THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 1G, 1858. 305 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Weather near London in 1857. 
D 
M 
D 
W 
FEBRUARY 16—22, 1858. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.andS. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
afterSun 
Day of 1 
Year. 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
Tu 
W 
Th 
F 
S 
Sun 
M 
Shrove Tuesday. 
Lent begins. Ash Wednesd. 
Epacris impressa. 
Erica transparens. 
Erica rubra calyx. 
1 Sunday in Lent. 
Erica vernalis. 
30.073—30.019 
29.992—29.966 
29.999—29.964 
30.145—30.093 
30.180—30.129 
30.278—30.227 
30.255—30.230 
55— 26 
56— 34 
55—33 
48—30 
52— 30 
53— 33 
55—25 
S. 
S. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
.01 
.01 
.01 
15 a. 7 
13 
11 
9 
7 
5 
3 
14 a. 5 
16 
18 
20 
22 
23 
25 
8 a. 38 
10 0 
11 26 
morn. 
0 54 
2 23 
3 45 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
3 
9 
14 21 
14 17 
14 12 
14 7 
14 0 
13 53 
13 46 
47 | 
48 
49 
50 
51 1 
52 
53 
' 
Meteorology of the Week— At Chiswick,from observations during the last thirty-one years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 45.2° and 31.4°, respectively. The greatest heat, 58°, occurred on the 21st, in 184G ; and the lowest cold, 2°, 
on the 17th, in 1855. During the period 131 days were fine, and on 86 rain fell. 
NURSERY CATALOGUES —HARDINESS OE 
SEEDS — RIBBON BEDS—PROPAGATION 
BY CUTTINGS. 
About the time of the first Reform Bill, of 1832, 
I there was nothing in any way connected with the 
i progress of gardening, in this country, which so much 
needed reformation as the seed and plant catalogues 
of the trade. The ruinously extravagant projects, and 
the irresponsible power of one man, Mr. Sabine, had 
brought the affairs of the London Horticultural Society 
to a dead lock two years before that year, and “ a 
paid secretary ” was the foundation of the next start 
of the reformed Horticultural, and a panacea for 
curing all the evils of an irresponsible power in the 
eyes of the most sanguine reformers of the old body. 
Now, if politicians had then enacted, in their reform, 
that their members and men in power should be paid, 
the chances are that their reform would also have come 
to a dead lock ere now, like ours ot the Horticultural. 
Our second wheel having stopped this time two 
years, after running in dry sockets for ever so long; 
therefore, our reforms of management have failed as 
completely as anything that ever failed in this world. 
But all this time a constant and visible reform was 
| going on, from year to year, in all our practice, and 
the worst part of our system of doing business pro¬ 
gressed the most rapidly—that system was, and still 
is, a yearly publication of all the principal articles on 
sale, for the use and guidance of those who wish to 
buy. There is very little more that we can desire in 
the systems pursued in our trade catalogues ; for they 
are not all on one system. But I myself have felt, for 
some years, a great defect in the “ getting up ” of 
these catalogues, although I never said, or wrote, a 
word on the subject to any one; and were it not for 
this “reform movement,” by Lord Palmerston, I might 
have been dead and gone without giving my best 
legacy to the nursery and seed trade, and to the gar¬ 
dening world in particular. 
The most valuable part of my library is what I have 
retained of the periodical literature of the trade—their 
.catalogues and their advertisements. Since the year 
1826, I have volumes of them ; and it is from the un- 
| gainly sizes, the odd shapes, and the unequal pro¬ 
portions of the tops and bottoms of these “ annual 
registers,” that a sense of reform in the system of 
issuing them was forced on my attention. My reform 
and legacy must go together ; and here they are. I 
would first have it enacted that all the nursery cata¬ 
logues and seed lists in Europe and America be made 
exactly of the same shape and size, so that the different 
catalogues, like the different numbers or parts of The 
Cottage Gardener, might be bound into a yearly vo¬ 
lume, oryolumes. I have abundance of such volumes, 
and can speak to their use and value ; but there are no 
“ heads or tails” to them ; and some of the very best I 
am obliged to leave out altogether, for their awkward 
shapes. All the trade send these catalogues every 
year to their regular customers, and to the editors 
and writers of gardening works. In this last capacity 
a great number of catalogues are sent to me yearly; 
and my practice has been to bind them up into yearly 
volumes, as far as the bookbinders would undertake 
the trouble. After a few years these volumes are of 
great value for reference; and I am quite sure, from 
my own experience, that there is not another yearly- 
made book in one’s library that would be more useful 
to any family in the three kingdoms, who has the ad¬ 
vantage of a garden, than such a volume of catalogues, 
and for this one reason — that almost every one of 
them has a different recommendation for the use and 
guidance of amateurs, who know little of the matter 
in hand. 
Suppose one to be a great admirer of Roses, and o 
little else, he should be able to talk on Roses with 
experienced people ; for that is one of the greatest plea¬ 
sures about any hobby. To be able to talk learnedly 
on the subject with others, he should buy all the 
Rose catalogues, or have them sent him freehand he 
should bind them up into yearly volumes; and he 
would learn how to grow Roses ; to prune the different 
kinds; to spell their names properly; which was the 
best pillar Rose; the fastest-gi’owing climber; the 
best for tall and dwarf standards, and a hundred other 
ideas which might not occur to a regular practitioner ; 
besides knowing the prices of the different kinds in 
the different nurseries. All the Rose catalogues can j 
be bound, in a strong, serviceable cover, for less than j 
one shilling, judging from what Mr. Diamond, the prin¬ 
cipal bookbinder here, in Kingston, charges for bind¬ 
ing my catalogue volumes. The greatest bore in the 
world is to have scores of different catalogues lying 
about, when one has to look for the name of some j 
plant, or seed, or nurseryman; or to ascertain what 
Rivers, or Veitch, or Lee, or Henderson, or Legion, 
has to say, or to offer in this or that branch ; but bind 
their catalogues as I do, and they are so many diction¬ 
aries. Then, on their part—although you may never 
give them an order more than I do—knowing that 
you take care of, and preserve their lists, many of 
them will give their catalogues for the mere postage, 
on the chance that you will name the best lists among 
your friends, and thus spread a knowledge of their 
business in your part of the country. Therefore, let 
us pass a reform bill this very season, not to compel, i 
but to authorise all those we desire to be remembered, j 
and to be more known in the gardening world, to fix 
on some given size for their catalogue, and to adopt ; 
that one size in all their catalogues ; in order that 
their customers, friends, and the rest of the public, 
may be able to form these into yearly volumes, or 
annual registers, of the bulk of the nursery and seed 
trades. 
After that reform, the next step will be to combat a j 
theory which has been set on foot by the authority of I 
No. 490. Yol. XIX. 
