May 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
109 
and when it is an indisputable fact that birds of all colours 
are imported from Shanghai ? It is readily conceded that 
for beauty the yellows, fawns, and buffs, excel; but it is 
also known that red cocks, with hackles of an uniform 
golden colour, produce good light birds chiefly, if with light 
hens, and greatly strengthen the stock. Amateur.” 
i _ 
FORSYTH MSS. 
Mr. Anderson had just succeeded in bringing the 
botanic garden at St. Vincent’s into regulated beauty, 
; when the tide of war consequent upon the French Revo- 
; lution reached to our West India islands. It is not 
within either our intention or command of space to 
trace the hostile encounters, massacres, and blunders, of 
that contest within the tropics. The following extracts 
from letters will shew that Mr. Anderson pursued his 
botanical researches even amid the horrors which were 
at his very door. 
MR. A. ANDERSON TO MR. FORSYTH. 
Botanical Gardens, St. Vincent, .July 23, 1794. 
I send you among the specimens one which I think is a 
new genus, and I wish to name it after my worthy friend 
General Melville; some acknowledgment is certainly due to 
him from this Garden, as he first formed it, and its interest 
he has constantly had at heart. You will find also a draw¬ 
ing of it; pray give me your opinion of it as soon as you 
can. I have not as yet seen any plant that corresponds 
with it, nor did I ever see, where it was indigenous, but one 
single plant, which I brought to the Garden, in which it has 
prospered; I found it on an Island in the River Essequibo. 
If you find it new please publish it in your Society, as I 
wish to pay a compliment to the General before he dies. 
Although I am-at present preparing a catalogue of the 
plants in the Garden, it will be some time before I can 
publish it, from the variety of new species from the conti¬ 
nent, and correcting some mistakes in the known, as well as 
collecting information as to their medical properties, and 
other uses. Will you give me your ideas for the best plan ? 
I am getting drawings of all the new species, and those 
not well known; I have at present a considerable number, 
and intend persisting if I can afford the expense. You 
have a specimen of the drawings by the Melvilla. They are 
doing by a deserving young man, a Mulatto, native of 
Antigua; he has lived with me these twelve months past. 
It is a natural acquisition, he is self-taught; he is also 
modest and sensible, and I wish he may have encourage¬ 
ment in proportion to his merits, and I think it a pity such 
talents should be buried in this part of the world, and I wish 
my linances could afford to take him out of obscurity. He 
draws miniatures as well as perspective, a specimen of the 
last I inclose you; one of them is taken from tire door of the 
Botanic House, in the foreground are two mango-trees and 
two negroes, with a view of part of the town of Kingston 
and the Bay; the distant land is the Island of Beguia. 
The plant dedicated to General Melville, and called 
by Mr. Anderson Melvilla speciosa, unfortunately only 
proved to be a species of an older genus, and is now 
known as Ouphea Melvilla. 
Writing again to Mr. Forsyth on the lotli of May, 
179.5, Mr. Anderson thus describes the state of affairs— 
a state which had commenced before the date of the 
previous letter:— 
“ Such is my present situation, that it totally precludes 
me from sending you or any one else anything by the 
present convoy. May Heaven preserve you and yours from 
the direful scenes this as well as the neighbouring islands 
at present exhibit. I hope the measure of our misery and 
distresses is nearly full. You may only conceive all the 
horrors and desolations concomitant to fire and sword to 
have some idea of our present situation, for to describe it I 
cannot attempt, and what will be the event, the Disposer 
of all things only knows. One thing is easily foreseen, that 
nothing but an immediate and strong reinforcement of 
troops can save these islands from total ruin, and for ever 
cutting them off from the British empire. The late rein¬ 
forcements wo got were of no other use but adding fuel to 
the fire. Our enemies are daily increasing in strength, as 
well from discipline and numbers, while we are daily 
weakened. Our situation in St. Vincent is the worst of all, j 
particularly from having within ourselves the most savage 
and cruel of the barbarous tribes in conjunction with the i 
common enemy. If we are overpowered, we can expect 
nothing but a general massacre. 
“ All our miseries originate from cursed slavery, and so in¬ 
fatuated are West Indians, and so riveted in their barbarous | 
notions, that they still persist in their wicked schemes. 
Could the many innocent be excluded, it is a just cruse upon 
them their present calamities. You may naturally conceive 
I am heartily sick of this country, notwithstanding my 
strong attachment to this spot, which is now beautiful, and ^ 
would be much admired in England. Alas ! how visionary I 
are all human schemes. Little did I think that after all my 
pains, and labour, and support in my pursuits, and when the 
place was nearly arrived to the utmost perfection, that I 
should at last find myself so unhappily situate. The garden 1 
is yet safe and flourishing; during the day I remain in it at 
the risk of my life, but obliged fcr fly to the fort during the 
night, and I am determined to persevere to the last cx- 
tremity. How happy should I think myself on your side of 
the water on half my present salary, even on the ‘heath- 1 
covered mountains of Scotland; ’ but what happiness to be j 
transported with this spot, with all its inhabitants I have so 
carefully nursed. 
“ A few nights ago we had nearly lost the town, and all 
the island except the fort, which then would have been in a 
distressed situation ; but from the spirited exertions of the 
Governor, and Colonel of the. 46 th regiment, the enemy 
was driven with great loss from the post they had forced. 
It was a dreadful night indeed, not so much from the dismal 
scenes of two engagements within three hours of one 
another, as from the more direful suspense as to our fate 
As these transactions happened within half-a-mile of the 
garden, it certainly was an impulse from Providence that I 
had that night gone with my family to sleep in the fort, 
having stayed some nights within the house. What must 
my situation have been with a wife and child, surrounded 
with wood in dead of the night, remote from any aid, 
momently expecting to be surrounded with savages. 
“ Dear Sir,—As you are interested in my welfare, you will 
forgive these my egotisms and direful events I describe, for 
wliat can I write you but of war and desolations; neither I 
nor any one else can think or speak of anything else. Adieu 
to Flora’s pleasing paths — they ill accord with roaring j 
cannon, clashing swords, and savage yells. Farewell; may | 
you ever be preserved from such scenes and contemplations.” i 
GOSSIP. | 
H. W. Newman, Esq., of New House, near Stroud, | 
Gloucestershire, has written to us as follows, with a j 
Proposal for the Establishment of an English Apiarian j 
Society :— 
“ Your columns teem with information about bees; I 
would suggest to the numerous bee-keepers the establish¬ 
ment of a society for the encouragement and increase of 
these valuable insects in England. Why should we be in¬ 
debted to the Russians or Germans for a supply of honey 
and wax ? Bees exist in societies, and should they not be 
encouraged by a society of the lords of the creation ? I 
humbly submit this to the consideration of your numerous ; 
readers, whose opinion I should like much to see recorded 
in your useful paper ; if they accord with mine, it would be 1 
advisable to have a meeting fixed some day next month, to j 
form a committee. An inexpensive dinner in London, 
Slough, Greenwich^ or elsewhere, would be an annual rally¬ 
ing point for all the lovers of the apiary, and I have little 
doubt that with a small annual subscription from 2s. Gd. to 
10s., a number of names might be collected, and a society i 
