une 25, 1904. 
rHE Gardening World 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ Thy banks with paeonied and lilied brims, which spongy April at thy ’hest betrims.”— Shakespeare. 
Views and Reviews. 
Veekly Prize 
. FOR 
Short Articles. 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World ( 
•11 give a cash prize of Ten Shillings for ( 
E BEST PARAGRAPH, or SHORT ARTICLE, sent ) 
readers during the week. The Editor’s > 
lgment must be considered final, and he will ) 
at liberty to use any of the contributions ( 
at in. The paragraph, or article, must not a 
ceed one column in length, but the value, ) 
ther than the length, of the article will be ) 
nsidered in making the award. Competitors < 
ay send in items of news or comments on \ 
ws; HINTS OF PRACTICAL INTEREST to gar- ) 
•ners or growers of plants, fruits, or flowers ; __ ) 
ccessful methods of propagating plants ( 
ually considered difficult; or contributions ( 
■ ANT SUBJECT COMING WITHIN THE SPHERE S 
gardening proper. Letters should he ) 
dressed to The Editor, marked “ Competi- ) 
in,’’ and posted not later than Friday night ^ 
ensure insertion in the issue of next week. ) 
he following Coloured S 
Mates have appeared in ! 
jccnt numbers:— 
July 4.-APHELANDRA AURANTIACA 
5EZLII. 
August L—BORONIA HETEROPHYLLA. > 
September 12.—SIX NEW DAFFODILS. 
October 3.— LILIUM AURATUM PL A- < 
fPHYLLUM SHIRLEY VAR. 
Novembei 14.—ROSE MME. N. LEVA- 
VSSEUR. 
January 2 — HYBRID TEA-SCENTED < 
)SE IRENE. \ 
January 30. — TUBEROUS BEGONIA 
JUNTESS OF WARWICK. 
February 27. -A FINE STRAIN OF 
LOXINIAS. ( 
April 2. - WISTARIA MULTIJUGA ) 
USSELLIANA. > 
ay 7.—CACTUS DAHLIA DAINTY. ( 
ne 4.-CACTUS DAHLIA SPITFIRE. < 
Back numbers may be obtained from the ) 
ibliahers, price 2Jd. post free. ( 
This week we present a Half-tone ) 
Plate of £ 
A HANDSOME CONSERVATORY. < 
ext week we shall give a Half-tone ( 
Plate of ) 
laelia purpurata ] 
QUEEN ALEXANDRA ) 
The prize last week in the “ E eaders’ \ 
>mpetition was awarded to “ J. P. 
ickson,” for his article on “ Begonia > 
resident Carnot,” p . 506 . < 
Parkinson’s Terrestrial Paradise.* 
The work to which we refer is a reprint 
of Parkinson’s famous book, the original of 
which has been scarce, costly, and impossible 
for gardeners to possess for many years past-. 
The reprint is of such a price that those whoi 
really desire to- ge<t hold of this excellent old 
gardening book may do so- without distress¬ 
ing their pocket. The name of the book is 
really translatable by the name a-bo-ve given 
as the heading of this article. The first half 
of the name (given- below) is merely a play 
upon the author's own name, and really 
mean® Parkin-son’s, though in itsi Latinised 
form the translation would be of park in the 
sun. 
In the beginning of the book we have nine 
chapters on various- subjects dealing with 
the making of the garden to- the planting 
and cultivation of the flowers. At the end 
of -these nine chapters he commences his| 
regular or principal work under the name 
of “ The Garden of Pleasant Flowers-,” in 
which he describes and illustrates a large 
number of the flowers grown by him. Those 
who do- themselves the pleasure of reading 
his bo-o-k will be- able to see that the author 
had a- great gift for original observation and 
an excellent command of clear old-fashioned 
English which -anyone could at the present) 
day clearly understand and read with de¬ 
light. Tire plants he deals with were- those 
grown- or seen by himself, a-s apparently lie 
declined to take anything from hearsay. He 
speaks abo-ut the various exotics which 
graced the spring flo-wer garden as “ out¬ 
landish flowers that- for the pride, beauty and 
earliness- were to- be planted in gardens of 
pleasure for delight.” When he comes to 
speak about the nature, names and viitues of 
the several plants, he- was much more- re* 
stricted in his views than some- of the old 
writers were, and confined himse-lf more to- 
those things which were believed by the best 
authorities in his day. 
In the first chapter he speaks about the 
situation of the garden of pleasure, the 
na-t-ure of so-ils, and how to ameliorate them. 
In all this -he was- extremely practical, and 
as he- actually cultivated the flowersi, we can 
readily give him credit for the correctness 
o-f the views which he expressed, while we 
* “ Paradisi in Sole Pamdisus lerrestiis.” By John 
Parkinson. Faithfully r. printed from the edition of ;6-9. 
.Methu n & Co., London. 1901. Frice two guinea?. 
cannot help smiling occasionally at the 
quaintnes-s- of the old English vocabulary 
which he employed. In the second chapter 
- he states that the form of the garden might 
be round, three-square, four-square, or any 
other which convenience or fancy might 
suggest to- the owners. He did not believe 
tltat all gardens should be constructed o-n 
the same plan, but thought that a square 
was the most- usual and useful that co-uld be 
devised. He lived in an age when the Eng¬ 
lish garden was as formal as it possibly could 
be, s-o that we cannot feel surprised when 
reading of the squares, knots, and plots into 
which he -sub-divided his garden. Even if 
the garden should be longer than wide, he 
said that it could most readily be set off in 
square plots which would conform in shape to- 
actual squares. 
In the third chapter he deals with the 
herbs- which he would plant in beds or knof-s 
a-nd for edging. The latter might consist of 
sweet-smelling herbs o-r dead materials-, such 
a,s tiles, wo-od or leaden edgings. He gave 
preference, however, to the sweet-sme-lling 
herbs, which should be out from time to 
time, so- as to- keep- them within due compass 
for as long a period as possible. When such 
edgings- got- broken, he then advocated their 
being replanted with yo-ung samples. In 
those o-lden times the gardeners had a- much 
greater choice of material apparently than 
they have to-day, o-r, at all events, such as 
they use. Parkinson spoke of B-o-x, Yew, and 
Juniper, and was very much in favour of 
dwarf Dutch or French Box, which we take 
to be the dwarf Box of the present day 
(Buxus seimperyirensi suffrutescens). 
In the fourth, chapter he t-ook up the sub¬ 
ject of the planting of those outlandish plants 
of which he speaks so- enthusiastically in- the 
embellishment of his terrestrial paradise. 
He s-aid that these early flowers might be 
had from Christmas to mid-summer, but it- 
much depended upon the kindliness- of the 
winter o-r otherwise-, his language showing 
plainly that the London of his day was very 
much the London of ours in the matter of 
climate. 
He had almo-st a hundred s-pecies and 
varieties of Daffodils, and in commenting 
up-o-n these, he accuses- “ idle and ignorant 
gardener's- of getting names by stealth.” In 
illustration of this quaint allusion, he in¬ 
stances the word Narciss-es as applied to the 
Daffodils. He forthwith advises them to 
speak the English pure and simple, or to 
give the correct Latin- name to those plants 
which possessed no proper English name. In 
