May, 191 5.] 



Mrs. Wolstenholme has comnuuucated the 

 toUowing" particulars : — 



" John Uay was born on February 3rel, 

 1824, m London, where his father, a city 

 merchant, resided until 1840, when the family 

 removed to a pleasant old house in Tottenham. 

 Atcer his latner's death, m 1 85 1, he continued 

 to live at the old house, and from there he 

 married in 1853 ; but losing his wife in 1857 

 he sold the old home and joined Mr. 

 and Mrs. Wolstenholme at High Cross, 

 Tottenham, the present residence of Mrs. 

 Wolstenholme. 1 hither, in 1858, he removed 

 his large collection of cultivated . ferns, to 

 which he had for some years devoted much 

 attention. Shortly afterwards he took up the 

 cultivation of Orchids. He built suitable 

 houses and soon hlled them with valuable 

 plants. in course of time his collection 

 became one of the richest and most famous 

 of the period. Then his health broke down 

 and he visited the Mediterranean countries, 

 which gave him a zest for travelling to more 

 remote places, and he subsequently went to 

 India, Ceylon, Brazil, and Jamaica, in 1881, 

 previous to these longer journeys, his 

 collection of Orchids was brought to the 

 hammer, and realised ^'7,000. Three plants 

 ol Cypripedium Stonei platyaenium fetched 

 over £400. Subsequently he again became a 

 collector of living Orchids, chiefly of rare and 

 curious kinds, but latterly he devoted much 

 attention to the dried ferns he had collected 

 on his travels. He died on January 15th, 

 1888, and his second collection of Orchids 

 was sold in May of the same year, when a 

 small plant of the Cypripedium mentioned 

 above brought the sum of £iS9 12s. 



" For some years Mr. Day employed Mr. 

 C. B. Durham, a miniature painter, who 

 exhibited largely at the Royal Academy and 

 Suffolk Street Galleries between 1828 and 

 1858, to make coloured drawings of Orchids ; 

 and from a note m the Kezv Correspondence 

 there were 300 drawings by this artist at a 

 cost of each. This collection, described 

 as a very fine one, was sold by auction after 

 Mr. Day's death, iind is now the property of 

 Sir Jeremiah Colman, Bart., of Gatton Park, 

 Surrey. 



183 



" We have mentioned Durham because his 

 name occurs here and there in Day's books, 

 appended to a drawing of a flower or a plant, 

 and because he appears to have given Day 

 lessons in drawing. In Book IV., p. 10, for 

 instance, there is the note appended to a 

 drawing of Cattleya bicolor : ' My ninth 

 lesson.' At p. 66 of the same book is a 

 coloured drawing of Cattleya Schilleriana 

 splendens, and the following note : ' Drawn 

 by Mr. Durham, June, 1862 ; the first drawing 

 he ever did here. This from the plant bought 

 at Mr. Allen's sale at Stevens' m June, i860, 

 and the subject of Mr. Durham's beautiful 

 drawing m Vol. VII., p. 11.' 



" In 1863 Mr. Day himself began sketching, 

 the first sketch being dated January lOth, and 

 he continued to make drawings up to within 

 a few weeks of his death, January 1 5th, 

 1888, the last but one bearing the date 

 November 12th, 1887, the last being undated. 

 All the earlier ones are in ink, but in many 

 cases he afterwards added coloured sketches, 

 always giving the date when done. The 

 earliest sketches are somewhat rough and 

 diagrammatic, though botanically correct ; 

 but he improved rapidly, and his later work 

 was admirably executed, both as to drawing 

 and colouring. Day must have been very 

 industrious at that period, for by the middle 

 of February, 1864, he was half-way through 

 his seventh book, where (p. 45) there is a 

 coloured figure of Cypripedium purpuratum, 

 with the following note : ' This is the first 

 drawing I attempted in colours, using Gerty's 

 paint-box. I was sufficiently satisfied with 

 the result to buy a box for myself.' His 

 satisfaction was quite justifiable, and his 

 perseverance was soon rewarded with great 

 success. Practically all he did after this was 

 coloured. In December, 1882, he wrote to 

 Kew applying for a pass of admission to the 

 gardens before the general public in order 

 that he might make drawings of the ' smaller, 

 insignificant Orchids.' This was granted, and 

 writing again in 1866 he mentions that he had 

 drawn at least 70 that he had not seen 

 elsewhere. His last Kew drawing is dated 

 October 2gth, 1887. From time to time he 

 presented living plants to Kew." — W. B. H. 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



