August 1] 
THF, COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M, Vtf 
D D | 
[ 
AUGUST 1—7, I860. 
Weather near London 
in 1849. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Ago. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Vear. 
lTa 
Lammas Day. Swallow's second brood fledged. 
T. 74°— 45°. 
W. 
Fine. 
25 a. 4 
47 a. 7 
11 a .29 
G 
6 
1 
213 
2 F 
Large Egger Moth seen. 
T. 74°—55°. 
s.w. 
Fine. 
26 
46 
morn. 
2 4 
5 
57 
214 
3'S 
Mugwort flowers. 
T. C 7 0 — 30 °. 
N.E. 
Rain. 
28 
44 
0 2 
25 
5 
53 
215 
4 Sun 
10 Sunday aft. Trinity. 
T. 70°—41°. 
N.E, 
Fine. 
29 
42 
0 43 
26 
5 
48 
216 
5 M 
Mushrooms abound. 
T. 72°—42°. 
S.E. 
Fine. 
31 
41 
1 32 
27 
5 
43 
217 
6 To 
Prince Alfred born, 1814. 
T. 80°—44°. 
W. 
Fine. 
33 
39 
2 .34 
28 
5 
37 
218 
7W 
Name of Jesus. Honeysuckle berries ripe. 
T. 83°—60°. 
w. 
Rain. 
34 
37 
rises. 
© 
5 
30 
21Q 
Even as late as the end of Henry the Eighth’s reign (1516) it was the 
custom of his queen to send for a salad to Holland ; and his daughter, 
Queen Elizabeth, when endeavouring to improve our horticulture, and to 
rescue it from that shameful dependence, thought it wise to seek for in¬ 
structors in the same country ; she obtained from thence one Tredeskin, 
or Tradeskin, to be the Royal Gardener, who, with his equally cele¬ 
brated son, are especially entitled to our notice. John Tredeskin, or, 
as it is now usual to call him, Tradescant, was not gardener to Queen 
Elizabeth only, but probably held the same appointment in the royal 
households of her successors, James and Charles I., for when he died 
about this time in 1637 he was succeeded, as gardener to the king last 
named, by his son, usually known as John Tradescant the younger. 
There is no record of his burial, but in the Churchwarden’s accounts for 
1G37-8 of the parish where he resided, St. Mary’s, Lambeth, there is this 
funereal entry :—“ Item. John Tredeskin-, ye gret hell and black cloth, 
5s 4d.” His wife had died three years previously, for in the same parish 
officer’s accounts for 1634 is this acknowledgment—“June 1. Received for 
burial of Jane, wife of John Tradeskin, 12s.” The emoluments arising from 
the office of Royal Gardener were considerable ; money was then live times 
more valuable than now, yet even then the gardener at Hampton Court 
(who was also a foreigner, John Dinyc), another of the royal establish¬ 
ments, received about two shillings per day, and Tradescant probably, as 
the head cultivator of the London establishments, would receive more. 
It is, moreover, certain that he had profited both in acquiring knowledge 
and wealth by being gardener to tne Lord Treasurer Salisbury, Lord 
Wotton, and the Duke of Buckingham, previously to succeeding to the 
royal gardenership. He Was devoted to his profession, and travelled far 
more assiduously and fearlessly in pursuit of plants than did his contem¬ 
porary Gerard ; the emblematic figures still traceable upon his tomb in 
Lambeth churchyard seem to have reference to his visits to Greece, 
Egypt, and Barbary; and lie even accompanied the fleet sent against the 
Algerines in 1620, for no other purpose than to obtain a supply of Algier 
apricot trees : he was successful in his enterprise, and our gardens were 
also indebted to him for a new strawberry from Brussels, and a superior 
variety of plum from Turkey. Our pleasure grounds also were enriched 
by him with the deciduous Cypress, and many flowers. He lived and 
died, at the date we have stated, at his house in South Lambeth, and 
surrounded by the plants and curiosities he had collected in such 
abundance that the garden and establishment wefe known popularly as 
“Tradescant’s Ark.” His son, John Tradescant, junior, succeeded 
him in his appointment, and was in every way his equal as a gardener, 
naturalist, and antiquary. He also was a traveller in search of plants, 
visiting Virginia in 1020, and bringing thence many new plants ; among 
these was the Spiderwort, and if this was named after liim Tradescantia, 
in allusion to his fondness for antiquities, it is a satire not severe enough 
to be offensive, nor within the just reproof—“ if you crown a botanist let 
it not be with thorns.” We have before us that rarity—a perfect copy of 
his catalogue, with portraits of his father and himself, entitled Musanim 
Insects. —About April may be 
seen in bake-houses and mills— 
especially in those not kept very 
dry and scrupulously clean — a 
pitch-black beetle, with wing-cases 
regularly furrowed ; antenme, 
RANGE OF BAROMETER—RAIN IN INCHES. 
Aug. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
18 48. 
1849- 
B. 
/ 29.923 
30.2/7 
29.934 
29.807 
29.732 
29.752 
30.018 
29.669 
30.117 
1 
129.790 
30.218 
29.849 
29.732 
29.578 
29.h70 
29.944 
29.369 
30.053 
R. 
0.02 
— 
— 
0.02 
0.06 
1.23 
-T- 
0.34 
— 
B. 
r 29 . 9:17 
39.183 
29.750 
29.868 
29.518 
29.830 
30.044 
29.949 
30.139 
2 
129.795 
29.979 
20.621 
29.744 
29.340 
29.612 
20.827 
29.880 
30.092 
R. 
0.38 
0.02 
0.11 
0.01 
0.65 
— 
0.10 
— 
r 29.(191 
29.950 
29.574 
29.469 
29.761 
29.925 
30.009 
29.856 
29.937 
1 29.4 1 1 
29.889 
29.551 
29.420 
29.630 
29.802 
30.003 
29.707 
29.965 
R. 
0.38 
— 
1.03 
0.15 
0.10 
0.04 
— 
0.15 
0.02 
f 29.785 
29.902 
29.905 
29-833 
29.694 
29.942 
29.945 
29.671 
29.979 
1 29-385 
29.823 
29.527 
29-683 
29.681 
29.922 
29.711 
29.652 
29.900 
R. 
_ 
— 
0.18 
0.01 
— 
0.85 
0.02 
0.05 
— 
B. 
1 - 29.742 
2Q.930 
29-858 
29.833 
29.672 
29.920 
29.640 
29.532 
29.939 
5 
\ 29.009 
29.90 4 
29.774 
29.632 
29.597 
29.827 
29.505 
29.429 
29.863 
R. 
0.01 
— 
0.02 
0.37 
0.05 
0.43 
0.28 
0.1 1 
— 
B. 
/ 29.851 
29.937 
30.116 
29.587 
29-824 
29.906 
29.733 
29.775 
30.048 
\ 29.993 
28.844 
29.890 
29.522 
29 . 77 s 
29.835 
29.505 
29.639 
29.939 
Ri 
0.07 
0.15 
— 
0.02 
0.12 
— 
— 
0.12 
— 
r 29.893 
29.993 
30.211 
29.656 
29.736 
29.747 
29.773 
29.639 
30.062 
7 
129.798 
29.859 
30.HJ1 
29.621 
29.728 
29.692 
29.723 
29.921 
30.018 
R. 
~ 
0.12 
0.24 
0.17 
though el even-join ted, short; and 
with feet and some of its edges 
rather rusty coloured. This is the 
Tenebrio rnnlitor, the grubs or 
larvai of which are the Meal Worms 
so destructive to flour kept in 
damp, ill-ventilated stores, and to biscuits during long sea voyages. 
These grubs—the favourite food of the nightingale when in an aviary—are 
of a ditty-white colour, 13-segmented, smooth, littd soft. They are the 
Trade sc anti anum; or, a collection of r (trities preserved at South Lam¬ 
beth, neer London, by John Tradescant. This was published in 1656 ; 
and that it did contain rarities our readers may judge when we state that, 
one item is, “ Two feathers of the Phcenix tail I ” The list of plants in 
this catalogue is far more rich and authentic, for he was here a teacher 
and not a novice; and it is gratifying that the very spot is known where 
they were cultivated by him ; it is close to the vinegar manufactory ot 
Messrs. Beaufoy ; and when visited by Dr.Watson in 1749 a few plants were 
detected among the weeds—“manifest footsteps ot the founder.” That spot 
is yet worthy of a pilgrimage, and we wish the garden could be found there 
entire, to reward the research of each palmer of science, instead ot being 
almost traceless, and associated with many details of sorrow and shame. 
Tradescant found himself in old age childless; and he tells us of the de¬ 
parture of the last of his descendants, when, in all the simplicity of true 
grief, he states that his catalogue had been long before written, when 
“ presently thereupon my only son died,” and for four years it was passeal 
aside. Mr. Ashmole, a man of congenial pursuits, lodged in Tradescant’s 
house, and the childless couple, for Tradescant’s wile was a party, by a 
deed of gift (we use Ashmole’s own words) “bestowed upon me their 
closet of curiosities when they died.” Tradescant died on the 22nd, and 
was buried on the 26th of April, 1662, and Ashmole has the boldness to 
record his own baseness when he enters in his Diary, under the date of 
May 30th— May of the same year /—“ This Easter Term I preferred a 
bill in Chancery against Mrs. Tradescant for the rarities her husband had 
settled on me.” In two years he records that his suit came to a hearing, 
and he evidently was foiled, for he does not state the result, and the 
widow remained in possession. But the antiquarian vulture .was not to 
be baffled; he hung upon the aged widow, and, we may be sure, im¬ 
portuned and dogged her, and was impatient that death did not sooner 
render the gift-deed operative. At length he prevailed, and tells us in 
his Diary—“ Nov. 26, 1674. Mrs. Tradescant being willing to deliver up 
the rarities to me I carried several of them to my house.” This taking 
from the old widow these relics .aid remembrances of happier times seems 
to have continued at intervals, and then came the fearful ending, which 
the spoiler shall tell himself. “ 11)/S, April 4. My wife told me Mrs. 
Tradescant was found drowned in her pond !” We have erred—this was 
not the end; for next year Ashmole obtained a lease of the poor old 
widow’s house and garden, and the name of Tradescant is not associated 
with that of Ashmole, though his “closet of curiosities” formed a part 
of what is now the Ashmolean Museum. We arc- aware that there is a 
document in the Bodleian Library purporting to be signed by Mrs. 
Tradescant, acknowledging she had vilified Mr. Ashmole ; but who shall 
convince us that that signature is genuine ? 
Meteorology of the Week. — At Chiswick, from observations 
during the last 23 years, the average highest and lowest temperatures of 
these days are 7 4*4°, and 52’3°. The greatest heat, 92°, was on the 1st, 
in 1846, and the lowest cold, S6°, on the 6th, in 1833. 
more destructive because they will remain two years in this form before 
entering the chrysalis state. 
No. XCVI., Vol. IV. 
