1882.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



125 



—tomb of •' Queen Isimkheb " over 3,000 years 

 old, and in which the remains had been pre- 

 served by bitumen, even the forms in a floral 

 wreath were traceable. The flowers were found 

 to be chiefly of white and blue Nelumbium, or ] 

 Water Lotus. Other species were identified 

 though their names are not given in the account 

 before us. 



A Lover of Trees. — The London World says, 

 alluding we suppose to effects of the severe win- 

 ter of 1880-81, which would now only the past 

 summer show its full effects : •' The destruction 

 of trees on Lord Haddington's estate, in Hadding- 

 tonshire, was so wholesale that the beauty of his 

 place is entirely destroyed, and it will be half a 

 century before the loss can be replaced. Lord 

 Haddington feels this so acutely that he has shut 

 up his place and gone abroad for the winter, pre- 

 ferring this to watching the clearing away of the 

 ruins, which will occupy many months." 



Leichardt, the Lost Australian Explorer. 

 — The man who professes to have found the 

 relics of this long lost explorer, asks of the Eng- 

 lish Government $30,000 for what he has found. 

 Under the advice of Baron Von Mueller, he has 

 been informed that undoubted authenticity 

 alone, will induce the Government to consider 

 the proposal. 



DoMiNY the Orchid Kaiser. —Dominy who 

 was for so many years foreman to Veitch, has 

 retired from age. He was the first to raise 

 orchids very well from seeds, and to reduce their 

 hybridization to good practical results. On his 

 retiremeiflt a number of orchid growers in Eng- 

 land, who had derived pleasure from his beauti- 

 ful creations among these pretty flowers, made 

 up a purse of over $1,000, which was recently 

 presented to him. 



Art and Science.— Mr, John Williamson the 

 well known botanist of Louisville, is also famous 

 in art. The Kentucky papers speak in high 

 praise of some etched plaques of brass on exhi- 

 bition, in which the ferns and other plants are so 

 accurately engraved, that any botanist can tell 

 the species. The Courier Journal remarks that 

 Mr. Williamson has " reason to be proud of this 

 unique and beautiful piece of work." On the 

 birthday of Burns, a festival given by the St- 

 Andrews Society, Mr. Williamson also made the 

 great speech of the evening, in which he showed 

 that the art of poetry had a well furnished home 

 in his breast, as well as science. 



James Vick. — The Garden of January 28th, has 

 an excellent likeness and sketch of the history 

 of James Vick, whose successful career every 

 American horticulturist takes a pride in. Mr. 

 Vick was born at Kingston, near Portsmouth, 

 Hampshire, England, November 23d, 1818. He 

 came^to this country with his .father at fifteen, 

 and learned printing with Horace Greeley. He 

 removed to Rochester a year or so after learning 

 the trade, cultivating flowers as an amateur, and 

 giving his experience freely to the newspapers. 

 He was employed by Luther Tucker, and event- 

 ually issued and edited the New Genesee Farmer. 

 On the death of A. J. Downing bj' the burning of 

 the Henry Clay, (not the Swallow, as stated by 

 the Garden,) he published the Horticulturist, 

 which however did not prove profitable enough 

 to continue, and was sold. Then he edited the 

 Rural New Yorker, and in 1857 commenced the 

 seed business, which, as our readers know, has 

 come to be one of the largest in the world. 



Australian Explorer. — John Forrest is the 

 name of the most popular Australian explorer 

 just now. He has recently been elected a Fellow 

 of the London Linnean Society. 



Thomas Potts James. — The members of the 

 American Pomological Society have many of 

 them learned before this, of the death of one of 

 the founders, and for thirty years the treasurer 

 of the Society, Thomas P. James, who died at 

 his residence in Cambridge, Mass., in his 79th 

 year. It was only a few years ago that he re- 

 signed the ofl5ce, owing to his advanced years. 

 He was born near Philadelphia, and was a mem- 

 ber of the ancient family of Potts who founded 

 Pottsville, Pottstown, and other places with simi- 

 lar names in Pennsylvania. He was a leading 

 member of the drug business in Philadelphia 

 for many years, relinquishing it but a few years 

 ago to reside near Boston where the relatives of 

 Mrs. James lived. During the many years that 

 he resided in Philadelphia he was activelj' en. 

 gaged in fostering the interests of intelligent 

 horticulture, and was long the Secretary 

 of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 

 when, before the burning of the Chinese Museum 

 and the immense growth of the city had removed 

 its fine gardens a long distance from its centre, 

 the Horticultural Society was among the most 

 popular and influential organizations in the city. 

 Mr. James took the same interest in Botanical 

 science as he did in fruit growing and gardening, 

 I and was especially distinguished in his know- 



