July 29, 1869. ] 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



75 



be claim to mnoli art, any more than this year such houses 

 can show much fruit ; but where the ventilation is regulated 

 with regard to the economisatiou of the sncbeams, there is 

 considerable art, without which in this locality fruit by this 

 means conid not be had in any year. 



To show that low temperatures occasionally are not injurious, 

 it may be here observed that we have had the thermometer at 

 31° Fah. inside the houBe when the plants were in full flower, 

 after which we never had a fuller set or better crop. We fancy 

 — it may only be fancy — that the structural form of the house 

 has considerable influence in this system of cultivation. — H., 

 Scone Fatace, Perth. 



AMONG THE SWISS LAKES.— No. 1. 



Not being gifted with either Musel's cloak or Fortnnatus's 

 hat, I had to pass over some seven hundred miles of land and 

 sea before I reached the point where I was to be introduced to 

 " the Merry Swiss Boy " and his surroundings. Now, that boy 

 is no common boy, and he cannot be a common boy — of course 

 I speak of a generation, not of an individual — who is born and 

 passes his life in such a mountain land. I will not pause to 

 argue over the why and because, but I rest upon the fact thit 

 the people of the mountains are everywhere superior to the 

 people of their neighbouring lowlands, both mentally and physi- 

 cally. The Dutchman has a large posterior development, but 

 the Swiss has a muscular leg and arm and an elevated cranium. 

 Look at the clusters of Swiss boys, each with his knapsack, 

 passing on, morning after morning, from every point of the 

 compass to the canton-sustained school of the district ; and 

 from these clusters yon may deduce another evidence — uni- 

 versal education — why a Swiss is intelligent and free. 



I certainly feel equally free of pen, for when I dipped mine 

 into the ink it assuredly was with no intention to dwell upon 

 Swiss boys and their education, but to have made no pause 

 antil I came to my recollections and notes of Zurich. Well, 

 here I am beneath the trees at the end of the garden of the 

 Baur au Lac, and looking upon the lake's blue water and its 

 bright green, villa-dotted banks. There are three English ladies 

 and one Swiss lady near me ; and this one last-named reminds 

 me that the girls and women of this land are also physically 

 and intellectually superior to the feminines of lowland countries. 

 Let one instance suffice. A Swiss lady, evidently a governess 

 commencing her annual holiday, was in the same railway 

 carriage with me. We crossed the Channel together, went on 

 to Paris together, and there I thought that mind and muscle 

 demanded rest ; but not so my companion. The Ranz de Vache 

 had a spell over her, and on she went to travel without a rest- 

 ing over some more hundreds of miles, until she had reached 

 the land of her birth. Well, God speed her ! But before I 

 pass from the remembrance of her fair face, and mind as fair, 

 let me record that it is a delusion to believe that a Ranz de 

 Vache is one especial and universally accepted melody. Every 

 district has some favourite air, and that is its Ranz de Yache. 



And now, if lean restrain my thoughts from further vagrancy, 

 let me dwell upon subjects more consonant with the special 

 topics of your pages. No, it cannot be ; for I must jot down 

 first something about that John James Scheuchzer whose "Itin- 

 era Alpina " is the first published of Swiss guide books — and a 

 strange book is it. He was a professor at Zurich, this very 

 place where my Swiss notes begin. Some ignorance of the 

 district around does he betray, yet both he and his brother 

 John — rare fraternity in science — were superior botanists. 

 John devoted himself especially to the study of the Grasses, 

 and John James to the study of alpine plants ; and they are 

 most aptly commemorated by the genus Scheuchzcriu, for its 

 solitary member is of grassy habit and of alpine birth. John 

 James was a native of Zurich ; he was its special physician, its 

 professor of mathematics, and there he printed and published 

 nearly all his numerous and voluminous works. Most of these 

 works have one peculiarity — wherever an engraving could be 

 possibly introduced, there one, howeverirrelevant and unneeded, 

 is introduced. Thus in his '• Phybique Sacree," or Natural 

 History of the Bible, having occasion to quote the Psalm, " AVho 

 can endure the cold of the Lord?", is inserted a picture of 

 about twcuty men who suffered severely in the ice ; and an 

 allusion to some coin enabled him to add engravings of medals 

 he had collected ! Peter the Great endeavoured to lure him 

 from his native land, bat the Senate of Zurich prized Scheuch- 

 zer too highly to permit his departure. They bestowed upon 

 him honours and stipends, and thus detained him until he died 

 in 1733 amoDg hig fellow citizens. 



His " Itinera Alpina " does not differ from his other works 

 in having numerous illustrations, and the most interesting is 

 his own portrait. An inscription beneath each reveals that 

 they were added at the expense of his friends, and it startles 

 at first to find that our Sir Isaac Newton thus contributed 

 some, and that the portraits of plants were paid for by our 

 botanists Bobart, Lhujd, and Dale. With no faint interest 

 did I examine the specimens collected by the Schenchzers, pre- 

 served and labeUed in their own hand-writing, in the herba- 

 rium attached to the Zurich Botanic Garden. This garden 

 was established in lo60 by him who has been weU named " the 

 greatest naturalist the world had seen since Aristotle," Conrad 

 Gesner. His collection of dried plants has been mentioned as 

 preserved here ; but it is not, nor could I learn that it had been 

 ever, deposited in any of Zurich's public museums. 



This town, like our Norwich, has been fertile of botanist*, 

 besides many high masters of many other sciences ; but I will 

 dwell only upon one other, who, like Gesner, was one of the 

 most loveable of men — Lavater, the physiognomist, who needs 

 no other testimony than that he would not reveal the name of 

 his assassin, and, perhaps, it is an evidence that his countrymen 

 think he needs no eulogy, that there is no other epitaph over 

 his grave than this, in the obscure churchyard of St. Anne :'■ — 

 " J. C. Lavater'B grave. Born loth Nov., 17il. Died 21st Jan., 

 1801." I might not have noticed this true personal illustrator 

 of charity, had not I long pondered over the physiognomy of 

 organised forms which Lavater has left unnoticed — plants. 

 They have had, however, their Lavater. for Humboldt wrote 

 " Considerations on the Physiognomy of Plants;" but he and 

 his disciples have confined their comments to the features im- 

 parted to a country by the plants which are there specially 

 predominant. The Palma, Musace.x, Piperacea, and Seitami- 

 naceai impart a physiognomy to the tropics, totally differing 

 from that imparted by the Abietinae of northern latitudes. 

 But we might, I think, go some steps further ; might detect the 

 internal qualities of plants from their physiognomy. When 

 we see a plant having the form of a Grass, whether it be pygmy, 

 as the Poa annua on our gravel walks, or 50 feet high, as in 

 the Bamboo, we know that starch predominates in its seeds. 

 Again, in the large natural family of the Rosaceic, is there oiie 

 fruit that is unwholesome ? or one that does not contain majic 

 acid? 



The connection of Gesner and the Scheuchzers with the 

 Botanic Garden of Zurich impart to it a deep interest, and 

 gladly do I bear testimony, that under the management of its 

 present cotuteous, indefatigable, and skilful Curator, Mr. 

 Ortgiss, it maintains a good position. It is not very liberally 

 endowed; Zurich gives the ground rent free, and the Govern- 

 ment allow £63 yearly, but the chief income arises from the 

 ; collections of alpine plants, gathered together by Mr. OrlgifiB 

 \ during his researches among his native mountains. Those 

 collections command a ready sale, and this source of income is 

 consonant with the spirit of national independence ; and how 

 effective it has been is evidenced by the building and its fittings 

 in which the Herbarium is preserved. They were paid for out 

 of the proceeds of those sales. 



One lesson was taught me by the alpine plants in this garden, 

 which may be suggestive in cases of failure with other plants. 

 Liiiaria alpina and Aster alpinus, both natives of Switzerland, 

 pertinaciously refused to live in the garden. Mr. Ortgiss sent 

 plants of them to Messrs. Backhouse, of Tork, who propagated 

 them, and Mr. Ortgiss obtained from those well-known nursery- 

 men some of the young plants. 'Xhese flourished in the Zurich 

 garden, and their offspring are now there, and are annually the 

 parents of others. 



Mr. Ortgiss recommends Fteroccphalus perennis as a white- 

 flowered edging plant. He has also a very pretty hybrid 

 Myosotis, which he calls "Empress Elizabeth." Its parents 

 are Jlyosotis alpestris and a:urca. It flowers most profusely, 

 forming a mass of intense blue, and the plant has the ad- 

 ditional merit of producing a succession of flowers if their pre- 

 decessors are cut down when fading. The term "hybrid per- 

 petual " would not be misapplied to it. 



One source of income to the garden arises from the sale of 

 iionds ol Cijcas revoluta. The Swiss call them " Palms," and 

 a frond is placed in the hand of a corpse, then on the coffin 

 which encloses it, and finally is placed upon tbe grave. Eigit 

 francs are given for a large frond suitable to an adult, and five 

 francs for a small fromi .f a size appropriate for a child. 



One of the novelties in the garden was a perfectly white 

 Gentianella (Geutiaim acauUs). This, and many intermediate 

 varieties, found wild on the Alps by Mr. Ortgiss, are permanent 



