38 
THE EL0E1ST AND POMOLOGIST 
■were telling upon him. The up-hill work of 
establishing a large nursery business, and 
maintaining a world-wide reputation as a most 
successful plant-grower and exhibitor, was no 
ordinary task, and, as with thousands of others, 
Nature gave way, but the name will long 
remain in the memory of plant-growers. 
Erysipelas and fever laid hold of him, and 
after a brief illness a peaceful death awaited 
him. He died December 28, aged 52. Origin¬ 
ally following another pursuit, circumstances 
led him to adopt that of gardening, and he 
at once placed himself under Mr. Robinson, 
gardener to — Delafield, Esq., Tunbridge 
Wells, with whom he remained three years. 
He then went into Messrs. Cormack’s Nursery 
at New Cross, and we believe Mr. Charles 
Turner, of Slough, was in the establishment 
at the same time. Both have become eminent, 
each taking a lead in the two sections of plant¬ 
growing, and continuing fast friends. In 
1841, he went as gardener to — Lewis, Esq., 
of Blackheath, and here began his career as 
an exhibitor. Commencing with Fuchsias, 
and being encouraged by Mr. Lewis, he 
followed with Heaths, &c. In 1845 he became 
gardener to H. Collyer, Esq., of Dartford, and 
remained with him until Christmas, 1853. 
During that period he fought many a hard 
battle at Chiswick and the Regent’s Park 
with the late Mrs. Lawrence, and being well 
matched, Mrs. Lawrence, who at that time 
stood high for plant culture, found in Mr. 
Cole sometimes a defeating opponent. As a 
sound, practical plant-grower, William Cole 
stood in the foremost rank. He was the 
friend of such men as Barnes, Stanley, Green, 
Fraser, May, Dodds, and others, whose names 
are well known. Few men have brought into 
the exhibition-tent more specimen new plants 
than he did. He sought eagerly for new things 
when at Dartford, and then did his best to 
bring them out as exhibition plants. We 
believe we are correct in saying that he was 
the first to bring out in this way Rollisson’s 
variety of Ixora javanica, Genetyllis tulipifera, 
Franciscea eximia and confertiflora, Ixora 
alba and salicifolia, Rogiera amcena and two 
other kinds, Allamanda neriifolia, ITebeclinium 
ianthinum and other plants. We well re¬ 
collect how he experimented with Stifftia 
chrysantha, a promising-looking subject as it 
appeared in the illustrations of a Belgian peri¬ 
odical, but which fairly baffled him. In 1853 
he was strongly recommended by Mr. Turner 
as the manager of the Fog Lane Nursery, 
Manchester, then just started; soon after he 
became the proprietor, and year after year he 
fought his way as the most successful exhibitor 
at the floral exhibitions in the Midland and 
Northern Counties of England. Manchester, 
York, Bishop Auckland, Ripon, Leeds, Brad¬ 
ford, and many other towns owe much to him, 
for Cole’s plants not only helped their shows, 
but spurred gardeners onto similar-successes. 
He was occasionally blunt in his manner, but 
we are certain that regret for his death will be 
universally felt. The expression used in a 
letter to the writer of these remarks by a well- 
known exhibitor in Scotland, who defeated 
Mr. Cole at Glasgow last August, will be 
shared by many, especially by those who knew 
him best, “ We have lost a truly clever man.” 
He has left sons, three of whom will carry on 
the business as usual, for the benefit of the 
widow and family. 
M. Edouard Van Hoorde, head gardener 
of the Botanic Garden at Mechlin, died there 
on the 8th of December, in the 42nd year of 
his age. 
Dr. Hermann Schacht. —We have already 
noticed the death of this distinguished natu¬ 
ralist, which took place on the 20th of August 
last, but recur to the subject to give some 
particulars of his life. He was born on the 
15th of July, 1814, at Ochsenwerder, a village 
on the Elbe, near Hamburgh, and of which 
his father was the Lutheran clergyman. 
Schacht received his education at home, which 
he left in 1829 to study pharmacy at Altona. 
Botany was his favourite study, and espe¬ 
cially physiology and morphology, for which 
he early evinced a strong predilection, and an 
extraordinary skill in preparing the most deli¬ 
cate subjects for the microscope. The theory 
of Schleiclen as to the fecundation of Phsono- 
gams especially attracted his attention, and 
when, in 1847, the Dutch Academy of Sciences 
offered a prize for the best and most exten¬ 
sive work on the origin of the embryo of 
Phsenogaras, illustrated with figures, and 
accompanied by the objects from which these 
figures had been drawn, Schacht obtained it. 
He left in 1846, to act as assistant to Dr. 
Schleiden, then Professor of Botany at Jena. 
In 1849 he left that University to reside at 
Berlin, and in the following year he took the 
degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and com¬ 
menced to act as a private teacher of botany. 
Here he attracted the attention of Humboldt, 
and the two soon became intimate friends. 
Whilst at Berlin, he was on several occasions 
entrusted by the Government with important 
agricultural and arboricultural inquiries. 
Previous to this he had given up pharmacy. 
About this time he published a treatise on 
botany, and works on the Potato disease, 
Beetroot, and textile substances. Having 
been charged with an inquiry into the struc¬ 
ture and physiology of forest trees, he ob¬ 
tained materials for a work on the structure 
and life of trees, which went through two 
editions in Germany, and was translated into 
French and Russian. This most popular work, 
however, was an admirable treatise on the 
use of the microscope. It went through three 
editions, both in Germany and England, 
and was likewise translated into French. In 
1860 he was appointed Professor of Botany at 
the University of Bonn, as well as Director 
of the Botanic Garden at that place. Pre- 
