December 23, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



545 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



Day 



of 



of 



Month 



Week. 



28 



Th 



29 



F 



80 



S 



81 



Sun 



1 



M 



2 



To 



S 



W 



DEC. 28, 1S76.— JAN. 3, 1877. 



London Institute at 7 p.m. 



Royal Society instituted, 1660. 

 Sunday after Christmas. 

 "Victoria Institute at 8 p.m. 





Average 





Son 









Clock 



Day 



Temperature near 

 London. 



Rises. 



Sets. 



Kiaes. 



Sets. 



Age. 



before 

 Snn. 



of 

 Year 



Day. 



Nigit. 



Mean. 





h. m. 



h. m. 



h. m. 



DayB. 



m. s. 





42.6 



29.5 



36.0 



8 9 



3 56 



1 9 



3 85 



14 



2 5 



362 



43.9 



33.0 



88.5 



8 9 



3 56 



1 54 



7 1 



15 



2 34 



863 



44.4 



81.7 



88.1 



8 9 



S 57 



S 2 



8 14 



© 



8 3 



864 



43.9 



32.4 



S8.2 



8 9 



3 58 



4 29 



9 7 



17 



8 32 



865 



43.0 



83.0 



36.6 



8 8 



4 



6 4 



9 42 



IS 



4 



1 



41.9 



28.9 



85.4 



8 8 



4 1 



7 38 



10 6 



19 



4 28 



2 



42.6 



28.6 



85.4 



8 8 



4 2 



9 8 



10 23 



20 



4 56 



8 



29.6 5 . 



From, observations taken near London daring forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 43,1°; and its night temperature 



A BETEOSPECT OP THE CLOSING YEAB. 



t OOKING forward is what all earnest mem- 

 bers of the craft horticultural are properly 

 doing. The old — those who have won suc- 

 cess and honour — look for a period of retire- 

 ment ; the middle-aged hope for another year 

 of still greater prosperity ; and the young 

 hope for positions of trust which they con- 

 template occupying worthily. Looking for- 

 ward is commendable, but the path, we 

 should remember, is hidden. All of us need 

 a guide — the aged, the robust, the young — we all need 

 some aid that we may pursue our way with the more 

 confidence. Now, a guide which is at the command of 

 all is the past. The past affords both encouragement and 

 warning, and its teachings are recorded in the preceding 

 issues of this Journal. We turn over its pages, and we 

 naturally count up our loss of men whose absence we 

 regret and whose memories we honour, yet they have 

 left us the. examples of their lives — then - earnestness in 

 the cause of horticulture, their industry, their integrity, 

 and deserved success. 



Amongst nurserymen who saw the beginning but not 

 the end of the " closing year " the name of Van Houtte 

 comes prominently. That " giant in horticulture," as he 

 was appropriately termed, lived a life of indomitable per- 

 severance, of unflagging and almost unresting industry, 

 which Burmounted all obstacles. " It is not fan 1 ," said 

 one (who is a successful living worker) to me, " to regard 

 that man's life as one life, for a man who works unceas- 

 ingly from one o'clock in the morning until eight in the 

 evening lives the life of two men. Van Houtte's thirty 

 years of business means sixty years." That is true, but 

 the same lesson remains — that " he who wins must 

 work ;" and the warning is also afforded that incessant 

 and almost unbroken labour wears out (perhaps prema- 

 turely) the strongest of men. 



Another loss in the nurserymen's ranks, and this time 

 " nearer home," is the blank left by the late Mr. J. B. 

 Pearson ; he also was a man of success, a man of energy, 

 and a man of work, and one whose uprightness and 

 conscientiousness were equal to his attainments. Mr. 

 Pearson is remembered as having "revolutionised the 

 character of bedding Geraniums," as having raised new 

 Grapes possessing both distinct and valuable qualities; 

 but more particularly, and honourably, by having re- 

 turned the highest honour which could be awarded to a 

 seedling Grape when he subsequently found that the new 

 Grape did not retain its youthful charms during after 

 years of trial. The lesson left by the life of this worthy 

 man is that high moral rectitude is more endurable than 

 even great professional attainments. It is only the weak 

 who (even covertly) appropriate that which is not justly 

 then - own. Mr. Pearson's loss is mourned as one who 

 " went straight." 



Another vacant form — not name, for that is still with 

 us and respected, is tho late Mr. W. Cutbush, who for 

 thirty-six years laboured with assiduity in his calling : 

 No. 822.— Vol. XXXI., New Series 



he also was an upright man. One more name must be 

 added to the list of the " year's victims" — the patriarchal 

 Mr. E. G. Henderson, who after a life of zeal resulting in 

 the establishment of one of the foremost of the metro- 

 politan nurseries was called away, " full of years and 

 honours." These are some of the men who have be- 

 queathed to us the memory of their lives — guides of the 

 future. 



Amongst those more or less identified with the subject 

 of botany — those who have prosecuted their researches in 

 museums and gardens, and who have not only acquired, 

 but have disseminated information of the greatest value, 

 but who are " no longer with us," may be named MM. 

 Adolphe Brongniart and Pierre Pepin abroad, and Messrs. 

 Bennett, Turner, and Munby at home— all painstaking 

 workers in then- several spheres, whose industry and accu- 

 racy may be emulated with advantage by others now 

 engaged in similar important duties. 



The florists' ranks have also been thinned during the 

 year ; and how ill can real florists be spared ! Nathaniel 

 Norman, the " Tulip, Pink, and Picotee man " of Wool- 

 wich, the raiser of many of the best named flowers and 

 the builder of his own fame by his own works, is gone. 

 Eichard Headly, whose name will be familiar for many 

 a-day, for is it not borne by one of Lightbody's best grey- 

 edged Auriculas ? is also gone. Is not the name also 

 attached as its raiser to that fine green-edged variety 

 Alderman Wisbey, to the grey-edged George Lightbody, 

 to the self Cantab, and to many others of these alpine 

 gems ; also to sundry Carnations and Picotees ? — living 

 monuments of their raiser's fame. These men were 

 claimed as " southerners ;" but at least one " northerner " 

 is also gone — Mr. Michael Potter of Sale, a "born florist," 

 and the son of the raiser of Potter's Albion Tulip. These 

 are melancholy blanks. Have they contributed to a 

 "closer drawing together" of the few florists left — the 

 union of northerners and southerners — patrons and culti- 

 vators of the flowers of earth ? Surely unity is needed 

 amongst the earnest few — an unity which it is ardently 

 to be hoped will be signed, sealed, and ratified under the 

 crystal dome of Sydenham in the coming year — an unity 

 not to be disturbed by conflicting thoughts, and more 

 especially such final separations as those above alluded 

 to, and which all true florists mourn. 



Gardeners also have been called away — Fleming, 

 McKeith, Kinmont, Paterson, and others, who by lives 

 of study and industry honoured the craft to which they 

 belonged. It is only by painstaking and perseverance 

 that gardeners can win a place in the annals of their 

 craft ; yet it is something to know that that is attainable 

 — that is, it has been done by others besides those now 

 mentioned, and therefore may be done again by those 

 who will gather " lessons from the past," and who will 

 plod on perseveringly. 



A gardener's life is in many respects an arduous life, 

 yet happily it is not unfrequently a pleasant life. The 

 best of men do not work wholly with the object of laying 

 up riches, or they would have sought out some other 

 calling. They work for the love of the craft, and without 



No. H74 —Vol. LVI., Old Series. 



