BOTANICAL NEWS. 231 
any geological oviclcnce of oiu^ islands having passed through two, instead of 
only one glacial period. In Switzerland, Belgiunij and Scandinavia, certain 
facts have couie to light, tending to prove that the first glacial period was suc- 
ceeded by a time when a luxuriant vegetation and plenty of animal life could 
spring up, until that creation was swept away by a second glacial period. 
A scheme is now under consideration for carrying out the proposition made 
by the British horticulturists who met at Brussels on the occasion of the Inter- 
national Show and Congress in 1864, and renewed by those who attended this 
year at that held at Amsterdam, to the effect that the next should be held in 
London in 1866. Those wdio are interested in tlie advancement of Horticulture, 
whether as exhibitors, cultivators, amateurs, or patrons, are going to be invited 
to aid in mating the International Exhibition and Congress of Botanists and 
Horticulturists worthy of this country. 
Our obituary this month includes the names of Sir Jolin Hichardson and 
Sir Joseph Paxton. Sir John Eichardson was bom on the 5th of November^ 
1787, at Dumfries, and died on the 5th of June, He completed his education 
at Edinburgh, entered the navy as assistant surgeon, and distinguished himself 
as an Arctic traveller, both as a companion of Sir John Franklui, and as leader 
of an overland expedition in search of him. His scientific w^ritings are cluefly 
zoological ; but botanists are indebted to him for bringing home good collec- 
tions of Arctic and subarctic plants. Sir Joseph Paxton was born in 1803, at 
Milton Bryant, near Wobum, Bedfordshire. The son of humble parents, he 
commenced life as a gardener, and in due time became the chosen friend of a 
duke, the designer of the Crystal Palace, a knight, a Member of Parhament, 
and a man of good estate. We first hear of him at Chiswick, where he was 
working in the Horticultural Society^s Garden for a few shillings a week, and 
where he displayed considerable talent for practical joking. It happened that 
Paxton had the key of a gate leading into the Duke of Devonshire's grounds, 
and when the late duke wished to pass through the Horticultural Society's 
estabhshment, the young gardener often opened the gate, procured him a light 
for his cigars, gave him information about the plants, and was otherwise civil. 
An acquaintance thus gradually sprang up j but liis future patron did not even 
know his name ; for when, some time after, the duke had occasion to appoint 
a head gardener for his scat at Chatsworth, he applied at the Horticultural 
Gardens "for the young man who has that good voice and used to open the 
gate for him/' the Duke being rather hard of hearing. Objections were made 
by the authorities at Cliiswick about Paxton's capacities, but these the Duke 
overruled. In Chatsworth, Paxton's duties were at first confined to the gardens, 
and they were afterwards extended to the management of the great Derbyshire 
estates of the Duke, In 1831 Paxton commenced, in conjunction with J. 
Harrison, 'The Horticultural Eegister and General Magazine,' and in 1832, 
*The Magazme of Botany and Eegister of Flowerhag Plants,' of which fifteen 
annual volumes appeared, and which then was somewhat remodelled and con- 
tinued under the title of 'Paxton's Magazine of Gardening and Botany ;' ulti- 
mately being transformed into * Paxton's Flower Garden.' In 1838, when 
Dahlias were fashionable, he wrote * A Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of 
the Dahlia,' which was translated into French, German, and Swedish, and to 
