156 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND CorTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 23, 1377. 



have been turfed over, and the change is an improvement. 

 The fringe of flowers noticed on the sides of the Park is suffi- 

 cient, and a large expanse of grass in the interior is more in 

 keeping with the nature of the Park, and renders the garden- 

 esque portion more distinct and decided. Never has the Park 

 looked better than during the present season ; and the chief au- 

 thorities at the Board of Works, Mr. Gibson the Superinten- 

 dent of the Park, and Mr. Chamberlain the practioal Manager, 

 are to be congratulated on its excellent oondition, — J. W. 



PENTSTEMON CYANANTHUS (Azuke-floweked 

 Pentstemon.) 



A most beautiful blue-flowering perennial kind, bearing a 

 spike of bloom more than a foot long. It is an inhabitant of 

 the upper valleys of the Plate River, in the Rooky Mountains, 

 where seeds were collected by Mr. Burke. From these seeds 



Fig. 85.— Pentstemon cjanantuua. 



plants were reared by Messrs. Lucombe, Pince, & Co., in whose 

 nursery at Exeter the plants flowered in the open air in May, 

 1849. The speoies is quite hardy, and a great acquisition to 

 our flower borders. It is desirable to have a succession of 

 young plants always on hand, which may be raised by outtings 

 early in the summer, and which should be sheltered in a frame 

 during the winter, but with as much exposure as the weather 

 will allow. 



'artificial MANURES FOR ROSES. 



I begket that "Pacey's" inquiry how much mineral ma- 

 nure I would apply to RoseB at this season should have acci- 

 dentally remained for a week unanswered. He must remember, 

 in the first place, it is an experiment. As I said before, I have 

 no direct experience with Roses, though I have with other 

 plants. Trusting to this analogy I would mix intimately 

 three parts of beBt superphosphate of lime with one part of 

 muriate or sulphate of potash, and of the mixture I would 

 sprinkle a quarter of a pound round each Rose, say within a 

 radius of 20 inches from the stem. If rain does not come to 

 wash it in water should be applied slowly and repeatedly. A 

 little of the lime will remain in any case on the surface undis- 

 solved. If the soil is poor and the Rose not succulent in 

 growth, half an ouDce of nitrate of soda or of nitrate of 



potash (saltpetre) might be added to each Rose ; but as a mis 

 I would defer this last ingredient till spring, when that 

 quantity might be given several times in conjunction with the 

 mineral manures above referred to. 



The controversy between " A Retieed Gabdeneb" and my- 

 self may now be regarded as closed, neither, I daresay, having 

 expected to convince the other, but havirig written for the 

 judgment of the public. But as "A Retibed Gabdeneb" 

 asks me what I think of 80 tons per acre of horse manure ap- 

 plied by a market gardener, I will only say that I do not doubt 

 it was a very proper quantity for the crop to which it was 

 given and the crops which would follow. But the subjeot of 

 discussion has been guano and nitrate of soda, which involve 

 totally different principles and practice. — J. B. K. 



DISTINGUISHED BOTANICAL TRAVELLERS. 

 No. 2. 



JOHN FRASEB. 



Amongst those who have enriched our gardens by their dis- 

 coveries in other lands few have been more persevering and 

 more successful than this celebrated traveller. He was the 

 man to whom Europe is indebted for the magnificent hybrid 

 Rhododendrons that of late years have caused the " American 

 grounds " of the Old World to heave with a perfect ocean of 

 beauty and grandeur. Who, then, knowing this, could look 

 on such scenes of splendour as are afforded by large collections 

 of these gorgeous shrubs, and not venerate the name of John 

 Fraser ? But it was not alone the Rhododendron Catawbiense 

 (which is the basis of almost all these hybrids) that he dis- 

 covered and introduced to this country, it is to him we are in- 

 debted for Andromeda floribunda, and all that is interesting in 

 Azaleas, Ealmias, Andromedas, Vacciniums, Magnolias, Men- 

 ziesia globularis and ferruginea, many species of Oaks, Pinus, 

 Phlox, Oenothera, and a list too long to enumerate here, 

 amounting to somewhere about 220 diBtinct Bpecies of American 

 plants, all collected under hardships and privations crowned 

 with lees remuneration and with more hopeB disappointed than 

 any collector either before or sinoe has ever experienced. He 

 started on his perilous undertaking single-handed and alone, 

 with no Bociety to support and no patron to encourage him ; 

 his labours were labours of love, and his reward — a too-much- 

 forgotten name. 



This extraordinary man was a native of Scotland ; he was 

 born in 1750 at Tomnaoloioh, near Inverness. His father was 

 a highly respectable farmer, and occupied the same land which 

 his ancestors had done for many generations previously. How 

 his early life was spent cannot now be ascertained, but it is 

 supposed that he arrived in London about the year 1770, beiDg 

 then in the 20th year of his age. Daring the early part of his 

 life he laboured under a delicate state of health, being, in fact, 

 affected with consumption. Finding his health declining, his 

 friend, Admiral Campbell, then commanding the Newfound- 

 land station, induced him to accompany him to that colony, 

 with the view of arresting the progress of the disease; he 

 accordingly left England, and arrived in Newfoundland in 

 1780. He had not been long there before he found himself 

 thoroughly restored, and he devoted his time to exploring the 

 botanical productions of that country. He was always an 

 ardent lover of plants, and here he found an extensive field 

 and new objects for admiration, among which he remained [ill 

 1784. He had now acquired such a taste for discovery, and 

 Buch a habit of restlessness, which so prevented him from 

 settling down to any fixed occupation, that in 1785 he set out 

 on a journey to the Southern States of North America, and 

 during two years he was engaged in investigating the botany of 

 that country, which resulted in many valuable additions being 

 made to the collections at home. He again left England in 

 1783 on a second expedition to the Southern States, and this 

 was attended with as great suocess as the former, for on this 

 ocoasion also he sent home many new and valuable plants. 

 While on this journey he formed an intimacy with the elder 

 Michaux, who had then just entered on his labours as colleotor 

 for the French Government. 



Between the years 1789 and 1790 he twice visited North 

 America, still with the same object in view, and still with the 

 same success. Daring this period he traversed the Alleghaney 

 Mountains, penetrated into several of the Indian settlements, 

 and exposed himself to an amount of privation and hardship 

 such as few other men could have undergone. And here, be it re- 

 membered , the America of seventy years ago was not the America 

 of to-day; much of the soil that is now traversed by the locc- 



