118 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
this year made to last two days. They state 
that from their experience of two-days shows 
they cannot recommend that their employers 
plants should he shown under the present 
arrangements, and point out that the length¬ 
ened "duration of the shows will involve on 
their own part a greatly increased expenditure 
of time and money. 
Mr. Fortune’s Japanese Plants. —In 
consequence of the expiration of the agree¬ 
ment between Mr. Fortune and Mr. Standish, 
the remaining stock of these is to be sold by 
Mr. Stevens on the 11th of this month. Among 
the most prominent are the magnificent white- 
flowered Clematis Fortuni, figured and de¬ 
scribed in our last volume; Clematis Stan- 
dishii, with violet purple flowers ; Lastrea 
Standishii, a beautiful Fern, with very grace¬ 
ful much-divided fronds of a lively green, 
and which is almost, if not quite, hardy; the 
male Aucuba; and several valuable evergreen 
shrubs, such as the new Skimmias and the 
different varieties of Osmanthus ilicifolius. 
Mr. Beaton’s Geraniums. —The late Mr. 
Beaton, who may almost be considered the 
father of the present race of bedding Gera¬ 
niums, possessed at the time of his death a 
stock of seedlings amounting to some thou¬ 
sands, the results of his last efforts in cross¬ 
breeding, and many of which were eminently 
beautiful. One in particular, which he de¬ 
signed to call Amy Hogg, was particularly 
remarkable from being entirely distinct in 
colour from any variety previously in exist¬ 
ence. The whole of these have passed into 
the hands of Mr. W. Paul, of Waltham Cross, 
whom we have to congratulate on his acqui¬ 
sition, and on whose judgment the public can 
confidently rely. 
Rhododendron Nuttalli. — A plant of 
this magnificent Bhotan species is now in 
flower in Mr. Williams’ new show-house at 
his Victoria Nursery, Holloway. It is a very 
fine specimen in a No. 1-pot, is 10 feet high 
and 7 through, and bore, when we saw it, 
eighteen corymbs of its enormous bell-shaped 
flowers, measuring nearly 6 inches across. 
OBITUARY. 
Mr. Joseph Kirke, whose nursery at 
Brompton was, many years ago, celebrated 
for the excellent stock of fruit trees which it 
contained, died on the 26th of March, in his 
96th year. Having outlived most of the 
horticulturists of his day, and having never 
of late years been heard of by those who 
survived, he had almost passed from their 
remembrance. His nursery consisted of six 
or eight acres of ground, and was in part 
surrounded by the walls of Cromwell’s garden, 
but it now forms part of the site of the Exhi¬ 
bition building of 1862. From it many of 
the trees in the orchard at Chiswick were 
supplied; and from it, too, frequently came 
collections of Apples and Pears to the earlier 
meetings of the then Horticultural Society. 
Mr. Kirke himself was a regular attendant at 
these meetings, and there are still a few left 
who can recollect him, knife in hand, inviting 
opinion on Ord’s Apple, at that time a new 
kind, the high merit of which he fully ap¬ 
preciated. He gave his name to several 
fruits, as Kirke’s Plum, and Kirke’s Lord 
Nelson, Kirke’s Golden Pippin Apples, &c., but 
which were probably raised by others. Some 
eighteen or twenty years ago he retired from 
business, and was an inmate of Huggins’ 
College at Northfleet, up to the time of his 
death. 
Mr. Andrew Stewart, gardener to the 
Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, died on 
the 10th of last month. He had been thirty- 
seven years at Chatsworth, where, under Sir 
Joseph Paxton, he had charge of the kitchen 
gardens for many years, and subsequently he 
was entrusted with the entire management of 
the fruit and kitchen gardens at that place. 
He was frequently a judge at the metropolitan 
shows, and was much respected by all who 
knew him, and especially by Sir Joseph 
Paxton, who bears a high tribute to Mr. 
Stewart’s great worth. 
CALENDAR OF 
STOVE. 
Shift all growing plants that stand in need 
of it. Tie out and stop plants intended for 
specimens. IV ater freely and syringe daily. 
Give air plentifully in fine weather, but guard 
against dry cutting winds. "Use every means 
to keep down insects, and attend to the train¬ 
ing of climbers. 
CONSERVATORY. 
Attend to the regulating and training of 
climbers. Keep a watchful eye for insects, 
which are generally troublesome at this season, 
if once allowed to get ahead. Remove all 
OPERATIONS. 
plants as soon as the flowers begin to die 
away. Examine the soil around all plants in 
beds, and see they do not suffer for want of 
water. Syringe plants not in flower. Give 
abundance of air, and water freely. In fine 
weather, towards the end of the month, leave 
some air on all night. 
GREENHOUSE. 
HardwoodedPlants .—Shade plants in flower; 
give abundance of air, and leave some on all 
night. Many of the young plants potted 
early in the season will now be beginning to 
grow freely; they will reqiure attention as to 
