272 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[April 14, 11863. 



valuable substance into repute as an addition to our com- 

 posts. 



Let all Orchid-growers throughout this empire procure it as 

 soon as possible, and mix it among sphagnum moss in the pro- 

 portion of two parts moss and one part fibre. I feel so con- 

 fident of its usefulness, that if I had a large or a small collection 

 of Orchids under my care I would immediately use the fibre 

 in preference to any other substance. I think the fibre would 

 not do by itself. It would be too open and dry too quickly, 

 especially during the warmer months of the year. I conclude 

 the paper by mentioning some of the rarer plants in Mr. Turner's 

 colleclion. 



Cattleya Leopoldi. — Several plants large and healthy. Mr. 

 Tate told me almost every plant was a different variety. 



Cattleya citrina.— This species, which is somewhat difficult to 

 grow, is well done here. Each plant is fixed to the under side 

 of the block. 



Dendrolmm formosum giganteum. — The flowers of this rare 

 variety are double the size of I he original species. 



Dendrolium aggregation major. — This variety has flowers of 

 much larger size than the species. It is showing eighteen spikes 

 of flowers, and is grown in a pot. 



Lcrtia Turneri. — A remarkable species, with stems 2 feet high. 

 It belongs to the two-leaved section. Each leaf is a foot long, 

 and 3 inches wide. 



Cattleya lohata. — This is said to be a shy flowerer, but here it 

 flowers freely every year. 



La.Ua xanthim, — An orange-coloured Lselia, much superior 

 fco L. cinnabarina. 



Cypripedium hirsulissimum. — A fine specimen of this rare and 

 beautiful species. 



Cypripedium Soolceri. — A plant that ranks under the class of 

 Beautiful- foliaged plants ; the leaves are dark green, spotted and 

 barred with pure white. 



Angracum saperoum. — A plant 5 feet high, with leaves 2 feet 

 long, set on each side of the stem as regularly as the bones from 

 the spino of a herring. 



JErides nobile. — A fine specimen of this rare species. 

 JErides odoratum purpurascens. — A distinct variety with more 

 and larger purple spots on each sepal, petal, and lip. A good 

 plant. 



Vanda teres. — A large busl.y plant 6 feet high, and 5 feet 

 through. Mr. Tate says it is a distinct sort known as East's 

 variety. Flowers freely annually. 



JSpidsndrum bicornutum. — There I noted a large healthy plant 

 of this, which is one difficult to grow. It is cultivated in a pot 

 in the usual compost, only it is raised high in the centre. 



I might have extended this list considerably, but I fear I have 

 trespassed already too much on your valuable space. I must 

 close by saying that this is the beBt-grown collection of Orchids 

 I have seen for many years. They are in houses of the usual 

 form — that is, span-roofed, and they are so arranged that you 

 can step out of India into America merely by passing through a 

 glass door. Even the potting-place is glazed and connected 

 with the houses, so that in manipulating the plants they are 

 never exposed to ungenial weather at any season of the year. 



T. Appleby. 



IN MEMORIAL. 



THE EEV. QEOBGE JEAWS, YICAE OP ALPOBD. 



Eaeely has my humble pen undertaken a more melancholy 

 task (so selfishly, alas ! do we regard the ways of our Heavenly 

 Father), than in conveying to many who have benefited by 

 his remarks, or who have known his name as intimately con- 

 nected with gardening pursuits, the news that my valued friend 

 whose name heads this notice has gone from amongst us. How 

 little did I think, when alluding to him in the notice of the 

 "Warden of Winchester's garden as the friend who had told me 

 to visit Mr. Weaver, that I should so soon have to number him 

 amongst those whom one had kuown rather than as one still 

 present with us. 



It is now some years since that the cause of one of our great 

 religious societies in which I was interested led me to visit 

 Alford as its advocate. I was then a stranger to the Vicar, but 

 had been assured that I should meet with a hearty welcome. 

 In this I found that my information had been correct j my 

 work's sako was sufficient to insure me that. 

 ' On the following morning, taking, as is my wont, an early 

 B troll, I espied in the garden a frame of Auriculas thon coming 



into bloom. This soon led us to touch upon another Bubject 

 on which we had common sympathies. And as each recurring 

 year led me to Alford, and other opportunities of meeting one 

 another were afforded us, our acquaintance ripened into friend- 

 ship ; and I have for many years esteemed it a great privilege 

 to number amongst my friends one who was so fine a type of 

 an English gentleman, a ripe scholar, and a Christian pastor, as 

 my late revered friend. 



Distinguished in early life, when scientific pursuits were not 

 so much in vogue as they are now, for his attention to philo- 

 sophical inquiries, astronomy (on which he published an excel- 

 lent and most readable treatise), geology, chemistry, &c., found 

 in him one who appreciated their value and could bring them 

 practically to bear. These studies he never allowed to paBB out 

 of sight. He eagerly read all that was really valuable in con- 

 nection with them ; and no way led astray by injurious theories 

 which had no foundation better than a " hypothesis," he was 

 yet by no mean3 opposed to whatever new light advanced know- 

 ledge on these subjects from time to time produced. He was 

 not one of those who believed that God's words and God's, 

 works are contradictory. He did not consider it derogatory to 

 Science to regard her as the handmaid and not the mistress of 

 Revelation ; and works of a contrary tendency were regarded by 

 him as hur;ful to the cause of truth as well as of science. 



His transit instrument on the lawn, his geological specimens, 

 and lectures delivered only last year, clearly showed that these 

 earlier pursuits had Btill their charm for him ; while his con- 

 versation on these and kindred subjects showed how fresh were 

 still his thoughts and feelings. But it is as connected with 

 floriculture that his name will be especially regarded by the 

 readers of The Jouenai. oe Hoeticultuee. Eor many years 

 under his nom de plume of " Iota," latterly, since his friend 

 Mr. Edward Beck's death, exchanged for his real signature, he 

 contributed largely to various gardening publications. His phi- 

 losophic mind could only view even floriculture in this aspect ; 

 and I have always felt that it was something for florists to be 

 able to number amongst them one who did not think flowers, 

 despised by many scientific persons, as unworthy of his notice. 

 When Mr. Beck in 1S43, disliking the tone that then pervaded 

 gardening literature, determined on starting a periodical in 

 which a better spirit should prevail, he summoned to his aid, for 

 the columns of The Florist, the Vicar of Alford ; and I may 

 be excused for referring to a notice in the volume of that work 

 for 1861, prefixed to a touching notice, written at my request, 

 of his friend's death — all the more so as he has so soon followed 

 him: — "It would ill become us to add anything to the very 

 interesting account that he has given of the life and character 

 of his deceased friend ; but we may say that which his modeBty 

 forbids him saying himself — that the pages of the ' Elorist ' in 

 those days to which he refers owed a great portion of their 

 attractiveness to his own writing. Page after page bears the 

 evidence of his clear and graphic pen, even where his signature 

 appears not." 



While the wide field of information over which my friend's 

 discursive fancy could roam, enabled him to grapple with many 

 subjects connected with gardening, it was of the Auricula he 

 chiefly delighted to write. It was his pet, par excellence, and 

 a collection unsurpassed for variety testified to the energy with 

 which its cultivation was carried on. His judgment was sound ; 

 for as a thorough florist he admitted no restriction of rules, 

 ruthlessly consigning to the border flowera unworthy of the 

 stage ; tnd when admitting varieties that were not excellent in 

 their character to a place in his frames, assigning as his reason 

 the real cause of his doing so. In the proposition of a National 

 Auricula Society he was deeply interested, and, when I first 

 proposed it, was one of the first to welcome it by his promised 

 aid ; and when the project was taken up by Mr. Douglas and 

 carried out, he gave his earnest support. The last paper I think 

 that he wrote waB a short one for the Floral Magazine, in 

 which he alluded to the forthcoming Exhibition at York, and 

 expressed his wishes for its success. Of late years he had more 

 frequently contributed to other periodicals; and some most 

 reliable notes on his favourite flower will be considered by con- 

 noisseurs as a favourite authority. 



He will be, indeed, a great loss to the gardening community, 

 and will be long remembered as one of those who have given a 

 healthy stimulus to floriculture. And I cannot forbear saying, 

 that when, some years ago, through the carelessness of an old 

 man whom I employed, my embryo collection was lost, and I had 

 determined to abandon their growth, it was he who urged me 



