December 25. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
187 
Yes, truly, your garden lias been useless to you, and is 
now an eve-sore. So was this when I took to it. Rut come 
to me now and then, and we will talk and consider over 
i matters. So, now, as the weather is open, go home and 
| thin out moderately from your not old, but neglected, 
i currants and gooseberries, those branches which crowd the 
middle of each, cutting them back close to the old wood 
with a sharp knife and a smooth cut; thin out around the 
outside of the gooseberries the young shoots of last season’s 
growth, which are to bear this year, so that you can eon- 
i veniently pass your It and between them ; this will allow air 
and light to perfect the fruit, as well as give convenience in 
gathering. Shorten the young shoots which you leave on 
the bushes a little, with a sharp knife, a quarter-of-an-inch 
from a bud, beginning the sloping cut on the side opposite 
to the bud, and cut upwards- Prime the black currants after 
the same manner. The white and red currants bear on 
spurs ; therefore, leave a larger proportion of main branches, 
and merely enough of young wood to spring from the 
bottom of the bush, to renew hollow places that may occur. 
It is advisable, now and then, to remove an old branch 
entirely, allowing a young one to take its place, in order to 
keep up a young and vigorous constitution in the tree. If 
hollow places occur near the ends of the branches, leave 
enough of the young shoots to fill them up, but by all means 
keep the middle of the bushes quite open. I believe your 
bushes are dotted, here and there, all over the garden. 
This must not be. Take up every one of them. Carefully 
preserve the roots in so doing, except those which strike 
downward; these are tap-roots, and must be cut clean away. 
Place them in a corner for the present, and cover their 
roots well with soil. Get your landlord to allow you to grub 
up those old worn-out apple-trees, which I have no doubt he 
will willingly do, when you tell him you are wishing to make 
improvements, and intend to furnish some better kinds in 
place of them. By the time you have done this, your 
garden will be clear for work; then we will see what is best 
to be done, in order to prepare for the vegetables your wife 
is so anxious to see smoking on the table! 
You see I am now collecting stuff, in the shape of manure 
and compost, wherever I can, well turning and mixing it 
together. Good morning. 
Lastly, we have Richardson s Rural Handbooks. A 
series of shilling volumes, beautifully printed and 
illustrated, and containing an amount of sound, practi¬ 
cal information, such as is to be obtained nowhere else 
for the same money. There is only one volume in the 
series which we cannot unreservedly praise— Donaldson s 
Soils and Manures. It is good as a scientific work, but 
is out of jfiace in a series of practical treatises like all 
the others ; for in them, whoever has fowls, pigs, cows, 
bees, dogs, horses, or weeds—and who has not?—will 
find a volume of useful information relative to each. 
— 
GARDENING GOSSIP. 
We are indebted to The North British Agriculturist for 
the two following notices :— 
At a general meeting of the Horticultural Society, held in 
the Hall, Experimental Garden, on the 4th instant, Dr. 
J. II. Balfour, Professor of Medicine and Botany in the 
University of Edinburgh, was unanimously elected Secretary 
to the Society. On his election being announced from the 
chair, the Professor stated, that he had, after much thought, 
acceded to the solicitations of the Committee appointed by 
the Council to confer with him on the subject, and that 
although lie felt the Society had sutfered an irreparable loss 
in the decease of their late Secretary, Dr. Neill, he, the 
Professor, would, nevertheless, cheerfully give such atten¬ 
tion to the duties of the office as his other engagements 
would allow, and would certainly do all in his power to 
sustain the high position which the Society had attained. 
We need scarcely add that Professor Balfour’s position 
pointed him out as an individual eminently qualified, in 
every respect, to fill the important office to which he has 
been elected; his name forms a sufficient guarantee that 
the scientific character of the Institution, as well as its 
practical utility, will be maintained. 
Scottish Horticulture has met with a severe loss in the 
death of Mr. George Dunbar, Professor of Greek in the 
University of Edinburgh. This melancholy event took 
pla.ee on the 6th instant, at his residence, Rose Park, 
Trinity. The natural decay attending even an otherwise 
green old age has been for some years aggravated by a 
virulent internal malady, which at the commencement of 
the present session compelled him to abandon his academic 
duties; and the functions of the chair have, accordingly, 
been since very ably discharged by Mr. Kirkpatrick, from 
Oxford. The serious apprehensions then entertained for 
him were, within the last few days, fully confirmed by a 
series ol spasmodic attacks, the violence of which ultimately 
proved fatal. 
Professor Dunbar has been long known as an eminent 
horticulturist, and he has introduced many interesting and 
valuable plants into cultivation. His garden at Bose Park i 
contained many specimens which did credit to his zeal and 
ability as a cultivator. He was long connected with the 
Caledonian Horticultural Society, and always took a warn 
interest in its proceedings. He attended the meetings 
with great regularity; his name was long on the list of 
office-bearers, and he was re-elected as one of the Vice- 
Presidents of the Society at the general meeting, which took 
place two days before his death. His name is recorded in 
the Annals of Botany by the Indian genus Duubaria, 
dedicated to him by Wight. This genus belongs to the 
natural order Fabacese; D. latifolia, a beautiful scandent 
plant, was exhibited by Dr. Cleghorn, to the Botanical 
Society of Edinburg!i, shortly before his departure for India. 
I It is in the department of Greek literature, however, that 
Professor Dunbar’s name is best known. In early life he 
laboured for some time as a gardener, but an accident, from 
the effects of which he was lame during the rest of his days, 
incapacitated him for so active an employment. His atten¬ 
tion, accordingly, was thenceforth devoted to literature, and 
an assiduous cultivation of the classics soon developed those 
faculties of which in subsequent years he showed himself 
possessed. Coming to Edinburgh about the beginning of 
the century, the attainments he had already acquired easily 
procured for him a situation as tutor in the family of the 
then Lord Provost Fettes. Having been shortly after 
selected as assistant to Professor Dalziel, he was appointed, 
on this Professor’s death, to the Greek Chair in 1805. The 
duties of tliis responsible position he has since continued to 
discharge with a zeal and ability well demonstrated by a 
reference to the many eminent scholars which our Alma 
Mater has sent forth. In later years, however, it is needless 
to say, his occupation of the chair was not distinguished by 
the vigour and efficiency he had displayed in former years. 
The published works of Professor Dunbar are all of them 
too well known to need any lengthened allusion. Shortly 
after his appointment in the University, he published the 
“ Collectanea Majora,” and “ Collectanea Minora,” both of 
which attracted considerable attention among educationists 
at the time, but have been latterly greatly superseded by 
more recent elementary works. His great work, however, 
and the one which may well be called the object of his life, 
is the “ Lexicon of the Greek Language,” which was given 
to the world with his name in 1840. The desideratum 
which this massive tome supplied in classical literature is 
acknowledged on all hands, and though various other works 
of a high standard of excellence have since appeared, it is 
still of high repute and likely to continue so. The author in 
his preface tells us he was engaged on it for a period of eight 
years, and of Ins assiduous industry and unwearied research, 
the work itself is a most enduring memorial. 
Professor Dunbar died, we believe, in the 76th year of 
his age, having been born in the village of Coldingham, 
Berwickshire, in the year 1774. He was twice married. 
His remains were interred in Greyfriars Churchyard, the 
funeral being attended by a large number of the Professors 
and students of the University. 
The last number of Dr. Hooker’s Rhododendrons of 
the Sikkim-Himmalaya is now published. These Rho- 
