120 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



I April, 



of water and apply it to the affected parta, keep- 1 above has helped wonderfully, where other reme- 

 ing them well wet with it until cured. The I dies worked but slowly." 



ITERATURE, ^^^RAVELS & p'ERSONAL ^^OTES. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



GARDENING GOSSIP OF THE OLDEN TIME. 



BY A. W. WII>SON. 



Your useful and interesting Monthly is, I be- 

 lieve, well known in Britain, but I, being "off 

 the track," — having shunted on a siding many 

 years since — it had not come much under my 

 notice previous to tliis, my second visit to Amer- 

 ica. Being of opinion that it ought to be sup- 

 ported, I would like to contribute something to 

 its pages, but m}' acquaintance with professional 

 gardening is so antiquated, so far behind the age, 

 that it would be presumptuous in me to pretend 

 to enlighten your practical readers, and almost 

 to hope to interest the amateurs of the present 

 day. I have, however, a lingering love for the 

 fine old art, and cannot help recalling and cher- 

 ishing the studies, the laboi\s, and even the 

 drudgery of forty odd years ago with delight. 



The Horticultural Society of London was then 

 young, vigorous and in full bloom, notwithstand- 

 ing that its first Secretary, Mr. Joseph Sabine, 

 with the Council as accessories, allowing their 

 zeal to outrun their discretion, had involved it 

 in debt to the tune of $85,000, it was doing good 

 service, examining and practically testing every 

 appliance or feasible idea connected with Gar- 

 dening; collecting the hardy fruits and culinary 

 and esculent vegetables of the world, cultivating 

 them in the Gardens at Chiswick, undcrthe skil- 

 ful superintendence of ^Ir. Robert Thompson, 

 and with the aid of his keen critical judgment, 

 comparing, proving and rectifying the nomen- 

 clature; for many, especially of the older and 

 more popular sorts of fruits, were received under 

 a great variety of names. The results were pub- 

 lished periodically in the Horticultural Trans- 

 actions, and the best sorts of fruits were beauti- 

 fully figured and recommended in the Poiiwlogi- 

 cal Magazine. Tbe adventurous David Douglas, 

 who ended his days so tragically in what was 

 then known as Owyhee, had sent home chiefly 



from your Western Territories the beautiful 

 Ciarkias, Q^lnotheras, Lupines, Nemophilas, Clin- 

 tonias, Gilias, Pentstemons, Mimulus, Bartonia, 

 Eschscholtzia, Ribes, &c., which are now the 

 pride and glory of every cottage garden in 

 Britain, also numerous species of the stately 

 Pines and other forest trees which clothe your 

 Rocky Mountains and Pacific Slopes. Plants, 

 seeds, grafts, cuttings, or other forms of all of 

 these were as far as practicable distributed 

 throughout the country and abroad to all eligi- 

 ble applicants. George Gordon, than whom no 

 man was more at home amongst trees and shrubs, 

 and who, about twenty years since, wrote an 

 exhaustive book on Coniferae, was Superintendent 

 of the Arboretum. Robert Fortune was in train- 

 ing at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden and Uni- 

 versity, to take charge of the Hot-house Depart- 

 ment, and from thence to proceed on his " wan- 

 derings in the Northern Provinces of China," 

 and in other Eastern countries. He visited Assam 

 at the instance of the United States Government 

 with reference to the proposed cultivation of the 

 Assam tea-plant in the Southern States of the 

 Union ; and on his first visit to Japan, he pene- 

 trated the country from on board of an American 

 ship, access being then denied to the British. It 

 is scarcely necessary to remind those acquainted 

 with hardy ornamental plants of recent intro- 

 duction, for how many of them we are indebted 

 to my old friend, Robert Fortune. Joseph Pax- 

 ton had been selected from the rank and file of 

 the garden hands, by the Duke of Devonshire, 

 and placed over his princely gardens at Chata- 

 worth, where the successful erection of a very 

 large conservatory of iron and glass led to his 

 undertaking the construction, on the same prin- 

 ciple, of the London Exhibition Building of 1851, 

 and the re-erection of it as the Crystal Palace, 

 with its beautiful grounds laid out by him, at 

 Sydenham. The President of the Horticultural 

 Society was Thos. AndrcAv Knight, of Downton 

 Castle, Hereford, a very successful originator 

 of new fruits ; he also proved the carnivorous 

 character of the Venus' fly-trap, long before the 



