Febrn?ry 14, 1889. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
129 
garden at Holborn than to either of those in the Strand which he 
had to do with, though we know neither its size nor its site. This 
was the first London botanic garden close to the boundary of the 
City, being somewhere on the banks of the streamlet called the Old 
Bourne ; it has been conjectured about where now are Hatton 
Garden and Ely Place. To it visitors came from distant parts of 
England, and even from the Continent. Concerning one of these, 
a Frenchman hailing from Paris, Gerard’s friend, G. Baker, also a 
surgeon, relates that he saw the two botanists engaged in a com¬ 
petition trying who could name most of a number of plants before 
them, but the Frenchman had only a knowledge of about a fourth 
of those Gerard named. His catalogue of the plants he cultivated, 
printed in small quarto and published in 159G, is a curiosity. He 
enumerates over a thousand ; some, as we should expect, are 
incorrectly named, and some probably varieties, but it seems a 
wonderful performance when we think how little help he had from 
books or fellow workers. Certainly his intimacy with Lord 
Burleigh and with several City merchants enabled him to obtain a 
variety of cuttings and seeds from correspondents in foreign 
lands, and from an allusion in a poem addressed to him, Gerard 
had been a traveller himself. On this point, however, he is silent, 
save that he writes once about some Firs he sav r growing near the 
Gulf of Finland. 
As already remarked, we have to thank the Flemings for pro¬ 
moting the cultivation of garden flowers in England when they 
arrived in small parties, about the middle of the sixteenth century, 
being fugitives from the cruelties of the Duke of Alva. It is 
significant of the practical turn of the English character generally 
that even then the taste for flowers diffused itself slowly ; much 
more interest was shown in the production of fruit and vegetables, 
so that Gerard mentions in his books but a comparatively small 
number of flowers—several Roses are specified, Carnations, “ Gilli- 
flowers,” and Tulips ; of the last he had seen a host of varieties in 
the garden of Garnet, a London apothecary, the first probably of 
the English propagators of this species. The Primrose, or, as they 
wrote it then, Prymerolle, literally the “spring unfolder,” was 
cultivated by Gerard and Ins friends ; also of its companions, the 
Oxlip and the Cowslip. Of the three he had some varieties (one 
seems to have been the Alpine Primrose), and he grew the Auricula, 
which he doubtless obtained from Holland—not from its native 
district. This for some time was a comparatively unnoticed flower. 
Of the Anemone he mentions two garden kinds, but he does not 
seem to have had the Polyanthus. If his description is correct, 
Gerard was the introducer of the Balsam ; where he obtained its 
seeds is uncertain, possibly from India. 
It is not easy to clear up the history of our common vegetable, 
the Potato ; it was brought to England during the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth, by some one of the explorers she commissioned. Sir 
Walter Raleigh is generally credited with its introduction, and the 
story is that he planted the tubers on his estate in Ireland. It is added 
that when his gardener produced the fruit of the Potato, and called 
it worthless, Raleigh told him to dig up the plants and throw them 
away ; of course, his doing this brought the tubers to daylight ! 
That the vegetable was grown in Ireland, by Raleigh or someone, 
before it was planted in England is a fact evidenced by several 
witnesses, and one noteworthy, seeing the position the Potato 
holds to this day as a leading article of food among the Irish 
peasantry. From a figure placed as frontispiece to Johnson’s 
edition of Gerard’s “ Herbal ” it has been assumed that he was the 
first English cultivator, but for my own part I must confess a doubt 
whether this sprig is that of the Potato plant. He grew the Potato 
in his Holborn garden, for he describes it correctly, and states that 
he had it from Virginia, that is clear ; also, he knew the Sweet 
Potato, which he calls the Potato of Spain or Peru. This, like the 
Virginian Potato, arrived first in Ireland about 1565 apparently. 
Allusions to Peas in the early dramatists are probably to the 
kind grown in fields, and the pods of which were dried. The 
garden, or green Pea, was so scarce during the early part of 
Elizabeth’s reign, that a supply was obtained from Holland for the 
Royal table. Gerard took up the question, which has been discussed 
at intervals from his time to the present, whether what he calls 
“tame” Peas are simply a wild species modified by cultivation, 
and decided they were distinct. There is a tradition that our first 
garden Peas reached us from Italy in the middle of the sixteenth 
century, and Lentils accompanied them. The latter were so little 
esteemed that Gerard observes he saw them growing in fields near 
London, being sown as food for cattle. He, like Tusser, calls the 
Pea, “ Peason,” evidently a corruption of the Latin “Pisum.” It 
was usual to sow them at or after Christmas. The Runcival Pea, 
referred to by these early horticulturists, was the precursor of our 
modern Marrowfat or Prussian Blue. The name was taken from 
the town of Roncesvalles, where they pretended to show the bones 
of gigantic warriors of a bygone age, and hence it was applied to 
anything large or strong. Gerard and his friends knew the Kidney, 
erroneously styled the French Bean, introduced, it is said, in 1597, 
from India, but the climbing species were of later importation.— 
J. R. S. C. 
At the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, held Feb. 12th in the Council Room, 117, Victoria Street, S.W., 
Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., M.P., in the chair, the following candidates 
were duly elected Fellows—viz., G. R. Alexander, Captain Austen, 
Charles If. Belt, Clement Braby, Arthur Brooke, Robert Bushnell, Mrs. 
Chute, Jeremiah Coleman, Mrs. Crum. J. F. \V. Deacon, Miss Felicia 
de Tern, W. D. Divers, James Ellis, Rev. Kenneth F. Gibbs, H. B. Green¬ 
field, John Harkness, Lt. Col. A. H. Hyslop, William Iggulden, Howard 
F. Haider, Arthur Robinson, George Shayler, Samuel Soutar, Herbert 
Sutton, T. Hardcastle Sykes, Miss Thain, William W. Voosnam, 
J. Ratliff Wooster, Mrs. Worrell, Charles Osman, and Associate Donald 
McDonald. 
- Gardeners’ Orphan Fund.—W e learn that Mr. II. B. May 
of Edmonton has arranged at his own expense to provide a concert in 
the Town Hall, Edmonton, on Thursday, February 28th, at 8 P.H., the 
proceeds of which will be devoted t® the above named fund. 
- The Weather.—T he present winter so far has been more 
disastrous to vegetation than the previous one, young Lettuces, such 
as Bath or Brown Cos, Hicks' Hardy White, and All the Year 
Round Cabbage Lettuce, all three standard winter varieties here, have 
suffered badly, quite nine-tenths being killed. Cauliflowers, young 
plants in frames, although with one mat on glass, a great many look 
dead. Broccoli in the open quarters, some kinds, Backhouse’s, Veitch s 
Spring White, all killed; Gilbert’s Late Victoria and the Champion 
Late White (Carter’s) have stood best, but both look much damaged. 
Brussels Sprouts, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Celery, and Parsley very 
much injured, also July sown Cabbage, but the August sowings look 
better. No doubt the wet summer and autumn, causing long and sappy 
growth, has much to do with it. 19° of frost in the air, and 25 on 
the ground facing the sky has been the lowest recorded this season. 
-II. 0. 
-Weather in Scotland.— “ B. D.” writes : —“ The week 
ending 11th inst. was, in the beginning, of a mild, in the latter half 
of an extremely wintry character. During the 8th a violent snowstorm 
raged over the whole country, with high northerly gales. All communi¬ 
cation with Inverness by railway was completely stopped by the snow 
drifts, and telegraphic connection all but entirely broken down. Several 
trains overdue we.re quite lost sight of on this account. In South Perth¬ 
shire the cold was intense, but the snowfall less. On the nights of the 
8th, 9th, and 10th respectively, the frost registered amounted to 9°, 15°> 
and 11°. There is every appearance of the storm continuing.” 
_ In the south The Weather has been very severe within the 
past few days, a heavy fall of snow on Sunday being followed by keen 
frosts. On Tuesday exceptionally low temperatures were registered, 
and we hear of several cases wheie 25° to 28° of frost were registered on 
the grass. 
_ Will you kindly do me the favour of announcing that the 
dates of the Brighton and Hove Chrysanthemum Society’s Show 
have been altered to November 5th and 6th instead of the 12th and 
13th, owing to the National and Kingston Shows being on the same 
dates.— Mark Longhurst, 18, Church Road, Brighton. 
_ Tomatoes. —The summer of 1888, as most gardeners know, 
was a very bad one for the production of outdoor Tomatoes, but the 
variety that fruited and ripened best here out of four or five reputed good 
varieties was Sutton’s Earliest of All. Fruit, medium sized, good red, 
slightly corrugated, and early. Ilaekwood Park did well in 1887, and 
is a fine Tomato.—H. 0. 
_ At the ordinary meeting of the Royal Meteorological 
Society, to be held at 25, Great George Street, Westminster, on Wed¬ 
nesday, the 20th inst., at 7 P.M., the following papers will be read 
“ Report on the Helm Wind Inquiry,” by William Marriott, F.R.Met.Soc.: 
