294 



JOUENAL OP HOKTICCLTUKE A^TD COTTAGE QAEDENER. 



[ Haiob 21, i8«j. 



genUeman sliows annoyance if a ^rdenev is either behind 

 6 in the morning or locks up at times before 6 in the even- 

 ing, the gardener, with all due respect to his employer, and 

 without beini; anything of an eye-servant, may in return 

 rigidly keep the prescribed hours, and yet not be able to 

 give himself or his employer the same amount of satisfaction. 

 Still, if only one or two men are employed, it is best in 

 general to keep to these regular hours. Where a number of 

 men are employed, whatever the time agreed upon, that 

 time should be rigidly kept without any irregular deviation. 

 Few things are more annoying, than to stand on a morning 

 for ten minutes or half an hour waiting for men to come ; 

 or to see men only appearing to work, that the job may be 

 drawled out until the hour strikes at night. The give-and- 

 take principle will generally be found to work the best ; but 

 when the gardener takes back a little time he will act msely 

 to do so with the full knowledge and consent of his employei-. 

 There will be no disappointment to the latter then, if he 

 does not see him at either ot the hours referred to. 



It is now happily becoming common for mechanics and 

 workmen to leave off work at an early hour on Saturday. In 

 most cases this would be unsuitable in gardens, but that is 

 no reason why the gardener should not have a holiday at 

 other times, and especially when he works often cheerfully 

 before and beyond his hours. We hold then with "W.," 

 that from 6 to G are very general and reasonable hom-s; 

 but if that is rigorously insisted on, it cannot be expected 

 that a gardener will long continue to do necessary jobs 

 beyond these hours, unless, indeed, he is paid for that over- 

 time. In all gardens of large extent where there is much 

 of this work iu extra hours, it is the most satisfactory plan 

 to pay for it, and then strictness to hours may be insisted on 

 without any want of kindness on the one hand, or respect 

 on the other. Even then we know from experience, that a 

 holiday freely given is anything but a loss to the employer. 

 It often makes all the difference between working as a 

 matter of duty, and working as a pleasure, from the heart- 

 felt desire to give satisfaction to those we respect — a veiy 

 different thing from merely filling up the time untU the 

 clock strikes. Knowing and feeling all this, we are great 

 advocates for regularity in time, so much so, that we would 

 have all deviations regular and a matter of thorough tinder- 

 standing between the master and the servant.] 



DE. HUGH FALCO^'EE. 



This eminent naturalist was born at Forres, in Moray- 

 shire, on the 29th of February, 1S08, and was, consequently, 

 at the time of his death iu his 57th year. He was educated 

 sit King's College, Aberdeen, where he took the degree of 

 A.M., aiter which he studied medicine at the tJnivi rsity of 

 Edinburgh for four years, and became M.D. in 1829. Having 

 been nominated to an assistant surgeoncy in the Bengal 

 Army, but not having attained the reqviisite age, he employed 

 the interval in assisting Dr. Wallich with his Indian her- 

 barium, and in the study of geology and palaeontology. 



In 1831, he was sent in charge of invalids for the sana- 

 torium of Landour, in the Himalayas, and passing through 

 Suharunpore, where the botanic gardens were then under 

 the superintendence of Dr. Koyle, a friendship was soon 

 formed betneen the two, and on Dr. Royle's leaving India, 

 Dr. Falconer was appointed his successor. " Thus," says 

 the writer of a memoir of him in the Athenmum, " at the 

 early age of twenty-thrce did ho find himself advanced to a 

 responBible and independent public post, offering to a 

 naturalist the most enviable opportunities for research ; so 

 fertile was the Indian service then in chances to rise for any 

 young officer who chose to make the exertion. Suharunpore 

 is situated between the Jumoa and Ganges rivers, outside 

 the belt of the Tarai forest, which lies between the moun- 

 tains and plains, and is distant about twenty-five miles from 

 the Sewalik hills, beyond which rise the Himalayas. It is 

 thas mrrgt favouralily situated ae a central station for natural 

 history investigations, — the rivers, plains, forests, and hills 

 teeming with life in every shape, and the range of elevation 

 combining, within a short distance, the features and pro- 

 duc-tions of tropical, temperate, and alpine regions insensibly 

 blended. Being u remote provincial station, with only half 

 a dozen European families, the white man had to draw on 



local means in all emergencies where the appliances of 

 civilised life were required ; but the intelligence, docility, 

 and exquisite manual dexterity of the natives, backed by 

 their faith in the guiding head of the European, furnished 

 an inexhaustible fund of resource. To construct, for example, 

 a barometer for mountain explorations, broken tumblers 

 were melted and blown into a tube, mercury was distilled 

 from cinnabar purchased in the bazaar, a reservoir was 

 turned out of boxwood felled on the mountains, and finally 

 a brass scale was cast, shaped, and even graduated, by a 

 native blacksmith, under the superintending eye of the 

 amateur. Such discipline was of value in training the young 

 officer to habits of self-reliance, and to kindly relations with 

 those among whom his lot was cast, and no doubt contri- 

 buted to that great fund of information for which Falconer 

 was remarkable." 



Here he pursued his geological and pakeontological re- 

 searches, investigating, in conjunction ^vith his friend. Sir 

 Proby Cautley, the fossils of the Sewalik Hills ; and the 

 result of their laboiu-s was their discovery, jointly with 

 Lieuts. Baker and Durand, of a sub-tropical mammalian 



I fossil fauna of unexampled richness and extent. 



I A commission having been appointed by the Indian 

 Government in 1834, to inquire into the fitness of India for 

 the cultivation of Tea, and Dr. Falconer having recom- 



\ mended the attempt, plants were imported and placed under 



I his charge. Since then the cultivation of the Tea plant has 

 extended over a large portion of northern India and Assam, 

 and is still extending. 



1 In 18-iS, he was appointed to succeed Dr. "Wallich, as 

 Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden (now left 

 little better than a wreck from the effects of the terrible 

 cyclone of last year), and whilst holding this position he re- 

 commended the introduction of Cinchonas into India, point- 

 ing out the hilly regions of Bengal and the NeUgherrie 

 HUls, as the positions most likely to insure the snccessfnl 

 cultivation of these invaluable medicinal plants. Years 

 afterwards this suggestion was carried out, and there are 

 now many thousands of plants both in India and Celyon. In 

 1855, Dr. Falconer came home and continued his favourite 

 researches among fossil remains up to the time of his death, 

 which resulted from an attack of acute rheumatism, coupled 

 with bronchitis, terminating in congestion of the lungs. His 

 writings were chiefly scattered over the Geological and Philo- 

 sophical Transactions and other scientific Journals ; but, to 

 quote the words of the writer in the Atheytanim, " the work 

 which he published was but a small fraction of that which 

 he actually accomplished. The amount of scientific know- 

 ledge which has perished with him is prodigious, for he was 

 cautious to a fault; he never liked to commit himself to an 

 opinion until he was sure that he was right ; and he has died, 

 in the fullness of his power, before his race was ran. Those 

 who knew him weU can best appreciate his fearlessness of 

 opposition when truth was to be evolved, his ori;rinality of 

 observation and depth of thought, his penetrating and dis- 

 criminating judgment, his extraordinary memory, his scru- 

 pulous cai-e in ascribing to every man his dae, and his honest 

 and powerful advocacy of that cause which his strong in- 

 tellect led him to adopt ; whilst they, more than others, will 

 have occasion to deplore the death of a staid adviser, a most 

 genial companion and a hearty friend." 



FKENCH vEKsvs ENGLISH ASPAEAGUS. 



I COULD not sooner reply to the observations of our friend 

 " G. A.," in your No. 197, because, to be very candid, several 

 of my friends, interested in the discussion, insinuated that 

 I might be wrong in my estimation of French Asparagus, 

 which they had considered to contain more white on the 

 shoots than did the English. I therefore determined to 

 write to ray French friend in whose gardens I first saw the 

 beds laid down by L'Herault, and who is himself a very 

 fair horticulturist. I think his letter will be interesting 

 to your readers, and, therefore, give you a translation of it. 



I cannot consider " G. A." quite fair to me, when he 

 writes — " We do not measure the value of Asparagus in 

 England solely by its appearance, but according to its 

 utility." Such a remaik appears as though he intended 

 your readers to infer that 1 did, whereas, nothing I have 



