272 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ feptember 25, 1890. 
combine to an astonishing degree scientific accuracy in the minutest 
detail with a keen appreciation of beauty and artistic eifect. The 
flowers and leaves seem in many cases to actually stand out from their 
backgrounds with a vivid reality which almost deceives those most 
familiar with them. Perhaps a greater marvel even than the character 
of Miss North’s work is the fertility of her brush. The many hundreds 
of paintings in this gallery were all executed within the space of fifteen 
years, a large portion of which time was occupied in travel, every exhibit 
having been completed directly at the scene which it represents. 
Miss North was born at Hastings in 1830. Her father was Mr. 
Frederick North of Rougham in Norfolk, who successfully contested the 
Parliamentary representation of Hastings in the same year in which his 
daughter Marianne was born, and in after years Miss North was 
wont to say that her earliest recollection was that of the reform dinner 
at Hastings. The family was one of some little note both in politics 
and literature from the time of the second Charles. Her mother was 
the eldest daughter of Sir John Majoribanks. She was a child of 
precocious talent. “ Travelling onward,” says the writer of the article 
we have mentioned, “from childhood to girlhood, from girlhood to 
womanhood, Miss North, like most clever women of the last generation, 
owed much of her education to herself and little to her teachers.” She 
was “ gifted with a rarely beautiful voice and an admirable eye for 
colour and form, passionately fond of music, of flowers, of books, 
devoted to the study of natural history, taking an eager interest in all 
the developments of insect and animal life, in all form of vegetation.” 
In her early years she devoted herself chiefly to the development of her 
strong musical abilities, but subsequently turned to painting, for which 
she displayed an even greater aptitude. A keen student of botany and 
other branches of natural history, she soon turned the exercise of her 
artistic faculties in this direction. Frequent continental travel with 
her family gave her much opportunity for these combined pursuits. 
The years 1865 to 1867 she spent chiefly in Syria and up the Nile in 
company with her father, and the fruit of this journey was a series of 
Nile sketches, which received very high praise from competent judges. 
Mr. North died in 1869, and from this time onward his daughter 
appears to have devoted herself with absolute singleness of purpose to 
the development of art as the hand-maiden of science. In her own 
words, she made her brush the master of her existence. It was at this 
time also that she definitely abandoned water-colours as a vehicle for her 
work in favour of oils. In 1869 and 1870 she travelled and painted in 
Sicily, but it was not until 1871, during a journey in America and the 
West Indies, that she commenced to produce the series of paintings 
which now adorn the walls of the gallery in Kew Gardens. During the 
West Indian portion of this tour she spent more than two months in soli¬ 
tude in a lonely house amongst the hills. Returning to England she 
voyaged next year to Brazil, where she lived for several months in a 
deserted cottage in the heart of the primeval forest. On her way home 
■ehe visited Teneriffe. 
Her next flight was a still longer one, embracing the circuit of the 
globe through California, Japan, the Indian Archipelago, and Ceylon. 
The very rich store of artistic work which she brought with her created 
•quite a sensation in learned circles, and her position in the world of 
science was thenceforth an established one. Especially noteworthy 
among her discoveries during this journey were the rare Javan Pitcher 
Plants, her illustrations of which induced Messrs. J. Yeitch & Sons 
of Chelsea to at once send a special messenger across the world on 
a hunt for specimens. Setting out again in the same year, Miss North 
^visited India. While she was away the collection of some five hundred 
of her paintings was on view at the South Kensington Exhibition. 
It was after her return from India that she conceived the project 
■of presenting her works to the nation. Needless to say her offer of 
them on this behalf to Sir Joseph Hooker was gladly accepted. Mr. 
James Fergusson, F.R.S., very kindly gave his services in drawing up 
designs for the building which was to contain them, and with which 
most visitors to the gardens are now familiar. The style is light and 
pretty, as well as suitable to the purpose, and it is considered one 
of the best lighted buildings of the kind in Europe, daylight being 
admitted, not from skylights, but from small windows placed close 
under the roof, after the ancient Greek models. By Darwin’s recom¬ 
mendation Miss North next visited Australia, returning thence with a 
yet more wonderful series of paintings. She then devoted a year to the 
arrangement of her collection in the new building, which was opened 
io the public in 1882. A second room was added at the rear in 1883. 
Between that date and the present, Miss North made several more 
journeys to different parts of the world, constantly adding to the size 
and value of her collection, and it was while upon her latest tour, to the 
interior of South America, that she acquired the seeds of the long and 
trying illness which has now proved fatal. Here death took place at 
Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, on Saturday last, and her remains 
were interred there on Wednesday afternoon. 
Sir J. D. Hooker thus commented on the value of Miss North’s 
paintings in his preface to the catalogue “ The unique col'ection of 
paintings of which the following pages contain an instructive catalogue, 
is, together with the gallery in which it is placed, a free gift to the 
Royal Gardens on the part of the accomplished lady-artist and traveller 
whose name the gallery bears. The pictures were painted by herself, 
on the spot, in the country indicated ; and were arranged by herself in 
the portions which they occupy ; and both the preparation and printing 
of the catalogue are due to her munificence. On the beauty of the 
collection it is unnecessary to dwell, and it is not possible to overrate its 
interest and instructiveness in connection with the contents of the 
gardens, plant-houses, and museums of Kew. Visitors may, however, be 
glad to be reminded that very many of the views here brought 
together represent vividly and truthfully scenes of astonishing interest 
and singularity, and objects that are amongst the wonders of the vege¬ 
table kingdom; and that these, though now accessible to travellers and 
familiar to readers of travels, are already disappearing or are doomed 
shortly to disappear before the axe and the forest fires, the plough and 
the flock, of the ever advancing settler and colonist. Such scenes can 
never be renewed by Nature, nor when once effaced can they be 
pictured to the mind’s eye, except by means of such records as this lady 
has presented to us, and to posterity, which will thus have even 
more than we have to be grateful for her fortitude as a traveller, her 
talent and industry as an artist, and her liberality and public spirit.” 
CLEYELLY, ALLERTON. 
Clevelly, the residence of T. Sutton Timmis, Esq., is situated some 
three miles from Liverpool, and is one of the many places around 
Liverpool in which gardening is seen at its best in all departments. 
Having a few hours to spare I drove over to Allerton, and was kindly 
conducted through the houses and grounds by Mr. Cromwell, the head 
gardener. The houses are all of the most improved style, and have 
been erected of the best materials regardless of cost. Passing through 
the commodious potting shed we enter the corridor, from which nearly 
all the houses are reached. The corridor itself is furnished on one side 
with fine plants of Plumbago alba and capensis, Chorozemas, Bougain¬ 
villeas, Tropseolums, and other climbing plants, which clothe the walls 
and hang in festoons from the roof, the other side being devoted to 
plants in pots, Coleus, Begonias, Pelargoniums, &c., all of which make 
a capital display, whilst from the roof are suspended some fine baskets 
of Achimenes longiflora major and alba. The cool Orchid house has a 
teak stage on which are four rows of pots, comprising some hundreds 
of plants, the best varieties of Odontoglossums and Masdevallias, with 
Epidendrum vitellinum majus, Sophronitis grandiflora, and others. The 
front part of the stage is banked by Begonias and Ferns, and small ponds 
between give the house a cool appearance. Along the front of the house 
suspended from the roof are hundreds of pans of Odontoglossum Rossi 
majus and Sophronitis grandiflora, all the picture of health. Although 
not the best time to see the cool Orchids, still there was promise of a 
grand show of bloom in its proper season. Odontoglossum cirrhosum 
and Epidendrum vitellinum majus were flowering in abundance. A 
span-roof house comes n^xt in two divisions, the first being occupied 
with Muscat of Alexandria at present carrying good serviceable 
bunches excellent in colour, the second with two fine Peach trees, Royal 
George and Violecte Hfitive, which cover each side of the house, and 
which bear enormous crops of fruit each season. At the time of my 
visit the roots were being examined, and the border was being made 
heavier by the addition of a little clay to the compost. No. 3 is a 
vinery in two divisions, the first being filled with the Black Hamburgh, 
the second with Alicantes and Lady Downe’s just finishing and carrying 
some good bunches fine in the berry. The borders in this house, as in 
the Hamburgh house, were extended last season, the result being good 
wood and healthy foliage, which should give a good return next 
season. 
The next range entered is a span-roof stove in two divisions, the first 
having a choice collection of Orchids on the side stages, including 
capital Calanthes, numerous Cattleyas in variety and in the best 
possible health, Cypripedium Curtisi in flower, grand pieces of Laslia 
anceps, and sp'endid Phalaenopsis on teak cylinders. The centre bed 
was occupied with fine exhibition plants of Allamandas Hendersoni, 
Chelsoni, grandiflora, and nobilis ; Crotons Evansianus, Countess, 
Sunset, Aureus marmoratus, Williamsi ; Anthurium Schertzerianum, 
4 feet across ; Gloriosa superba, and a very fine Nephrolepis davalli- 
oides f urcans. Here, as in the first house, were noticed the plants which 
brought Mr. Cromwell into such prominence at the late Liverpool Show 
—viz., Ixoras coccinea superba, Dixiana, Pilgrimi, Westi ; Rondeletia 
speciosa major, splendidly coloured examples of Crotons Queen Victoria 
and Disraeli, each 8 feet through ; a fine specimen of that handsome 
Fern Nephrolepis rufescens tripinnatifida, Davallia fijiensis, 5 feet 
through, and other miscellaneous stove plants, the side stages being 
filled with Orchids, numbers of Cattleya Trianae bearing sheaths, 
stout and strong, from which a harvest of bloom may be expected ; 
fine plants of Cymbidium eburneum, Cattleya citrina on blocks, 
Peristeria elata, a dozen plants of Coelogyne cristata, comprising 
Chatsworth, Trentham, and Lemoniana varieties, and fully 3j feet 
through, and the glorious Laelia anceps grandiflora, which has been 
figured in the gardening journals several times—on a raft 3^ feet by 
3 feet, and showing abundance of bloom. In this house I noticed the 
following Orchids in bloom — Cattleya aurea, carrying twelve fine 
flowers ; Miltonia Candida grandiflora, fourteen spikes ; Odontoglossum 
grande, a great number in bloom, with many more in various stages ; 
Oncidium ampliatum, &c. 
The Camellia house contained healthy plants well set with buds. 
Most certainly the feature of this house are the plants of Lapageria 
alba and rosea superba, which cover the whole side of the house, and at 
present bearing thousands of flowers. Here 1 noticed some good plants 
of Imantophyllum miniatum, splendens, princeps, Milneri, and Marie 
Reimers. Passing through the entrance proper to the houses (which 
contains a fine standard Camellia), and which is used as a smoke 
lounge, we come to the Azalea house. The plants are healthy and well 
set with buds, and there are some good plants of Rhododendron Veitchi 
