118 
THE COTTAGE OARDENEil. November 18 
Pippins, Oolden Pippins, and BraddicVs Nonpareils. 
Pears of the common kinds ai'e not so plentiful; the 
early orchard varieties are getting over, and what come 
now are chiefly the finer varieties, such as have been 
jdauted of late years. The most choice are Duchesse 
dlAngoidnne, Passe Colmar, Oloiit Morceau, and we 
have observed a few parcels of Beurre de Ranee. These 
are making as much as 3s. and 4s. per dozen. Some 
very fine Duchesse d’Angoulemes* make as much as 
6s. per dozen. What few there are of the more common 
kinds make 5s. to 7s. the half-sieve. Grapes are plentiful; 
Blach Hamhurglis realise from Is. (id. to 5s. per pound, 
and Muscat of Alexandria, Cs. Melons are plentiful, 
at iis. 6d. and Os. per pound. Eilberts, 00s. to 65s. 
per cwt., or retail at lOd. and Is. per pound. Oranges 
are now beginning to come more plentifully; they are, 
however, rather of a greenish tinge, and make from 
Os. to 12s. per hundred. 
Vegetables. —There is no alteration in the supply of 
vegetables, and the prices in consequence continue 
much the same. Cabbages, 6d. to Is. per dozen. 
Brussels Sprouts, Is. Gd. to 2s. per half-sieve. Cauli- 
I'LowERs, Is. Od. to 2s. Od. per dozen. Greens, Is. to 
2s. per dozen bunches. Turnips, Is. to Is. 9d. per 
dozen. Carrots, 2s. Gd. to 4s. per dozen. Onions, 
2d. to 4d. per bunch. Leeks, Id. to 2d. per bunch. 
Celery, 9d. to Is. 3d. per bundle. Scarlet Runners, 
2s. to 2s. Gd. per half-sieve. Endive, Is. to Is. Gd. per 
score. Mushrooms, 9d. to Is. 3d. per pottle. 
Plants and Flowers. —The usual sorts of Ever¬ 
greens in pots are offered, and seem to meet with a 
ready demand. Plants in pots consist of Chrysanthe¬ 
mums of all kinds. Heaths, Cinerarias, Chinese Prim¬ 
roses, double and single. Mignonette, and Ficus elastica, 
or Indian-ruhher Tree. The Cut Flowers are abundant, 
and consist of Scarlet Anemones, Roses, TracheKum 
cceruleum. Pinks, Heliotropes, Scarlet Geraniums, Stocks, 
Camellias, Cereus speciosus. Double Chinese Primroses, 
Jasminum gremdijlorum. Gardenia radicans, and last, 
tliough not least. Orange Flowers '. H. 
GOSSIP. 
No fact is more certain—and this certainty gives us 
great pleasure—than that even farmers are becoming 
more awaliened to the importance of Poultry as a 
portion of their stock. Lord Ducie was a considerable 
buyer of Shanghae fowls at Mr. Sturgeon’s sale; other 
practical agriculturists are following the example of 
Mr. Moody, Mr. Sturgeon, and Mr. Punchard; and we 
have no doubt but that within flve years the breed of 
Poultry will be so improved, as to make both farmers 
and poulterers smile over the remembrance of the weedy 
mongrels prevalent at the present time. The desire to 
obtain first-rate birds is not confined to one variety; 
and, as a proof of this, wo may state, that a corres¬ 
pondent informs us, that he knows Captain Hornby 
rclused to take thirty-live guineas for three Spanish 
fowls whicli he exhibited at Cheltenham. The same 
correspondent, writing from near Liverpool, adds this 
account of another convulsion— 
“ It may interest you to know, that after a very hot day 
and evening (very oppressive) we were all roused by a 
sharpish earthquake at twenty-five minutes past four this 
morning (Nov. 9th). From the shaking of tlie windows 
wlien I awoke, my impression was that thieves W'ere breaking 
througli the windows. I jumped up, and struck a light, 
when my wife showed me the bed and curtains heaving and 
shaking, and the things on the washing-stand were clat¬ 
tering. I think it lasted near two minutes, with a disagree¬ 
able rumbling noise. It was felt at Eoby, Seaforth, &c.; 
but a party of keepers, who w'ore out about four miles from 
here, did not feel it. It was sliar-pcr than most I have felt 
abroad.” 
Privation and want bring with them so much of 
suffering, not merely personal but relative, that the 
heart softens, and the hand is stretched forth to save 
from them those accustomed even in their infancy to 
hardships and dejuivations. Still more impressive, 
still more exciting of every benevolent feeling, comes 
ujion us the information that the great in learning and 
in virtue are similarly pressed down and benumbed by 
poverty, and such information has just come to us con¬ 
cerning the celebrated German naturalist M. Nees Von 
Essenbeek. Our contemporary, the Gardener's Journal, 
says that the professor, 
“ On account of his liberal opinions incautiously expressed 
during the revolutions of 1848 and 1849, was deprived of 
his professorship, and is now hving in a low subiub of 
Breslau, in a place called a room, over a cow-shed, and 
without companion or attendant. He is said to be in liis 
7Gth year, and literally starving from want. It is further 
stated that, some time ago, his librai-y was sold to pay some 
debts; and his dried plants, which are now his only pro¬ 
perty, and which, although in some branches they are un¬ 
equalled, he has nevertheless been unable to dispose of. 
“ It is a melancholy fact, which we would look past and 
beyond if we durst, but the fact is patent to all, that science 
does, with rare exceptions, exact this severe penalty from 
her true and genuine disciples, as a test of thou- ti-ue devo- 
votion. Poverty, indeed, often deep and distressing, would 
seem to be all but an unalterable condition imposed upon 
those who unreservedly follow the leadings of science. 
“ It may, perhaps, be luged that Yon Essenbeek suflers 
not for his devotion to science, but for his meddling with 
politics. Let us even grant that it was quite competent for 
the government of his country to supersede him in tlie 
Chair of Botany, which he had so long and so ably filled, 
surely his grey hairs and the invaluable labours of his life 
ought to have secured him, if not a reasonable competence 
in his retirement, at least .sufficient to make the remainder 
of his life bearable. Instead of this, however, the man who 
had so long occupied a leading position among the .TOvaa/s 
of the continent—if we are to believe our authority—‘ is 
literally starving from leant ! ’ " 
The fate of William Gardiner, whose death we noticed 
some months since, leaving one oi-jihan boy, is a painful 
testimony that poverty and science are too often mated. 
We mention tliis, however, more especially for the 
purpose of making known that Mr. G. Lawson, Curator 
to the Botanical Society, and Lecturer on Botany at 
Edinburgh, having undertaken to prepare a Biogra¬ 
phical Sketch of Whlliam Gardiner, with selections from 
his unpublished papers and letters, and notices of those 
other self-taught naturalists in humblo life, wlio wore 
his local contemporaries, will be obliged by piu-ties in 
possession of original MSS. and letters bearing upon 
the subject, favouring him with the use of the same. 
It is iutended to add, in an Appendix (from unpublished 
