408 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
February 23, 1895^ 
THINKING GARDENERS. 
This is essentially an age of education, and the fiat 
has gone forth and is by most people obeyed and 
believed in that the education of the average Briton 
is behind the standard of what the best authorities 
consider as a fair and proper degree of merit. In 
past days it was only the children of the wealthy 
who were fortunate enough to receive anything like 
an education, the poorer classes were kept in com¬ 
parative ignorance, generally from lack of the 
wherewithal to defray the expenses of such a train¬ 
ing. Although as a nation our slowness of movement 
and tardiness and reluctance to adopt measures of 
improvement are notorious, we have moved surely 
if slowly in the right direction. Most thinking men 
are unanimous in saying that any system which 
educated that portion of the social community only 
who after all stood least in need of it and completely 
ignored and neglected the training of those classes 
who had to gain their living by work, whether 
manual or mental, was a mistake— a mistake, too, 
that after a deal of unneccessary beating about the 
bush we are proceeding to rectify. 
It is just a matter of conjecture, however, if in this 
rage for improved educationary arrangements we 
are not forgetting that the best educated man is most 
emphatically not the man who has had the most 
expensive schooling in his young days, but is ever 
the man who thinks most, and the one who uses his 
powers of reasoning to the best and greatest advan¬ 
tage. In other words, the man who applies in the 
best and most practical way any theoretical know¬ 
ledge which may have been instilled into his mind in 
the schoolroom during his earlier years. There can 
be no doubt that if a man really wishes to rise to the 
top of his profession, whatever that profession may 
be, he must, to use an American phrase, “ keep his 
eyes skinned,” and should be always on the look out 
for opportunities for adding to his store of knowledge. 
There are many individuals who, more's the pity, 
go about the world with their eyes shut. Not for 
them are the beauties of Nature, nor the improve¬ 
ment in mental tone or the enriching of the treasures 
of the mind which the study of Nature ever brings 
to the careful and zealous student. Other men, on 
the contrary, are for ever acquiring knowledge, each 
field, each lane and hedgerow are full of information, 
which to their educated and enlightened minds are 
both interesting and instructive. All the professions 
are calling out for thinking men, who, not content to 
follow slavishly in the paths which have been trodden 
by their forefathers for so many years are capable of 
planning and devising new and improved methods. 
In no one calling, however, is the need for 
thoughtful men so apparent, or the call for them so 
urgent, as in the profession of horticulture. A gar¬ 
dener has to depend principally upon his faculties 
of observation to improve himself in the practice of 
his profession. It may be said to be characteristic 
of this age that of the making of books there is no 
end. Now while we would not for a moment decry 
the knowledge that may be derived from the careful 
and systematic perusal of suitable literary material, 
it is very certain that the reading of books alone will 
not make a man an efficient gardener. It is the 
individual who exercises his power of observation, of 
thought, and of reason, that will be, ay, the most 
ready and resourceful, capable of meeting altered or 
modified circumstances with the greatest ease to him¬ 
self and advantage to those for whom he is working. 
In far too many instances the young gardener of 
to-day is too apt to become a mere machine, and to 
go about his work from day to day with the thought 
in his mind, even if the words are not upon his lips : 
"Oh, well! I must stop in this place for so much 
longer so I may as well take things as easily as 
possible.” In fact, he does his work from sheer force 
of habit and not because he takes any interest in or 
derives any real pleasure from its practice. It is an 
undeniable fact that the best gardener is he who 
takes the greatest interest in his work, and such men 
are always studious and thoughtful individuals. 
The question of amusements may be touched upon 
disparagingly by some who would fain have us believe 
that a gardener must not be a lover of sport. It has 
already been decided by certain classes of the com¬ 
munity that a gardener must not have children—we 
beg pardon, encumbrances they are usually called— 
but it would be exceedingly hard upon him to debar 
him from any enjoyment whatever. Of course, we 
do not for a moment intend to convey the idea that 
indulgence in amusements should be allowed to 
interfere to any extent with the prosecution of the 
necessary studies. It is true that in some instances 
this does occur, a fact that is certainly to be deplored, 
but what is really necessary is not that sports should 
be sweepingly condemned, but that a due sense of 
proportion should enter into the calculations with 
regard to the portioning out of the gardener’s spare 
time when it will be found that there is a time to 
play as well as to work.— H. 
PLANTS FROM SEEDS 
VERSUS CUTTINGS. 
Nothing is more desirable in a garden than good, 
strong, healtty plants of all kinds. The importance 
of vigour cannot be over estimated, for when a plant 
is strong and healthy it is capable of warding off 
many ills that weaker examples readily succumb 
under, and therefore we should avail ourselves of 
all possible means to secure such a desirable end. 
It may not be out of place to ask whether, as culti¬ 
vators, we are doing right in propagating by means 
of cuttings, grafts, or buds, so many things that may 
with great advantage be raised from seeds. Propa¬ 
gating by means of cuttings, layering, grafting, etc., 
has its advantages, no doubt, but it is equally true 
to say that these various processes are often greatly 
abused, and the aim of the cultivator thereby de¬ 
feated. To give instances of this would be super¬ 
fluous, and so I will endeavour only to show the 
advantages of renewing stock by means of seeds 
instead of by cuttings. 
First I would point out the fallacy of supposing that 
plantswill not fruit or bloom so freelyfrom seeds as from 
cuttings. In some cases seedling plants are certainly 
not so quick in coming to maturity, but they are 
certainly the best in the end. Take Tomatos as an 
illustration. To keep the stock of a certain variety 
true, I have propagated it from cuttings for several 
years, but I could never see any advantage in the 
cutting plants over those raised from seed in the 
matter of fruiting, and much prefer the latter. In 
my early days we used to propagate our stock of 
Cinerarias from cuttings, but we do not do so now. 
The practice I should think has almost died out, 
and certainly is not to be compared with the grand 
results obtained in so short a time from sowing a 
packet of seeds of a good strain. 
Many bedding plants grown for summer use are 
much better obtained from seeds than otherwise, and 
instances of this may be named in the case of 
Begonias, Verbenas, etc. Again amongst hardy 
plants we have a striking illustration in Lobelia 
cardinalis and its allies. To keep up a vigorous 
stock of this beautiful plant I find the best way is to 
sow a little seed every two years and destroy the old 
stock. The same remark also applies to Campanula 
pyramidalis and many other members of the same 
family, Pyrethrums also, among many other border 
plants may also be included in the same category ; 
and with equal force also the remark applies to many 
bulbous and tuberous rooted plants, such, for instance, 
asjGloxinias, Freesias, Cyclamens, etc. Chionodoxas 
come very strong from seed, and Gloriosas soon 
make flowering bulbs from seed. Gloxinias I notice 
lose the greater portion of their vigour in three or 
four seasons. 
If we turn into the vegetable garden, note the 
Thyme and many other herbs how vigorous they 
come from seed. What has not raising Potatos 
from seeds done for that invaluable esculent ? But 
for the continued raising of new varieties, where 
should we be now ? According to my experience, 
extended over a long period and on many soils, do 
what one will, one cannot keep up the heavy crop¬ 
ping qualities of any given varieties after they have 
been in cultivation a few years. All observing 
cultivators know that Nature favours seedlings; 
then, I ask, why try to get away from natural laws ? 
Everyone who has had much to do with plant life 
must have noticed how many plants drop their own 
seed in rough, and what might be thought uncon¬ 
genial, soil, yet the seedlings thrive in the most 
remarkable way. It cannot be contended that cut¬ 
tings are cheaper than seeds when all things are 
considered. Often such propagating has to be done 
at the expense of keeping the stock over the winter, 
entailing a lot of room and labour, which could 
easily be avoided by sowing seeds in spring. Seeds 
are also cheaper now than they were in the years 
gone by, so that the question of cost cannot be 
argued against them.—Con. 
LAPLAND STOCKINGS. 
The numerous species of Sedge (called by botanists 
Carex) are applied to a variety of useful purposes. 
In Herefordshire, for instance, Sedge is used for 
tying young hop plants to the poles : in Cambridge 
lighting for fires; and everywhere for making 
common chair bottoms. In Lapland, however, it 
has a much more important office, as will appear 
from the following passage translated from Linnaeus 
by Mr. Curtis. The great Swedish botanist is 
speaking of the Carex acuta ;—“ Thou wilt wonder 
perhaps, curious reader, in what manner human 
beings are capable of preserving life during the 
intense severity of a winter’s frost in Lapland, apart 
of the world deserted on the approach of winter by 
almost every kind of bird and beast. The inhabi¬ 
tants of this inhospitable climate are obliged to 
wander with their reindeer flocks continually in the 
woods, not only in the daytime but through the 
longest winter nights ; their cattle are never housed, 
nor do they eat any other food than Liverwort, 
hence the herdsmen, to secure them from wild 
beasts and other accidents, are of necessity kept 
perpetually with them. The darkness of their nights 
is, in a degree, overcome and rendered more tolerable 
by the light of the stars reflected from the snow, and 
the Aurora Borealis, which in a thousand fantastic 
forms nightly illumines their hemisphere. 
" The cold is intense, sufficient to frighten and 
drive us foreigners from their happy woods. No 
part of our bodies is so liable to be destroyed by 
cold as the extremities, which are situated furthest 
from the heart: the chilblains of the hands and 
feet, so frequent with us in Sweden, sufficiently indi¬ 
cate this. In no part of Lapland do we find the 
inhabitants affected with chilblains, though, in res¬ 
pect to the country, one would expect them to be 
peculiarly subject to this disease, especially as they 
wear no stockings, while we clothe ourselves in one, 
two, and even three pairs. 
1 ‘A Laplander preserves himself from the violence of 
the cold in the fallowing manner :—He wears trousers 
made of the rough skin of the reindeer, which reach 
to his ankles, and shoes made of the same material, 
the hair turned outward: this grass (the Carex 
acuta), cut down in the summer, dried, rubbed 
betwixt the hands, and afterwards combed and 
carded, he puts into his shoes, so as not wholly to 
enwrap his feet but the lower parts of his legs also, 
which thus defended never suffer from the severest 
cold ; with this grass be also fills his hairy gloves 
to preserve his hands ; and thus are those hardy 
people enabled to bear the frost. As this grass in 
the winter drives away'cold, so in the summer it 
checks the perspiration of the feet, and preserves 
them from being injured by stones in travelling, for 
their shoes are extremely thin, being made of un¬ 
tanned skins. It is difficult to learn on inquiry 
what the particular species of grass is which is thus 
in request with these people, as some use one sort, 
and some another. It is, however, always a species 
of Carex, and we understood chiefly this.”—The 
Liverwort mentioned in this quotation is the rein¬ 
deer lichen, the Lichen rangiferinus of Linnaeus, but 
now called Cenomyce rangiferinus.— J. Lofthouse, 
The Gardens, Bilton House, Harrogate. 
-- 
EDIBLE FUNGI IN 
SURREY. 
In the January number of Science Gossip, Mr. Charles 
A. Briggs discusses the question of edible fungi 
other than the common Mushroom (Agaricus cam- 
pestris), which, through ignorance or prejudice, are 
allowed to rot and waste instead of being utilised. 
He contends that instruction of some kind or other 
should be given in schools whereby the children 
would be enabled to discern the difference between 
edible and poisonous fungi to be met with in the 
lanes, fields, and hedges. There must be, he imagines, 
someone in every parish, whether schoolmaster, 
clergyman, or doctor, who is sufficiently acquainted 
with botany to be able to point the distinguishing 
characters by which the larger species of Mushrooms 
and allied edible fungi, may be recognised. 
This, it is to be feared, is pure supposition and 
altogether illusory. Some there probably are in 
every parish and many in the mere populous 
districts possessed of a knowledge of botany in vary¬ 
ing degrees; and some are well versed in it; but 
their knowledge in most cases is confined to flower¬ 
ing plants. To the larger number of them, fungology 
