January 19, 1901. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
331 
grown plants had. The latter furnish about the finest 
blue-flowered plants that our conservatories can 
contain during October. Growing as it does to a 
height of 5 ft. or 6 ft., and having an abundance of 
bright pale blue flowers,when interspersed among such 
Chrysanthemums as Soliel d’Octobre and others the 
colour contrast is very effective and delightful 
indeed. 
Physostegia virginiana speciosa was almost over, 
but little Cedronella mexicana cana still made a 
bright display. It is a valuable plant for the front 
parts of the border. Verbena Aubletia with its 
bright lilac-mauve flowers was as fresh and vigorous 
in October as in July. Then Pentstemon perfoliatus 
with its dark green foliage closely set upon the 
ground, and long branching panicles of pinky- 
lavender flowers, is quite a decorative subject at this 
time. The Verbascums were nearly over. Where 
the tall flowering central spike had been removed the 
lower lateral spikes developed, and were in fine con¬ 
dition. V. tomentosum at Kew is the best in this 
respect. 
Mimulus cardinalis, after a long and continuous 
flowering season, was beginning to appear shabby. 
Where it succeeds, and that is in a half-shaded and 
damp corner, well sheltered, it is a worthy plant for 
any garden. In pots it has been proved to do 
exceedingly well. 
Solanum rostratum is a plant I have not before 
referred to. In autumn it bore at the end of each 
prickly shoot a raceme of deep, bright yellow 
flowers. The foliage is much like that of the Oak¬ 
leaved, scented Pelargonium. When carefully 
treated this plant could be effectively employed in 
border or bed arrangements for a late display. 
The various Statices were past their best for cut¬ 
ting and drying. Some of them were effective 
enough even then, for the dry calyxes have an orna¬ 
mental value. Such of them, as S. Limonium, S. 
speciosa, S. Bonduellii, with its yellow flowers, and 
S. sinensis, may be called to mind. 
One of the best plants, during autumn, in the gar¬ 
den is Ceratostigma plumbaginioides, of dwarf and 
bushy habit and wiry growth. The terminal leaves 
of the shoots are dark red and bear clusters of clear 
blue flowers. It covers a deal of ground, but it is 
worthy of all it occupies. Eccremocarpus bicolor 
rosea, a remarkably showy annual of elegant climb¬ 
ing habit, still had some amount of blooms early in 
October. Hieracium rubrum and Scolymus macu- 
latus, each fairly well known and worthy of yet more 
attention, were passable, and may be included among 
the lists of later flowering herbaceous border plants. 
Another good annual which resembles the Hieracium 
is Emilea flammea ; and this still held out. Ammo- 
bium alatum was more than ready for cutting by the 
middle of October. The Helichrysums, another 
genus of “ Immortelles," were fresh enough till the 
end of the month, or even later, and so might the 
Ammobium be, if it was grown in a sheltered 
position. But the foregoing is sufficient to keep 
one’s thoughts in touch with the hardy border plants 
in the meantime. — D. 
NOTICE OF BOOK. 
The Advertisers’ Guardian. Thomas Dixon, 195, 
Oxford Street, W., London, 1900. 
Anyone having an idea that the art of advertising 
is a new or recent one will be disillusioned on read¬ 
ing this compendious volume of some 376 pages com¬ 
piled by Mr. Thomas DixoD, of Oxford Street, who 
seems to have hunted up every record of the art 
since any such record had been made. The writer 
commences with the announcement that it would be 
a fruitless endeavour for the antiquarian " to seek 
the fontes originis of advertisement," and then quotes 
largely from the Old Testament to show that from, 
the king downwards the ancient Hebrews and Chal¬ 
deans were wont to placard the streets of their cities 
and villages with various proclamations of kings, 
prophets, and others; while criers or processions 
paraded the streets making known the most recent 
edicts, summonses to prepare for war, things lost 
and found, &c. It seems to us but natural for man 
to do this, seeing that the lower animals, particularly 
those that congregate in flocks and herds, have 
different means of advertising danger, summoning 
their congeners for flight or fight as the case may be, 
and likewise when about to migrate in search of 
fresh fields or countries. Even the ordinary barn 
fowl, having laid an egg, proclaims her most recent 
achievement by cackling. 
The Greeks seemed to have carried the art to 
a pitch of refinement sadly unknown to the streets 
of London at the present day. The town crier was 
not permitted to offend the ears of the citizens with 
his proclamations unless attended by a musician to 
give him " the correct musical pitch." Rival criers 
of newspapers might take this lesson to heart, and 
practice it instead of the usual discordant howls. 
When the Greeks had property stolen or damaged, 
he recorded the fact on tablets of lead attached to 
the images of the infernal gods in the temples. If 
the plaintiff was " a gentleman ’’ he would withdraw 
the "swear-words," if his “property were returned 
or compensation paid.” 
The Romans also had town criers both for public 
and private announcements. Cicero mentions a 
street merchant who used to cry Figs, just as may 
be seen any day in Fleet Street. 
In England in the middle ages, and more or less 
down to the present day,-houses were and are recog¬ 
nised by distinctive signs. In the olden times this 
was a necessity, as the houses were not numbered. 
Old gardening books still record that they were pub¬ 
lished by someone at a certain specified sign. Few 
people, except the clergymen and other learned men, 
could read so that trade names on a signboard or any 
other legend of inscription would have been useless 
because meaningless to the rank and file passing 
along the streets. Addison, in 1711, wrote a witty 
letter anent the incongruity of many of the sign¬ 
boards, finishing np by saying, " A cook should not 
live at the Boot, nor a shoemaker at the Roasted Pig ; 
and yet, for want of this regulation, I have seen a 
Goat set up before the door of a perfumer.” The 
history of advertising runs to 98 pages, and reads 
like a volume of short stories. The law for adver¬ 
tisers is also included in the history of advertising, 
and is rather amusingly written by a well known 
barrister-at-law, while he makes it clear to the 
reader what is and what is not the law of the 
subject. 
CATALOGUE MAKING. 
At the annual meeting of the American Seed Trade 
Association, Mr. Charles M. Page, the Des Moines 
(la.) seedsman, read a paper on several phases of the 
seed publicity, which was heard with marked atten¬ 
tion by the members. Mr. Page thinks- that "each 
seedsman has a clientage of his own who are reached 
by his style of advertising and catalogue making. 
The first thing to decide is what class of customers 
you want to reach, for it must be admitted that no 
catalogue can be made to suit everybody. For the 
wealthy your book must be printed on heavy paper 
of extra finish ; it must be made thoroughly artistic 
in every respect, with illustrations different from the 
ordinary, and superior composition and press work. 
This will be expensive, but requires a less number of 
catalogues and the orders will average larger when 
trade is once established." 
For the cheap class of trade cheaply-made cata¬ 
logues, with poorer paper and printing, appears to 
be sufficient to win the trade. Plenty of "puffing ” 
language also does good in such cases. For the 
middle classes a plain, thoroughly practical catalogue 
which will also be of interest to the ordinary gar¬ 
dener and amateur is recommended. Prices are 
made reasonable on everything instead of the com¬ 
mon policy of ridiculously low prices of a few items, 
which are more than made up by overcharges on 
others. 
" The preliminary work of preparing a catalogue is 
the most important. It should be begun in the 
spring by having a note-book ready for jotting down 
items, which daily come to our attention during the 
busy season, and for this purpose it is well to pre¬ 
pare a catalogue with blank sheets of ruled paper 
bound in between the leaves of the book. During 
the summer the catalogue editor should spend much 
time making notes in the field or on the trial 
grounds. 
There is no doubt that illustrations sell goods, but 
there are very few engravers who can make cuts 
which truly illustrate vegetables, flowers or field 
crops in such a manner as will bring out the salient 
points. The best engravings are undoubtedly good 
wood-cuts, but they are expensive, and line draw ings 
from which zinc etchings are made are cheap and 
largely used. Half-tone engravings are inexpensive. 
except that it requires a true artist to arrange the 
detail and make a good photograph. Half-toned 
blocks from pencil sketched give very fair results. A 
super-calendered or coated paper is imperatively 
necessary where half-tones are used. 
In beginning work on a catalogue I make a dummy 
of each pagd, pasting on the illustrations selected in 
just the position I wish them to appear in the book. 
This assists the printer and enables me to know at 
the outset just what space I can allot to each depart¬ 
ment and item. 
The value of catch-phrases depends on their 
adaptability for advertising purposes It is not 
everyone who can coin an expression which is apt 
and will take. Still, there are very good catch- 
phrases in circulation, and these serve to fix the 
traders' name in the minds of his customers. The 
best transient expression to be seen this year is L. L. 
May’s advertisement of Bromus. 1 It would keep 
your hat up,’ but it would be valueless without the 
accompanying picture."— The Florists' Exchange. 
MANIPULATING SOIL FOR PLANTS. 
That is an excellent note at p. 311 and should be 
helpful to many. I am doubtful if many ever 
thought of it in the way Mr. Temple shows it so 
graphically and the ill effects therefrom. Un¬ 
doubtedly many Vine, Peach and other borders 
never give good results from the loam being thrown 
into them in these big lumps, and this the more so 
when it is of a very close, adhesive nature. What 
is the use of adding other things to it unless this is 
broken up fine enough to get mixed with it. Where 
I am now operating I had some years ago to destroy 
some Peach trees in a cold house and replant, 
making a new border ; and when I came to remove 
the soil which had been thrown into these borders in 
big, thick lumps (these borders were 3 ft. deep), 
in the two bottom feet there was scarcely a foot of 
any value, and where one was to be found it had no 
fibres. These trees had obtained their support from 
the top 12 in. of soil; and wherever the most active 
roots were there could be found other ingredients 
to keep it open. So close had the bottom soil 
become that it could hardly be shaken off the spade. 
Another evil is to dig heavy loam too thickly, as 
below the roots of the grass the soil is close and 
heavy. When a youth in Durham Down Nursery I 
had a good lesson, one season having to chop and 
mix a large heap of soil for pot Vines, and I well 
remember the chopping and mixing. It must not be 
thought that fine under spit soil is the idea. 
No ; good fibrous soil, well chopped up, is the best 
soil, having plenty of fibre.— J. C., F., Chard. 
JOURNEYMEN. 
The fraternity of gardeners is quite as unsettled to¬ 
day as it has been during the last half century. 
Every week some canny corner of one or other of the 
gardening papers bears token of the gentle agitation 
that has its threads like the mycelium of a fuDgus 
spread far and wide in the bothies over the land. 
The sign on the whole is a good one. Only last week 
I had a letter from a friend containing, in a special 
sentence, the same sentiment expressed by your 
correspondent, "John C. Dick," in his note, re 1 
“ Journeymen," in last week’s issue of The Garden¬ 
ing World. My friend writes " so far as gardening' 
is concerned I have come to the conclusion that such 
a thing as a ‘ good all-round man,’ so-called, more 
nearly approaches an all round messer." He goes on 
to say, " It seems to me that in the short time we 
have here it is impossible for any man, except one 
with an intellect given to few, to make himself com¬ 
petent all round. . . . My endeavour has always 
been to do at least one thing well. All-round mediocrity 
is seldom satisfactory ; and after all, the man who can 
do one thing better than any other man (rather a big 
order, you’ll say) can always find a niche in any pro¬ 
fession. I think if many young gardeners realised 
the difficulties of management in a moderate sized 
garden — many, too, undermanned—they would 
not enter on their first charge with as light a heart 
as they do. I have seen enough of management to 
cause me to think it the most difficult problem to 
tackle, and one must take years to perfect oneself in 
every detail. ... I think it a mistake for any 
one to be a gardener who has not the patience of Job 
and the meekness of Moses, with perseverance ad 
libitum. I suppose if all that was rolled into one 
