
          Facing p.380

Justice, James (d.1763?)

Considerable personal information is given about Justice
in Johnson, Hist. Eng. Gard. (1829), p.206, and he is noted
in Britten & Boulger, Biog. Index (1931), p.170, whence it
appears that the title "Sir" in the "Calendar" of 1759, may
be fictitious, as Britten & Boulger, who are quite punctilious 
about titles, do not use it. Justice was Clerk to the
Sessions in Edinburgh, and on his retirement devoted himself
to gardening and particularly to the culture of flowers, to
such good purpose that Haller, Bib. Bot. 2:440, commends his
book for its wisdom and accuracy.

Johnson says he died in 1762 or 1763, which is supported
by the "Advertisement" in "The British gardener’s director"
(Edinburgh, 1764). This is dated Edinburgh, September 1763,
and says: "His death has deprived the world of the fruit of
his after-labours, which his memorandums and notes left behind 
him give us room to think he intended, in proper time,
to have laid before the public".

His "Calendar", which Johnson regards as an edition of
the "Director", seems to me an independent work. His name,
which did not appear in the title of the original edition
of the "Director" (1754), or in that of 1759, is in that of
the "Calendar" (1759), and the latter has a preface by the
author, giving his reasons for compiling a calendar, and
mentioning the "Eden" of John Hill, which was published in
1757, considerably later than the original edition of Justice’s 
"The Scot’s gardiners director" (1754).

"The British gardener’s director" (Edinburgh, 1764) and
"The British gardener’s new director" (Dublin, 1765) have
the same number of pages, but the text of the latter is entirely 
repaged and rearranged, with considerable new material, 
some of which is taken from the "British gardener’s
calendar" of 1759, but not in the "Director" of 1764.

Altho the preface of the Dublin edition of 1765 is dated
Edinburgh, September, 1763, like that of the Edinburgh ed.,
it does not, like the latter, mention the author's death.
It suggests itself that this Dublin edition was based on a
very much earlier issue of the "Director", and was virtually
a pirated edition.

There is some reason to suppose "The British gardener's
director" (Edinburgh, 1764) was not very different from the
original "Scot's gardiners director" (1754), as the former
contains mary references to and extracts from the catalogs
of Dutch florists for the year 1754, probably the same as
in the original "Director".

M.F.Warner
Walpole, N. H.
February 1949
        