300 
THE COTTAGE GABDENEB 
Codling, or Pomroy, or of pimpled coat 
The Russet, or the Cats-Hcad’s weighty orb, 
Enormous in it’s growth, for various use 
Tho’ these are meet, tho* after full repast 
Are oft requir’d, and crown the rich desert? 
Let every tree in every garden own 
The Red-streak as supreme, whose pulpous fruit 
With gold irradiate, and vermilion shines 
Tempting, not fatal, as the birth of that 
Primaeval interdicted plant, that won 
Fond Eve in hapless hour to taste, and die.” 
The period had now arrived for the poet to cease from his labours. He 
was purposing to write a poem upon the Resurrection and the Day of Judg¬ 
ment ; but he was taken away from his purpose to appreciate in another 
existence how impossible it is for mortal pen to describe what “ it hath 
[February 13. 
not entered into the heart of man to conceive.” He had been long 
troubled with a lingering consumption, attended with asthma, but with¬ 
out a symptom of discontent or uneasiness; and disease now bowed down 
his strength. By the advice of his physicians, he went to Bath the 
summer before his death; and the falsely flattering disorder somewhat 
intermitted. He then removed to Hereford, where his mother was a 
resident; but the disease returned more severely, and here the period to 
his life arrived on the 15th of February, 1708. He lies interred in the 
cathedral, with a Latin inscription over his grave, which had been much 
better if it told us in honest English that a sorrowing mother recorded 
there the worth of the son who had preceded her. 
Meteorology of tiie Week. —At Chiswick, from observations j 
during the last twenty-four years, it is found that the average highest and 
lowest temperatures of these days are 45.8° and 31.4°, respectively. The 
lowest cold observed was 1 6 ° on the 18th in 1845. Rain fell on 63 days, j 
and 105 were fine. 
Nothing is so vile or so worthless as to be incapable of 
a profitable use when man’s mind is once devoted to 
ascertain its qualities; not a single part of that weed, 
the Nettle, but is used for food, or clothing, or dyeing; 
even the sand of one of our rivers supplies the world 
with Bath bricks ;* old bones form one of our cultivator’s 
best fertilizers; old rags, if woollen, are the enrichers of 
our bop grounds; and if linen, are the raw material of 
which our writing paper is fabricated. 
We have been led into these remarks by the fact that 
the Prize for the best Rustic Baskets, offered by Mr. 
Savage in our 4th volume, page 44, has been awarded 
to some made of the cones of the Larch. The maker is 
Mr. H. Howlett, Gardener at St. Osyth’s Priory, near 
Colchester; and they are so unique and handsome, 
of that subdued brown which harmonises so well with 
all flowers and foliage, and are so suitable either for the 
sitting-room and entrance ball, or for the plant bouse, 
that we are quite sure if he makes arrangements to sup¬ 
ply customers, be will have a large demand. They are 
liextagonal, 6-sided, for standing on a table or shelf, and 
with chains to suspend from the roof; or half-hextagonal, 
with chains to suspend against a wall. The chains are 
formed of the larch cones joined end to end, terminating 
in a how also of cones; and the basket or vase for 
enclosing the flower-pot is covered artistically with 
similar cones, their small ends pointing outwards. For 
orchids, trailers, and other plants in pots that look to 
most advantage suspended from the roof, these rustic 
baskets are the most appropriate of any we have seen ; 
hut larger baskets might be similarly made, and would 
he most effective for plants on lawns. We recommend 
our readers attention to them particularly. 
GABDENING GOSSIP. 
We have seen (February 3rd), in all the simplicity and 
beauty of open air culture, side by side, two of the most 
lovely harbingers of spring—the Scilla Siberica (Siberian 
Squill) and the Snowdrop ; something before their time 
it is time, and only stray blooms in a warm corner; hut 
the Scilla is not known as it ought to he, for it is the 
* At a philosophical lecture at Taunton on the deposits of the river 
Parrett, it was stated there were made from them 8,000,000 bricks every 
year, the value of which at present amounted to ^ 12,000 or .^13,000. 
The number of persons employed is very great. Sometimes a man, his 
wife, and four or five children, are kept at work at one moulding, and 
thus they could often get as much as in one week. This deposit is 
not found anywhere in the world besides, so that Bridgewater has to fur¬ 
nish the whole world with it; and it is remarkable that these “ Bath 
bricks ” are just as well known in China as in England. They are known 
m India and all over the world. 
most brilliant of all the spring hardy flowers. The bright 
blue racemes are most beautiful, and grow no higher than 
the snowdrop, than which they are far more effective, 
independently of their colour; for they have a spike of two 
or three flowers to each stem, and a patch of them is really 
striking. There are several varieties of the Scilla, somo 
with white flowers; hut we can hardly say too much in 
favour of the S. Siberica; which, however, is catalogued 
at sixpence a root; a large price, perhaps, for a bulb not 
larger than a good sized nut; and we cannot hut think 
that the cost alone must have prevented it from being 
generally cultivated. 
The report of the South London Floricultural Society 
demonstrates, that some change is required to increase 
its income. It exhibits a deficiency of thirty-six pounds. 
It will be found in time, that the tax on “ non-members,” 
as they are called, from whom large fees are demanded 
for the privilege of showing, will always keep the shows 
inferior to those of the Botanical and Horticultural 
Societies at which anybody who happens to possess rare 
plants in perfection may attend and exhibit them, with¬ 
out paying for the privilege, or being a subscriber to the 
funds. 
Oldham is one of the head-quarters of floriculture. At 
their last annual dinner, held at the Crown and Anchor 
Inn, Mi - . G. B. Neild, the chairman, in the name of the 
Oldham Society, presented Mr. John Slater, of Cheetham 
Hill, with a piece of plate, as a mark of respect for his 
persevering exertions in promoting the science. The 
chairman in congratulating the meeting on the success 
of the society said, that of upwards of two hundred cot¬ 
tage gardeners who were members, there was not a single 
defaulter. Mr. Slater, who is one of the most energetic 
florists in the north, returned thanks in suitable terms ; 
for he is a warm-hearted as well as a warm-headed 
florist. 
At several of the meetings of horticultural societies ! 
for the preparation of their schedules of prizes, it has ! 
been unanimously resolved not only that the prizes for 
flowers shall be awarded according to their merits, by 
the rules laid down in Gleuny’s Properties of Flowers 
and Plants, but that such conditions shall be published j 
in the schedules, that both judges and shewers shall 
know by what tests the productions are to be tried. 
Complaints have been very general that for the last J 
two or three years spurious seeds have been too gene- 
rally sold for the Walcheren Brocoli, and it has been 
difficult to obtain any that can he depended on. It is J 
