JOHN BAIN, 



95 



tormina/is)^ a tree with finely coloured foliage in autumn, though rarely planted, 

 and only here and there seen in fine state, as at Blackdown. The Crab is as 

 handsome as any flowering tree ; the Alder gives us its good colour by the 

 streams in spring. The Mountain Ash, or Rowan, is a tree really deserving 

 the epithet splendid when it is grouped on the hills, or almost anywhere else ; 

 but it is a tree beloved by the rabbit, and many I have planted, in the hope of 

 adding its fine colour in autumn to old woodland, have been all gnawed round 

 and destroyed. On rocky ground the Rowan is lovely where it takes various 

 dwarf forms. The White Beam (Pyrus aria) is an effective tree at various 

 seasons and well deserves to be made more of, and also its varieties or hybrids 

 (like P. latifolia). Some of the trees which we admire in their individual states 

 are not so often seen grouped, though there is nothing more beautiful than a free 

 group of Aspens on a limestone soil in autumn. In that way, too, Birch, which 

 we often see in the north of Germany, with the white stems rising like silver 

 columns all round, might be more often effectively grouped. Nor is there any 

 introduced tree which is so fine in form when grouped as the Ash, as one often 

 sees it round a farmhouse on the hills or in the North. 



JOHN BAIN. 



With great regret we have to announce the 

 death, at the very advanced age of close on 88 

 years, of one of the most skilful curators 

 among the many able men who have been at 

 the head of the Botanic Gardens in Britain, 

 John Bain, of the College Botanic Gardens, 

 Dublin ; a thorough plantsman, an able bota- 

 nist, and a good and genial man. Mr. Bain 

 was of Scottish parentage, and was born in the 

 year of Waterloo, 1815, in Ireland. Very 

 early in life he acquired a sound knowledge of 

 gardening, and after some experience in pri- 

 vate gardens, and also in the celebrated old 

 Physic Gardens at Chelsea, under Mr. Wil- 

 liam Anderson, he, an active and studious 

 young man, entered the Trinity College Bo- 

 tanical Gardens, then under the direction of 

 Dr. Mackay, author of the " Flora Hiber- 

 nica," and one of the earlier students of Irish 

 flora. Dr. Mackay founded the Trinity Col- 

 lege Gardens about the year 1 806, for the Tri- 

 nity College University authorities, and, being 

 a man of character and influence, he attracted 

 to him men who afterwards became celebrated 

 as able gardeners both at home and abroad, 

 amongst them James Fraser, in after life a 



noted landscape gardener and author of a 

 " Handbook for Ireland " ; David Moore, 

 afterwards Director of the Glasnevin Botanic 

 Gardens at Dublin ; his younger brother, 

 Charles Moore, afterwards director of the 

 beautiful Botanical Gardens of Sydney ; the 

 late Ambrose Balfe, Secretary of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society of Ireland ; and John 

 Bain, who first became foreman and eventually 

 assistant curator to Dr. Mackay. 



As a friend and amanuensis he assisted in 

 the preparation of the " Flora Hibernica " and 

 other works. On the death of Mackay in 

 1862 Bain succeeded to the curatorship, and 

 the University Botanic Gardens under his care 

 maintained their usefulness and high character. 

 He was all his life a keen botanist, and to the 

 last retained an accurate knowledge of native 

 plants. His skill as a cultivator of rare exotic 

 plants was very often the wonder of all who 

 saw its results. Thoughtful, humorous, and 

 observant, he had no regard for routine cul- 

 ture, and was one of the first to adopt a more 

 airy and rational treatment for orchids and 

 other exotics. The Rev. Wm. Ellis visited 

 the College Gardens and sent Bain plants of the 



