February 1 , 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
109 
real causes of failure are due in a great measure to syringing and giving 
the plant water over the foliage, together with growing it in a too humid 
and overheated atmosphere. It is true that until the plants are 
established they require to be kept rather close, but a handlight is quite 
sufficient for this purpose even in a cold frame. 
It is most readily and satisfactorily propagated about the end of 
August or beginning of September. The cuttings, wh : ch should be taken 
off the points of the overhanging shoots, should be placed closely round the 
edge of the pots in which they are intended to be grown, plunging under 
a bellglass or handlight as above stated. No water will be required for 
the first two or three days, and then only the material in which they have 
been plunged will require damping. In April or May they will be ready 
for the house, and if arranged alternately with Isolepis gracilis on the front 
stage their gracefulness never fails to repay labour. Dipping the bottom 
of the pots in a tank or other vessel is the best means of supplying them 
with moisture. With regard to growing the plants on a wall, all that is 
required is the displacement of a brick near the top and introducing 
some soil before planting. In one season I grew a plant in a large pan 
measuring nearly a yard in circumference in a cool frame.—M, S. 
“ SINGLE-HANDED.” 
As will be seen by the under-mentioned letters, there is practically 
no hope of the recovery of the worthy man who by his able writings 
under the above signature has attracted so much attention, and whose 
exceptionally painful case has evoked so much sympathy. 
His sorrowing wife expresses her “ deeply grateful thanks to all who 
have aided, and whose kind acts and loving sympathy have cheered my 
husband through many an hour of loneliness and pain. He is sinking 
fast. We get no more than a simple ‘ Yes ’ or ‘ No.’ We can only await 
the end now. He has left the world and all behind and awaits the 
summons calmly. He has often said he had no regret in leaving the 
world but that he was leaving his children unprovided for. We can only 
trust to the promise God has given us that He will be a Father to the 
fatherless, a Husband to the widow. I have clung to hope as long as 
there was a ray left, but one by one my props have been knocked down, 
and I can only cling to my Maker and weep.” 
The following letter has been received from the medical attendant of 
our afflicted friend. 
“ 124, Western Road, Brighton. 
“ February 4th, 1884. 
“ Dear Sir, —Your correspondent, whom I saw yesterday, is again much 
weaker than he was when 1 wrote to you a week ago; he has hardly 
strength enough left to speak aloud, and the end cannot be far off. He 
has been suffering much pain during the past week, and is certainly beyond 
all hope of recovery.—Yours faithfully, Allen Duke.” 
To all who have aided in this extreme case of misfortune my earnest 
thanks are tendered—to the kind-hearted “ Lady who Loves her Garden,” 
who helped so well; to the noble marquis who increased his excellent 
gardener’s gift; to head and under gardeners who have joined in this 
good work; to the “ poor clerk ” who sent half a crown—in fact, all 
are thanked for their welcome, because really needed, assistance. 
My object was first to aid our friend in the hoped-for convalesence, 
and failing this to meet the necessarily great expenses that must be 
incurred, and in assisting the family back to Scotland. I have now 
hope of being able to effect this, to a very great extent at least, and with 
a few other contributions that may be kindly sent, to effect it wholly. 
That is my desire. 
I have to add that it is the wish of our friend that all helpers who 
desire seed of his hardy border Alpines should have it, and a further 
supply will enable me to send a pinch to those who have failed to obtain 
a packet, and who will be good enough to enclose a stamped directed 
envelope for its transmission. — J. Wright, 171, Fleet Street, 
London, E.C. 
THE NOTTS HORTICULTURAL AND BOTANICAL 
SOCIETY. 
The second annual dinner of this healthy county gardening Society 
was held on Thursday the 31st January in the dining-room at The 
Arboretum, Nottingham. Six o’clock was the hour appointed, and on 
assembling together the very first thing that struck the observer on 
entering the room was the, so to speak, characteristic—the professional 
individuality of the whole appearance of the place, and the decorations 
of the tables. The floral arrangements were most artistic, the centre¬ 
piece in front of the Chairman being a masterpiece of excellent taste 
in the disposition of flowers (which were of the rarest and choicest) and 
foliage with which it was set up ; and the plants, chiefly Aralias, Crotons, 
Dracaenas, and Ferns, were of that exact size and so proportionally put 
about the tables as showed that the gardener decorators who had 
arranged them were no novices in the art of dining-room adornment. 
There was a brightness of beauty that had an imposing effect on every¬ 
one who entered the room. The dinner need not be described, except 
that it was what might be expected from so experienced a caterer as 
Mr. Rodgers of The Arboretum Refreshment Rooms, and the Society for 
whom he had prepared it. 
The Chairman of the evening was the President of the Society for the 
year 1884, Mr. Alderman Manning, the Mayor of Nottingham ; and 
surely no better, no more genial, no more garden-loving, no more 
happiness-diffusing a Chairman could have been found. It was only 
needful to look on his cheering countenance to see that if “ he was no 
gardener,” as he humorously lamented later in the evening, yet that 
the spirit of gardening was in him, and that he loved gardeners and all 
their works, and was for the time being glad to be in their company. 
His speeches overflowed with happy good humour, with kindly wit, 
Fig. 20 .—Yosemite Falls. 
and with words of golden wisdom, and (it is not saying a word too 
much) the success of the dinner was largely due to the admirable 
manner in which the Mayor of Nottingham presided. 
His supporters were men of the right stamp—true gardeners or 
garden lovers, such as Mr. Councillor Baines, Mr. Booth of the Notting¬ 
ham School Board, Mr. Thacker (the first Chairman of the Society), the 
Messrs. Pearson (Alfred and Charles) of Chilwell, Gadd of Wollaton, 
Beiliss of Newstead, Anderson of Clifton, Edington of Woodthorpe, and 
many others—gardeners of every degree, from the highest in gardening 
position in the county down to the humblest under gardener, with 
market gardeners and allotment gardeners, tenants of the Nottingham 
