264 



JOURNAIj of HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEE. 



t Octobor 8, 1868. 



HORTICULTURE IN THE HOSPITjU.— A HAPPY 

 THOUGHT. 



In the report of the proceedings of the meetiDg of the 

 governors of the Hospital of Incurables, we find chronicled 

 what appears to us to be a charming gardening episode, and a 

 beautiful illustration of the sympathies and kind-heartedness 

 of a noble lady, the members of whose house have ever been 

 amongst horticulture's foremost and most distinguished 

 patrons. We are told that on the occasion a letter was read 

 from Mr. G. Smith, head gardener at the Viceregal Lodge, 

 saying that he had forwarded a number ol plants which he had 

 been directed specially to prepare for the institution by her 

 Grace the Duchess of Abercorn. Her Grace was not mistaken 

 in the gift. Gardening ministers largely, indeed, to our 

 material and everyday wants, as well as to the elegance and 

 luxuries of life ; but it is yet more blessed in its resources for 

 relieving the tedium and ennui of the sick-room, or, mayhap, 

 giving a fillip to the sinking frame, which has often been the 

 turning point to recovery. There are few physicians who are 

 not familiar with instances where a bunch of forced Grapes or 

 delicate vegetable strengthened their hands when hope was 

 almost gone, and was found more potent for good than all the 

 medicines in the Pharmacopccia. So, too, in the room of the 

 confirmed invalid, a Fern stand or a few pot plants become as 

 friends, and a recently gathered flower is a joy which brightens 

 up, albeit though only for a moment, the lustreless eye of 

 hopeless sufi'ering. 



It has been truly said that the love of plants and flowers is — 



" An inf^edient in the compound man. 

 Infused at the creation of the kind." 



In truth it was a kindly, and a thoughtful as kindly, act, when 

 her Grace instructed Mr. Smith to prepare these specimens to 

 present to the incurables. The institution has more than 

 once been visited by her Grace, and we have heard a distin- 

 guished physician, who takes an especial interest in it, fre- 

 quently speak with enthusiasm of the Duchess's prolonged 

 visits, and the time she spent by the bedsides of the patients. 

 — (Irish Farmer's Ga:ett(:) 



PEAS. 



Dickson's Fiest and Best. — I consider this Pea a most 

 valuable kind. I have at present a splendid crop from seed 

 saved from the first sowing literally covered with pods and 

 flowers. Not so with some other early kinds sown at the same 

 time, and afforded the same treatment. 



The Princi. (Stuart & Mein), is another valuable kind to 

 which I wish to call attention. It was sown with some other 

 old and well-tried kinds in spring, but was much superior in 

 every way, branching out from the axil of every leaf, and 

 beaiing most profusely. This, in my opinion, is distinct from 

 all the other dwarf Marrow varieties. — E. Welsh, Palace Gar- 

 dens, Armai/h, Ireland. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



On the 20th of September died Mr. Henrt Bailey, one 

 of the best of our English horticulturists. He had been head 

 gardener to Earl Spencer, at Altborp, and to the late Mr. George 

 Harcourt, at Nuneham. When the gentleman last-named died, 

 he bequeathed Mr. Bailey an annuity of £100 for life, and this 

 induced him to retire from garden service. He resided at 

 Amersham, and was in his 65th year at the time of his death. 



PORTRMTS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND 

 FRUITS. 



PtJYA Whttei (Whyte's Chilian Puya). Xat. ord., Brome- 

 liaceae. Linn., Hexandria Monogynia. — " A superb rock- 

 plant," introduced by Messrs. Veitch, from Chili. Flowers 

 dull blue.— (£ot. Mac,., t. 5732.) 



LiNARiA OEiGANiFuLiA var. CRASSiFOLiA (Thick-leaved-Mar- 

 joram-leaved Toad Flax). Nat. ord., Sorophulariacete. Linn., 

 Didynamia Angiospermia. — A hardy rock plant. Native of 

 South of France, Spain, and Portugal. Flowers purple and 

 lilac— (Z;,id., t. 5733.) 



Blandfordia Cunninghamii (Allan Cunningham's Bland- 

 fordia). Nat. ord., Liliacea?. Linn., Hexandria Monogynia. — 

 Native of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. Introduced 



by Messrs. E. G. Henderson & Sons, Wellington Nurseries- 

 Flowers orange scarlet, tipped with yellow outside ; inside al 

 yellow.— (/ft/d., (. 5731.) 



Areca Baueri (Bauer's, or Norfolk Island Betel Palm). 

 Nat. ord., Palmre. Linn., Monoeoia Hexandria. — This Norfolk 

 Island Palm flowers annually freely in the Kew Palm House, 

 and less well in the temperate houses. — (Ibid., t. 5735.) 



Odontoglosscm coNSTRicTuir (Narrow-petalled Odontoglot). 

 Nat. ord., Orchidaeeie. Linn., Gynandria Monandria. — It is a 

 native of Caraccas. Flowers yellow, blotched with brown. — 

 (Ibid., t. 5736.) 



Golden Champion Grape. — " It is not only a decided no- 

 velty, but a novelty of the very highest excellence. Free and 

 robust in growth, hardy and prolific in habit, magnificent both 

 in berry and in cluster, and exquisite in flavour, what more 

 can be desired 1 lu truth, its merits are of so high an order, 

 that they leave little to be wished for. 



" The bunch of the Golden Champion is moderately large, 

 compactly-shouldered, and somewhat tapered, with a stout 

 fleshy stalk. The berries are very large, with stout warted 

 footstalks, some 2 inches long, and 3J inches in circumference ; 

 they are generally of an ovate shape, but occasionallysomewhat 

 roundish, and they have a thin, pale yellowish green skin, 

 which acquires a rich golden amber tinge with a shght bloom 

 when they are fully ripe. The flesh is tolerably firm, but 

 tender, with few seeds, very rich and juicy, with a flavour 

 which, though compared with that of the Black Hamburgh, is, 

 to our taste, much more saccharine and luscious than that 

 variety, even when grown on the same stock. 



" This new Grape supplies, so far as can at present be judged 

 of it, a long-felt desideratum — namely, a high-class free-grow- 

 ing white Grape, of hardy constitution, suitable for general 

 cultivation as a companion to that best of all Grapes for general 

 purposes, the Black Hamburgh. It was raised by Mr. W. 

 Thomson, of Dalkeith, some five years since, from a seed taken 

 from a Grape that was itself a cross between the Champion 

 Hamburgh and the Bowood Muscat, and has been freely ex- 

 hibited during the present year, when, among other awards, it 

 has received a first-class certificate from the Fruit Committee at 

 South Kensington. The foliage is very slightly lobed, and deeply 

 and sharply serrated." — (Florist and Pomologist, n.s., i. 217.) 



MASTERS' TROUBLES. 



" Well ! I do not know what to say about this new gardener. 

 I am afraid he will not do. I do not care for half-work ; if a 

 man digs I like him to do it well, send his spade deep in as far 

 as it can go, and put the top soil to the bottom, and bring up 

 the dark, heavy, long-hidden lumps of mould with all their 

 grubs and centipedes to the surface. A man knowing what 

 he is about gives these lumps a blow with the spade, so that 

 the fresh air may pulverise it, and the ever-busy birds begin 

 their share of the labour." So grumbled Squire Butler as he 

 eat under the shade of an old Thorn tree one warm morning in 

 September. 



" I think you are too particular," replied his wife, pausing 

 in her occupation of cutting away the dead Asters ; " he ap- 

 pears to be working hard whenever I chance to see him." 



" Yes, I dare say, trying to catch the lost hours ; yet I do 

 not mean to say that the man is idle, but he is not skilful, he 

 gives two knocks to a nail when one would do, and he might 

 just as well have the strength and time employed for the second 

 knock in doing something else. I obtain my money to pay this 

 man by hard work, and I feel rather sore about so spending it, 

 unless I get back something like value for value." 



" Then, Frank, I am afraid your feelings will always be 

 wounded, for gardeners never do return a money equivalent ; 

 you have plenty of beautiful flowers." 



" But my wife cannot boil these for Cabbages, or turn them 

 into Cucumbers, so it does not alter the case, or cause me to 

 put faith in a man who cannot bend his back, and whose shoes 

 are so bright that he can see his face in them, and who must 

 blow away the dust from a stone wall before he can put down 

 his jacket." 



" Well, I admired the man, he was so clean and tidy." 



" Yes, even to his hands. He is too much so for me. What 

 would you say to your cook if she sent up your Potatoes un- 

 scraped on the score they dirtied her fingers ? And a gardener 

 may be too clean to be worth much." 



" You must acknowledge, at least, that he is very respectful." 



" I dare say he is, Clara. You women are always taken by 

 that, plenty of touching his cap, and ' Good morning, Ma'am.' 



