This volume is far indeed from being a scientific treatise On Flowers and Flower-Gardens :--it is mere gossip in print upon a pleasant subject. But I hope it will not be altogether useless. If I succeed in my object I shall consider that I have gossipped to some purpose. On several points--such as that of the mythology and language of flowers--I have said a good deal more than I should have done had I been writing for a different community. I beg the London critics to bear this in mind. I wished

A friend tells me that the allusion to the Acanthus on the first page of this book is obscurely expressed, that it was not the root but the leaves of the plant that suggested the idea of the Corinthian capital. The root of the Acanthus produced the leaves which overhanging the sides of the basket struck the fancy of the Architect. This was, indeed, what I meant to say, and though I have not very lucidly expressed myself, I still think that some readers might have understood me rightly even witho

SACRED TREES AND SHRUBS OF THE HINDUS. The following list of the trees and shrubs held sacred by the Hindus is from the friend who furnished me with the list of Flowers used in Hindu ceremonies. [130] It was received too late to enable me to include it in the body of the volume. AMALAKI ( Phyllanthus emblica ).--A tree held sacred to Shiva. It has no flowers, and its leaves are in consequence used in worshipping that deity as well as Durga, Kali, and others. The natives of Bengal do not look upo

THE FLOWER GARDEN IN INDIA. The following practical directions and useful information respecting the Indian Flower-Garden, are extracted from the late Mr. Speede's New Indian Gardener , with the kind permission of the publishers, Messrs. Thacker Spink and Company of Calcutta. THE SOIL. So far as practicable, the soil should be renewed every year, by turning in vegetable mould, river sand, and well rotted manure to the depth of about a foot; and every second or third year the perennials should be