REJOINDER TO MR. MEARNS. 
349 
on the part of its projectors to set about doing something towards its 
establishment without further delay. 
That the objects which they have in view are laudable, I think no 
one will doubt; and that such a society, if properly conducted, would 
confer permanent benefits on society at large, I think no one will gain¬ 
say. It must be evident to all, that education makes the man, and 
that without it a man is a mere blank in the moral and intellectual 
world. Give, then, the assiduous young gardener equal advantages 
with the mechanic, and fear not but he will embrace its facilities 
hold out to him the means of acquiring a scientific knowledge of his 
profession, and gardening will soon take its proper station among the 
arts and sciences. 
Gardeners, under the most humiliating disadvantages, have pre¬ 
served the respectability and independence of their order. The wages of 
the working gardener ever have been, and still are, much below those of 
any other class of operatives; notwithstanding which, they have always 
shown a natural tendency to accommodate themselves to their circum¬ 
stances : and while we find almost every other class of tradesmen, under 
privatory circumstances, depending upon the general bounty, we almost 
invariably find gardeners appealing only to the sympathy of those of 
their own order; this is particularly so in Scotland, where the brotherly 
feeling of one gardener towards another is truly admirable, though, I 
am sorry to say, too often played upon. But all good practices and 
institutions have their evil tendencies, and the friendly sons of Adam 
in Scotland must not expect to be exempted from this natural evil. It 
is true, we may be told that this is not the case with those myriads of 
“ rough ones ” who perambulate the streets of London and its envi¬ 
rons in the winter season, in time of frosty weather, calling out “ Pity 
the poor gardener; ” but sure am I that I am within the mark when I 
say, that not more than one professional gardener will be found among 
every hundred of these spurious knights of the spade, who at that 
season of the year infest our streets and lanes, and thereby render even 
the name of gardeners an object of derision and contempt. That these 
projected societies will in some degree prevent this evil, and raise the 
moral and intellectual character of the profession, is the fond antici¬ 
pation of 
London, July 8th, 1836. GALGACUS. 
Rejoinder to Mr. Mearns’ Article “ On the Coiling of 
Vines.” —The assumed “cognomen” of QiXocrotyog has, it appears, 
misled Mr. Mearns ; for, judging by the note appended to his article 
by the Editor, he must have conceived that our first paper was written 
