ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE GLADIOLUS CARDINALIS. 169 
kinds of trees are found, viz., Pinus cembra and Alnus incana; for the 
Pyrus rosefolia, called by Chamisso a tree, cannot rank as such, as it 
never grows higher than eight or ten feet. The Alnus is the most 
common. ‘The whole town of Petropaulowski is built of its wood ; it 
also furnishes the principal fuel of that place. Of its bark the Kamt- 
schadales manufacture vessels for holding fluids, called here, as over all 
Siberia, Tujes (one of which I transmit for the Museum). Bread 
made of the bark of the same tree is not used at Petropaulowski, but 
is still eaten by the natives of the interior.” 
A paper of a similar character is given by Dr. T. Thompson, being 
notes of a scientific mission to Thibet. The following melancholy 
detail of Dr. Gardner’s untimely end, communicated in a letter to Sir 
William Hooker by Lord Torrington, governor of Ceylon, will be 
read with deep regret :— 
“* My dear Sir William,—It is with very great pain and distress 
that I take up my pen to address you; but knowing the interest and 
friendship you had for Dr. Gardner, and being unacquainted at this 
moment with his family in Scotland, I relate to you my melancholy 
tale, trusting to your kindness to make it known to those it must so 
deeply interest. Poor Gardner arrived here yesterday at three o’clock 
in high health and spirits, and was going on an excursion with me to 
the Horton Plains. Never did he seem so well, and never more 
cheerful or agreeable ; so much so, that when some of us went out to 
ride at four o’clock we remarked it. He took some luncheon, and he 
said he should go to his room and rest after his journey. 
‘‘ We had not ridden two miles, when an express was sent to us to 
say he was taken severely ill. Dr. Fleming (the ablest physician in 
the island) was with me at the time, when we immediately returned, 
and found him lying in a fit of apoplexy. Every possible means that 
science and skill could invent were employed; but nothing proved 
of any avail. He breathed his last at eleven o’clock last night 
(March 10) in my presence, and, I can truly say, surrounded by as 
many sorrowing hearts as if his own relations had been here. It ap- 
pears from the account of the Rest-housekeeper that, hearing him 
scream in his room, and exclaim, ‘ I am going to die!’ he rushed in, 
when poor Gardner fell into his arms, and said, ‘ Fleming—bleed !’ , 
He must have been in the act of taking off his boots. He is to be 
buried this evening at six o’clock, and everybody will attend to pay the 
last mark of respect to our lost friend.” 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE GLADIOLUS 
CARDINALIS. 
BY MR. ANDREW MACKENZIE, GARDENER AT BLAIR-ADAM, 
Peruars this plant has been brought to greater perfection at Blair- 
Adam than in any part of Britain, for in a bed of a few square yards I 
have had no fewer than five hundred trusses of these superb scarlet 
flowers all in bloom at one time. When the late Mr. Loudon, with 
his lady and daughter, paid me a visit in the beginning of August, 
1841, the bed was then in full show; and he was amazed to see the 
