May 1.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
05 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
1) 
W 
D 
MAY 1—7, 1851. 
Weather 
near London 
N 1850. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year 
1 
Barometer. 
Thermo. Wind. 
Rain in In. 
] 
Tn 
St. Ph. & St. Jas. Pit. Arthur b., 
30.078— 
30.048 
51—28 
N.E. 
35 a. 4 
19 a. 7 
sets. 
® 
2 
59 
121 
2 
F 
May Bug seen. [1850. 
30.274 — 
30.197 
56—23 
N.E. 
— 
33 
21 
8a.33 
1 
3 
7 
122 
3 
S 
Honeysuckle flovvers. 
30.271 — 
30.115 
61—41 
S.E. 
— 
31 
23 
9 44 
2 
3 
14 
123 
4 
Sun 
2 Sunday after Easter. 
29-979 — 
29.728 
60—32 
S.W. 
0.08 
29 
24 
10 51 
3 
3 
20 
124 
5 
M 
Mealy Tree flowers. 
29.617 — 
29.583 
60—38 
N. 
0.35 
27 
26 
11 52 
4 
3 
26 
125 
6 
Tu 
Pheasant lays. 
29-581 — 
29-550 
45—41 
N.E. 
0.68 
25 
28 
morn. 
5 
3 
31 
126 
1 7 
W . 
Swallow builds. 
29.497 — 
29.448 
48—44 
E. 
0.10 
24 
29 
0 45 
6 
3 
36 
127 
No one who has not seen the vegetation of a trophical climate, can ap¬ 
preciate justly, either its gorgeous flowers, or its rapid gigantic vege¬ 
tation ; they are the results of uninterrupted high and moist atmospheric 
temperature, united to an elevated bottom-heat, by which the root 
action, and the functions of the leaves are sustained in accordant and in¬ 
tense action. The only place we know, in England, where a northern 
inhabitant of our globe can observe such a climate, and such a vegetation, 
is in the Palm House in Kew Gardens. We shall never forget the first 
day when we crossed the Ganges, and stepping from our budgerow, 
passed under the arched trellis covered with the night-blooming Cereus, 
and entered upon the broad walks of the Botanic Garden at Calcutta. It 
was in the sultry and oppressive hours of the hottest season, and it was 
most refreshing to escape to the shade of the Banian trees, in them¬ 
selves a grove. There are several of these in the garden, but one of them 
is of gigantic growth ; its branches, and their numerous sustaining self- 
emitted stems, form of themselves a tope (grove), covering about an acre 
of ground. The sight of this magnificent tree gives the stranger a more 
forcible idea of the vastness and strength of tropical vegetation, than 
any other object. The trees of milder climes sink into insignificance, 
when called to memory for the sake of comparison. The natives entertain 
an opinion that it is sacred, and never struck by lightning—a notion, 
probably, founded on experience. The fact, if truth it be, is to be ac¬ 
counted for by the resinous, non-conducting quality of its leaves and wood. 
This, however, is not the only plant deserving attention in this delight¬ 
ful garden, for near it is to be seen the far-famed, and much-fabled Upas- 
tree, the poisonous qualities of which are truly virulent, but not to the 
extent once believed, when that in Java was the only one known, and that 
very imperfectly. So far from the very atmosphere around it being ren¬ 
dered pestiferous by the exhalations from its leaves, we have continually 
plucked them, and handled its stem. Then there is the elegant and bril¬ 
liant Amherstia, with its graceful pale tinted foliage, and long pendulous 
pink flowers; one of the rarest, and certainly the most beautiful, of trees. 
No one who has not seen it in blossom, can form even a proximate con¬ 
ception of its surpassing loveliness. Little inferior to this, is the Poin- 
cinnia regia, and beautiful beyond any of the riches of Europe, are the 
Poinsettias, Passifioras, and many others, which we cannot now re¬ 
member. If the visitor turns to the waters of the garden, he will be 
scarcely less gratified, by seeing floating on their surface the classic flower 
of the Eastern Tales, the pink and the white-petaled lotus. The 
fruits cultivated here are also abundant. There is the pumplenose, 
or shaddock, not unlike a huge orange, with its flesh in granules. The 
oranges which come from China and Sylhet, differ but little from those 
we have in England, except that they are more luscious, as ripening in a 
more sugar-creating climate. The sweet lemon, globular in form, re¬ 
sembles a green orange, though its flesh is pale, as that of the lemon, and 
its flavour like that fruit exhausted of acidity by soaking in water, 
during the process of making lemonade. The loquat is now known in 
England, among those who have conservatories. It is an oval, yellow, 
smooth-skinned fruit, about two inches in length, and one in breadth; 
not unlike a small golden pippin, with two or three chesnut-coloured 
stones. It is a grateful subacid fruit, of the same genus as the medlar, 
but not requiring to be kept until decayed. The plantain is in season 
throughout the entire year, but in greatest perfection early in March. It 
is a yellow-coated, long, cylindrical-shaped fruit; flesh butyraceous, and 
not unlike an over-ripe pear. Lately it has been obtainable in the shops 
of some of the London fruiterers. The pine-apple we consider the most 
delicious fruit of India; we mean that with the yellow flesh, and known 
in Calcutta as the Dacca pine : the common, white-fieshed, is a very in¬ 
ferior fruit. The guava is a yellowish-green-skinned fruit, with pinkish 
flesh, and a harsh perfumed flavour, very different from that of the jelly 
to which it gives a name and colour, It is not unlike a small angular 
apple. The custard apple has a pale lurid green rind, divided into raised 
lozenge-shaped compartments. It is full of brown seeds, about the size 
of a kidney-bean, each enclosed in a white membranous bag, or folicle, 
the interstices filled with a sweet gelatinous mass, in flavour much re¬ 
sembling an insipid custard. Of the mangoes there are five varieties, of 
different qualities. The green-skinned malwah is, we think, the best. 
They are oval-shaped, with a large flat-stone, having numerous fibres ad¬ 
hering. The flesh is of a deep orange colour, very juicy, and if in per¬ 
fection, resembling in flavour the orange and melon mingled together ; but 
inferior specimens have a disagreeable taste, resembling turpentine. They 
are about the size of a goose’s egg. The rose-apple is an oval hollow 
fruit, the cavity containing a much smaller round stone. Its flesh re¬ 
sembles that of the hip of the rose-tree ; but, unlike it, is flavoured, and 
ha 3 a strong smell of attah of roses. The lichee, in outward appearance 
and form, is not unlike a very large mulberry, but its colour is pink, 
mixed with green ; and upon the skin being peeled off, beneath is a very 
juicy gelatinous flesh, inclosing a large oval seed. In flavour it is sweet, 
yet with a grateful acidity. The avigator pear is a pale green, smooth, 
oval fruit, not unlike a small bottle-shaped gourd : it contains a large 
ponderous stone. Its flesh is eaten with pepper and salt, and resembles, 
in flavour and substance, the yoke of an egg boiled hard. It is called, 
“ midshipman’s butter ” by mariners. The Botanic Garden, in addition 
to gathering together these, and a vast assemblage of the rare and beau¬ 
tiful tenants of the vegetable world within its borders, from whence they 
have been liberally distributed to all applicants, and to all districts of th e 
globe, has also long been a nursery for the rearing and dissemination of 
many plants which are now elevating the qualities and varieties of the 
commercial products of India, and consequently, aiding its increase in 
wealth and civilization. Experiments are still going on, but hitherto 
without success, to acclimatize the cochineal insect, and its sustaining 
plant, the Cactus opuntia ; but better results have rewarded the efforts 
of Dr. Wallich, to raise seedlings of the tea, and Arabian coffee-plants, 
and the Otaheitee sugar-cane. Passing to a rising ground we were 
gratified by seeing a marble urn inscribed to the memory of Dr. Wil¬ 
liam Roxburgh, the predecessor of Dr. Wallich, in the curatorship of 
the Gardens. Not far from it Dr. Wallich showed us the spot which he 
had selected for his own grave, if it was willed that he should die in that 
land, but we rejoice that it has been otherwise ordained, and we hope 
that when the hour of his departure arrives, it will find him in a green old 
age, and as in the case of Dr. Roxburgh, in his native latitude. India 
is gorgeous, and luxurious—both nature and art render life there splendid ; 
but no virtuous European feels that away from his kindred, he is more 
than a sojourner—“ his heart’s in the Highlands,” amidst all the 
Eastern brightness, and most truly has one of Dr. Roxburgh’s friends in 
India written— 
“ The skies are blue as summer seas—the plains are green and bright— 
The groves are fair as Eden’s bowers—the streams are liquid light— 
The sun-rise bursts upon the scene, like glory on the soul, 
And richly round the couch of day the twilight curtains roll. 
But oh ! though beautiful it be, I yearn to leave the land,—- 
It glows not with the holier hues that tinge my native strand.” 
That so Dr. Roxburgh felt, we have reason to know, when he left 
India for the last time, “to die at home,” in the May of 1815. He was 
a native of Scotland, and proceeded to India in the medical service of the 
East India Company, at that period when the Scotch interest was pre¬ 
dominant, and when, as it was satirically said, if you shouted “ Mac,” 
in the Tank Square of Calcutta, a sandy head was thrust out of every 
window. He soon distinguished himself for his knowledge of the botany 
of Hindostan, and as he nobly rendered it his ladder of success, Iiox- 
burghia, one of the evergreen climbers of India has been appropriately 
dedicated to his memory. In the early part of his career, being stationed 
at Samuleottah, in 1781, his attention was confined to the plants of the 
Indian peninsular, and especially to the culture of pepper, but he was 
not less assiduous in promoting the introduction of plantations of coffee, 
cinnamon, nutmeg, annotto, bread-fruit, sappan-wood, and mulberry. 
The tree last named was connected with his efforts to extend the culture 
of silk, and, as he was indefatigable in promoting the commercial re¬ 
sources of the country, he was not unmindful of the growth of improved 
varieties of the sugar cane, and he was sustained in his efforts by another 
disciple of Linnaeus— John Gerrard Koenig. Koenig gave the first 
impulse to scientific botany in India, but less happy than his 
brother students, he saw his native home no more, dying at Jagre- 
natpore in the June of 1785. Dr. Roxburgh made large collections 
of plants in the Carnatic, but had the misfortune to lose them, with his 
books and papers, owing to an inundation at Injeram. Like Newton and j 
like Raffles, who also had to witness the destruction of the harvest of j 
their labours, he rose superior to the trial; and, without giving way to 
fruitless regret, proceeded with renewed diligence to replace his lost j 
treasures. The East India Company presented to him a botanical j 
library : nor did they stop here in rewarding his merit, but removed him i 
to Calcutta in the autumn of 1793, and appointed him superintendant of | 
the Botanic Garden, which had been established by Colonel Kyd, and 
whose worth Dr. Roxburgh gratefully commemorated by naming after 
him the noble and useful trees included in the genus Kydia. His super-- 
intendance of the garden continued until the year 1814, and during the 
time few men could have laboured with greater assiduity and success, i 
despite ill health, and despite the unfavourable nature of the clayey soil I 
for gardening purposes. During his temporary absence for the recovery 
of health, Dr. Carey, the celebrated missionary and Oriental scholar, took 
charge of the garden, and printed, at the Missionary Press at Scrampore, 
Dr. Roxburgh’s Catalogue of the Plants in the Botanic Garden at 
Calcutta. There were then in the garden 3500 described species, of , 
which about half had been named and described by himself. Besides 
describing the plants, he had them delineated by native artists—more 
than 2000 of their drawings being forwarded by him to the Court of 
Directors. Dr. Wallich continued this practice, and we can bear witness 
to the faithfulness and beauty of the flower portraits. Overcome by ■ 
the climate, Dr. Roxburgh was at length compelled to return home, and 
died at Edinburgh in the May of 1815. After his death Sir Joseph Banks 
undertook the superintendance of the publication of that splendid work 
known as Roxburgh’s Coromandel Plants, but which includes some of 
the labours of Koenig ; and, in 1832, Dr. Roxburgh’s sons published his 
Flora Indica. 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations 
during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 63.8° and 42.1°, respectively. The greatest 
heat observed was 81°, on the 6th in 1830. During the time 99 days 
were fair, and on 69 rain fell. 
No. CXXXV., Vol. VI. 
