TO J. M. D. 
211 
Mr. Keane, supplied us with the above article, is advancing in its 
very quiet, but most useful way. Its object is to bring forward 
clear and simple statements of practical operations in gardening, 
and disquisitions on the principles upon which they depend. A 
great number of the best operative gardeners are members, and 
the opinions of all are freely stated and candidly remarked upon, 
with no other object in view but the advancement of the art. The 
Society is anxious to obtain a library for the benefit of those 
young members (and they are many) who are unable to purchase 
books for themselves ; and we think it would be most praiseworthy 
if the more wealthy practitioners and admirers of the art were to 
send them a few. The last quoted donations to them are :— 
“ Kollar on the Insects injurious to Gardeners,” by Mr. Sher¬ 
wood, Campden Hill ; “ Lee’s Introduction to Botany,” from 
Mr. Stone, gardener, Howick Hall, near Alnwick ; and Mudie’s 
Botanic Annual,” from Mr. Black, Seedsman and Florist, 
Bayswater.— Ed.] 
TO J. M. D. 
This is an operative gardener in the neighbourhood of Peterhead, 
so far as we can judge from the post-mark. We feel obliged to him 
for his good wishes, his praises of our Journal, and his announce¬ 
ment of the fact, that it is rapidly finding its way among the 
higher class in his part of the country. These matters we cannot 
publish ; and as little can we minutely state the faults of those 
empirical journals and other works on Floriculture which retard 
instead of advancing it. It would be also somewhat foreign to 
our purpose to state, and by so doing adopt, the moral influence 
of flowers and other natural subjects, above that of “ all kinds of 
pulpit thunder ; ” but we must say, that though J. M. D. is a 
little warm on this subject, he is quite right upon the whole; and 
it would be well for society that the majority of people were of 
the same opinion. The laying out of parks and gardens in the 
neighbourhood of towns, and also the decoration of cottages with 
borders of flowers, have most happy effects upon the whole 
character and conduct of the peasantry, as we have verified by 
our own observation. We also agree with our correspondent in 
