264 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGHST. 
[ November, 
&c., terms which are applicable only to heatli-soil, and -which express the varying texture of 
that material. The best heath-soil contains much fibrous matter, and is either black or 
brownish, the hue depending upon the peculiar nature of the vegetable matter it contains. All 
these soils usually abound with pure white sand; hence their peculiar applicability to plants 
whose roots are very fibrous, tender, and delicate. Pure peat, or the earth of turf-bogs, con¬ 
tains very little sand ; it is a heavy dead soil, forming, when burnt, a rich manure for inert 
cold land; but i'n most instances it is adverse to the gardener. 
- - ®E find mention in tlie Journal of Horticulture of some remarkably 
fine Orchard-house Fruit of Cox’s Orange Pippin Apple, grown by Mr. Bass, of 
Burton-on-Trent—the beauty of their colour, the wonderful delicacy of their 
flesh, and their richness of flavour being remarkable. Samples of Margil and of the Old 
Nonpareil were also greatly improved. The lesson to be learned from this is, that apples of 
this class, which are grown for flavour, are highly improved both in that respect and in appear¬ 
ance by being grown in an orchard-house. The effect of this system, however, is that the state 
of ripeness is so much advanced, that the fruit does not keep so long as it does when grown 
in the usual way. 
- Laxton lias raised some English Seedling Boses of considerable 
promise. The best of them is one he has named Mrs. Laxton , a beautiful 
bright carmine-rose Hybrid Perpetual, which is not only large and full, but of 
remarkable depth ; the outer petals are smooth and prettily recurved, displaying a compact, 
full, close-set centre, and it has the advantage of being remarkably sweet-scented. This 
variety has already gained certificates at the Crystal Palace and Alexandra Park Rose Shows. 
Lady Isabel Cecil is a small, neat citron-tinted Tea Rose, becoming almost -white—a pretty 
flower, and nicely scented, and one which may some day, when better established, prove 
useful. Charles Darwin is a deep crimson Hybrid Porpetual, with cup-shapod but rather 
shallow flowers, having fine large outer petals, and loosely and -rather thinly filled in the 
centre. Emily Laxton is a more promising, large-flowered Hybrid Perpetual, of a deep rosy- 
pink colour, but with the petals somewhat unequal, the outer ones being large and the inner 
short and irregular, nevertheless a flower which 'may turn out to be an acquisition when 
better known. 
*- t&X. S. Ginger, Esq., died at Clarence Lodge, Shirley, Southampton, 
on the 7th ult., aged 73. He formerly resided near London, and was an amateur 
cultivator of the Auricula, Polyanthus, and other old-fashioned florists’ flowers ; 
and at that time was a frequent exhibitor at Chiswick. Horticulture and Horticultural 
Societies lose in him a generous friend and patron. 
— *Hr. William Willison, of the Bose Nursery, Whitby, died on the 
16th ult., aged 69. He had always been a great lover of plants, and an assiduous 
raiser of new varieties. Some of his more recent experiments resulted in the 
production of the double-flo-wered Clematis Willisoni, and he has also been successful in 
finding and raising some interesting new forms of British Ferns. 
_ ^igismund Bucker, Esq., of West Hill, Wandsworth, died on the 19th 
ult., aged 66. He has for more than forty years occupied a foremost position as a 
patron of orchid-culture, and of horticulture generally, his collection of the former 
being at one time quite unrivalled. His death leaves a blank no living orchidist can fill, 
while in private life he was alike beloved by rich and poor. 
-#lR. Thomas Appleby died on the 20th ult., at Longsight, Manchester, 
at the advanced age of 80. He was a practical orchidist, having some forty years 
since been gardener to T. Brockleliurst, Esq., of Macclesfield, who at that day 
was one of the patrons of orchids. Mr. Appleby wrote a brief treatise on orchid-culture, called 
the Orchid Manual. Ho was at one time manager of tho Pine-apple Nurseries, but had for 
some years retired from active life. 
