We have been lately reading a new work on Horticultural Buildings by F. A. Fawkes, of the firm of Dennis & Co., Horticultural Engineeers, etc, and published at the 'Journal of Horticulture' office. It is a good book, containing much particular information concerning the planning and construction of garden buildings of all descriptions, besides much other information on subjects connected with gardening, which it is exceedingly desirable gardeners should learn; and we can recommend the book to learners as the best, if not the only one of the kind yet published. The worst fault of the book is that there is too much of the "shop" about it. It is well got up - pretentious, indeed; but the numerous references to "the firm" is certainly a blemish, because, whatever may be the excellence of any vendor's goods, one is usually disposed to discount his own account of the same to some extent. Mr Fawkes, too, has ideas - probably born of his connection with the firm - that gardeners will not coincide with. There is a suspicion, indeed, that on the subject of "art" connected with horticultural erections he is just a trifle tainted with the "Postlethwaite" school, so much and so often satirised by 'Punch' of late. We should say Mr Fawkes was, if anything, a "blue teapot" man.

He is too practical to be quite content, like "Postlethwaite," to breathe out an ecstatic existence while being permitted to embrace a "blue teapot;" but some of his " artistic " garden structures are tainted by the "quite too - too" - overpowering - high art school. One of Mr Fawkes's productions is an "improved summer-house" of an emasculated type, which irresistibly reminds one of the man who fell among savages and was robbed of his clothes, and described his costume as consisting of "a waistcoat, a hat, and a pair of boots." The base of this summer-house is of stained red deal, the sides of glass, and "the roof is of red tiles" This garden horror is used by the author himself, he tells us. Apart from their ugliness, such glazed structures are simply stew-pots in summer; and after sitting in one it would be almost a luxury to crawl under an inverted sugar-cask with a hole in the top. The "usual rustic thatched summer-house" Mr Fawkes, like all professed makers of summer-houses, condemns. Those who have used such will, we are told, "be fully alive to its disadvantages." We have not heard that any discovery of this kind has been made yet.

There are a number of summer-houses, of the rustic kind, scattered over the gardens and estate of the Duke of Buccleuch at Drumlanrig Castle, and at other places, that it would do some horticultural architects good to see. They are clean, cool, comfortable, pretty, and attractive retreats, and perfectly in keeping with their surroundings. It would be an outrage on good taste to put a skeleton glass house with a red tile roof in such situations. An "exterior view of a conservatory," and a "panel of lead glazing," show more of Mr Fawkes's taste as a horticultural architect, and are suggestive, in conservatory culture, of unclean corners, dead wasps, and flies, and of spider-webs - things which usually congregate in corners created by the kind of glazing and decorative style there indicated. As in conservatories of the older type, Mr Fawkes neglects (and, we think, misunderstands) the wants and needs of the inmates of a conservatory, compared to which the construction is an entirely subordinate affair.

The author also condemns the system of glazing in which the putty is only used for bedding the glass, and considers it "by no means sightly." We never knew before that top putty was an ornament, and the rabbet, when top putty is dispensed with, does not need to be so deep and conspicuous. The opinions of those who have tried the plan are that it has the advantage in appearance : in other respects it is every way the best. If Mr Fawkes had seen large houses glazed in this way, such as some of the vineries at Clovenfords and elsewhere, he would not have stated that it was a system only fit for Cucumber-frames and suchlike.

There are a good many other points upon which gardeners will disagree with Mr Fawkes. They would want to know, for example, how he proposes to water a Vine-border, like figure 90, page 156, and which is something like a lump on a camel's back. His lean-to vineries, too, with fronts 5 feet high, including 2 1/2 feet of brick-work, are an entire nuisance, as every gardener knows. The brick frontage is a wholly useless part, and only adds to the cost of erection and the trouble of raising the Vines, that is all. With the exceptions here stated, however, the book is a good and useful one.

One of the prettiest floral sights we have seen this spring was a collection of Primroses of numerous shades of colour - all of the common Primrose type. Some of the name kinds are very distinct and showy, but it is probably to the seedlings raised from these that we must look for a cheap and ready supply of these attractive spring-flowers. The various shades of colour comprise pink, rose, maroon, crimson, lilac, purple, violet, etc, with numerous intermediate shades. For planting along with the common wild variety on the grass, to succeed Snowdrops, Crocus, and other early spring flowers, these Primroses are invaluable, and they thrive in any situation. A gentleman who cultivates them extensively, says, the single varieties are far superior to the double ones, being, as a rule, more vigorous, as well as of a freer-flowering habit. About the end of April, on the margin of a broad lawn in a large garden, we saw a number of the coloured Primroses growing in a semi-wild state, just at the skirts of the trees, and a more attractive sight it would be hard to imagine. The only fault was, they were not in sufficient quantity. The plants, in order to be effective, want to be scattered broadcast. Seedlings raised during the summer will flower next year.

Many of the Polyanthus are also suitable for the same style of garden decoration, and present many shades of colour; and, if anything, they stand up out of the grass better than the Primroses. As spring bedders, of course the Primrose excels. One of the most striking and effective beds we have ever seen was an oblong bed filled wholly with Primroses of various hues - not an inch of ground being visible, and the whole a sheet of flowers. It was bordered with Box and a gravel walk, which did not add to the effect; but the same nestling in a grassy corner of the lawn would have been attractive and natural-looking.