May 23, 1903. 
rHE Gardening World 
GENERAL NOTICES. 
We would earnestly urge secretaries of societies to notify us as far in advance as possible as to dates of meetings, shows, etc. We desire to do all in our power to have these 
equately represented in the columns of The Gardening World. 
We respectfully request our readers, when they write to persons or firms advertising in this paper, to mention that their advertisement was seen in The Gardening World. 
ey w u) thereby not only oblige this paper, but the advertisers. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“Ye softening dews, ye tender showers descend! and temper all, thou world reviving sun.”— Thomson. 
places remote from the town. We know that 
Weekly Prize 
FOR 
Short Articles. 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World <J 
will give a cash prize of Ten Shillings for ( 
the best paragraph, or short article, sent \ 
by readers during the week. The Editor’s ) 
judgment must be considered final, and he will ) 
be at liberty to use any of the contributions ( 
sent in. The paragraph, or article, must not ( 
EXCEED ONE COLUMN IN LENGTH, but the Value, ) 
rather than the length, of the article will be ) 
considered in making the award. Competitors ( 
may send in items of news or comments on < 
news; hints of practical interest to gar- S 
deners or growers of plants, fruits, or flowers; > 
successful methods of propagating plants / 
usually considered difficult; or contributions <, 
ON ANT SUBJECT COMING WITHIN THE SPHERE ( 
of gardening proper. Letters should be ) 
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tion,” and posted not later than Friday night • 
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The following Coloured 
PlateS have appeared :— 
March 14.-NEW CHINESE PRIMULAS. \ 
March 21.— A GROUP OF DAVALLIAS. \ 
March-28— TEA ROSE “CHAMELEON,” 
and COOMBE CLIFFE GARDENS. 
April 4.-COLEUS THYRSOIDEUS. 
April 11.— PITCHER PLANTS. 
ApriLl8.— CESTRUM SMITHII. 
, April 25. -JAPANESE PIGMY TREE. 
May 2.-Half-Tone Plate of the ROCKERY 
AT WENTWORTH HOUSE. 
May 9.—Half-Tone Plate of another view 
of THE ROCKERY AT WENTWORTH 
HOUSE. 
Bank numbers may be obtained from the 
publishers, price 2£d. post free. 
With the PRESENT ISSUE we present a 
coloured Plate of SAXIFRAGA GRISE- 
BACHII, and a Monochiome Plate of ALO- 
CASIAS. 
NEXT WEEK we shall present a Coloured 
Plate of DENDROBIUM NOBILE ROTUN- 
DIFLORUM and D. n. NOBILIUS. 
Views and Reviews. 
The Country and the Garden. x 
The writers of books would seem.to have 
caught some infection from the popularity 
of gardening, and are striving to weave a 
story of the garden into their tales of human 
life. The hook under notice is rather a 
bulky volume, running to 320 pages, includ¬ 
ing a good index. It, is quite different in 
style and in matter from that written by 
Miss Jekvll, who, intended her books to be 
useful and instructive as well as to interest 
other people in those things which gave her 
delig-ht. The book is written in the form of 
a calendar commencing with March 15th and 
passing through the year to February. It, 
is somewhat similar to “ A Garden Diary,” 
by Emily Lawless, but there is somewhat less 
gardening in it and more of country life. 
The present writer also- has had more trouble 
with her gardeners, having had a greater 
number of them within a given time, and is 
less serious in her manner (for we believe 
the author is a, lady) than Emily Lawless, 
and is more given to take off the whims and 
individual peculiarities of her gardeners. 
She begins the book by stating that, if she 
had the making of her garden over again she 
would only have a wild garden. In a word, 
she would have the turf, the Heather, Gorse, 
Broom and other native plants coining close 
up to, the door, and in this medley she would 
naturalise such garden plants as were best 
adapted to this form of treatment,. She 
would also' have leafy borders, wet ditches, 
rocky elevations, and other situations! 
planted with groups of suitable plants. This 
seems to bei quite contrary to, the prevailing 
idea amongst, landscape and other gardeners 
in laying out gardens in the neighbourhood 
of dwelling-houses. We do not quite see the 
reason for such a change of taste, although 
the latter may be regarded as merely a, ques¬ 
tion of education. Wild gardens would cer¬ 
tainly he more easily kept in order by those 
who set themselves down in bungalows and 
villas in the woods, coppices and other wild 
* A Book of the Country and the Garden, by H. M. Batson, 
with 72 illustrations by F. Carruthers Goul i and A. C. Gould. 
Methuen & Co, 36, Essex Street, London, W.C. 1903. 
■trice 10s. 6d. 
many people admire these places “ far from 
the madding crowd,” and think, after they 
put, up a fine mansion, they have only to lay 
out, a garden and their paradise would he 
perfect. We also, know that those who do 
so, if they intend to conduct gardening suc¬ 
cessfully, have to, face a very difficult task. 
Some face the task and succeed, but a far 
larger number take gardening less seriously 
and fail. Fresh ground that is broken up for 
the purpose of garden-making is full of 
weeds and all natural enemies, and those 
who, speak truly of the difficulties lament the 
inroads of the wild places upon the garden 
proper. By letting the garden, remain in a 
semi-wild condition, and merely adding one’s 
own special flowers to it from time to time, 
the difficulty would be much less. 
The author, having described the wild 
garden she would have, now proceeds to 
enumerate those things which she actually 
lias in her garden, including beds of Roses, 
European Paeonies, Oriental Poppies, Sweet 
Williams, Michaelmas Daisies, Foxgloves, 
Doronicums, St. John’s Wort, and many 
other things. Even in a wild garden, how¬ 
ever, these well-known favourite flowers 
would net live in perfect harmony with one 
another if left untended. There would cer¬ 
tainly be incursions of the stronger ones 
amongst their weaker neighbours, and, in 
the course of a year or two, the stronger or 
more rampant growers would occupy the 
whole of the ground, if in any way suited to 
their welfare. A large number of those she 
mentions are certainly strong growers, but 
the annual or biennial types would have 
little chance with perennials, particularly 
those with a creeping root-stock. For in¬ 
stance, we have seem large areas in wood¬ 
land situations entirely monopolised by one 
species cf Dcronicum, and in other cases bv 
St. John’s Wort, while a villa, garden coming 
under our notice has been entirely over-run 
by Michaelmas Daisies for the last twenty 
years at least. They may please their owners 
who' like as little hard work in the garden as 
possible, but those who wish to have variety 
would certainly have to spend a considerable 
amount of time in the garden, not only an¬ 
nually, but weekly. The author confesses, 
however, to having a valuable coadjutor in 
