October 2l, 1475. ] 



JOUENAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



863 



the frnit annually. A Coooa plantation once properly eetab- 

 liehod is a rich possession to its owner ; it is therefore to be 

 hoped that some enterprising cnpitalist may consider this 

 industry worthy of his attention in northern Queensland. 



A groat many other highly valuable plants in a commercial 

 point of view could be successfnlly and profitably cultivated in 

 the lately explored territory of the north, lying between the 

 Herbert and Endeavour Rivers, such as the Caoutchouc or 

 India-rubber Tree (Siphonia elastica), Gutta Tercha (Isonan- 

 dra Gutta), Gamboge (Hebradendron gambogeoides), Palm 

 Oil (Elais Gnineensis), Quinine, yellow bark (Cinchona cali- 

 Baya), Quinine, red bark (Cinchona succirubra), Ipecacuanha 

 (Cepbaelis Ipecacuanha), and a host of other tropical exotics. 



The Lac Insect (Homoptera Coccida), and the plants it 

 inhabits. — My attention has been recently directed to the com- 

 mercial importance of the produce of this insect, and I am at 

 present in communication with several correspondents in 

 India and China to endeavour to obtain a supply of the best 

 species of insects for the purpose of acclimatisation, as the 

 trees upon which the insect subsists, and deposits in tuch 

 large quantities the waxy substances from which the shellac 

 and lac dye of commerce are prepared, flourish most admirably 

 in various parts of the colony, but especially in the northern 

 districts, where I believe the insect would be easily acclimatised. 

 The trees upon which it lives in other parts of the world, and 

 which are to be found growing to perfection in the Gardens and 

 elsewhere in the colony, are the Indian Fig (Ficas indica), 

 Butea frondosa, Ac. ; but I am also certain that the insect 

 would take to many of our indigenous trees, and subsist as 

 well upon them as the above, such for instance as the Moreton 

 Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla), Rhamnus Vitiensis, Zizyphus 

 quadrilocularis, Croton insularis, &c. The produce of this 

 insect is largely used in the arts in various manufactures in 

 India, China, Japan, and various other countries ; the value of 

 the imports into England alone is from £300,fi00 to £400,000 

 per annum. It is, therefore, an article which is well worthy of 

 the attention of the colonist. 



The Sugar industry, as will be seen from the statistics given 

 in this report, is increasing in importance in a great ratio 

 yearly, the production of last year being fully two-fifths or 

 40 per cent, in excess of that of the previous year ; and when 

 settlement takes place upon the rich tropical lands of the 

 north, so suitable for the industry, and with the further 

 prospect of cheap Asiatic labour, I fully anticipate even a still 

 larger increase in the production of this valuable commercial 

 commodity. 



I have it on reliable authority that sugar cultivation in this 

 colony is causing great uneasiness and anxiety amongst sugar 

 planters of Java and neighbouring islands, as they are con- 

 vinced that, notwithstanding their advantage of cheap labour, 

 that, from the superior quality of our sugar, due to the ex- 

 pensive and greatly superior machinery used in the relining 

 process, that it will be quite impossible to compete with 

 our growers, and that the fine quality of our sugars will 

 drive their present low class sugars entirely out of their various 

 markets. 



I have at present about fifty (.50) different varieties of sugar- 

 cane in the Gardens. It is now becoming almost impossible 

 for the Gardens to act longer as a nursery for this plant ; 

 the requirements of the colonists for aU these various different 

 varieties is so immense that the requisite space cannot be set 

 apart, and the soil and situation ia not very suitable for the 

 proper development of many of the plants. To meet the 

 demands of those engaged in sugar cultivation, and for the 

 successful growth of each kind, about a quarter of an acre 

 would be required for each variety. 



ORCHARD HOUSE APPLES. 



A FEW years ago we called the attention of our readers to 

 some fruit of Cox's Orange Pippin we received from Mr. Abram 

 Bass of Moat Bank, Burton-on-Trent, and which had been 

 grown in an orchard house. The beauty of their colour, the 

 wonderful delicacy of their flesh, and their richness of flavour 

 were remarkable. Mr. Bass has again sent us this year some 

 fruit of the same variety which in size and colour surpass 

 anything we have ever seen, while the flavour cannot be ex- 

 celled. They are indeed "Apples of gold." With these 

 are also samples of Margil and the old Nonpareil, the latter 

 so changed by its indoor cultivation as to be with difficulty 

 recognisable. 



But the lesson to be learned from this is, that Apples of this 



class which are grown for flavour are so highly improved both 

 in that respect and in appearance by being grown in au orchard 

 house that we commend the system to all lovers of fine fruit. 

 The texture of the flesh and the delicacy of flavour are such 

 as cannot be found in any Apples grown uudtr any other con- 

 ditions. Such ia the effect of this eyetem of growing Applef , 

 Mr. Bass informs ns, that the state of ripeness is so advanced 

 that the fiuit does not keep so long as it ordinarily does when 

 grown in the usual way. 



It might be worth the while of frnit-growers who can appre- 

 ciate good cultivation to pay a visit to Moat Bank in the season 

 when gardening operations are going on, and see for themselves 

 what two ardent amateurs — for Mrs. Bass is herein included — 

 can do when stimulated by a love of their pursuit. It was 

 our privilege to see the frnit houses there when they were in 

 their best condition about two months ago, and we can testify 

 unreservedly that we never saw better Grapes in the vineries 

 nor finer fruit in the orchard houses than we saw at Mr. BassV. 

 Apropos of Grapes, Mr. Bass has been good enough to send us 

 a handsome bunch of Muscat Hamburgh as well set as any 

 old Hamburgh could be ; and though rather red than black in 

 colour the flavour is very rich, and justifies Mr. Bass's obser- 

 vation, " Nimium nc crcdc colori " — that is, " A good horse is 

 never a bad colour." 



EARLY WRITERS ON ENGLISH GARDENING. 



No. 8. 



JACOB BOBAET. 



TuE sixteenth century was the birth-time of botanic gar- 

 dens. Italy led in this most effectual movement for the pro- 

 motion of a knowledge of plants and their cultivation. Tho 

 first established was at Padua in 1533, the movement was com- 

 municated to Switzerland and Germany, and in England the 

 first botanic garden was established in 1632 at Oxford, and its 

 founder was Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby. He gave five 

 acres on the banks of the Chorwell, on the south side of St. 

 Mary Magdalene College. Ho built greenhouses and stoves, 

 enclosed the garden with a stone wall 14 feet high, erected a 

 house for its superintendent, and engaged the first — Jacob 



BOBART. 



The Earl of Danby was a gentleman commoner of Christ- 

 church, and his mansion, Cornbury, was in Oxfordshire. Wood 

 states that the Earl, " being minded to become a benefactor to 

 the University, determined to begin and finish a place whereby 

 learning, especially the faculty of medicine, might be im- 

 proved." He gave £2."0 to purchase the meadow ground near 

 the Cherwell. The tenant was bought-oat in 1C22, and the 

 University took a lease of the ground from Magdalene College, 

 paying yearly 40s. The first stone was laid on St. James's Day 

 (Jaly 2oth) the same year. The enclosing wall was not 

 finished until 1633, and it had then cost the Earl more than 

 £.5000. He then had it planted with " divers simples for the 

 advancement of the faculty of medicine." John Tradescant 

 was to have been the Professor of Botany, but the occurrence 

 of the civil war, and then the Earl's death in 1644, prevented 

 the arrangement. He devised to the University the rectory of 

 Kirkdale in Yorkshire, for the use of the garden — that is, for 

 its keeping and a stipend to the professor and gardener. The 

 revenue not being suflicient no lecture was read until 1669, 

 when the King's Professor of Botany, Dr. Robert Morison, 

 accepted the appointment for a stipend of £40. 



The Botanic Garden, or, as it was originally named, tho 

 Physic Garden, occupies the ground that had been the cemetery 

 of the Jews ; when they were expelled it became the property 

 of St. John's Hospital. The gateway of the Botanic Garden 

 was designed by Inigo Jones, over it is a bust of the founder ; 

 and the statues of Charles I. and II., one on each side the 

 gateway, were purchased with the fine paid by Anthony Wood, 

 the Oxford historian, for a libel on the Earl of Clarendon 

 published in the first edition of the " Athera; Oxoniensis." 

 Two large Yews were pruned and clipped into the form of 

 giants. They were much satirised in ballads written in 1662 

 and 1664. 



Jacob Bobart was a German, born at Brunswick in 1500, 

 and consequently was thirty-three when he came to Oxford in 

 1632. Therefore Mr. Evelyn was not wrong when in 1604 he 

 described him in the following sentence of his "Diary" — 

 " Went to the Physic Garden where were two large Locust trees 

 and as many Platani (Plane trees), and Eome rare plants 

 under the culture of old Bobart." Dr. Plot bears testimony 

 that he was " an excellent gardener and botanist," and that 



