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THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



January 15, 1898. 



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of Quindiu were explored by him. 



The Late Mons. Jean Linden. 



Full of years and honour, Mons. Jean Linden passed pea 

 early on the morning of Wednesday, the 12th inst., at his 

 Brussels. It is given to few men to so completely attain their highest 

 ambition as the famous Belgian explorer, botanist, and horticulturist, has 

 done. The best years of his youth were passed amid solitudes and 

 virgin forests, in Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia, Guatemala, 

 and Jamaica ; to his untiring energy and persistence, we are indebted 

 for the introduction of many of our finest orchids and fine foliage plants. 

 Born in 18 16, Jean Linden was educated at the Faculte des Sciences of 

 the University of Brussels, where he was one of the earliest of students. 

 Acquiring knowledge rapidly, and showing a remarkable taste for natural 

 history in all its branches, but for botany in particular, he was, at the 

 early age of nineteen, entrusted by the Belgian Government with a 

 scientific mission to South America, haying, as colleagues, MM. Funck 

 and Ghei^bright. They arrived in Brazil at the end of 1835, after a three 

 months' journey, and succeeded in two years in obtaining wonderful 

 collections of varied sciensific interest. After this, M. Linden visited 

 Yucatan and North Guatemala, experiencing considerable difficulties, 

 owing to revolutions then in progress. Fever kept him a long time at 

 Guadaloupe, but in 1841 the traveller returned to Belgium. 



The same year, however, the travellers returned to Columbia and 

 discovered Odontoglossum crispum, now possibly the most popular and 

 widely-grown of all orchids ; other species were also found by him, but 

 they are too numerous to mention here, suffice it to say that Jean Linden 

 led us to understand the beauties of odontoglossums and cattleyas. He 

 discovered and made known the wonderful mountain floras of the 

 Cordilleras, and, in the province of Merida, he crossed the Paramo de 

 Macuchies at an altitude of 13,000 feet, no mean performance at that, 

 or even a later time. He subsequently explored the New Granadan 

 provinces of Santadar, Soto, Socorro, and Velez, reaching Bogota, a 

 famous orchid centre, in October, 1842. The basin of the Rio Magda- 

 lena was examined, and to cross the river he had to swim the whole 

 distance, about one hundred and ten yards. Tolima, the highest point 

 of the Eastern Cordillaras in New Granada, M. Linden ascended early 

 in 1843 ; many weeks were spent in high latitudes, and the virgin forests 



Later in the year he went to Caracas, 

 and subsequently explored in a very thorough manner the Sierra 

 Nevada of Santa Marta, reaching the summit, 14,766 feet, after sur- 

 mounting immense difficulties. Not satisfied with all these achievements, 

 the intrepid explorer penetrated into the interior of Goajira, then in- 

 habited by cannibal Indians. After a short period at Jamaica, M. Linden 

 passed on to Cuba, and there spent six months in scientific exploration. 

 In 1844 he left Cuba for the United States, and reached Belgium in 

 October, 1845, after practically ten years spent amid the forests and 

 mountains of Southern and Central America. 



After completing his travels M. J. Linden commenced business as 

 a commercial horticulturist, at Brussels. Here his wide knowledge of 

 plants obtained in their native habitats ensured him a large measure of 

 success ; he was also able to direct the travels of young men of enter- 

 prise who were willing to visit America and bring home plants of various 

 kinds. His position as Consul-General also kept him in touch with the 

 land he had spent so long a period in exploring, for besides success in 

 business, M. Linden obtained very high commendations and apprecia- 

 tion from the Belgian Government, which he so long and ably served at 

 the risk of his life. On the Continent Mons. J. Linden did much to 

 induce a rational system of cultivation for what we now call cool orchids. 

 The earliest imported odontoglossums were throughout Europe killed by 

 much kindness, but the new culture commenced, and in 1863 Weir, Blunt, 

 and Schlim found themselves on the same steamer bound for New 

 Grenada and after cool orchids, chiefly Odontoglossum crispum. These 

 collectors represented respectively the R.H.S., Messrs. H. Low and Co., 

 and Mons. J. Linden. In later years the subject of this notice has been 

 best known in his connection with L'Horticulture Internationale, at 

 Brussels, a huge business carried on, or chiefly, under the direction of 

 himself and son,— M. Lucien Linden. Two or three years ago, however, 

 M. Linden pere retired somewhat from the government of the concern, 

 but we believe he retained the control and direction of the large staff of 

 collectors up to the last. When long past the allotted three score 

 years and ten, M. Jean Linden was hale and vigorous in mind and body. 

 A more genial gentleman it was impossible to find, and as he retained in 

 a wonderful manner the vivid impressions obtained in his youth, it was a 

 real treat to hear him discourse upon the vegetation and geographical 

 conditions of South America. 



As a nation, Belgium mourns M. Linden for his wide discoveries ; 

 as a city, Brussels mourns a lost citizen who has ever given to her his best 

 services. The wide world of horticulture and botanical science feels 

 deeply the loss of one of its ablest and earliest pioneers, and joins in 

 sympathy for those whom death has so recently bereaved. We, on behalf 



of the readers of the Gardeners' Magazine, tender to Mons. Lucien 



Linden and other members of the family, that sympathy which also they 

 will receive from hortic ulturists throughout the world 



Herbaceous _ m ^ 



* * m — .-.-.„ * * Jrtainly anyone procuring good 



seed of the fine new varieties will assuredly get a good return for the small outlay 

 incurred, by securing some fine showy seedlings. Hardy phloxes do not seed freely, 

 and they are very easily increased through the agency of cuttings taken from the 

 spring shoots or from side shoots in the autumn. The former will make strong 

 stems, and carrytfme heads of bloom the first year ; the latter roots then throw one 

 or more shoots to bloom the following year. But when seed can be obtained, it 

 is well to sow it early in the spring, and because it is rather hard-shelled, should 

 not be kept in a place that is very dry. If sown in a pot or pan of soil, and stood 



13 tle f r rmth> bClng 5? moist ' 2 rowth ma y «»ue ^ some three weeks. 

 ™ of jJ he comparatively hard nature of the wood-growth, damping gives little 



I do not know whether any seedsman 



MARKETING ORCHARD FRUIT. 



I was glad to see in your issue of December 18 last so much space devoted 

 to Mr. Garcia's important paper read at the Horticultural Club, and also 

 your leader on the subject, as it points to the time when the trade 

 portion of the horticultural world will be recognised as forming a part 

 of so important a whole. I was also glad that Mr. Garcia referred to 

 the question of non-returnable empties for apples and pears, and 

 that his views so closely agreed with my own, although taken from 

 a different standpoint, for although we belong to the same market, 

 I was as ignorant of the contents of his paper as any member present. 

 This opinion being gained by his great experience in handling fruit 

 from all parts of the world, and not as particularly interested in the sale of 

 homegrown, is to my mind the more valuable. Considering the acreage 

 of new orchards, the very first year we have anything like a full crop, the im- 

 portance of what we both advocate will be manifest to all connected with 

 the trade. There is an old saying, " The nearer to church, the farther from 

 God," and I think this sentiment is applicable to the bulk of our orchard 

 fruit growers (outside the Middlesex market gardeners, who sell their 

 own), as they are close to good markets and do not take proper advantage 

 of them, but allow others 7,000 miles away to step in before them and 

 put on the market a more saleable article, even if the quality is not so 

 good. 



This week I have had a letter from an apple grower in North 

 Carolina advising apples, and saying he was given to understand that 

 our customers now liked them in 40 lb. cases, each fruit wrapped in paper, 

 and that if that was so he should send all his in future in that way, 

 although it was a little more trouble and expense in packing. Mr. 

 Garcia remarked that if our orchard growers had taken the care that 

 tomato and grape growers had done, the foreigners would not have had 

 the chance they now have. I am sure the outlook for the home produce 

 was dark enough some years ago, and it only pays now if done on 

 business lines adopted by our market growers. They acknowledged the 

 difficulties and the opposition of importations, especially in cucum- 

 bers and tomatos. But an Englishman is hard to beat when he once 

 sets himself a task, and our home growers were determined to keep pace 

 with the foreigners by growing the best quality and packing in the best 

 possible way, with the result that they have not only held their own, but 

 to some extent have turned the tables on their rivals, as I have daily 

 orders from Hamburg, Berlin, Stockholm, and other continental centres, 

 as well as weekly from America ; so that English grapes, tomatos, and 

 cucumbers are now sold in nearly every large market in Europe, and 

 grapes in the principal cities of North America ; while on the other hand 

 it is only the best varieties well graded and packed that will now pay to 

 send here from abroad — the common Dutch cucumbers and Lisbon 

 tomatos being a thing of the past ; yet this has been done in articles 

 which bring much less than they used to do, while Mr. Garcia proved 

 that good orchard fruit makes more now than it did forty years ago. 



I persuaded one large grower who attends the market and sells his own 

 to try cases for his apples this year, and he had ten thousand cut up ready 

 to put together, and is quite satisfied with the result — as he found at the 

 market that customers gave them the preference, and he could sell more 

 readily than his neighbours with similar fruit in baskets. The great 

 strength of the system being that it suits the buyer best, every large 

 buyer I have spoken to on the subject say they would gladly give more 

 for the fruit if no further trouble with the empties was involved. 



I was pleased to hear Mr. Yeitch, on behalf of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, ask Mr. Garcia to give his paper at our autumn meeting of the 

 Society ; but as that will be too late for this year, I thought it best to try 

 and drive the nail a little further home by trespassing on your valuable 

 space, for I feel strongly that if the matter is left till we have the fruit 

 ripening on the trees in anything like a crop, there will be woful 

 waste, simply from the fact that it will be impossible to find empties 

 sufficient to convey them to market, unless we adopt the popular method 

 of the cider country, viz., the " sack." 



Covent Garden. George Munro. 



Changes in the Colours of Flowers.— It frequently happens that the 



colours of flowers produced late in the season by plants growing in the open differ 

 materially from those developed under normal conditions, and in reference to these 

 changes Mr. E. Hughes Gibbs observes in a contribution to Nature-. "I venture 

 to send you the following observations on the tendency of flowers to revert in 

 colour when blooming out of season. We have had little frost here, and many 

 flowers which are ordinarily out of bloom at this season still persist. The changes, 

 however, in their normal colours are in some cases very remarkable. The red 

 cactus dahlias 'are blooming almost orange, the outer florets being often nearly 

 yellow. These dahlias are also, in many cases, showing a tendency to revert to 

 the single form. A species of tropaeolum, normally vivid scarlet, is blooming in a 

 cool greenhouse, where air is kept on, and has in some cases reverted almost to 

 clear yellow ; a streak of red down the centre of the petal being the only remains 

 of its normal colour. In both the above cases I note that the edges of the petals 

 are the first to change. A species of myosotis, ordinarily of a deep and very vivid 

 blue, is flowering now a clear rosy pink, without the least tinge of blue. The 

 flowers are well opened and normal in size. Lastly, a pure white phlox of dwarf 

 habit shows a tendency to revert in some of its blooms, though not in all, to a 

 greenish yellow hue. Such cases are probably common ; but it is with the 

 feeling that they may point to climatic conditions as influencing the coloration 

 of flowers, and as having, possibly, borne a large part in the gradual evolution of 

 their respective tints, that I venture to record them." In some instances, as 

 observant cultivators are aware, a high temperature will also have the effect of 



t~\ w f~\ »» 1 1 ^ I Ivt L* A m • m — a m ■ I _ »"f ^ ~* 



of the chrysanthemums and trorxeolums. Chrysanthemum blooms that are suffuse^ 

 with red or bronze upon a yellow ground, will when developed in a comparatively 

 high temperature, become bright yellow. Some years ago we propagated a 

 tropceolum with flowers of a rich chestnut colour in the autumn, and the greater 

 proportion of the flowers nr™1n„ed in the propagating pit were deep yellow. In 



i to bloom the flowers wprp vellow 



suffused wit* 



began to bloom the flowers were yello 



ted in the flower warden thev accnmprl their normal 



