Deoembor 80, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



573 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



DECEMBER 80, 1875— JANUARY 5, 1876. 



Royal Society institoteil. 1660. 

 Joseph Sabino died, 18U7, ret. 67. 



ClRCl'MCISION. 



2 Sdnday AFTEii Christmas. 

 Victoria Institute at 8 p.m. 

 Zoological Society at S.90 p.m. 

 Entomological Society at 7 p.m. 



Son 



Seta. 



Moon 

 Kiaes. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon'fl 

 Ane. 



b. m. h. 1 m. b. 

 67af 8 ISaflO . 27at 6 

 36 10 44 7 

 50 10 9 

 1 11 17 10 



12 11 ' 84 11 

 23 11 : mom. 

 36 11 I 54 



Days. 

 3 



4 



r, 







7 



> 



9 



Clock 



after 

 Sun. 



Day 

 Year. 



set 



303 

 1 



8 

 4 



85.2». 



Prom observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week ia 42.8^; and its night temperature 



A NEW YEAE'S GKEETING. 



'^'^f}^ ill you ■write our new-year's .ailclress for 

 us?" How very easily ;iad jauntily these 

 words were written, but how Jiflicult to 

 comply with when one remembers how 

 the same thinfj has been done in years 

 past by " Wiltshire Rector " and other 

 friends. At first " I didn't see it," but 

 as I sat meditating on that reply, and 

 watching the glowing coals of a good fire 

 in front of which I was sitting, it seemed 

 to me to s.avonr of cowardice ; and as I gazed still further 

 there seemed to me to come up " faces in the fire " which 

 reminded me of things past, and so I deemed it possible 

 by revealing their teachings to say a few words that 

 might be of profit to the many readers of " our Journal," 

 in whose continued prosperity we dehght to feel that we 

 all have an interest. 



Ah ! there is a face that brings me back to some five 

 and forty years, when as yet, save in a youngster's love 

 of "posies," the love of flowers had not been developed 

 — a schoolfellow, who lived near to us in the neighbour- 

 hood of Dublin, asking me to come and see his " Uncle 

 Joe" beds of Ranunculus. I went, and was fairly con- 

 quered. I have never since then seen beds equal to them, 

 although as yet Mr. Lightbody and others had not tried 

 their hands at hybridising ; and from that time forward 

 I became a lover and grower of flowers. Little did he, 

 ■whose face I see before me, think how much he -was 

 doing for me then — how he was starting me on a line 

 which, if it has not brought me unmixed pleasure, has 

 tended to give me much real enjoyment, and has made 

 for me many friends, of whom, indeed, a large number 

 are cherished in memory only, but many, I am thankful 

 to say, stQl to be greeted. Time rolls on, and now I see 

 another beaming face, fair as are the flowers she gazes on 

 (smile not, I was married at the time), my garden then 

 on top of a cliff overhanging the sea, from whose blasts 

 I could only protect my flowers by erecting a Gorse fence. 

 But, oh ! how many pleasant days did that little garden 

 give me, and how readily I forgave the same young 

 damsel when she picked some of my choicest Carnations 

 and Picotees ! And now what a change ! I am in a 

 small house with a " bricklayer's garden " at that cockney 

 watering-place Ramsgate ; but even there the old love 

 will not be daunted, and out of that square piece no larger 

 than an ordinary room I had as many flowers and as 

 much enjoyment as many of my neighbours with places 

 three times the size. And yet once more : A change 

 again, and I see many a face associating itself with dear 

 old Deal, where for nearly twenty years, in a piece of 

 ground forming merely a part of a field, I was enabled to 

 grow so many things that friends sometimes wondered 

 whether my imagination was not larger than my garden. 

 During that time many a friendship was formed which 

 ■was founded simply on a common love of flowers; amongst 

 them I am proud to reckon the two " venerable fathers " 

 who preside over the destinies of " our Journal." It was 



No. 770.— Vol. XXIX., Netv Series. 



then some fifteen or sixteen years ago that by our com. 

 mon friend John Standish I was introduced to them, and 

 commenced that connection with this Journal which has 

 been to me so ftill of pleasure aud so mixed up with the 

 doings of these last years of my life. 



If I have thus far been egotistical it is because I want 

 to give a word of encouragement from my own personal 

 experience. One cannot have lived close upon sixty 

 years without having had a share of those troubles and 

 anxieties for which we are told man is born ; and I wanS 

 to tell my brethren, whether lay or cleric, male or female, 

 professional or amateur, that there is nothing of things 

 essentially connected with this Ufe that has more tended 

 to soothe and solace me than the enjoyments of a garden. 

 When worried with the anxieties of a large parish, or 

 perplexed with those domestic sorrows which we all 

 share, I have often turned to my garden and found in 

 the company of some of my favourite flowers gentle 

 voices speaking to me words of quietness and rest. One's 

 mind can hardly fail to be lifted up at such times to Him 

 who made these very flowers the text of His sermons ; 

 and the thought will then come, If He takes care of these 

 will He not take care of me '? And to all, whether they 

 be dwellers in town or country, I would say as their best 

 friend. Yourselves cultivate and encourage in those over 

 whom you may have any influence a love of flowers. It 

 can hardly fail to do good, to elevate and refine ; and I 

 look upon the increased facilities which have been given 

 to the cultivation of flowers in our huge metropolis as a 

 hopeful sign, tending to give even our roughs something 

 to look upon and think over better than those things in 

 which they can alone see pleasure — better than rat hunts 

 and dog-fighting, and such like brut.alising pursuits. 



If I turn from these generalities to the more special 

 affairs of our Journal I think we have cause to felicitate 

 ourselves on the fact that it has not only not diminished in 

 interest, but increased. There is not one of the readers 

 of it who, I am sure, is not glad to think that our " most 

 potent, grave, and reverend seigneurs" still wield (not the 

 baton of command, or the battleaxe of slaughter, but) the 

 pen of friendly criticism and revision. I am not in the 

 secrets of the prisonhouse, but I shall not be far wrong 

 in saying that to their wise and firm use of the pen in 

 cutting out smart (but bitter) sayings, and in toning down 

 the force of expressions of which the writer did not see 

 the danger, we owe a great deal of that kindly feeling 

 which exists amongst the contributors and readers of tho 

 Journal. And go where one will, such is its character 

 that the very announcement of a connection with it is 

 sure to be a sufficient passport in horticultural circles. 

 I think we shall tho more felicitate ourselves on this 

 when we recollect that one of them has during the year 

 performed an action which I can only compare to that 

 of Quintus Curtius leaping into the gap on the Roman 

 Forum, in accepting the post of Secretary of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society. It was an act of self-devotion, 

 one in which " monkeys' allowance — more kicks than 

 ha'pence," was all he might expect ; and we must only 

 hope that he will not meet the fate of that redoubtable 



No. 1122.— Vol. LIV., Old Seeies. 



