THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
157 
I 
June 12.] 
M W 
Weather near London in 1850. 
Sun 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Clock 
Day of 
D D 
J UNlii 12—18, 1851. 
Barometer. 
Thermo.! Wind. 
Rain in In. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R.&S. 
Age. 
bef. Sun. 
Year. 
12 Th 
Walnut flowers. 
29.933 — 29.923 
57—40 
N.W. 
_ 
45 a. 3 
14 a. 8 
3a 10 
13 
0 37 
163 
13 F 
Yellow Pimpernel flowers. 
30.118 — 29.927 
67—34 
N.E. 
0.01 
45 
15 j 
rises. 
© 
0 25 
164 
14[S 
Large Skipper Butterfly seeen. 
30.175 — 30.116 
72—40 
N.E. 
— 
44 
IS 
8 a 58 
15 
0 13 
165 
15 Sun 
Trinity Sunday. 
29.899 — 29.791 
70—48 
E. 
— 
44 
16 
9 50 
16 
0 0 
166 
16 M 
Cuckoo-spit Insect seen. 
29.776 — 29.750 
68—46 
N. 
— 
44 
16 
10 31 
17 
0 b 12 
167 
17 Tc 
Dog-Rose flowers. 
29.975 — 29.924 
72—40 
N.W. 
— 
44 
17 
11 6 
18 
0 25 
168 
18 W 
Mullein flowers. 
30.066 —30.038 
75—41 
W. 
— 
44 
17 
11 35 
19 
0 38 
169 
Adrian Hardy Haworth says, in one of his letters—" I was a gar¬ 
dener, practically, at seven years old ; ” and we have three similarly-tasted 
urchins under our own root-tree ; for a love of flowers, and their culture, 
is one of the blessed mental inclinations birth-implanted in us, by our 
all-kind Creator, as a sweetener of the toil imposed when the ground was 
ordained to bring forth weeds to encumber the work of the husbandman. 
A love of gardening—a love of nature generally—is in every child’s heart, 
and though we do our best to choke that affection for the fair things of 
the soil, by cramming them with book lore, and tutoring them with 
accomplishments which enables them to “ play fantastic tricks before 
high Heaven,” yet, happily, the love of nature will prevail, and we are 
grateful whenever we hear “My Garden” talked of more, and cherished 
more, than “ My Caesar.” “ My Euclid,” or even than “ My Piano ” 
Yes—yes. We would have every child of our clan love knowledge in all 
forms—Greek, Latin, and Music among the rest; but though we would 
have him, or her, love those well, yet we would have each and all love 
Chemistry, and Botany, and Gardening better. These sciences have more 
to do with the things of life, they give us another sense, for they let us 
know the why and the wherefore of all that is going on around us—and 
the child who can explain why sugar dissolves in his tea, has a scrap of 
knowledge more useful than he who can tell why Achilles joined in the 
Trojan war. Thanks to the limited span allotted to man, our old master 
cannot read or hear of our heresy, in declaring that we think there is 
more sense, more suggestive matter, in this one verse of Campbell’s, than 
in all the Iliad— 
The very Law that moulds a tear, and bids it trickle from its source. 
That Law preserves the earth a sphere, and guides the planets in their 
course. 
Now, taking that verse for a text, we would preach for “ a full hour by 
Shrewsbury clock,” on the wonders of chemical and physical attraction, 
which would detain us, even more unjustifiably than we have been 
already, from the hero of our theme, 
Well, then, Mr. Haworth, loved to grub about plants even in his child¬ 
hood, and this fondness for natural things, strengthened with his strength ; 
but his father was a matter-of-fact personage, a wealthy merchant, who, 
perhaps, traded with China, who certainly preferred its Tea to its Chry¬ 
santhemums, and who would have his son give up Lepidoptera for Law, 
and Succulents for Conveyancing. He was articled to an attorney, and 
had to engross through even those bright sunny days, when it is martyr¬ 
dom not to be hunting for plants and butterflies. But no sooner was our 
young naturalist released from the trammels of the law, than he at once 
renounced it for ever, and all its splendid chances of success, and retired 
to Cottingham, where he resided a few years, and then married. At this 
village, in the neighbourhood of his native town (Hull), he commenced 
his arduous career, at once embracing the sciences of entomology, orni¬ 
thology, and botany.—Shortly after this, he changed his residence to 
Little Chelsea, near London, where he wrote the Lepidoptera Britannica. 
and successfully cultivated all the succulent p ants at that time known in 
the kingdom, gratuitously and freely obtaining them both from the Royal 
Gardens at Kew, and from the most celebrated nurserymen. 
About the year 1812, he resolved to return to his favourite town and 
arden at Cottingham, and thither he repaired with the greater part of 
is extensive collection of natural history. During his short stay at that 
place (for he only resided there about five years) he was principally in¬ 
strumental in forming, and arranging systematically, the Botanical Gar¬ 
den at Hull. The neighbourhood of London was, however, evidently the 
field most adapted to a mind so ardently endued with the love of scien¬ 
tific pursuits; accordingly he soon again bid adieu to his native county, 
and resided till the melancholy day of his death at Queen’s Elm, Chelsea. 
That day was the 24th of August, 1833, when he was in the fi 6 th year of 
his age He was enjoying his usual health, and watering his favourite 
plants the evening previously, was seized by malignant cholera, and in 
about twenty hours death had closed his eyes. 
Mr. Haworth’s fame as an Entomologist is scarcely less exalted than as 
a Botanist; but doubtless his great worth, and which will live to the re¬ 
motest posterity, is the Lepidoptera Britannica, already several times re¬ 
printed on the continent, and the same remark will apply to his principal 
botanical work. Synopsis Plantarvm Succulentarum, which is in fact the 
vade mecurn to all cultivators of this interesting tribe of plants, the one 
being as useful and essential to the Botanist as the other unquestionably 
is to the British Entomologist. 
Of the private life of this distinguished Naturalist, for such he may be 
truly designated, having successfully studied all branches of Natural 
History, we know but little except his having constantly resided in the 
bosom of his family, and though frequently pressed bv the earnest soli¬ 
citations of foreign friends and correspondents, he could never be induced 
to visit the continent, or in fact to travel farther from his usual residence 
than occasionally into Yorkshire, his native county. 
Many short extracts from some of his letters were published in The 
Gardeners Magazine, and one of those extracts is too highly characteristic 
not to be quoted. It is as follows A> an old botanist, I love most 
dearly my first sight of a plant that is new to me. And as your object 
is to send chiefly things that quite puzzle you, a few must appear riddles 
to me, and I shall have, or have hud. all the pleasure of solving them. 
Besides, every packet is a sort of lottery, in which any new plant is a 
prize I Hence you will see my zeal is at last equal to your own. I once 
was near joining with a public botanic garden here (Chelsea), and I much 
regret it fell to nothing. Alas! we have now not one public botanic 
garden left near the metropolis of this rich kingdom ; and yet I think 
such a thing would pay well. About some of your specimens I will 
decide in November or December next; when I propose incorporating all 
my more newly acquired specimens with the glued ones; and when many 
of your well-grown examples will be added, to amend or extend the col¬ 
lection ; in which every specimen is acknowledged from whom, or what 
garden, it came; and when, as far as possible. I have been about 40 
years amassing them. A few odd ones were even gathered still earlier, 
when I was a boy. I was a gardener, practically, at seven years old.” 
Mr. Haworth was a good gardener, as well as a botanist and entomo¬ 
logist, and for evidence, the reader may refer to his excellent paper on 
the propagation and arrangement of Double-flowered Chrysanthemums, 
in the 9 th volume of The Gardeners’ Magazine, and to his essay On the 
species of the Crocus, and their cultivation, in the Horticultural Society’s 
Transactions for 1809 . 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations 
made during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures are 73-7°, and 50.4°, respectively. The greatest heat, 90°, 
was on the 12th in 1842, and the lowest cold, 36°, on the 15th, in 1841. 
Luring the time 101 days were fine, and on 67 rain fell. 
We have a groupe of volumes before us requiring notice, 
and first among them is one entitled Twenty Lessons on 
British Mosses. Second Series. Illustrated with twenty- 
five specimens. By William Gardiner, A L.S., dc. It is 
published by Messrs. Longman, in London, therefore, 
accessible to every reader who can afford to spend three 
and sixpence upon a very gratifying little volume. The 
species are very nicely mounted, and the information 
! relative to them useful and amusing. As a specimen, 
we will extract what the author says relative to Aicanta- 
gium ciliatum (Hoary-branched Beardless-moss). 
This plant grows upon stones, rocks, and walls, in broad 
flakes or patches, and is conspicuous from its hoary appear¬ 
ance, arising from its diaphanous-pointed leaves. These are 
concave, ovate, and accuminated into a slender colourless 
point, and those of the perichcetium, or sheath around the 
base of the seta, laciniated, or jagged at the extremity. Tiie 
capsule is almost sessile among the perichsetial leaves, pear- 
No. CXLI., Vol. VI. ~ 
shaped, with a wide naked mouth,—a plane lid having a 
small raised point in the centre, and a mitriform veil. 
Many of the large stones or boulders we so often meet j 
with in hilly places, are quite incased in this and similar 
spreading mosses; and the same verdant drapery is em¬ 
ployed by Nature to adorn the rugged cliffs and the dila¬ 
pidated wall,—thus rendering them more seemly and 
agreeable to the eye. 
Rockwork in gardens might derive much advantage in 
their embellishment from an admixture of mosses with the 
Alpine plants there usually cultivated ; and, indeed, a moss- 
garden, as well as a Fernery, would add greatly to the in¬ 
terest of every flower-garden, and amply repay all the care 
bestowed upon them. The plants could thus be more easily 
watched throughout the whole progress of their develop¬ 
ment, and a fuller acquaintance be gained of their structure 
and history. A small bit of woodland, with a patch of moor¬ 
land or heath, bordefed by an old wall, having a rugged 
bank on the one side, and a stream on the other, w’ould suffice 
for this purpose; or, where such a combination could not be 
commanded, nor even a shady nook or piece of rockwork, 
many of the species may be successfully cultivated in pots, 
