COUNTRY LIFE
Where Our Flowers Come From
The most perfectly illustrated magazine in Europe—I should think—is published by our Royal Horticultural Society, under the editorship of Sir Arthur Hill, Director of Kew, a botanist with as far-flung an interest in his theme as the famous (not the judicious) Hooker. It is called Curtis's Botanical Magazine, and published by Quaritch at 17s. 6d. a number. The plates are most beautiful, coloured by hand and reproduced on paper that is almost a vellum. It is a curious historical fact that the botanists have been the pioneers of elaborate colour printing. The latest number of this luxurious magazine is peculiarly remarkable, so to say, geographically. The new discoveries come from all round the world. I had thought that Mr. Kingdon Ward (whose latest booty of seeds from Asia are germinating splendidly) was almost the last of the travellers in flowers ; but novelties come to England from many sources. The lovely and strange yellow meconopsis (only less beautiful than Mr. Ward's Thibetan blue) is illus- trated from a plant grown from seed sent to the King by the Prime Minister of Nepal. A beautiful red tulip was grown by Lady Rockley (to whom botany owes much) from a bulb dug up in a gorge in Northern Iraq.
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