The story of Mrs. Loudon's marriage is rather interesting. As a girl (1825) she wrote what she herself describes as 'a strange, weird novel,' called 'The Mummy'-perhaps the first of the prophetic stories that have been so common in my time, the scene being laid in the twenty-second century. Mr. Loudon was struck by a review of this book, and read it. It made so deep an impression on him that two or three years afterwards he expressed to a friend his great wish to know the author, whom he believed to be a man. An introduction was brought about, which in a short time resulted in their marriage. They lived in a charming house at Bayswater, which was then quite in the country, and 'The Gardener's Magazine' alone brought him in 750 l. a year. Soon after their marriage they saw at Chester, in 1831, the first number of Paxton's 'Horticultural Register,'the earliest rival to 'The Gardener's Magazine,' which gradually declined from that time, and was given up immediately after Mr. Loudon's death. The impetus given by Mr. Loudon's books and periodicals to landscape gardening and greenhouse cultivation, for pleasure and beauty alone, and for the ornamentation of the houses of the wealthy, must have been immense. But from that time the books assumed the deteriorated character from which they are only now beginning to emerge. Cheapness became a desirable object-necessary for the propagation of the instruction. This change greatly enhances the interest and value of the older books. The illustrations only served to elucidate the text, and in the case of coloured plates several plants were often crowded into one page for the sake of cheapness in reproduction. The gardener was no longer a botanist and an artist, but employed inferior draughtsmen to illustrate his instructions.

The original debt on the 'Arboretum,' published just after Mr. Loudon's death, was 10,000 l., which seems a very large sum, considering how poor the illustrations are. It is a book of immense study, great interest, and valuable instruction. The work is in eight volumes-four letterpress and four illustrations.

1842. 'Ladies' Magazine of Gardening,' by Mrs. Loudon, published just before Mr. Loudon's death, has some rather good illustrations of flowers, some certainly not commonly grown now. What she calls the Golden-haired Anemone is quite unknown to me. The illustrations for gardens and rockwork are elaborately descriptive of all which should be avoided; but in every book of the period there is much for the student to learn. Failing income induced Mrs. Loudon, no doubt helped by her early efforts in literature, to publish books on gardening for the use of amateurs. When she and her little daughter were left very badly off, her efforts assumed a more ambitious line.

The first edition of 'The Lady's Companion,' which I have, was published by William Smith in 1841. It is a delightful little book, alphabetically arranged, with a few useful illustrations, light to hold, and beautifully printed. It always mentions the country from which the plant or flower comes, and it often suggests, most usefully, the soil or locality where the plants do best in England. This is a point too often omitted in modern gardening papers. The book was afterwards enlarged. It went through several editions, and had many imitators. Mrs. Loudon's earlier books are often to be picked up, very cheap, at secondhand shops, and I strongly recommend all ladies interested in gardening to buy them whenever they can lay their hands on them, either for themselves or to give away. It is not that they are really better for the advanced student than the modern books, but that they are more simple. They begin more from the beginning, they teach more what amateurs require, and they are not complicated with the immense variety which in modern books and catalogues drives unfortunate young gardeners to despair. A good deal of this applies as well to the many imitators and humble pupils of the Loudons'school who published between 1840 and 1850. One book I have is called 'Every Lady her own Flower Gardener,' by Louisa Johnson (seventh edition !), published by W. S. Orr, 1845. Any lady with a small villa garden would find most useful instruction in this little manual. The gardening matter in all the books of this time is excellent; where they fail, like the Loudons themselves, is that they are permeated with that early Victorian taste now thought so execrable -baskets and vases, summer-houses and seats, are all tortured into frightful 'rustic 'shapes. The planting and laying-out of grounds are equally bad; they constantly recommend both kinds of Laurels, which time has taught us are the most destructive of plants, killing all other shrubs in their neighbourhood with their insolent and devouring roots.

Those who have larger gardens would do well to try and get Mrs. Loudon's six quarto volumes, illustrated with coloured pictures. Though artistically bad as flower-paintings, and inferior to those published now in the weekly gardening papers, they resemble the flowers enough to be recognisable. They most usefully illustrate the text for the ignorant amateur, who learns far more quickly when pictures and letterpress are combined than by any written instruction alone, however good.

Mrs. Loudon's quarto volumes are now rather difficult to get complete. There are two volumes on perennials, one on annuals, one on bulbs; this one is perhaps the most valuable of the lot, as it gives many of the best-known bulbs as they arrived from the Cape, before they were so over-cultivated and hybridised by the modern nurseryman. Perhaps the volume on greenhouse plants is the least interesting, as so many things are recommended for cultivation under glass which have since been proved to be hardy, or nearly so, and grow very well out of doors-at any rate, through the summer months. The volume on English wild flowers, which completes the set, is a little superficial, but helpful. It has rather good pictures of many of our native plants, some of which are now very rare. The best of these wild flowers can be cultivated from seed, even in small gardens, giving us most beautiful effects with very little trouble and expense.