56 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ January 18, 1883. 
loft followed by about half a dozen collies ; the lasses retired up the 
same * trap ’ to the other side of the loft. Shortly the snoring of 
the sleepers was appalling, but worst of all the dogs first commenced 
to snarl and then to fight in earnest: clouds of dust descended 
through seams in the boarding upon the devoted head of our friend, 
who. was only too delighted when day broke, and he was able to 
extricate himself from his difficulties and breathe the pure air of 
Maol Ghirdy. I feel how vain on my part it is to describe the re¬ 
collections of the scene as related at the time, but I have endeavoured 
to give a sketch of an actual adventure which our friend had, and he 
had many such to relate. We returned down Glen Lochay on a 
lovely summer night to our hostelry, and it is difficult to realise that 
the man who had kept us all amused has passed away from among 
us almost in his prime. 
“ His popularity among the students attending the botanical class 
is too well known to require to be noticed. At the weekly excur¬ 
sions he was their genial companion, and did everything to inspire 
them .with a love of nature and the interesting science they were 
studying. It is sad to think that the bright career that was before 
him as Curator of the Botanic Gardens and Arboretum—work so 
congenial to his nature—should have been so suddenly closed by his 
untimely death. Providence has so ordered it ; but his memory will 
ever remain green in the hearts of many true friends, who have spent 
happy days in. his company in climbing most of the Scottish moun¬ 
tains in pursuit of their favourite science. 
‘ Fell star of fate ! thou never canst employ 
A torment teeming with severer smart 
Than that which memory pours upon the heart. 
While clinging round the sepulchre of joy.’ 
—C. Stuart, M.D.” 
WRITERS ON VINE CULTURE. 
I think you, most head gardeners, under gardeners and fore¬ 
men of any pretension or status, and most amateurs, will agree 
with me that Grape culture, especially varieties of Duke of 
Buccleuch, Madresfield Court, have had their culture especially 
well discussed during the past twelve months in your columns. 
Let me suggest, especially to those writers who have lately 
become very personal in their criticisms of other gardeners’ sug¬ 
gestions, to entirely leave off writing on this subject for a time, 
and instead to practise the many good hints that have been 
printed from known and respected professionals in Grape culture. 
Let me suggest to a number of these writers that nearly all of 
us want some practical hints on other things ; and I beg to sug¬ 
gest to amateurs and professionals a subject wanting all their 
powers to cope with it—viz., the extermination of all sorts of 
garden vermin, especially out-of-door pests. This subject will 
stand some thrashing, with many others in your columns which 
have been so generously given up to Grape culture, a fruit, by- 
the-by, that is being erroneously overdone everywhere, as the 
price of them from August 1st to November 1st has proved the 
last few years.— Saxoring. 
I DO not know when I have been more interested than in read¬ 
ing the articles on Grapes that have lately appeared in the Journal, 
and I feel certain as a young gardener searching for information 
that I shall be able to turn some of the valuable hints to profit¬ 
able account. If I can succeed, as I now think I can, in growing 
those grand varieties the Duke of Buccleuch and Madresfield 
Court, this alone will repay me for investing in your useful 
Journal. The instructions on ventilation, pruning, and watering 
I have never seen so clearly stated before as during the last twelve 
months, and I trust those cultivators who have been successful in 
growing what may be termed fickle kinds of Grapes will not fail 
to point out any special items of treatment that may he needed in 
the future as they have done in the past, as there are hundreds 
besides myself who do not yet know all they wish to know 
about this important fruit. I think to fail in Grapes is to fail 
altogether or nearly so in gardening, and I wish to succeed.— 
J. Page, Barnet. 
HORTICULTURE IN 1882. 
At this season of the year, when persons of all classes are taking 
stock of the past, are balancing their accounts, and seeing how 
they stand with regard to the coming year, it may not be alto¬ 
gether unprofitable if we do the same with regard to that pur¬ 
suit in which, in some of its many branches, we are all interested, 
and ask, What has been the position of horticulture during the 
past year and what are its prospects ? 
It was hardly to be expected that at a time when an undefinable 
but still , very patent depression exists in all departments of 
commercial enterprise, when the reaction from the “ leaps and 
bounds ” of an inflated prosperity has told so evidently on all, 
when to the ordinary causes of that depression is added that 
which has so materially affected the land and all connected with 
it—viz., the strange cycle of unfavourable seasons, should not 
very seriously interfere with horticulture, and especially with the 
maintenance of the gardening establishments of our nobility and 
gentry. In very many instances that have come under my own 
observation, and doubtless but samples of many more, 1 have seen 
lamentable reductions in the staff, and a consequent falling-off 
in the appearance of the garden ; while in others, although the 
staff has been maintained and the gardens exhibit the same 
appearance as before, yet it has been done by turning my lord 
into a market gardener and nurseryman combined, for we know 
of princely establishments where well nigh anything of fruit and 
flowers can be purchased ; and I cannot but think that some 
symptoms of this restricted expenditure has had something to do 
with the falling-off (for such there has been) in our great metro¬ 
politan exhibitions. The growing of plants or flowers for exhi¬ 
bition is a luxury, and luxuries are the first things to be curtailed. 
I do not think that the shows of our two great royal societies 
have been anything like what they were, while those who recol¬ 
lect what the exhibitions at the Crystal Palace were in Mr. 
Bowley’s or Mr. Wilkinson’s time must write “ Ichabod ” on 
them now. 
Of provincial exhibitions the palm must as usual be given to 
Manchester, but, even there, there was a falling-off. Of the other 
provincial shows, Edinburgh (if the northern metropolis will suffer 
itself to be classed amongst provincial towns) was undoubtedly 
the star of the year, although far short of the magnificent autumn 
exhibition held at Manchester in 1881; but I have not in my 
recollection known one which has given rise to more controversy 
as to the character of the judging. As far as my experience of 
provincial flower shows goes the West of England, Bath, Taunton, 
Weston, &c., are carried on with the most spirit and obtain the 
greatest measure of success. 
Turning from flower shows to flowers, I do not think that 
during the past year we have seen any very startling additions 
to either our plants or flowers. Of course many beautiful things 
have been in both exhibited, but nothing of that surpassing cha¬ 
racter which marks an epoch in our gardens. Orchids still seem 
to be as much in demand as ever ; and although some well-known 
collections are dispersed yet others are springing up in all direc¬ 
tions ; while the continuous importations which are week after 
week brought to the hammer at Stevens’s are rapidly cleared off, 
and one would almost think that their native habitat must soon 
be cleared out. Thousands of Odontoglossums, Cattleyas, &c., 
are offered for sale, and that not in single bulbs but in large 
clumps ; and the well-known exuberance and quickness of growth 
of tropical vegetation must be stretched to its utmost limits to 
make up the gaps made by ardent collectors, who have respect 
more to the money’s worth of what they are collecting than for 
any sentimental notion about despoiling the native forests, &c., 
of their beauty. To my mind the most extraordinary “ craze ” 
of the year has been the rush for single Dahlias. When raisers of 
seedling Dahlias can look back and recollect how deliberately 
every single flower was forthwith pulled up they must be amazed 
to find that the rejected of former years are the favourites of 
to-day. They are all very well in their place. A few of five 
or six different shades of colour in any moderate-sized garden 
are very desirable ; but to have our gardens crammed with them, 
to grow them, as some growers for sale, by the acre, to see nothing 
but single Dahlias in vases, is a little too much for one’s nerves ; and 
worse still, to hear the grand and brilliant double Dahlias decried 
for the sake of exalting these humble brethren, is making matters 
worse. I have heard of one city house where a bundle of these 
were shown in a vase in the window, and in three days orders 
were received for 780 plants. The craze has, I think, been evi¬ 
dently encouraged by the granting of seven certificates for single 
Dahlias in one day by the Floral Committee. 
The attempt to revive an interest in florists’ flowers in the south 
has been successful in one direction, although a failure in another. 
The Dahlia Show at the Crystal Palace was an instance of the 
former, the Pink Society of the latter. A meritorious attempt 
to inaugurate one was made, but it was found that while money 
enough could be obtained there were not exhibitors sufficient to 
make a show. The Auricula and Carnation Societies have both 
made progress. The exhibitors from the southern part of the 
kingdom are, however, still too few to justify me in saying that 
the revival of the culture of florists’ flowers has become very 
active. 
The close of the year always leads us to look back on the gaps 
that death has made amongst us, but happily this season we have 
to record the loss of fewer names in the horticultural world, as 
distinguished from the scientific, than usual. An enthusiastic 
florist, Mr. George Smith of Edmonton, whose last public act was 
