202 FOTHERGILL'S BOTANIC GARDEN CHAP. 



Most of them were herbaceous, but a few trees and shrubs 

 are included. The names of about one hundred are on record, 

 and will be found in a list at the end of this chapter. A large 

 number came from North America, some from the West 

 Indies, others from China, and not a few from the Cape of 

 Good Hope. Central Europe furnished to Pitcairn and 

 Fothergill's joint efforts many dainty little Alpine flowers, 

 some of which, like the Hutchinsia, Mcehringia, alpine Tri- 

 folium with its narrow pointed leaves, an Antennaria, the 

 sky-blue Gentiana bavarica and others, are common to-day in 

 our rock gardens. " Fothergill's Geranium " (Pelargonium 

 Fothergillii) is said to have been one of the earliest races of the 

 zone-leaved Cape geranium. 1 Some of the most admired 

 varieties of Clematis are derived from C. florida, which Fother- 

 gill imported from Japan. The rosy Plumbago, the Alleghany 

 vine (Adlumia], and a rose mallow (Hibiscus), are other 

 frequent garden flowers for whictt we are indebted to him ; 

 as also for the caricature plant (Graptophyllum) , a tropical 

 shrub with quaintly marked leaves. Several orchids are in the 

 list, especially Lady Tankerville's Bletia (Phaius grandifolius) , 

 a noble evergreen, with long spikes of great chestnut and white 

 flowers, and leaves a yard long ; Fothergill had the plant 

 from China and sent it, Loudon says, to his niece Mrs. Hird 

 at Apperly Bridge near Bradford, where it flowered for the 

 first time in England. It was looked upon as the finest orchid 

 in cultivation ; but a still grander species, Phaius Wallichii, 

 'was afterwards brought from India. Fothergill's plant was 

 called no doubt after the young wife of his friend the 4th Earl 

 of Tankerville, already mentioned as sharing in one of his 

 botanical enterprises. Of the lily tribe, Nerine curvifolia is 

 known as Fothergill's lily : it bears an umbel of glittering 

 scarlet flowers. The golden amaryllis (Lycoris) is also well 

 known. Amongst trees, besides a poplar (heterophyllus), the 

 Chinese apple-tree (Pyrus spectabilis) has been a notable gain, 

 in its mantle of spring blossoms, the most beautiful of its 

 genus. Fothergill brought in, too, the handsome Balearic 

 Box ; one of the finest specimens in the country is a tree near 

 the temple of the sun at Kew, which was 13 feet in height, as 

 recorded by Loudon, in 1835 : it may perhaps have been sent 

 to the royal garden by Fothergill himself. 



The part which Fothergill took in discovering and bringing 



1 A fine figure of Pelargonium Fothergillii is given in the immense work of 

 Kerner, Hortus Sempervirens, 1795, vii. Tab. 469. The name seems to be no 

 longer used. 



