Jane 24, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTIGUIiTUEE AND COTTAtiE GARDENfiB. 



■103 



when the soil bfgina to become dry. I also find the fibres 

 adhering to the inside of a porous pot more than to that of a 

 non-porous pot ; also a plant potbound in one of them will be 

 better in health than in a non-porous pot, for the fibres will 

 suck the moisture of the atmosphere through the pores of a 

 porous pot condensed on the outside. I also find cuttings 

 strike more freely in them than in a non-porous pot ; they 

 also hold out longer when dry, and a plant is not so soon 

 injured in them as in non-porous pots. Further, I never find 

 the soil become sour in them if overwatered by an inexpe- 

 rienced hand. 



I shall be glad if anyone using porous or non-poroua pots 

 would state their experience.— J. McAfee, Gardener, Ireland. 



CYTISUS ADAMI. 



It seems strange that in the numbers of June r2th of the 

 Gardiner's Chronicle and of Sirhnldia (a Dutch horticultural 

 paper, edited by Mr. H. Witte, Curator of the Botanic Gardens 

 at Leyden), notes are inserted about the same subject — Cjtisus 

 Adanii. In both papers it is mentioned that on Gytisus Adami 

 both yellow and violet spikes can be seen, and, which is more 

 curious still, that both violet and yellow flowers may be ob- 

 served on the same spike. Some of your readers may be in- 

 terested to hear that the latter fact has recently been seen in 

 Mr. R. J. Blaann's garden at Zuidbroek, Netherlands. 



Flower spikes of Gytisus Adami have been observed pro- 

 ducing both yellow and violet flowers. Mr. Blaanu sent one 

 of those spikes to Mr. Witte, who says the following about it 

 in Sieboldia : — ^" The spike which lays now before us is not 

 one of the largest, and already shows by its development to 

 keep a medium between the spikes of Gytisus Laburnum and 

 C. purpnreus. It bears fifteen flowers. Examining them from 

 the base of the spike, they are arranged iu the following order ; — 



1 yellow flower 1 violet flower 1 yellow flower 



2 violet ,, 2 yellow ,, 1 violet ,, 

 1 yellow ,, 1 violet ,, 5 yellow ,, 



Gonsequently we find five violet and ten yellow flowers. This 

 fact is so striking that one can scarcely believe it. We do 

 not now again mention the origin of this tree, on which so 

 much has been written. A clear explanation of this fact is 

 until now always a wish which very likely will not be so soon 

 aocomplished. For the present we content ourselves with this 

 note, thanking Mr. Blaann very much for his kindness in send- 

 ing the spike." — A. M. C. Jongkindt Goninck, Tottenham Nur- 

 sericf, Dedemsraart, near ZuoUe, Netherlands. 



NEW BOOKS. 



The Fotalo Disease, dJc. i3i/ Ecoles Haiuu. G. Philip A Sou , 



Fleet Street, London. 



We fail to discern anything novel in this pamphlet, and our 



readers may judge for themselves when wo quote the following 



aa embodying Mr. Haigh's opinion as to preventing the disease : — 



" Regenerate through the seed two or three times, and abstain, 

 as nearly as practicable, not only from nitrogenous artificial 

 manures, such as guano, sulphate of ammouia, rape-cake, and 

 nitrate of soda, but also from strong farmyard manure, such as 

 stable manure and that produced by cattle fattened on such food 

 as oil-cake; that furnished from dairy establishments and cow 

 byres approaches to the type of what I would recommend." 



Compendious Statement of the Nature and Cost of Certain 

 Sewage Processes. By Majob-General Scott, C.B. Scott's 

 Sewage Gompany, 26, Great George Street, Westminster. 

 So strongly do we feel convinced from long experience of the 



vast fertilising power of house sewage that we have published 



more than one work on the subject, and recommend strongly 



General Scott's pamphlet to our readers. 



EARLY WRITERS ON ENGLISH GARDENING. 



No. 5. 

 JOHN PAKKINSON. 

 Usually, but very undeservedly, our early herbalists are 

 ridiculed, and their researches called "old women's lore." 

 (finite the reverse is my estimate of them and their labours ; 

 and all gardeners ought to coincide with me, for the herbalists 

 of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the men who 

 first largely introduced plants worthy of cultivation in oar 

 gardens. It is true that they travelled far, and examined them 

 sedulously to obtain from them medicinal aid. In that also 



they were marvellously successful ; but they learned to admire 

 the plants and to cultivate them for their beauty, and they im- 

 parted them to others who coveted them only for their beauty. 



Prominent among these herbalist-gardeners was John Par- 

 kinson. He was born in l-!i()7, for the inscription on his por- 

 trait, published in lli2'.l, states that he was then in his sixty- 

 second year — " LXII ietatis annum agentis." 



The place of his nativity is not known, but Nottinghamshire 

 was probably the county, for thither towards the close of life 

 it has been stated he travelled to recruit and renovate his 

 strength for his professional duties as an apothecary. There 

 is no room for doubting that Parkinson resided in the parifh 

 of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. In his " Theatrum Botanicum " 

 he very frequently speaks of plants that were growing in his 

 " garden here in London," and that it was in Long Acre. 

 Among the State Papers of the time of Charles II. there is a 

 petition dated in September, 1G60, from John Ghase, His 

 Majesty's apothecary, for a lease, on rental of 20s-., of a small 

 parcel of land next the Tennis Gourt in St. James's Fields, 

 granted by the late King to John Parkinson, his botanist, as a 

 garden for plants, toward the enclosing of which and erecting 

 a house there the petitioner's father advanced £100, on con- 

 dition of being joined with Parkinson in the grant, but was 

 prevented by the civil war troubles. Now Long Acre and 

 St. James's Fields were both in the parish of St. SJartin'e. 

 The latter were westward of its church, and were not made a 

 part of the parish now known aa St. James's Piccadilly until 

 108i. Long Acre was not so called previously to 1612, when 

 building had reduced it to a long narrow slip. It had been a 

 much larger vacant space, earlier known as Seven Acres and 

 The Elms. In his " Pnradisus" he tells that he had spent 

 nearly forty years in "travell," or as we now spell it "tra- 

 vail," to acquire a knowledge of plants, and, not satisfied with 

 his own researches, ho contributed to the expenses of one 

 botanist to enable him to search some parts of Europe for new 

 plants. Parkinson was reasonably displeased with him. The 

 offender was Guillaume Boel, who, says Parkinson, " going 

 into Spaine almost wholly on my charge brought me little else 

 for my money than seeds of Ghiceliug Peas." Vet he gave 

 seeds to others, so that " I beate the bushe and another catcheth 

 and eateth the bird." 



The vicinity, the northern bank of the river, seems to have 

 been long preferred for garden grounds. Even iu Domesday 

 Book a vineyard belonging to the King is mentioned as situated 

 in Holborn, and in the period we are now considering we have, 

 in a line along the same elevation Johnson's physic garden 

 on Snow Hill, Gerarde's iu Holborn, and Parkinson's in Long 

 Acre. Those gardens were enriched by contributions from our 

 merchants and gentry, several of whom are immortalised in 

 the pages of those three herbalists as lovers and collectors of 

 plants. The following extracts record some of those who thus 

 Ibenefited Parkinson : — 



" Mr. Nicholas Lete, a worthy merchant and a lover of all 

 faire flowers." 



" Mr. John de Franqueville imparted to me many good 

 things." 



"Mr. John Gordier (Goodyer), a great lover and curious 

 searcher of plants, who hath found in our countrey many 

 plants not imagined to grow in our land. I wish there were 

 many more of his minde, that not hindering their affaires at 

 spare times would bo industrious to search out and know what 

 the ground bringeth forth where their occasions are to be." 



Of the Sea Pea he says that Dr. John Argent brought a 

 whole plant from Lincolnshire, and "gave it to Dr. Lobel iu 

 his lifetime to be inserted in his workes, but he, prevented by 

 death, failing to performe it, I have by purchasing his works 

 with my money here supplied." 



The desiie for new plants and fruits was not confined to 

 men of science and merchants, and one instance is Kichard 

 Brown, writing from Paris to Secretary Dorchester in 1631, 

 tells him how he purposes spending the £300 for fruit trees for 

 him, chiefly Peara, Nectarines, and Grapes. Among the Pears 

 are the Summer and Winter Bon Chntien, Bergamotte, 

 Messeur Jean, Eousselet, and de Beurru. Among the Nec- 

 tarines the Alberge, Peche cerise, Violette, Blano and Jaune. 

 —{Col. of State Papers. Biuce.) 



Notwithstanding hia pre-eminence as a botanist and his 

 intercourse with the encouragers of science who were his con- 

 temporaries, no letters from or to him are known to be in ex- 

 istence, nor any relative MSS. either in the British Museum or 

 Lambeth or Bodleian libraries. I have searched them, but ia 



