Aumist 'J2,' 1805. 1 



JOURNAL OF IIOIITICULTIIUE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



Ui 



(VOrleaiis, Prinofi Ciunille de Rolian, Carolino <le Sansal, 

 Miuu-iee BernanUn, ami Dnc do Rohan. Mr. RadulyfTo tells us 



truly " To form a Kii»d rosory bc^in with a hundri'd oacli of 



.TiUes MarKotton, Scnateur Vais'sc. Caeilo de Chahrillaiit, tiharle-i 

 Lefebvre, .and Priiico Camillo do Uoliau, ami you will have such 

 a begiunins as will take half a century to heat."— -Vdolimu-s 



H. KiiNT, Dlechiiigleij. 



(To bo continued.) 



SIR WILLIAril JACKSON IIOOKICU. 



DEATit, in renioviug from us Sir William Hooker, has de- 

 prived us of one who has rauked among the most indefatigable 

 and useful botanists of our time. 



He was a descendant from "the judicious Hooker," author 

 of " Ecclesiastical Polity," and other temperate works in 

 divinity. His fa'her was a brewer of high staudiuf! at Exeter, 

 but Sir William was born at Norwich, in 1785. He concluded 

 his education at one of the Scotch Universities, where natural 

 histoi-y, to which lie was devoted, was more fostered than in 

 our English colleges. Eventually he became Regius Professor 

 of Botany at Glasgow, and was the le.ader in forming the 

 Werneriaii Society of Edinburgh. Long is the catalogue of 

 his hterary contributions from liis " Journal of a To\ir in Ice- 

 land," in 1811, down to his last description, during the present 

 year, of the plants in " The Botanical Magazine," of which he 

 was the editor. Knighthood in 18:j5, and an Oxford honorary 

 degree of D.C.L. in 181',, were well-earned acknowledgements 

 of his services to botanical science. In 1811, upon the retire- 

 ment of Mr. W. T. Alton, ho was appointed to the Directorship 

 of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, a fitting office which 

 he ably filled and retained to the time of his death. He was a 

 Fellow of the Royal and very many other British and foreign 

 scientific societies. He died at Kew on the I'ith inst. 



THE STRAWBERRY CROP IN YORKSHIRE. 



As your correspondent Mr. Radelyffe has given yon an ad- 

 mirable account of the various kinds of Strawberries he hns 

 this year cultivated in Dorsetshire, it may perhaps he interest- 

 ing to your readers to learn what sort of a crop this fruit has 

 produced in the hill country of Yorkshire. 



Strange to say, many healthy plants of Keens' Seedling never 

 flowered this spring. Ecli])se, of whicli I had upwards of fifty 

 well established plants, also refused to flower. Ivivers's Eliza 

 suffered so much from the dry weather that not one dish was 

 gathered from about one hundred and fifty plants. Cox's 

 Hybrid failed, for the first time since I received it from Mr. 

 Nicholson, to produce an abundant crop. I still think this 

 variety will continue in fruit a week later than Ingram's Late 

 Pine. I am tjuite at * loss to account for the barrenness of 

 these most hardy aud healthy varieties, as the pl.iuts were 

 strong and well estabhshed. It is, however, right that you 

 should hear of failures as weU as of successes. Ingram's 

 Prince of Wales produced as usual a most ample supply of fine 

 fruit. It is decidedly superior to Oscar, Sir Harry, Wonderful, 

 Empress Eugenie, Victoria, Eclipse, and Keens' Seedling in 

 flavour, and it has never failed for the last nine years to give 

 me an abundance of fine highly flavoured fruit both for dessert 

 and preservmg. For quantity combined with quality I have 

 not yet met with its equal. Crimson Queen and Frogmore 

 Late Pine have both produced a most remarkable quantity of 

 large first-rate fruit. These two varieties are worthy of being 

 extensively cultivated, especially the Late Pine, which is the 

 best late pine-fiavoured Strawberry in cultivation. My gardener 

 tells me he can gather a dish of this variety to-day, the 11th of 

 August. 



My favourite, La Coustante, yielded as usual a splendid croji 

 of its most delicious fruit. It exhibited no signs of burning 

 nor of not being summer-hardy throughout this most dry and 

 scorching season. Here, in Yorkshire, La Constante does 

 not require to be treated as an annixal, for it continues to in- 

 crease in strength and productiveness until it has reached its 

 fourth year. My three-year-old plants gave me by far the best 

 crop, while runners, obtained somewhat late last year, also 

 flowered and bore fine fruit. I shall not throw away a single 

 plant, but manure my whole stock heavily in the Avinter. This 

 variety is also especially suitaljle for gardens which ai-e exposed 

 to late spring frosts. Last year the frosts of the 4th and 5th of 

 June made sad havoc among my Strawberry plantations. The 



flowers of La Constante alone escaped injury ; being earned on 

 short footstalks they were almost entirely covered and pro- 

 tected by the leaves. This variety cannot be said to be espe- 

 cially slow in making runners, as ray gardener iilanled no less 

 than two hundred and fifty fine runners on the 3rd of .\ugust. 

 Mr. Dean, of the Bradford Nurseries, Shipley, was good 

 enough to pay me a visit this summer. He examined and 

 tasted all my dilferent varietiei) of Strawbemes, aud would, I 

 am sure, gladly confirm the correctness of much that 1 have 

 stated. Can any of your readers afford nio any infonnatifln 

 concerning those seedlings of La Constante v.hich v.'ere sent 

 out last year by M. Gloede — viz., La Favourite, La Fertile, 



liijou, &C. ? — A FnAG.VKI.lN. 



VISITS TO CxARDENS PuAlC AND PRIVATE. 



M. AMBHOISi; VKRSCHAFrKI.T's. fillF.NT. 



Extensive and important as M. Van Houtte's establishment 

 is, that of M. Versehaffelt is equally so ; and to an Englishman 

 perhaps more interestbig, as it is more on the model of one 

 of our home nurseries, dependant on private enterprise, and 

 worked out with an energy and independence that reniinds 

 one of some of the foremost names in our own country. There 

 was, too, a neatness and regularity in the arrangement of the 

 whole place which is so very imlike wliat we see in the French 

 nurseries, that to an eye with which these qualities find favour 

 it was very refreshing. The same character appertains to all 

 the establisliments v.'hioh I have seen in Belgium, leading one 

 to the behef that their old connection with that cleanest of all 

 countries, FloUand, has inoculated them vrith these properties. 



Among the most interesting plants to a \'isitor are unques- 

 tionably the magnificent specimens of tree Ferns which M. Ver- 

 sehaffelt has collected, .and these gi-own in a house which is 

 sunk some feet below the surface. In this condition they 

 v.-ere growing most hixuriantly, as it seems most conducive to 

 the maturing of the stems. Besides the well-lmown fonns of 

 Cibotium, Cyathea, Dicksonia, &c., M. Versehaffelt had two 

 very interesting specimens — one, Cibotium regale, far finer 

 than even Schiedei or princeps, and another but unnamed 

 species : these were said to be the only specimens in Europe, 

 and were certainly very interesting. But alas ! there are so 

 few, comparatively speaking, who can afford room for these 

 Ooliaths of the Fem tribe, that the crowd must be satisfied 

 with looldug at them in other people's houses rather than their 

 own ; not so, however, with the Camellias and Azaleas, which 

 are here grown to a large extent and in great perfection. It is 

 km\Yn, perhaps, to many, that M. Versehaffelt is the editor 

 aud publisher of a work called, " Nouvelle Iconographie des 

 Camellias," the publication of which lias now extended over 

 some years, since 1819, and which contains from that period 

 up to 1S60 no less than upwards of 500 Camellias, and this list 

 is still going on. It may be imagined, then, v/hat a sjiecinlih': 

 they form in his establishment : they are to be seen in thou- 

 sands, from the little plants with two or three leaves up to 

 l.a.rge bushes 7 or 8 feet high, althougii the latter are now be- 

 coming very difficult to procure, the demand for them in all 

 quarters having been so great. A little knowledge of M. Ver- 

 schaffelt's extensive collection might be valuable to some parties 

 nearer home, for I find that a variety received last year dis- 

 tinguished lionours as a novelty which was figured in his 

 "Iconographie" for 1850 — fifteen years ago, and which he is 

 now selling at two francs a-plant — certainly not to my mind a 

 novelty, however beautiful it may be. 



Azaleas, too, were to be seen in all sizes ; the larger ones of 

 a very different shape to the crinolines which we are in the 

 habit of seeing at our exhibitions — a form which is an abomi- 

 nation in the eyes of the Belgian growers, and indeed in those 

 of some nearer home. Their treatment of the Azalea is very 

 dilfereut, too, from ours, and I suppose could only be carried 

 out in their climate ; certainly it would not do in ours. After 

 they have done flowering they are clipped !iU over with a pair of 

 shears, and then placed out of doors in order that they may the 

 better break. When I was in Belgium, in June, they were then 

 beginning to push vigorously all over, and would remain in the 

 same quarters, mostly in sheltei-ed alleys, during the summer 

 months. I need not say how widely different this is from the 

 p'an adopted by our best growers of hardly ever allowing their 

 specimen plants to go out of doors. Indeed, some never do ; 

 but then the drenching rains to which we are subject, and the 

 lower temperature of our climate, make this necessary. Amongst 

 the best and newest varieties wei-e the semi-double Reino des 



