There are believers, even among gardeners, in luck. "Oh 1" says one, "he had a good chance;" another declares his successful friend was " a lucky fellow." The " luck" which has made the fortune of the best gardeners is no luck at all. ft is knowledge acquired by hard study and hard labor; by reading, and avoiding the dram bottle; by keeping a steady eye on the results of experiments aided by the knowledge of written materials. What " luck" can a gardener have who prefers idleness to botany; what hope can he ever entertain of rising to independence, if he cannot distinguish one species of plants from another? He must always be at fault, unless he knows something more than routine cultivation, and can adapt his tactics to new circumstances, or give himself a reason for his acts. " Luck" is a term to be expunged from every vocabulary except that of the gamingtable or the turf. In the language of Dr. Lindley: " Our personal experience in this matter now extends over the best part of half a century, during which time circumstances have brought within our knowledge the private history of most of the successes and failures which in that period have deserved notice among gardeners, and we feel entirely justified in saying that those who have risen have had to thank their own superior knowledge, the fruit of superior industry; while those who have fallen can only blame themselves for that want of knowledge and determination to succeed, which, in this world, are indispensable in all classes where mental power is necessary, and from which political influence is withheld".

Were any proof of the justice of this opinion needed, it would be found in the skill of those eminent men in the horticultural world who, by diligent study, have privately, and in spite of difficulties, acquired what, in the absence of such energy, would have been denied to them.