May 2.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
65 
M 
u 
w 
I) 
MAY 2—8, 1850. 
Weather near London 
in 1849. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
It. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bcf.Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
2 
Th 
Young Rooks fledged. 
T. fi5°—49°. 
N.E. 
Rain. 
32 a. 4 
21 a. 7 
0 
15 
20 
3 
10 
129 
3 
F 
Invention of the Cross. Yellow Wagtail arrives. 
T, 74°—94°. 
E. 
Kara. 
30 
23 
0 
56 
21 
3 
17 
123 
4 
S 
Pettichaps heard. [seen. 
T. 77°-4/°. 
E. 
Fine. 
29 
25 
1 
33 
© 
3 
24 
124 
5 
Sun 
5th oh Rogation Sun. Latticed Heatli Moth 
T. 74°—45°. 
N.E. 
Rain. 
27 
26 
2 
4 
23 
3 
?Q 
125 
6 
M 
John Evan, a P. Lat. Greenfinch builds. 
T. G2°—45°. 
N.E. 
Fine. 
25 
28 
2 
30 
24 
3 
35 
126 
7 
Tu 
Long-eared Bat seen. 
T. 55°—36°. 
N.E. 
Rain. 
23 
30 
2 
55 
25 
3 
39 
127 
8 
W 
Easter Terra ends. Turtle Dove heard. 
T. 55°—39°. 
N.E. 
Fine. 
22 
31 
3 
18 
26 
3 
43 
128 
Scotland claims as her sons a large majority of the most celebrated 
horticulturists of modern days; and so marked is*this, that we have heard 
as a humourous national toast, “The three exports of Scotland—gar¬ 
deners, doctors, and black cattle.” Now, one of the most known of the 
first of these valued exports is John Abercrombie, who died on the 2nd 
of this month, in 1806, at the good old age of fourscore. He may be said 
to have been doomed to gardening from his birth; for his father was a 
market gardener near Edinburgh, and from infancy he was employed in 
his father’s garden. It was a pursuit in which he delighted; and to im¬ 
prove and to impart its successful practice to others engrossed his attention 
throughout his long career. His education was plain and slight, but it 
was bestowed upon a mental soil possessing the two best of qualities—a 
powerful memory, and sound sense. These enabled him to carry into 
effect one of the most useful practices that a young gardener can reso¬ 
lutely adopt—he wrote down each night such observations relative to 
gardening as he had made during the day. The treasures of useful know¬ 
ledge which may be thus accumulated would surpass the belief of a cur¬ 
sory observer; and at the end of even ten years a fact jotted down per day 
would occupy a goodly volume of “ three thousand facts.” When Aber¬ 
crombie became an author on horticultural subjects, he found the high 
value of his note-books ; and though Weston has some grounds for saying 
that “ the titles of many of his works are so copious and confused, that 
you can scarcely discover what you are to have, and they are like a piece 
of the same sort of meat dressed various ways,” yet tlie meat is always 
good. Let it be remembered, too, that the mass of practical information 
his works contain was obtained from actual personal experience ; and 
with all its want of conciseness and deficient arrangement, yet a more 
original book than his “ Every Man his own Gardener,” first published in 
177*4, never issued from the press. Yet so lowly was his self-estimation, 
that he actually paid Mr. Mawe, then gardener to the Duke of Leeds, 
twenty pounds to allow his name to be attached to this publication. 
Success giving him confidence, he published various other works with his 
own name prefixed ; and one of these, The Gardener's Pocket Journal , 
until lately passed through an edition of two thousand almost annually, 
from the date of its first appearance in 1791 . It is needless to follow him 
through his various employments and vicissitudes, from his first employ¬ 
ment in Kew Gardens down to his becoming a seedsman and nurseryman 
at Newington and Tottenham, where he died from an accident at the date 
we have specified. For the last twenty years of his life his principal re¬ 
freshment was tea, taking it three times a day, and rarely eating flesh- 
meat. He was one of the earliest of “vegetarians,” and frequently de¬ 
clared that tea and tobacco were the great promoters of his health. His 
use of tobacco was his only excess, and in this he was immoderate. His 
pipe—his first companion in the morning, and the last at night—has been 
known often to be in use for six hours without interruption. He never 
1 remembered taking physic until after the occurrence of the accident which 
caused his death, nor of having a day’s illness before that which was his 
I last, except once about twenty-three years previously. 
RANGE OF BAROMETER—RAIN IN INCHES. 
May 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
1849- 
2 
B. 
/ 29.674 
30.022 
30.124 
30.432 
29.957 
30.20S 
29.743 
30.077 
29.956 
1 29.640 
29.962 
30.004 
30.336 
29.821 
I 30.125 
29.577 
30.066 
29-854 
R. 
0.25 
— 
— 
— 
— 
0.03 
— 
0.09 
3 
15 
/ 29 730 
29.967 
29.891 
30.213 
20.989 
30.083 
29.828 
30.101 
29.810 
X 29.716 
29.854 
29 . 77 a 
30.138 
29-878 
29.932 
29.788 
30.074 
29.797 
R. 
0.30 
0.02 
0.06 
— 
0.01 
— 
0.15 
— 
0.01 
4 
B. 
r 29.609 
29907 
29.768 
30.132 
29.895 
29.866 
29.868 
30.105 
29.840 
\ 29-480 
29.892 
29 . 6 S 0 
30.090 
29.791 
29.721 
29.858 
30.133 
29.822 
R. 
0.70 
— 
0.16 
0.01 
— 
— 
0.02 
— 
— 
5 
B. 
/ 29.571 
29.886 
29.076 
30.060 
29.885 
1 29.724 
29.759 
30.166 
29.819 
\ 29.399 
29.530 
29.662 
29.913 
29.822 
29.544 
29.721 
30.159 
29.781 
R. 
0.15 
0.16 
1.26 
— 
0.03 
0.03 
— 
— 
0.40 
6 
B. 
r 29.774 
29.423 
29.623 
29.867 
29.836 
; 29.548 
29.744 
30.089 
29.848 
129.495 
29.376 
29-258 
29-791 
29.681 
29.494 
22.710 
30.022 
29.813 
R. 
0.02 
0.12 
0.38 
— 
0.18 
| 0.13 
— 
— 
_ 
7 
B. 
f 29 .70S 
29.322 
29.638 
29.868 
29.649 
; 29.750 
29 . 68.3 
30.045 
29.939 
129 . 52 s 
29.197 
29.601 
29.792 
29.589 
! 29 .605 
29.569 
29.993 
29.889 
R. 
0.10 
0.22 
0.05 
— 
0.20 
— 
0.14 
— 
0.02 
8 
B. 
r 29 581 
29.706 
29.579 
29.947 
29.457 
: 29.931 
29.611 
30.112 
30.015 
\ 29.491 
29.382 
29.521 
29.944 
29.430 
29.730 
29.334 
30.036 
29.994 
R. 
0.16 
0.20 
0.57 
0.01 
T ~ 
0.15 
‘ 
— 
Meteorology of tiie Week* 
At Chiswick, during the last twen- 
I ty-three years, the average highest 
and lowest temperatures have been 
63.4° and 42° respectively. The 
greatest heat occurred on the 4th in 
1833, when the thermometer rose 
to 81°; and the greatest cold was 
on the 5th in 1845, when it fell to 
27°. There were 98 fine days during 
the period, and on 63 days rainfeli. 
Natural Phenomena Indi¬ 
cative of Weather. —When the 
Pimpernel , Wincopipe, or Poor- 
man’s Weather-glass ( Anagallis 
arvensis ), has its pretty little red 
flowers fully expanded in the morn¬ 
ing, it indicates a fine day; and, 
on the contrary, if they are closed, 
rain will soon follow. Quarries of 
stone and slate, says Dr. Forster, 
foreshew rain by a moist exudation 
from the stones, or rather by a 
deposition ot moisture upon them 
from the air. This seems analo¬ 
gous to the dampness on flag¬ 
stones and stone steps just before 
rain, and during damp weather. 
Little lias to be told of the history of The Poly¬ 
anthus, the florist’s flower on the characteristics of ex¬ 
cellence in which we are about to offer a few comments. 
It is only a variety, but a very permanent one, of the ' 
Common Primrose (Primula vulgaris), and was so con¬ 
sidered by our earliest writers on Gardening. Hence it | 
is always difficult, and often impossible, to discern the 1 
varieties, if any, of which they had knowledge. Thus I 
Parkinson’s Paradisus, published in 1629, describes 
twenty-one kinds of Primroses and Cowslips, some of 
which are Polyanthuses; and from that time to the pre- 
sent we may say, as Abercrombie said in 1778, “ the ! 
Polyanthus is one of the noted prize flowers among | 
florists, many of whom are remarkably industrious in 
raising a considerable variety of different sorts." 
Even in Abercrombie’s days it was considered that 
“ a Polyanthus must possess several particular properties 
to have admittance in their choice collections;’’ and we 
shall detail the “ properties ” that were then considered 
characters of excellence, because they are evidence that 
later authorities have done little more than particularize 
more precisely what our gardening ancestors had pre¬ 
viously adjudged to be marks of merit:—“ 1 . The stem, 
or flower-stalk, shall be upright, moderately tall, with 
strength in proportion, and crowned by a good, regular 
bunch of flowers, on short pedicles (stalks), strong 
enough to support them nearly in an upright position 
2. The florets (pips) of each bunch should be equally 
large, spread open flat, with the colours exquisite, and 
the stripes and variegations lively and regular. 3. The 
eye in the centre of each floret should be large, regular, 
and bright; and the anthers (by the florists called the 
No. LX-XXIIL, Vol. IV. 
