AUGUST. 
243 
and Frogmore Late Pine, I hope to try next year. Mrs. Clements, 
wife of the Rector of Worleggan, Cornwall, sent me a forced plant of 
her seedling, King Arthur, with the fruit on. The berries were large, 
numerous, well-shaped, and the fruit of excellent flavour. Cornwall is 
the France of England, and famous for Strawberries ; and I hope we 
may be able to encourage an indefatigable lady Fragrarian by high 
encomiums on her other seedlings. Ladies do everything well but 
preach, and that is something like a dog walking on his hind legs ; it is 
not done well, but you are surprised to find it dene at all! All 
married men admit that they are capital curtain lecturers! She 
once said in a letter, “ I perceive by your articles you are a bit of a 
wag 1 ” If there was any doubt about that, I trust my two last obser¬ 
vations will clear up the matter. 
Rushton, July 19. W. F. Radclypfe. 
®bituaru. 
We regret to announce in our present number the death of 
Charles Empson, Esq., of Bath, who for several years has been 
a valuable contributor to the Florist^ and an esteemed personal 
friend. Mr. Empson’s decease took place rather suddenly in 
London on June 25th, and has caused a profound grief to his 
numerous friends, who were warmly attached to him on account 
of his amiable and disinterested character, and the vast fund 
of information contained in his richly stored mind, and which 
induced his society to be courted by all who could appreciate refined 
taste, and an ardent lover of Nature, which in the late Mr. 
Empson was happily united to the most catholic philanthropy. 
The late Mr. Empson belonged to an ancient Yorkshire family, 
and his love of natural history induced him, when a young man, 
to accompany the late Robert Stephenson, Esq., to South America, 
in which country and Mexico he spent several years exploring 
the different states of Chili, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and Mexico, 
collecting information on the natural history and archaeology of 
those remarkable countries. Most unfortunately for science the 
accumulated treasures which he had collected in relation to the 
natural products and ancient history of the above countries were 
lost, by the ship which was conveying them to England foundering 
in the Gulf of Mexico, a mere fragment only being saved. 
Among things lost were specimens of nearly the entire flora of the 
vast districts he had traversed, as well as a most valuable collection 
of treasures connected with the different dynasties who governed 
those countries before they were conquered by the Spaniards. 
For the last 25 years Mr. Empson resided in Bath (making 
occasional continental tours), where his loss will be deeply felt, 
not only by the upper classes, with whom his conversational 
powers was the great charm of society, but by the poor, to whom 
he was ever the kindest and most sincere of friends. 
S. 
