6o JVotcs and Gleanings. 



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Obituary. — Mr. Robert Thompson, so long known and so highly esteemed 

 as the superintendent of the London Horticultural Society's Garden, died at 

 Chiswick on the 7th of September, i863. Mr. Thompson was born at Echt, in 

 Aberdeenshire, in September, 179S. During the whole of the forty-four years in 

 which he occupied the position above named, pomology was his special and pas- 

 sionate study, not only as it was exhibited under his eye in the garden, but in the 

 literature and practice of the pursuit as existing on the continent. It was this 

 well-grounded and thorough knowledge of the subject which enabled him to pro- 

 duce that laborious work, the Catalogue of Fruits cultivated in the Garden of 

 the Horticultural Society of London, which has formed the foundation of mod- 

 ern pomological synonymy. The Gardener's Assistant, a production of his 

 pen, is a most admirable compendium of horticulture. He was a contributor to 

 Loudon's Gardener's Magazine, the Gardener's Chronicle, the Edinburgh Philo- 

 sophical Magazine, the Penny Cyclopcedia, Morton's Cyclopaedia of Agi'iculture, 

 and Maunder's Treasury of Botany. He also assisted Mr. Loudon in the prep- 

 aration of most of his great works, especially the Encyclopaedia of Gardening and 

 the Suburban Horticulturist, and also wrote some of the most valuable articles 

 in the Pomological Magazine ; indeed, the editor acknowledges that whatever 

 claim upon pubHc favor it may possess is due to him. His love of physical sci- 

 ence was equalled only by his love of gardening, and his knowledge of mathe- 

 matics was of a high order. Meteorological science is much indebted to him for 

 the observations which he conducted at Chiswick for a period of thirty-nine 

 years. 



American fruit growers have reason to remember Mr. Thompson with grati- 

 tude, for at the time when zealous pomologists were beginning to form collections 

 of fruits, and were importing from Europe every variety that could be procured, 

 no scions proved so accurate as those received from the Garden of the London 

 Horticultural Society, then under his superintendence. 



Mr. James Veitch, of the Royal Exotic Nursery, Chelsea, died on the loth of 

 September, i863, aged fifty-four. He was the third in succession of three gen- 

 erations of nurserymen of his name, who, for nearly a century, have occupied a 

 prominent position in that branch of industry. 



The nursery, of which he took possession in 1S53, under his management 

 rose to be the largest and most prosperous in England, and its history has been 

 the history of English horticulture for the last sixteen years. It was especially 

 distinguished for its orchids, gathered by collectors sent out for that purpose, 

 among whom were Mr. William Lobb, in Brazil ; his brother, Thomas Lobb, in 

 Java; and Mr. J. Veitch's own son, Mr. John Gould Veitch, who, in a journey to 

 Japan and the East, and another to Australia and the South Pacific Archipelago, 

 added numerous treasures to the botanical and horticultural wealth of his country. 



Mr. Veitch was not only an ardent collector, but a thorough cultivator. 



