
coloured illustrations of the rare and new plants which were 
being introduced. The Botanical Magazine was commenced 
even earlier, and has long ago kept its centenary, 1 and still 
continues. Other works were not so long-lived, and it is 
indeed wonderful that many existed for as long as they did, 
considering the great expense of bringing them out, and their 
similarity. Among the most important were The Botanical 
Register , begun in 1815 by Sydenham Edwards, and continued 
from 1827 to 1847 by Lindley, and Maund’s Botanic Garden , 
which came out in monthly parts from 1825 to 1850. Paxton’s 
Magazine of Botany began in 1834, Harrison’s Floricultural 
Cabinet from 1833 to 1851. 
John Claudius Loudon was a most persevering writer, and 
besides his well-known encyclopaedias on gardening, plants, 
trees, shrubs, and agriculture, he started The Gardener s 
Magazine in 1826, and conducted it until his death in 1843. 
His works and those in which he was assisted by his wife 
covered a very wide field, and involved immense labour. This 
was an age when those who took to gardening did so in a most 
thorough manner. The result was a number of very capable 
men of high standing, whose equals it would be difficult to find 
nowadays. Some of those employed by the largest landowners 
came up to a very high standard, but as a whole gardeners 
were less proficient than at the present time. One reason 
for this was the serious trouble of obtaining reliable informa¬ 
tion on matters of culture. The leading gardeners experi¬ 
mented on all the new plants, and discovered their proper 
treatment, but for those who had not similar opportunities 
knowledge was difficult of acquisition. The foremost gardeners 
showed great boldness in the way they took new flowers in 
hand. Often their efforts were so successful that the feats 
1 Begun in 1787 by William Curtis. 
