96 
THE FLORIST. 
Scotland, and being a plant that requires much moisture, the beds 
are generally made lower than the walks. They must not be watered 
over the foliage. 
Having thus briefly pointed out the method of cultivating various 
florists’ flowers, and the little trouble required in their cultivation, 
nothing further need be said, as each flower would require a separate 
article for the purpose, and this is only intended to give a brief 
outline. 
Nursery, Cheetham Hill, near Manchester. 
FLOWER-GARDENS AMONG THE POOR. 
That gardens, and especially flower-gardens, are tokens of transition 
from a state of barbarism, may be proved by the historical fact that 
whilst Italy, the most advanced of European countries, had its orna¬ 
mental gardeners in the fourteenth century, France had no regular 
gardens till the sixteenth or even seventeenth century, except one 
ancient garden at the Louvre. England was quite as far behind in 
floriculture, and little attention had been paid even to the common 
horticultural art for culinary purposes. The esculent vegetables now 
most in use were only introduced in the reign of Elizabeth, and some 
sorts a great deal later. 
Your profession, Mr. Florist, is certainly of very modern date. In 
a rude part of Devonshire, where I have resided, I never saw a single 
flower brightening the aspect of the mud (or as they say, cob) cot¬ 
tages : where the poor are better off, or in a higher state of civilisa¬ 
tion, we immediately see some little plot of ground taken advantage 
of, and a paling thrown round it to protect the few flowers which it 
contains. ^ 
The entire absence of flowers around the dwellings of the poor, 
where, with a little taste and contrivance, they might be easily raised, 
is always to me a sad token of abject penury, or of rude ignorance of 
the sweets of life. A very poor woman, aged eighty-four, who has 
about her that species of refined feeling which genuine Christianity 
gives to the lowest, wished last summer to give me some token of the 
overflowing gratitude of her heart, which, by God’s goodness, had been 
quickened and gladdened through my reading the Scriptures to her, 
which she could not read for herself. She led me into her little 
garden, a plot about two yards square, and urged on my accept¬ 
ance some Carnation-roots, one of the flowers of which she assured me 
would fill a wine-glass. I received the gift with delight, and no Car¬ 
nation shall I prize so much this season as that which came from the 
old widow’s humble flower-bed. I am glad, Mr. Florist, that you 
encourage the cultivation of flowers by cottagers. 
