2G0 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September IP, 1884. 
very good description it stould not be brought to the surface, 
but be well worked over where it is, mixing with the whole as the 
work proceeds some wood ashes, turf parings, and such like ; if 
the soil is of a heavy nature some old lime rubbish may be used 
with advantage. Old turfy loam at command should be well 
chopped up for placing amongst the roots of the trees when 
planted. 
When selecting or ordering the trees it will be well to procure 
only those which have been budded close to the ground, so that 
when the trees are planted the junction of the stock and scion 
will be about an inch below the surface of the soil without the 
roots having to be placed too deep. Maidens—that is, trees of 
one year's growth from the bud, are those generally procured 
for planting as cordons, although a two-year-old cordon, if it has 
been pruned back to form I ack “ simrs,” is to be recommended. 
Older trees we do not recommend. Early planting is advisable, 
as early xilanted trees start better into growth the following 
season than trees planted late, and the ground is always in a 
fit r state for planting early than it is late in the season. A 
trench should be thrown out about 2 feet wide the length of the 
wall, some fresh soil placed in the bottom, and the trees planted 
in a slightly sloping position about 2d inches apart. Thus 
planted they are brought down more saiely the following 
season to the angle of 45°, their future position. After the ti’ees 
are planted some di'y litter should be placed on the surface of 
the soil to protect the roots from drying winds and frost. They 
should be pruned back to about two-thirds their length or ac¬ 
cording to the condition of the ti’ees, the aim being to have the 
trees well furnished with spurs. 
During the spring and early summer, if any of the lateral 
shoots are inclined to grow too strongly, the points should be 
pinched out at the fifth or sixth leaf, and where too thickly placed 
be thinned out; the leading shoot should be t roperly secured to 
the wall. By the middle of August the lateral growth should be 
shortened back to about the length of 5 inches, the aim being to 
cause the base buds to swell and eventually form fruit buds; at 
the w’inter pruning these shoots should be pruned back so as to 
form spurs. The ti'ees should not be over-fruited whilst in a 
young state, and all the fruit should be removed within 1 foot of 
the leading growth, or the trees may become stunted. It is also 
a great mistake to ov^er-fruit established trees. The fruit should 
l>e thinned out as eaidy in the season as possible after the crop 
is safe, then the remainder may grow to a large size for the 
variety. If the weather is likely to be dry early in the season 
roots should be mulched with short open stable manure, and 
when the crop is swelling the roots will be greatly benefited by 
occa-ional supplies of water or diluted sewage; but the state of 
the weather and crop must be the guide. As time goes on and 
the trees appear as if they require some assistance, early in the 
autumn a trench should be opened about 5 feet from the wall, the 
old soil worked from the roots, fresh loam and wood ashes mixed 
with it, and returned to the roots. If cordons are looked after 
in this way they will keep in good condition for many years.— 
A. Young. 
I was very much interested in the article on “ The Fruit 
Room,” on page 223. I have found fruit keep much better when 
shutters were provided for the windows than when the fruit 
was exposed to the light.—A. T. 
MR. GEORGE BENTHAM. 
In the death of Mr. George Bentham, C.M.G., F.R.S., F.L.S., which 
took p’ace on the 10th inst., the stience of botany has lost one of its most 
devoted followers, and one who by his long and self-sacrificing labours 
has accomplished such an astonishing amount of valuable work as must 
place him among the very foremost of the botanists of this and every 
other country. Born in the year 1800, and starting at an early age to 
study botany as a recreation, to be finally won over to devoting his whole 
4 me to it, Mr. Bentham continued, until a few months before his death, to 
labour hard in that field in which for many years he has occupied a leading 
position. Writing in 1874 he says of himself, “It is now some years 
beyond half a century since I took up the pursuit of systematic botany— 
at first as a mere recreation, rather later as a study either subservient to or 
as a diversion from others which my then social position rendered more 
important (he was then studying law as a profession), but for the last 
forty years as the main occupation of my life ; having in my early days 
personally conversed with one of Linnaeus’s active correspondents 
(M. Gouan), having received many useful bints in the method of botanical 
study from the great founder of the natural system (M. A. Jussieu), having 
been honoured with the intimacy of the chief promoters and improvers of 
that system (A. De Candolle, R. Brown, S. Endlicher, J. Bindley), and 
having enjoyed the friendly assistance either personally or by corre- 
fpondence of almost every systematic botanist of note of this nineteenth 
century.” 
Towards the close of the year 1826 Mr. Bentham found himself enrolled 
among the army of working botani3ts,and although logic,law,and law-making 
were at first the chief subjects of his studies and publications, he gradually 
gave up more and more time to botany, until at last he yielded to the 
natural bent of his inclinations, relinquished the law altogether, and 
entered in real earnest into a long life of botanical labour. For a long 
time Mr. Bentham worked almost privately, h's retiring disposition being 
averse to anything like publicity. The extension and improvement of the 
Royal Gardens at Kew, which were being so rapidly brought about by the 
energetic Director, Sir W. Hooker, and which were destined to develope 
Kew into what is now the richest storehouse of living and dried plants in 
the world, were, however, soon 1o win the sympathies and valuable aid of 
Mr. Bentham, and in 1854 he offered his exceedingly extensive herbarium 
and library (the formation of which had occupied nearly thirty-five 
years of his life) to Kew, with the sole proviso that they should be duly 
cared for and made available to scientific purposes, and that he himself 
should have convenient access to them for study. So munificent an offer 
was of course readily accepted, and it is in a great measure owing to this 
liberality on the part of Mr. Bentham that there are now at Kew a library 
and herbarium of plants such as are unknown elsewhere. 
From this time until ju^t previous to his death Mr. Bentham woiked 
daily at Kew, where, in conjunction with Sir Joseph Hooker, he laboured 
at his share of the great work the ” Genera Plantarum ” andnumerous other 
large works of vast importance to botany. Mr. Bentham’s contributions 
to botanical literature are both numerous and diversified ; many of them 
are published in the various journals of the scientific societies of which 
he was a distinguished member. The majority of these papers are long 
enough to constitute large books in themselves, his notes on the Classifica¬ 
tion, history, and geographical distribution of Compositae, which occupy 
240 pages of the Journal of the Linnsean Society, being but one instance 
of the length and value of his contributions to the literature of scientific 
societies. Mr. Bentham was always careful to avoid making botanical classi¬ 
fication over-complicated and difficult of comprehension to botanical 
students. It will not be uninteresting to cultivators, who are often 
wearied beyond all patience with the hosts of names bjrne by garden 
plants, to hear the warning uttered by Mr. Bentham against the name- 
mongering often indulged in by botanists. He says, “ It should be borne 
in mind that every new name coined for an old plant'without affording 
any aid to science is only an additional impediment.” And again, “"We 
must remember that the object of the Linntean nomenclature is the 
ready identification of species, genera, or other groups for study or 
reference, and not for the glorification of botanists.” Those of us who 
feel inclined to protest against the many alterations that have been made 
in the nomenclature of garden plants by the authors of the “ Genera 
Plantarum,” may gather from this that the mischief was the work of 
others and not of the authors of this great book, which is meant to 
reduce the contused state of plant names to something like order. In 
addition to his share in the “Genera Plantarum” and the numerous 
publications that are incorporated in the journals of various societies, Mr. 
Bentham was the author of the following works :—“ Catalogue des 
Plantes indigdues des Pyrenees,” 1826; “Labiatarum, Genera and 
Species,” 1832-6; “Plant® Hartwegianm,” 1839-57; “Botany of the 
"Voyage of H.M.S. ‘ Sulphur,” 1844 ; “ Scrophularinarum Revisio,” 1846 ; 
“ Flora Nigritiana,” 1849 ; “ Handbook of British Flora,” 1858 ; “Flora 
Hongkongensis,” 1861; “ Flora AustralLensis ” (7 vols.), 1863-78. The 
“Genera Plantarum” was commenced in 1858 and completed in 1882, 
Nearly a quarter of a century ago Mr. Bentham was awarded one of 
the Royal Society’s medals, and the following extract from the address of 
the President of the Society on the occasion shows how well that honour 
was merited:— 
“ The remarkable accuracy which distinguishes all Mr. Bentham’a 
scientific researches, the logical precision that characterises his writings, 
and the sound generalisations which his systematic works exhibit, may be in 
a great measure traced to the influence of his uncle, the late celebrated legal 
theorist Jeremy Bentham, who directed much of his early studies, and under 
whose auspices he published one of his earliest works, ‘ Outlines of a New 
System of Logic.’ His mind was further imbued in youth with a love of 
natural history, and especially botany ; and this taste was cultivated and 
nourished by a study of the works of the elder De Candolle. Fortunately for 
the cause of botany in England, Mr. Bentham has devoted himself almost 
exclusively to that science ; and to his excellent powers of observation, close 
reasoning, concise writing, and indefatigable perseverance our country owes 
the distinction of ranking amongst its naturalists one so pre-eminent for his 
valuable labours in systematic botany. Amongst Mr. Bentham’s numerora 
writings, those hold the first rank which are devoted to the three great 
natural orders, Leguminosm, Labiatae, and Scrophulariacese. These orders 
demanded a vast amount of analytic study ; for they are amongst the largest 
and most widely distributed of the vegetable kingdom, and had been thrown 
into great confusion by earlier writers. They have been the subject of many 
treatises by Mr. Bentham, and especially of two extensive works, the contents 
of which have lately been embodied in the “Systema Vegetabilium ’ of the 
De Candolles. On their first appearance these works secured for their anther 
a European reputation, and will always rank high as models of skilful classi¬ 
fication. It would occupy too much time to specify the very numerous 
monographs and papers which Mr. Bentham has communicated to various 
scientific societies and periodicals in this country and on the Continent, and 
especially to the Linn®an Transactions and Journal. That ‘ On the Principles 
of Generic Nomenclature’ may be noted as an example of his power of 
treating an apparently simple, but really abstract and difficult subject in a 
manner at once philosophical and practical. Mr. Bentham’s work on British 
Plants is the first on the indigenous flora of our islands in which every 
species has been carefully analysed and described from specimens procured 
from all parts of the globe; it is distinguished for its scientific accuracy, 
advanced general views, and extreme simplicity—a combination of qualities 
which can result only from an extensive series of exact observations, 
judiciously arranged and logically expressed. The President then addressed 
