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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ NoTembci 7, 1805. 



In 1S45 appeared " The Vegetnble Kingdom," with a wholly 

 new arrangement, diiToring entirely from all the others he had 

 previously been labouring to introduce. In this he restores the 

 great hypogynous, perigynuus, eiiigynous, and diclinous divi- 

 sions of Jussieu, and suppresses the apetalous, which he distri- 

 butes .Tmong the other divisions. This is, undoul>tedly, by far 

 the best .scheme he has ever proposed, and had he introduced 

 such a system in IS^JS, instead of that set forth in the " Ni.\UJ," 

 he might have lived to see it adapted in botanical education as 

 a formidaljle rival to that of De C.indoUe. Hut tliis last and 

 certainly his best efl'ort, was the result of a gradual building up 

 of material prepared by others. It was first of all a recurrrencc 

 to the Jussieuan and Candollean systems, with the adoption of 

 such views as had previously been enunciated by Bartling, End- 

 licher, !J[arlius, Brongniart. and othcrr^, aided by the labours of 

 our own countrymen, the Hookers, Be^tham, Griffith, Gardner, 

 3Iiers, Wight, ami many more, but it c^.me too late for adoption. 

 It is not, however, with the view of drawing attention to 

 what may be suppos-d Dr. Lindley's uncertain ideas with regard 

 to classification that we have directed attention to these matters, 

 but rather to .show that an opinion we have often heard expressed, 

 to the effect that it is to him wc are indebted in this country for 

 the adoption of the natural system as it is now taught, is not a 

 correct one ; and that if students in botany had relied for guid- 

 ance on the worl;s of Dr. Lindlcy alone, they must have ex- 

 perienced that feeling of insecurity that one has when in a 

 atrange country he places himself under a guide who hesitates 

 at every deviation of the beaten track. 



In 1832, Mr. l.indley received from the University of Munich 

 the honorary degree of " Doctor of Philosophy," and henceforth 

 he has been known as Dr. Lindley. In iS34 he published 

 " Ladies' Botany," a worlc in two volumes, and written in a 

 familiar and popular style in the form of letters ; but whether 

 ihe style of the letters did not suit their taste, or the subject 

 their capacity, or whether it was tliat what is suitable for gentle- 

 men is equally so for ladies, the woili jjroved a failure, and has 

 long since fallen into obscui-ity. lie was a voluminous writer, 

 and besides those of his works to which we have already re- 

 ferred, and numerous others of smaller character, he was the 

 author of an *' Introduction to Botany," which passed through 

 four editions ; " The Genera and Species of Orchidaceous 

 Plants;" " Scrtum Orchidaceum ; " ".School Botany;" "Ele- 

 ments of Botany," &c. ; and, in conjunction with Mr. Ilulton, 

 "The Fossil Fiora of Great Britain." His greatest and best 

 works are " The Vegetable Kingdom," already referred to, and 

 " The Theory of Horticulture," the first edition of which ap- 

 peared in 18-40, and the second imder the title of " The Theory 

 and Practice of Horticulture," in ISoo. In 1841 he united in 

 establishing the Gardrncm' CJirimiclr, of which he remained the 

 Editor till little more than a month ago, when he was succeeded 

 in that office \j Dr. M. T. IMasters. , 



Dr. Lindley was a Fellow of the Royal and Linna?an Societies, 

 and a member of most of the learned societies of Europe. He 

 was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Society, and two years 

 ago his friends presented him with a ])iece of plate in the form 

 of a candelabrum as a testimony of their regard. 



Dr. Lindley was not what might be termed a great botanist. 

 He raised himself to a degree of eminence, not so mirch as a 

 botanist as a journalist, and by his connection with the JTor- 

 ticultural Society. With the exemption of his works on the 

 Orehidacea>, and the " Vegetable Kingdom," he has not con- 

 tribnted much lo the store of botanical knowledge; and when 

 we compa'e what lie has done for the extension and encourage- 

 ment of the science with the labours of Sir William Hooker, or 

 his contributions to it with those of Jlr. Bentham and Dr. 

 Hooker, the latter of whom is a very much younger man, we are 

 not inclined to concede to him so high a position iu the rank 

 of botanists. What he might have attained if ho had devoted 

 that time to botany wh'ch he gave to journalism, can, of course, 

 only be left to conjecture. He was a man of an extraordinary 

 energy and activity of mind frequently amounting to impctucsity ; 

 yet he was no geniu? — he had no inventive power, no originality 

 of thought. He never male a great (iiscovcry, or propounded 

 principles thit caused men to think out of the ordinary train of 

 th(iught, or out of which gr at icaulis cam^. He had not the 

 philosophic mind of Dai win, or IMohl. or Dc CandoUe. and many 

 others. His ranic will not lank with those of Ray or Robert 

 Brown. But ahhough he come short of all those qualities he had 

 great powers of generali ation and adaptation, and he could so 

 combine and apply the ^■iews of others as to render them'practieal 

 and popular, as lias been so well exemplified in " The Theory and 

 Practice of Horticulture " and " The Vegetable Kingdom." As 



a teacher, therefore, he was not only well adapted, but successful. 

 His classes at one time were well attended ; and it spoke much in 

 his favour that his students frequently numbered as many as 

 two hundred, the greater number of whom were purely voluntary, 

 and not compelled by any college curriculum to attend on the 

 course. Still, as a teacher he never attained the position of Sir 

 AN'illiam Hooker, Piofessor Henslow, or Edward Forbes. 



In his manner there was a certain brusiiueness and a want of 

 courtesy that was fretpicntly otfensive, and a disregard of the 

 feelings of others, while freely indulging his own ; but these 

 are traits which may now be referred to the nature of his malady, 

 which, it would appear, had been steadily yet silently gathering 

 over him. 



He was buried yesterday in the new cemetery at Acton. 



ti:me for dlanting vines in cold vinery. 



We have just completed a cold glass house, in which I pur- 

 pose growing Vines. I have purchased some good strong 

 plants in pots ; but though the border is quite ready to receive 

 the plants, my gardener advises their not being planted till 

 next spring, say May. He insists that if then transferred from 

 the pot to the border and cut back, they will make better growth 

 than if planted now. 



I cannot persuade myself that this can be, and shall be very 

 much obliged by your opiuion. — L. 



[The gardener will succeed best with his own mode of opera- 

 tion. There would be but little diiierence resulting from the 

 time of planting the Vines. In a cold wet border the roots 

 will do little in winter, but we should prefer planting before 

 May. With a good fresh border, and in good order, we would 

 prefer planting now, spreading out the roots regularly, and 

 covering the ground over the roots with warm litter, so as to 

 keep the roots moving slowly all the winter. Theu we would 

 cut back the plants to the necessary height in spring, rubbing 

 out all the buds except one or two intended to take the growth. 



If this care is not taken after planting we would keep the 

 pots with the roots mulched up all the winter, and plant early 

 iu the spring before the buds began to move. We think this 

 better in a cold house than planting after the Vine has started. ] 



PROLIFIC POTATOES. 

 Eakly in last March I planted a plot of ground with Lap- 

 stone and Dalmahoy Potatoes ; the piece of land is 7 yards 

 across, and was formed into drills 3 feet apart. The sets were 

 put in in the usual way about 1 foot apart in tlie row. The 

 land, a stiff loam, bad been well limed in the previous autumn ; 

 it also received a good dressing of stableyard manure at the 

 time of planting. The Lapstones when taken up in September 

 were a little diseased, and yielded on an average (!'2 lbs. of 

 useable tubers per row ; the Dalmahoys were taken up at the 

 same time, were entirely free from the disease, and yielded 

 fully 10 lbs. per row more. One row of this kind planted with 

 large whole sets yielded 89 lbs., and one large tuber cut into 

 eleven sets produced 51 lbs of large Potatoes. I have no doubt 

 that the produce of all would have been considerably larger 

 had not the growing season been so very dry. The Dalmahoy, 

 though not a handsome Potato to look at, yet is an excellent 

 sort when cooked, and the quality of a Potato ought to be in 

 the eating of it, and not in its appearance when uncooked. 

 From my own experience with this variety I think too much 

 cannot be said in its praise. ^Vhere and by whom was this 

 raised ?— W. L. 



Second Cp.op of Out-dook Fior. — I picked on the 20th ult. a 

 dozen and a half ripe Figs of the second crop in my garden 

 here. This is the first time that I ever knew the second crop 

 of Figs to ripen in this country, and I believe it to be a very 

 rare occurrence, even in the most southern parts of England. 

 I have, therefore, taken the liberty of mentioning it to you 

 now. The Fig is of the Large White Genoa kind. — William 

 Beresfoiid, Hampton Court. 



HEATING BY GAS. 

 For two winters I have found an oil lamp attached to one of 

 the Waltonian cases has been sulficieut to keep out the frost 

 from a small greenhouse in the mild cUmate of the south of 

 Devon. This, however, is a dirty and uncertain mode of heat- 

 ing it, the lamp burning low and going out early in the mom. 



