Dec. 27th, 1884. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
265 
convenient size for small conservatories and for general 
decorative purposes. 
The following are a few of the best varieties :— 
Alba, white ; Carduusifolia, maroon ; Coachman, 
pearly white, very good ; Gus Harris, rosy-lilac, a 
very pretty variety, of dwarf habit; Henry Irving, 
soft rose, with silvery shading. This is a very free- 
flowering variety, and can be had in bloom as late as 
January. Miss Cannell, white ; Mr. Toole, yellow; 
Mrs. Wills, large and good ; Magenta King, Bliss 
Beckwith, and Mrs. Langtry. In my next I will give 
a few directions as to the large-flowering varieties.— 
W. E. Boyce, Holloway. 
JAMES DOUGLAS. 
We have the pleasure this week to present our 
readers with the portrait of a practical gardener, 
he still retains a vivid recollection of the delight he 
experienced when a noted local gardener paid him a 
visit and begged some pipings of him. 
In 1852 he left school, and commenced to work in a 
nursery at Kelso, where he became acquainted with a 
green-edged Auricula, for which, so great was his 
admiration for the flower, he would have freely given 
all the money he possessed. At any rate, it did not 
become his property, but it did make him an Auricula 
grower, with what results most of our readers are 
doubtless as familiar as we are ourselves. Three 
years later the nursery boy was apprenticed to 
Mr. Tom, at Newtondon, near Kelso. Here he was 
first initiated into the arts and mysteries—dare we 
say it—of preparing plants and flowers for exhibition, 
for Mr. Tom was a Dahlia and Hollyhock grower of 
some repute, and a very successful exhibitor as well. 
Like all the old Scotch gardeners of his time, he had, 
too, a perfect knowledge of the cultivation of hardy 
obtained varieties superior to both. Mr. Laing also 
grew Chrysanthemums at Dysart better than they had 
ever been done in Scotland before; indeed, Mr. 
Douglas asserts that he has never seen any better 
since, and that he will never forget the three blooms 
of Golden Queen which BIr. Laing exhibited in 
Edinburgh the year it was sent out, and in which year 
also he cleared off all the first prizes. 
Coming south when he left The Raith, in 1861, Mr. 
Douglas was sent by Blessrs. Veitcli to Busbridge 
Hall, near Godaiming, where Mr. Kitson was gardener, 
then as now. At Busbridge, florists’ flowers were net 
grown, and nearly all his leisure time was spent in 
the study of botany and in collecting specimens of 
British plants between Godaiming and Guildford. In 
1863, BIr. Douglas entered the service of Francis 
Whitbourn, Esq., his present employer, as head 
gardener, and Loxford Hall soon became a noted 
place for good gardening. While at Loxford, or since 
JAMES DOUGLAS. 
whose achievements as a cultivator and exhibitor of 
all kinds of garden produce; combined with his 
voluminous contributions to the periodical, horti¬ 
cultural literature of the day, have made his name 
a household word among his brother gardeners, 
amateur and professional alike. The gardening 
experience of our friend dates from the time when he 
was a small boy at school, when fancy led him to 
attempt the cultivation of Pansies, on which subject 
he obtained sufficient information to enable him to 
make a creditable start from Chambers' Information 
for the People. Achieving a fair measure of success 
with the Pansy, the young florist next took the Pink 
in hand, and soon became proficient in its propa¬ 
gation out-of-doors in a partially shaded place ; and 
he attributes much of the success he then obtained to 
always waiting for a rainy day to take off the pipings. 
His skill as a propagator of this favourite old flower 
spread beyond the boundary of his own garden, and 
fruit-trees, and was specially skilled in the manage¬ 
ment of those grown against walls. 
At Newtondon, Mr. Douglas stayed three years, 
and then went to The Raith, near Kirkaldy, as 
a journeyman, under the late BIr. Crocket, who was 
also a good gardener, but somewhat eccentric in his 
ways. He was extremely fond of propagating all 
kinds of trees and shrubs; indeed, he followed his 
hobby too keenly, and ultimately his mind gave way. 
After the first year, the young journeyman became 
foreman, with charge of the houses. At that 
time the nearest neighbouring gardener was BIr. John 
Laing, then gardener to the Earl of Rosslyn, at 
Dysart, now of the Stanstead Park Nursery, Forest 
Hill. It was, we are assured, a great treat to a 
gardener, young or old, to visit Dysart in those days, 
for BIr. Laing had scored a great success in raising 
a new type of Holyhock. He crossed the typical 
English and Scotch flowers in vogue then, and 
he has been at Mr. Whitbourn’s new place at Great 
Gearies, Mr. Douglas has never made any one thing 
a speciality, but, on the contrary, has exhibited all 
kinds of horticultural and floricultural produce. From 
ten to fifteen years ago, he was a very successful 
exhibitor of fruits, his first entry into the competitive 
arena being with a single Pine Apple, which gained 
the first prize, a silver gilt medal of the Royal 
Botanic Society. In June, 1870, BIr. Douglas was an 
exhibitor of fruit at the great show of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, at South Kensington, and came 
out of the contest with flying colours. As many will 
remember the ten classes for fruit that were open for 
competition on that occasion, brought out a really 
splendid display, and BIr. Douglas was successful in 
winning no less than five of the first prizes. 
Since that time, BIr. Douglas has been a successful 
grower and exhibitor of Chrysanthemums, Gladioli, 
Orchids, Hyacinths and other spring-flowering bulbous 
