10 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 1. 
Air. Grosvenor to resist manfully every attempt to persuade 
him of her imbecile state, and the biting retort would often 
goad him to madness too. But as to all present concerns 
she was as an infant, and sat by a roasting fire the live-long 
summer’s day, amusing herself with folding up her hand¬ 
kerchief, or pinning the folds of her dress together’, with . 
unconsciousness terrible to see. Readers ! I would implore [ 
you to contemplate this sad picture closely; not only as 
warning us to look well to our ways in worldly things, but, 
above all, hi spiritual. “The night cometh when no man 
can work.” Not only the night of dentil, but the night of 
memory may come and seal our destiny quite as unchange¬ 
ably. We may have health, and wealth, and time, and yet 
night may rest upon our intellects, and our eternal state be 
fixed. Readers ! are we prepared for death—for judgment 
—for night —whatever that night may he ? 
Mr. Grosvenor was a man of iron constitution. He had 
tried it severely, but, like armour of proof, it had never failed 
him ; he had long passed the age of man, and yet no disease 
of any kind had made its appearance as the forerunner of 
the King of Terrors. Nevertheless, the strong man must, be 
brought low; and the failure of bodily strength, without any 
visible cause, announced that Mr. Grosvenor's earthly taber 
nacle was about to be dissolved, Alas ! could it be said that 
he possessed a “house not made with hands, etornal in the j 
heavens ?” 
Tt was a painful, yet a deeply instructive sight, when the 
violent husband, and the ill-used wife, sat alike stricken and j 
helpless by the fireside; the one, with yet fierce and unsub 
dued passions, scarcely able to move in the chair where he 
was seated ; the other, with light and active limbs, yet desti- • 
tute of those distinguishing faculties that raise man so high , 
in the creation. Perpetual questions, asked over and over 
again, attentions offered continually, after refusal, and orders I 
to be left alone, produced irritations and language grievous 
to be borne, and terrible to see in one who was now standing 
within the very portal of the tomb. 
Oh! what a dark valley stretches before a Unitarian! 
What stumbling feet lie goes with into old age and sickness ! 
His only hope, a vague, shadowy uncertainty, based upon 
works which he has never done, and mercy, which he has | 
framed out of his own ignorance ! 
I suppose there was little Help or comfort to be given by 
his minister, for he never called to see the sick member of 
bis congregation. What, indeed, can any one say of com 
fort to a dying man, unless he can place before his spiritual 
eye Him who drew out the sting of death, and robbed the 
grave of its victory ? No wonder that all who have not this 
healing halm to apply should shrink from a dying chamber. 
T find I have more to say of the latter days of Mr. and 
Mrs. Grosvenor than can be compressed into my present 
space; and I think a short pause will be profitable at this 
point. Let my readers meditate upon the hour of death — 
nt least, upon the hour when the shades of “night” begin 
to draw round them—when the feet of those who have car¬ 
ried out their neighbours and friends to the tomb are beard 
drawing near, and when a still, small voice within says, 
“ Prepare to meet thy God." 
Dear readers ! that voice may reach you and I, when “ no 
man can work." We may be prostrated by a stroke, disabled 
by imbecility of mind, laid low by distracting pains, or op- 
| pressive illness; and we may hear the trumpet-call, when I 
1 we cannot spring to the saddle! Oh, let me beseech you to 
cast away your garment of self-righteousness, now,' while 
“Jesus of Nazareth passeth bv;" and before He is out of i 
| sight and hearing, cry to Him and say, “ Lord, that 1 may | 
I receive my sight." 
SENDING PLANTS TO AUSTRALIA AND 
VAN DIEMEN’S LAND. 
Ouk readers have been informed already the Rev. Gentle 
man who wrote so ably on Bees in The Cottage Gardener, 
under the title of “ A Country Curate, ’’ is now the Warden 
of Christ's College, Launceston, Van Diemen's Land. Per¬ 
sonally we are strangers ; but in gardening and rural matters 
the “ Country Curate ” and the writer are old friends and 
ass^piates; therefore, it did not take me by surprise when T 
received a letter from him last October, beginning with 
“ Auld Lang Syne," and ending in requesting that I should 
undertake a commission for him to send out as many trees 
and shrubs as a certain sum of money would cover all 
expenses. He gave me a reference in London for the need¬ 
ful, and after ascertaining that all was right in that quarter, 
I went to work as follows, after promising a detail of the 
transaction to other correspondents of these pages. But 
first of all let me say what my instructions were :— 
“ You must know that there are many princely estates in this island, 
and increasing wealth capable ot improving in infinitum; but owing to 
th.e difficulty of procuring English timber and forest-trees in any suffi¬ 
cient quantity, very little has been done in this branch of improvement; 
and if we have to wait till we get good seed from home, and enough of 
it, and till that, seed has grown, we shall have to wait many, many years 
before any real progress is made towards relieving the face of the cleared 
country from the dull monotony of the spontaneously-growing native 
trees. 
“ I am anxious, therefore, to open a connexion with some first-rate, 
intelligent firm for the supply of forest-trees—nor of forest-trees alone, 
but of floweriog and other shrubs, evergreens or deciduous, fruit-trees, 
&c., &c. The immediate occasion of my requesting your assistance arose 
out of a reperusal of two very interesting articles from your pen, which 
appeared in The Cottage Gardener (1852) on the subject of ‘ Packing 
trees for exportation * to these distant colonies. The plan there detailed 
by you seemed so admirable, that I remember well it then producing a t 
deep impression on my mind; and hence I naturally think of you in 
my present wish to get such trees from England. I put to you, therefore, 
a plain question. Can you, and will you, so far co-operate with me in 
my wish to benefit this colony, as to try, by various experimental modes 
of packing, some best, or at least good, method of getting them landed 
alive here? This present month (June) and latter part of May, as well 
as, perhaps, July, are the best months lor planting here; consequently, j 
as this letter will probably reach England in October, a good season 
will be before jou in which to select., see to the packing and shipment 
(direct for Launceston, to my address) of as many various experimental 
lots of trees as you please, and 1 will promise you (D.V.) to give you as 
minute and faithful an account of the results of such experimei ts as you 
can possibly desire. My known character as a careful experimentalist 
will be some sort of guarantee for my acting up to my promise. 
“ If unable yourself to undertake the labour, which this would entail, J 
as well as the consumption of time, may 1 yet count on your communi- ; 
eating with some trustworthy seedsman, who will be interested in the 
thing, and give it his best attention. 
“ I would mention the following as some which I should like to have, 
to the amount of —— to begin with, on trial: — 
Alder, common 
Beech, common 
Birch, common 
Chesnut, horse 
,, Spanish 
Hazel 
Holly, common 
Hornbeam 
Lime, common 
Oak, English 
Service-tree 
Scotch Firs 
Norway Spruce 
Silver Fir 
Larch 
Maple, English 
Barberry, common 
Aucuba japonica 
Guelder Hose 
Heather 
Laurel Bay 
Syringa 
Rhododendrons 
Azalea, common 
“ I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, 
“ Late ‘ A Country Curate,* 
“Now Warden of Christ's College, Tasmania.” 
Here in a business letter worthy of the well known writer. 
From the end of May to the middle of July is the best time 
to plant trees and shrubs in Van Diemen’s Land ; and as 
the “ run ” from London to Launceston “ direct ” is generally 
about four months, the best time to ship plants for that 
quarter is from the middle to the end of February. The 
good ship “ Alliance" was announced for this voyage just 
to thp very day I wished for; which, of itself, is a very good 
omen at the beginning of these experimental trials. Having 
had from October to February for preparation, the expense 
of the trees has not been so much as if an order had been 
sent to the nursery to get them ready in so many days— 
perhaps hours; and the selection of subjects is much better 
also, as during that time, while other orders were being 
executed, such and such plants were put aside as being fit 
subjects for packing and for enduring a long voyage. Thp 
“ voyage " plants increased thus, from week to week, at little 
or no cost, till at last, owing to the mildness of the winter, 
there were more than enough collected to one spot ready to 
be packed at a day’s notice whenever a vessel was announced, 
and every care which a long experience suggested was taken 
with the naming and packing. All the parties to this trial 
of skill were well aware that every turn they- did, and the 
final result, would be published to the world through 
these pages. I do not mean to be understood as think 
ing for one moment that such a check was at all necessary; 
but still, I am old enough to know that no harm could come 
from the fact being publicly known, nor lessen the desire of 
the packers for success. Yea, I take it to he of the utmost 
consequence to those who may he engaged on such trials to 
