October 33. * THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 43 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
w 
OCTOBER 23—29, 1851. 
Weather near London in 1850. 
Sun 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Clock 
Day of 
D 
D 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in In. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R, & S. 
Age. 
bef. Sun. 
Year. 
23 
Th 
Wood Pigeons come. 
29.308 — 29.165 
48—38 
N. 
46 
39 a. 6 
50 a. 4 
4 34 
28 
15 
31 
296 
24 
F 
Golden Plover comes. 
29 . 311 — 29.217 
41—35 
E. 
21 
41 
48 
sets. 
© 
15 
39 
2 97 
25 
S 
Snipe comes. [thorn leaves fall. 
29.506 — 29.410 
46—30 
N.E. 
_ 
43 
46 
5 a 41 
1 
15 
4t) 
298 
26 
Sdn 
19 Sunday after Trinity. White- 
29.801 — 29.624 
48—23 
N.E. 
44 
44 
6 11 
2 
15 
52 
299 
27 
M 
Tortoise buries. 
29906 — 29.745 
49-37 
W. 
26 
46 
42 
6 48 
3 
15 
58 
300 
28 
Tu 
St. Simon and St. Jude. 
29.419 — 29.313 
52—29 
tv. 
02 
48 
40 
7 30 
4 
16 
3 
301 
29 W 
Wild Duck comes. 
29 . 63 s — 29.475 
49—24 
N. 
50 
38 
8 21 
5 
16 
7 
302 
Onf. of the most appropriate records of the dead to be found where 
such records usually are preserved, is a mural monument in the church of 
Edgbaston, the entablature of which is of black marble, enriched at its 
base with the emblems of the /F.sculapian art, from which extend on the 
right a representation of the Digitalis purpurea (Purple Floxglove,) 
chiseled from living specimens, and on the left the Witheringiasolanaceu. 
The whole is surmounted by a Grecian vase, entwined with a chaplet of 
natural flowers. These decorations, executed in pure statuary, embrace a 
tablet bearing the following inscription :— 
Sacred to the Memory 
William Withering, M.D., F.R.S. 
&c. &c. &c. 
who was born March 28, 1741, 
and died October 6, 1799. 
aged 58 years. 
The Foxglove commemorates the important services he afforded to 
medicine, by advocating its employment as a remedy; the Witheringia 
is the genus of plants dedicated to him by l’Hertier ; and the chaplet of 
natural flowers is that which might have been deservedly bestowed on one 
who had collected, at that time, the most perfect work concerning our 
native plants, and was the first to arrange our British Flora according to 
the Linnsean system. 
We have adopted Dr. Withering for our this day’s biographical me¬ 
moir, because it will serve as an appropriate introduction to our portraits 
and descriptions of British plants, which we shall very shortly begin to 
present to our readers, and we have the greater pleasure in adopting this 
memoir, because he is one of the many who, deep read in science, form so 
brilliant a portion of that “ cloud of witnesses,” who all died in the 
faith. When the finger of time was upon the hour of his death, if one 
lingering look was cast behind, says his son, it arose from an axiety to be 
assured that those nearest and dearest to him were equally impressed with 
that lively faith, the efficacy of which he now doubly felt. On his son 
and daughter, by his own desire, again drawing near to him, as if to re¬ 
concile them to the approaching separation, with a calm and beaming 
countenance, “ My children,” he said, “ see how easy I lie!” He had 
never indulged in that carelessness of personal appearance sometimes ob¬ 
servable in the studious. Indeed, he attached so much regard to neat¬ 
ness, as to consider it, in a degree, at least, to the body what virtue is to 
the soul: nor did propriety of this kind escape his attention even at the 
point of death. Refreshed by an entire renewal of linen, and, perhaps, 
with a sense of decorum gratified, immediately afterwards, being raised 
at his own request, he fervently ejaculated, “ Now I am ready! ” at the 
same moment springing forward with an energy that might be deemed 
almost preternatural, he exhausted the feeble remains of vitality. Such 
was the expiring effort—such the last movement of this excellent man, 
and it seems grovelling among earthy things, after such a departure to 
eternity, to refer even to his intellectual pursuits, mingled, as they must 
be, with a few other points of his personal history. 
Dr. Withering was born at Wellington, in Shropshire, where his father 
practiced as a surgeon, and he had the inestimable benefit not only of an 
admirable mother, but the privilege of sustaining and watching over her 
in her declining years. In his Diary is this entry—“July 3, 1789, my 
mother died, after an indisposition of five days, in the eighty-first year of 
her age. Her native good sense, improved by education, made her com¬ 
pany for the wise, and the placid cheerfulness of her declining years 
rendered her acceptable to the young to the latest period of her life. Both 
she and my father were unerring examples of the strictest integrity.” 
Designed from youth to practice in the higher department of his pro¬ 
fession, he, after the usual pupilage, took his Doctor’s Degree at Edin¬ 
burgh, and commenced practice at Stafford. Patients did not abound, 
but among them was one who had as his wife a more than even the 
usual influence over his future welfare. So far was he in early life from 
possessing a botanical taste, that he wrote thus to his parents from 
College :—“ The Botanical Professor gives annually a gold medal to such 
of his pupils as are most industrious in that branch of science. An in¬ 
citement of this kind is often productive of the greatest emulation in 
young minds, though, I confess, it will hardly have charm enough to 
banish the disagreeable ideas I have formed of the study of botany.” 
However, love made Matsys resign the anvil for the easel, and love made 
Dr. Withering a master in botanical science. 
At Stafford, says his son, one of Dr. Withering’s earliest patients was 
Miss Cookes, the lady destined to be his future bride. After having re¬ 
established her health, and been admitted to habits of intimacy with her 
family, he was permitted in some degree to direct the completion of her 
education. “The harpsicord, the voice, the pencil, and every exterior 
accomplishment,” he observes, “were already at her command, his 
study was to extend her taste for literature.” Such intercourse ripened 
mutual esteem into affection, and in the course of a few years his atten¬ 
tions were rewarded with the hand of his pupil. 
It is more than probable that his first voluntary researches in the 
British Flora were induced by the desire of supplying subjects for the 
highly-finished drawings of this lady. For her he explored the enamelled 
meadows watered by the Trent, the varied lawns of Shutborough, or the 
wild recesses of Haywood Park; and, being less engaged in severer 
studies, he became more and more enamoured of the novel pursuit, and 
soon began to collect specimens for that herbarium which he afterwards 
rendered so complete. 
We have no space to record his varied pursuits in Natural Philosophy, 
nor to linger over the painfully interesting details of his travels and 
struggles to escape from that disease of the lungs which finally put a 
period to his life. Patient, resigned, and thanking God that his spirits 
failed not, he devoted the chief of his time to our native botany ; and he 
lived to complete and publish, in 1796, the third edition of his Botanical 
Arrangement of British Plants, including the Uses of each species in 
Medicine, Rural Economy, and the Arts. It is upon this we shall found 
the descriptions and biographies of British Plants we propose placing 
before our readers, adding only such other information as our own re¬ 
sources, and the researches of later botanists afford. 
Meteorology or the Week. — At Chiswick from observations 
during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 55.5° and 39 . 8 ° respectively. The greatest 
heat, 67 0 , occurred on the 29 th in 1833, and the lowest cold, 23°, on the 
29 th, in 1842. During the period, 84 days were fine, and on 84, rain fell. 
j The move we see of Mr. Hogg’s British Pomology, the 
more we are confirmed in our already-expressed opinion, 
that it is the best work upon the subject that has 
hitherto issued from the press ; but we allude to it now 
especially for the purpose of giving an extract from a 
letter we have received from the author, correcting some 
minor errors into which we had fallen. He says— 
“ You seem to have overlooked the classification of the 
apples, which is in the first part, immediately after the his¬ 
torical portion. It is not such a classification as I should 
like to have introduced, but it is sufficient for all ordinary 
purposes. I am engaged on a system which will reduce 
apples to a more natural arrangement, but as I have not 
been able to bring the numerous varieties into their proper 
positions, as yet, I shall defer its publication till a future 
time. It is my intention to cancel sheet b of the first part, 
and introduce the systems of I)eil and Dochnahl, for the 
benefit of those who may be groping after some mode of 
arrangement. If we could but discover some sound system 
of classification, we need not fear but pomology would soon 
become a science. 
“ I must correct a false impression under which you are 
labouring. I am not now the proprietor of the Brompton 
Park Nursery; it is nearly three years since I retired from 
that concern, which is now conducted by one of my late part¬ 
ners. But all my early associations are as fresh as ever, and 
my whole delight is in my favourite—pomology. I have my 
collection of fruits at Worth, in Sussex, where I some years 
ago established a private orchard for observations.” 
Of this collection we have now a catalogue before us, 
and it contains a larger number of varieties of all our 
hardy fruits, from Almonds down to Strawberries, than 
any other private orchard in the United Kingdom ; nor 
is this all, for Mr. Hogg says— 
“ It is my intention still to add to this collection as new or 
hitherto neglected varieties present themselves; and for 
this end I shall be happy to open correspondence with any 
one who would be disposed to exchange grafts with me. 
Should there be those who are desirous of improving or 
enlarging their collections, but who have no facilities for 
making exchanges, I shall be bappy, at a small cost, to supply 
them with grafts of any of the varieties herein enumerated, j 
No. CLX., Vol. VII. 
