50 
THE GARDEN ALBUM AND REVIEW. 
London County Council, and those of any 
other public body, should not be conducted on 
common-sense lines. There are plenty of 
excellent and well-trained gardeners who can 
produce good credentials as to their qualifica¬ 
tions. The British Gardeners’Wssociation 
was founded a couple of years ago for the 
express purpose of weeding out those parasitic 
quacks in the profession who can produce no 
credentials whatever as to their gardening 
experiences, but who rely mainly upon a glib 
tongue and the general ignorance of the public. 
Such men have for years done an enormous 
amount of mischief to the professional gardener. 
They know nothing whatever about plants, 
flowers, fruits, or vegetables and their cultiva¬ 
tion ; they destroy plants wholesale, but as 
their employers usually know little or nothing 
about them, they can be readily soothed with 
some specious excuse. 
If the London County Council and other 
public bodies really desire to have their 
gardening work done properly, they should 
employ duly qualified gardeners for the purpose 
and pay them a fair wage. In most public 
gardens some men who have failed in other 
businesses, or who have left the ranks of the 
police, the army, or navy, are employed to 
do the gardening work and are officially known 
as gardeners. The employment of such men 
upon work they do not understand, and about 
which they know nothing, leads not only to an 
extravagant waste of public money, but it 
drags trained gardeners down to the level of 
ordinary unskilled labourers. 
The only great safe-guard to public bodies 
and private individuals is to be found in the 
British Gardeners’ Association. As only 
qualified gardeners are permitted to join this 
Association, the public should insist upon 
every gardener they employ producing the 
certificate of the Association—which will be a 
guarantee that the holder is a man who has 
been specially and practically trained in his 
business. He may not in all cases be able to 
pass the theoretical examinations held by the 
R.H.S., because, from the nature of their 
employment, gardeners have little opportunity 
to acquire great literary proficiency. R.H.S. 
Certificates, unfortunately, have been dis¬ 
tributed broad-cast amongst every class of 
the community, and while they show that the 
holder has done a certain amount of reading 
and writing, they are valueless from the 
practical gardener’s point of view. 
So far as gardeners, at least, are concerned 
it would be a step in the right direction if no 
certificates were granted until the candidates 
had undergone a practical test under the eyes 
of a capable gardener. The Executive Council 
of the British Gardeners’ Association, we 
believe, are maturing a scheme of examination 
for professional gardeners that will be likely to 
give general satisfaction. 
GREAT GARDENERS & BOTANISTS. 
WILLIAM CURTIS. 
The subject of this memoir was born in 
Alton, Hampshire, in the year 1746, and was 
the eldest of six. His father, who was a 
tanner, contrived to give them all a good 
education, and sent William to a Grammar 
School at Burford (Oxon). Nearly all his 
pocket-money was devoted to the purchase of 
books, and during his vacation he made friends 
with a person of inferior circumstances of the 
name of Legg, who, however, had great know¬ 
ledge of indigenous plants and insects, and 
would often take young Curtis with him when 
collecting. Later on he went into the employ¬ 
ment of George Vaux, of Pudding Lane, and 
afterwards with Thomas Talwin in Gracechurch 
Street, both of whom were chemists, but young 
Curtis would often play truant, or rather go 
into the fields botanising. He frequently at¬ 
tended medical lectures which were given by 
Dr. George Fordyce. Mr. Talwin died soon 
afterwards leaving the business to Curtis. The 
year 1753 proved a very anxious one to our 
friend, for at this time there was almost a 
plague of the brown-tail moth, and this event 
led him to study its habits, and he gave the 
public a complete history of its life, etc. This 
was the outcome of still further studies of 
insect life, and he eventually published a useful 
little work entitled “ Fundamenta Entomo- 
logiae,” but his magnus opus was “ Flora 
Londin ensis,” or “ Descriptions and Illustrations 
of the Wild Plants found around London.” It 
was issued in parts, commencing 1777 and 
completed in 1798. This sumptuous work 
contains 434 hand - coloured plates, the 
majority of them life-size, and it is interesting 
to note that they were nearly all found in the 
fields around Battersea, and on Clapham 
Common. The drawings are perfect—likewise 
the colouring. [Some of the plants are still 
to be found in a few spare places in Battersea 
to this day.— Ed.] This monumental work 
involved great care and loss of money, and had 
it not been for the famous Dr. Lettsom who 
sent him £500 to continue the work, no doubt 
it would never have been completed. 
In 1787 he commenced “ The Botanical 
Magazine ” which was issued monthly, des¬ 
cribing and illustrating new and rare plants. 
In 1793 it was re-issued and continuejLto 
the day of his death in 1799. This publicatiprT 
has been edited by Dr. Sims, Sir W.^P: Hosker, 
Sir J. D. Hooker, and Sir W. T. T. Dyer, and 
is published to this day. 
Curtis’s gardens were first in Bermondsey, 
then in Lower Marsh (now a thickly populated 
neighbourhood, commonly known as the New 
Cut), then at Queen’s Elms, Brompton. He 
had one daughter, who was married to a Mr. 
Samuel Curtis (no relation), a florist at Wal¬ 
worth. Descendants of his family are still 
living in London. 
His other works were “ History of British 
Grasses”; “Culture of Seakale ” ; “ Instruc- 
