96 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[Jtjne, 
— Che new Marvel of Peru, Mirabilis 
multiflora, is a strikingly beautiful tuberous- 
rooted perennial, flowering abundantly during 
the late summer months, and continuing in beauty 
till cut down by frosts. Like its congeners it 
branches freely, forming large bushy masses, and the 
numerous branches are each terminated by a cluster 
of buds which open in succession, so that when the 
sun shines brightly, the plant is aglow with bright 
purple colour. It has been but a few years in 
cultivation, and is yet hut little known, though it 
deserves to be more widely cultivated. It is a native 
of California and New Mexico, and is consequently 
nearly hardy like the older species, requiring only 
the protection of the tuberous roots from frost and 
damp. We owe its introduction to Mr. Thompson, 
of Ipswich. 
— $n reference to what are called Dessert 
and Baking Apples, we read the following in 
a contemporary :—The division of apples into 
eating and cooking sorts, while apparently natural 
enough, really covers a fallacy. The best eating 
apple is generally the best cooking apple. When a 
thing is good without the cook do without the cook ; 
but when one wishes for cooked apples there is no 
need to take sour ones and then bathe them in sugar 
if we can find a fruit in which the good qualities are 
so gently mixed, so to say, that no sugar or other arti¬ 
ficial mixture need be added to make a delicious 
dish. The true cooking apple is one that will do 
this, and I seldom find it except in the Blenheim 
Pippin when fresh, in the Newtown Pippin, Cox’s 
Orange Pippin, and the Cranberry Pippin, an 
American sort. A kind that grows its own sugar 
and its own delicate flavouring is the best cooking 
apple.— {Garden.) 
— Amongst the finer hybrid Greenhouse 
varieties, Rhododendron Forsterianum holds 
a high position. This hybrid was raised by 
Mr. Otto Porster from B. Veitchii fertilised with 
pollen of B. Bdgeivorthii. The flowers are of an 
exquisite lemon or primrose tinee, very large and 
scented, and inherit the ineffable delicacy of B. 
Veitchii, with more substance—in fact, they are 
more like those of a Rhododendron and less like those 
of an Azalea. 
•—- Hmong the late Rev. J. G. Nelson's 
Seedling Narcissi Mr. Burbidge mentions a 
most remarkable Daffodil of the N. moschatus 
bicolor group, named Narcissus Gertrude Jekyll. It 
has a fine bold and distinct flower, of a clear sulphur- 
yellow, stained or suffused with gamboge-yellow ; the 
corona is 2 inches in length, also clear sulphur, with 
a deeper coloured rim. It has a beeswax-like odour, 
which suggests its being related to N. moschatus, 
but the perianth and coronet are of a firmer texture, 
indeed in form and size the flower is that of N. bicolor 
Horsfieldii, though the colour is very different. It 
is named Gertrude Jekyll, in compliment to a lover 
of hardy flowers. 
— {JThe following plan of Renovating Old 
Black Currant Bushes is adopted by Mr. 
Gilbert in the gardens at Burghley, the seat 
of the Marquis of Exeter, as we learn from the 
Journal of Horticulture. The old currant bushes 
are made young again, it would seem, by a very 
simple process. A certain number of them are cut 
down yearly almost to the ground, They push 
strong growths, and in a year or two the inferior 
produce is replaced by splendid fruit. Some bushes 
that at a glance appear four or five years old are, 
perhaps, five times that age—perhaps more. If the 
ground is not dug, but dressed with manure and 
soil annually, black currant bushes may be kept 
profitable for generations, as Ihey bear cutting down 
about as well as Willows, and, like Willows, after¬ 
wards grow vigorously. 
in fftrmonam. 
— (JTharles Robert Darwin, Esq., died 
on April 19, at his residence, Down, near 
Beckenham, Kent, in his 74th year. He was 
born at Shrewsbury in 1809, and was educated at 
the Grammar School in that town, whence he pro¬ 
ceeded to Edinburgh and afterwards to Cambridge, 
at which latter place he became a pupil of the late 
Professor flenslow, to whom and to Professor Sedg- 
wicke he owed much as regards the development of 
his scientific tendencies. Mr. Darwin’s services as 
naturalist on board the Beagle, during its five years’ 
voyage round the world, gave him, while still young, 
a place amongst the foremost of rising naturalists; 
but it was not till the appearance in 1859 of his 
Origin of Species, a work which has sufficed, in less 
than a quarter of a century, to revolutionise natural 
history, that he became known to the public at large. 
For him close personal observation and extensive re¬ 
search were not enough, but the most elaborate actual 
experiments were brought to bear upon his inquiries 
with a sagacity in conception and a patience in carrying 
out which have rarely been equalled and never sur¬ 
passed. These manifold researches raised Darwin to 
the highest rank among naturalists. 
— J®Ir. Thomas Woodhead died of Bright’s 
disease at his residence, Shibden Head, Halifax, 
on April 30, at the age of 50 years. He 
had been a lover of flowers from childhood, and for 
twenty years he had been a grower of Auriculas, of 
which he possessed certainly one of the best collec¬ 
tions in England, and in the blooming season he spent 
a great portion of his leisure among his flowers. He 
filled the position of manager of the Shibden Head 
Brewery Company at Halifax for a considerable 
time. Of late years he has raised numerous seedlings, 
a few of which have been seen at South Kensington. 
The collection is said to be rich in such fine varieties 
as George Lightbody, Smiling Beauty, Lancashire 
Hero, &c., as well as promising seedlings. In private 
life Mr. Woodhead was much esteemed, being one of 
Nature’s noblemen. 
— JEIr. Thomas Mellor, for many years 
a constant exhibitor at the Auricula and Tulip 
shows in Lancashire, died at his residence, 
Ashton-under-Lyne, on May 1, at the age of 60 
years. He was a shoemaker by trade, but of late 
years had devot-d himself almost entirely to flori- 
cultural pursuits, cultivating Auriculas, Polyanthuses, 
Pinks, Ranunculuses, Tulips, Carnations, Picotees, 
&c. He was one of the last of the Pink growers in 
his district, and as much as thirty years ago was an 
exhibitor of these flowers at Middleton. His fine 
collection of Auriculas has, we hear, passed into the 
hands of Mr. Brockbank, of Didsbury. As a raiser 
he appears to have done but little, save with Auriculas, 
of which he is reported to have had a fine lot of 
promising seedlings. He was very upright in all his 
transactions as a florist, and is much mourned by 
those who had floricultural relations with him, as 
well as by his more intimate friends. 
