OCTOBER. 
315 
attention ; for I am of opinion that a great number of new plants is 
sold to the public with the conviction that they will be discarded as soon 
as they are known. This in particular has been the case with many 
kinds of bedding plants, and for my part I should be inclined to look 
suspiciously on a long list of new plants of any kind. Let me not, 
however, be misunderstood ; our best thanks are due to the person who 
with good judgment carefully collects such new plants as he knows to 
be worthy of attention; it is those who, for the sake of making a 
long list of new plants, collect indiscriminately the good and bad, and 
oifer them on equal terms to the public. So long as improvement can 
be made let us have new plants, but without this they ought not to be 
offered for sale. But to return to my subject. Plants required to 
complete the stock should be procured at once. Many it will be possible 
to increase this autumn, and most of them by the spring. This opera¬ 
tion must be carefully attended to, for if otherwise the plants, from 
neglect, may be lost entirely ; it will be better, therefore, to devote a 
pit or frame to all choice plants, removing the lights during fine weather. 
The next, and perhaps the most important thing to be attended to at 
this season, is the securing of a quantity of good pasture loam and farm¬ 
yard manure. In some localities this precaution is unnecessary. I am 
of opinion, however, that in nine cases out of ten it offers the only means 
of success, and this not only when the borders are first made, but to be 
a system carried out every three or four years—we should then see those 
old favourites, with the new, flourishing luxuriantly. The roots of most 
of the stronger growing herbaceous plants penetrate deeply into the soil, 
and unless a proper provision is made for them the plants grow weakly, 
and the first hot summer’s day burns them up and renders them 
unsightly for the season. The system I would recommend, then, is to 
remove all the plants in February, weather permitting, once in about 
four years, and, after carefully laying them where they will not b.e 
injured in any way, to wheel on the compost prepared, and afterwards 
to trench the ground eighteen inches deep, mixing well the new soil 
with the old, quite to the bottom of the trench. 
The only operation now remaining is to replant the border, and in 
this work the notes previously made will be of the greatest value, 
for by their assistance the groups and shades of colour may be managed 
with the best effect; and I feel every confidence that a collection of 
herbaceous plants planted as directed, and with the necessary care 
through the summer months, will prove of the greatest interest from 
spring to autumn. 
REVIEWS. 
Natural History of the Vegetable Kingdom. By R. Hogg. 
Parts HI. and IV. 
We have lately noticed this publication ; the last two Parts are now 
before us, and bring the “ History of the Vegetable Kingdom down 
to the important natural order Legurninosse, or Pod-bearers, on which. 
