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THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ February, 
- fttR. John Gibson died at his residence, Argyll Lodge, South Kensing¬ 
ton, on January 11, in his 60tli year. Mr. Gibson commenced his career, under 
his father, at Eaton Hall, near Congleton, and was in 1832 apprenticed to Mr. 
(afterwards Sir Joseph) Paxton, at Chatsworth. He was sent in 1835 by the late Duke of 
Devonshire to India, for the purpose of collecting plants, notably the Amherstia nobilis, from 
which journey ho returned in 1837, and was then made foreman of the exotic plant depart¬ 
ment at ChatsAvorth. In 1819, he was appointed superintendent of Victoria Park, then in 
course of formation, the charge of Greenwich Park being also made over to him two or three 
years after. In 1855, he commenced laying out Battersea Park, removing there altogether 
in 1859, and remaining till 1871, when he was appointed to the charge of Hyde Park, with 
the Green Park, St. James’s Park, and Kensington Gardens. Here a severe attack of paraly¬ 
sis in 1873 incapacitated him and led to bis resignation last autumn, when his son, who had 
been acting for him, was appointed his successor. To Mr. Gibson we are indebted for the 
great improvement in our gardens resulting for the introduction of subtropical plants ; while 
his works will form a lasting memorial of his talent as a landscape artist, and his memory 
as a friend will be cherished by all who knew him. 
- (General yon Jacobi died early in November last. He was best known 
in England as an amateur botanist and horticulturist, devoting his leisure time 
to botanical pursuits out of pure love for the beauties of Nature. Agaves and 
other succulent plants were his favourites, and of these he published a garden catalogue or 
monograph in some of the German periodicals. There is little doubt that he possessed a far 
more extensive practical knowledge of these plants than any living botanist. 
— f«. Courtois-G^rard died on December 31. His treatise on market¬ 
gardening is a model of its kind, and his attainments and character entitled him 
to a high place among horticulturists. 
- fER. William P. Ayres died, after a lengthened illness, at Carisbrook 
Villa, Forest Hill, on January 14, aged 59. He was educated as a gardener in 
the Horticultural Society’s garden at Chiswick. About 1844-6, when gardener 
to James Cook, Esq., of Blackheatli, he displayed considerable ability as a cultivator of hard- 
wooded show plants and Fancy Pelargoniums. He afterwards became a nurseryman and 
florist at the same place, and was very successful as a raiser of new Fancy Pelargoniums, 
being, indeed, one of the first to give a decided impulse to the improvement of that flower. 
After filling various positions in different parts of the country, he settled at Nottingham, and 
■was partly engagod as editor of the horticultural portion of the Nottingham Guardian . While 
there he brought out his patent imperishable hothouses. Mr. Ayros was a clover horticultural 
writer, and was the author of a treatise on the Cultivation of the Cucumber , and Co-oditor of 
the Gardeners ’ Magazine of Botany. 
- |Hb. Wilbraham Buckley, of Tooting, died, after a long and painful 
affliction, on January 18. For at least a quarter of a century, he occupied a 
confidential position in the nursery of the Messrs. Rollisson, where he remained 
till within a very short period of his becoming incapacitated by an attack of paralysis, 
which has, after some twelve or fifteen months, terminated fatally. Mr. Buckley was a 
most worthy and estimable man, with a knowledge of garden plants equalled by very few 
men of the present day. He was the author of a series of papers on “ Aquatics ” published 
in our pages. 
•- |Er. Archibald Turnbull, of the firm of Dickson and Turnbull, 
nurserymen, Perth, died on January 19, aged 85. Mr. Turnbull, who was bom 
in Roxburghshire, joined his uncle, Mr. William Dickson, in the nursery and seed 
business, which has now been carried on under their joint names for nearly half a century. On 
tlio death of his uncle in 1835, he succeeded to his property at Bellwood. As one of the original 
promoters of the Perthshire Horticultural Society, he took great interest in its prosperity; 
and by his death, which resulted from a severe attack of bronchitis, the local institutions of 
Perth have lost a warm and generous friend. 
