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FOR over half-a-century the system of garden plots has existed in Glasgow. To people in large cities the recreative advantages of rural occupations cannot be too highly esteemed, and those who delight in the cultivation of flowers are greatly indebted to these gardens for many a pleasant summer evening, as well as much enjoyment from the produce of their labours. The system is that a piece of ground is formed into a garden, and laid out in plots, which are let from year to year for the cultivation of flowers and vegetables. No traders or market gardeners can have plots, but the ground is to be used only for recreative purposes. To the plotholders every possible convenience is given, so as to enable them to cultivate their plots with comfort and pleasure, and they are hedged about with rules for the protection of the whole and the interest of the individual workers. The gardens have been productive of much good during their existence, although city extensions and improvements have from time to time caused some of the sites to be changed.
HUTCHESONTOWN GARDENS. - It was about the year 1840 that the first piece of ground was opened for garden plots. It lay between Cumberland Street and Caledonia Road, and the gardens remained there till 1866. For the next ten years the site at Butterbiggins Road was occupied. It covered about seven and a half acres, and contained 157 plots. The next removal was in 1876 to the Victoria Road or Alison Street site, where the ground extended to eight and three-quarter acres, and afforded space for 194 plots. The formation of the Cathcart District Railway cut these gardens into two, and deprived them of about two acres of ground, thus reducing the number of plots to 137. Again, on the extension of the city boundaries in 1891, accommodation was required for the Police Fire and Lighting Department in the newly added southern portion, and the gardens were fixed on as the most suitable site.
The ground was accordingly bought, and although building has not yet been proceeded with, the committee had to look out for a new site for the gardens. They were fortunate in securing the piece of ground which they now occupy at Crossmyloof Station, and which extends to about seven acres. It has been leased for twenty-one years from Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, at a rent of £7 an acre, and it is likely to be a worthy successor to all the previous sites. The management of the garden plots is entirely voluntary, no paid official being employed; and the money necessary to lay out the ground is raised among the plotholders in £1 shares.
ALBERT GARDENS. - These consist of nearly five acres. They are situated at the east end of the Southern Necropolis, Caledonia Road. They were opened in 1854, and they still exist and are enthusiastically supported by those interested in them. The plots range from four to twelve poles. They are kept in excellent condition, and are a source of amusement and delight to the plotholders and their families.
VICTORIA GARDENS had their origin on the east side of Cathcart Road, Govanhill, about the year 1865. In 1871 they were removed to Pollokshields. In 1878 they were reduced in size in consequence of Maxwell Road having been cut through them. They now occupy the space between Maxwell Road and Albert Road from north to south and Kenmure Street to Forth Street from west to east. In all there are seventy-five plots, the rents of which vary from 10s. to 45s. 8d., according to size. Financially the gardens are a success.
The landlord Sir. John Stirling Maxwell takes a great interest in them and has granted a seven years lease which ends in 1902. They afford great pleasure to the plotholders who, in the study of nature in various phases, forget for a time the worries of city life.
With the growing desire for scientific culture, and the growing love for scientific knowledge of plants, these gardens, and the like of them, should become better and more beautiful. They can be made, and in many cases they are, valuable aids to the study of botany. With the Botanic Gardens, the parks and the garden plots, there is within convenient reach of the city much inducement to ease the hard-worked limbs and brains by a stroll among beautiful objects, and a contemplation of Nature's treasures. And even the surroundings of Glasgow are not without their natural beauties and their haunts of pretty flowers. Kenmuir Wood is no longer the joy of botanists that it used to be. But we still have Darnley Glen, with its herb Paris; Lochwinnoch, with its tufted loose-strife and bird's-nest orchis; Bardrain Glen, with its chick-weed winter green and its melic grass; the popular Craignethan Castle, with its arum, its alkanet and its pellitory of the wall; Milngavie and Mugdock, whose early purple orchis used to be eagerly sought by students in May, and whose now rare or probably extinct barrenwort has procured for the district many a visit; Garnkirk Muirs, where a diligent search will reveal the cranberry, wild rosemary, and long-leaved sundew; and many other places can be easily reached, where Nature may be courted and some of its secrets disclosed.
The study of botany is only on the way to reach its proper place in the education of the country, and Glasgow has certainly been joining in the onward movement. At present, outside of the University and the various colleges, botany is taught in many schools in the city. There has been a class in the High School connected with the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, since 1881, and for the last seven years the subject has formed part of the regular High School curriculum. In several public schools it is also taught, and altogether the claims of botany are gaining ground amongst us. That the love of flowers has greatly increased in Glasgow within the last two decades is attested by the difference of the display of flowers in the windows of the dealers. It is to be hoped that with the advancement the methods of teaching are keeping pace or rather taking the lead. Many of us can remember the dreary lessons on botany in some old school books, whose chief features were a collection of names and terms hard to pronounce, harder to spell, and seldom conveying any meaning at all. Lessons of this sort are worse than useless. Mr. Squeers' plan of making the boys weed the garden for a botany lesson was much better than this. Hard names should be avoided or their use reduced to a minimum. Fancy a class of boys or girls being asked to remember that a daisy was a gamopetalous, partly zygomorphic, pentamerous, syngenesious dicotyledon! It is enough to make them hate the flower ever after. Far better it would be to introduce it as Burns'
"Wee modest crimson-tipped flower,"
and to impart a knowledge of its structure by the use of simple words. The only proper way to teach botany is by means of the plants themselves. They should be put into the pupils' hands to let them observe the facts and text books should take a second place.
The place of botany as an educative power is primarily and pre-eminently the training it gives to habits of observation. Memory and reasoning have always had a place in our educational systems, but the cultivation of the observing faculties has never got due attention. With Professor Huxley it is frankly agreed that all boys, as a foundation to a scientific training, should be taught systematic botany. And even with a view to no scientific course but only for the ordinary purposes of life, all young persons should be taught to use the eyes which nature has given them. No subject can secure this kind of training like natural science, and on account of the convenience and pleasantness of working with the specimens, botany has the advantage over other subjects for most general use. The dissection of an ordinary flower and the examination of the correlation of its parts soon awaken in young folks an interest, and it is amazing to see how quickly the eagerness to enquire arises and the power to observe grows and extends its action. And when the unaided eye can carry us no farther, the lens and the microscope in turn extend the power of vision and open up new worlds with their wonders and treasures of knowledge. It is a training of this kind that is best calculated to prepare youths to go through life with eyes open, and to take every opportunity of gaming information that will lead onward and upward.
Another advantage of teaching a subject like botany is the refining influence generated by such scientific training and knowledge. It gives a love and respect for the beautiful and cultivates a gentleness towards all kinds of life. In many cases the lives of plants and animals are so closely associated that in studying the one we must gain some knowledge of the ways of the other. Look, for example, at the common spectacle of a bee on the birdsfoot trefoil in a sunny day in May and watch how, while it struggles and kicks to get at the honey, the mechanism of the flower is so adapted to the movements of the bee that before it gets the honey the flower compels it to do work in return.
Sights of this kind are common, and who can learn about the wonderful structure and the interesting habits of plants and animals without having any tendencies to harshness or wanton destruction toned down or destroyed? It is not the botanist that extinguishes our rare plants. Many of them disappear through building operations and cultivation of the soil. The street-barrow man hunts to the death many of our rare ferns because to him their beauty is measured by their immediate money value, and now many of their former haunts in Clydesdale know them no more. But the genuine botanist has a respect for the plants, and if he takes a specimen of a rare one he is careful to leave enough to let it continue the species, and frequently on account of its scarcity he refrains from taking any at all. Those trained to love that which is beautiful and interesting are careful not to injure what they are making no use of. Could some such refining knowledge not be brought to reach the masses? The result might save many a lilac bush, many a fruit-tree blossom, and many other rural beauties from being wantonly torn or smashed by excursionists or strollers from the city on holidays or Saturday afternoons. It is a subject for the naturalist to observe the innate tendency of the human animal to destroy what is beautiful, and this field of enquiry can easily be pursued anywhere within a Saturday afternoon journey from Glasgow. If any biological training, or any cultivation of artistic taste, could step in and direct such wasted energy to some good purpose it would bring welcome results.
Then there are what might be called the physical benefits derived from the study of flowers. To dwellers in large cities it is a great advantage to have a healthy inducement to take country walks. The study of plants takes us away to the green fields and flowery river banks where -
"With the sky above your head, and the grass beneath your feet,"
you pursue your search for information, at the same time inhaling the pure air, and without an effort adding to your vigour of body and mind.
And to all other advantages you have to add that of the information gained, which is by no means a small item in the result. To know the various phenomena of plant life is valuable information, and to know the plants themselves is what brightens many a country walk, and supplies company during what might be otherwise weary hours. The little wild flowers come trooping up in their seasons like so many valued friends making their customary calls, and when a new one is introduced to our notice it is greeted with all the pleasure which enlarged friendship produces. In pursuing botanical studies you add to your knowledge of animals, of country life, of country work, and of the country itself. A student of botany after a few years' stay in the city knows far more about the district for miles around than many who have been much longer there, but care for none of these things. How much more, too, is seen in the same walk by the trained eye than by one whose observing faculties have been neglected! Education is progressing in the country, and Glasgow takes a leading place; but natural science is only growing to be a real educative power, and perhaps a great period of influence is in store for it in the near future. May all encouragement be given to this study in so far as it can be used to elevate our young folks, and propagate in them a love for what is pure, lovely, and good!
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