278 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
January 1, 1898. 
PEOPLE WE HAVE MET. 
Mr. F. W. Ashton. 
The accompanying portrait of Mr. Francis Widdous 
Ashton will recall a face that is now familiar to 
many of our readers, for he is frequently moving 
about in various parts of the country, and in atten- 
Mr. F. W. Ashton. 
dance at most of the leading shows where Orchids 
constitute an important feature. 
Mr. Ashton was born at Barnage, near Manchester, 
in i860, and was educated at Withington. His 
school career must have been brief, however, for we 
find that he commenced to earn his own livelihood at 
the early age of eleven, this being due to a series of 
disasters which overtook the family. The gardening 
profession offered the best inducement to tbe school 
lad, and he engaged as an apprentice in the establish¬ 
ment of W. Young, Esq., Highfield, Heaton Mersey. 
Upon the completion of his apprenticeship he 
obtained the position of first journeyman at West 
Bank House, in the same neighbourhood, and now 
the property of J. Leemann, Esq., of Orchid 
fame. 
After a time Mr. Ashton was transferred in a 
similar capacity to the establishment of W. R. 
Leake, Esq., of The Dales, Whitefield, which he 
shortly left, bovever, feeling a strong desire to learn 
the forcing of the bitter classes of fruit and flowers 
for market. With this object in view he entered 
the employment of Mr. Duncalf, of Macclesfield, 
about the time when Cucumbers in winter were 
being sold at a guinea apiece, and Strawberries at 
figures running as high as twen’y-jight shillings per 
pound. 
By this time, however. Mr. Ashton had con¬ 
tracted a strong love for Orchids, which has never 
since forsaken him. The Cucumbers and Straw¬ 
berries ceased to interest him, and in due course he 
relinquished his connection with them. Having 
applied for and obtained an appointment asastudeDt 
in the Royal Gardens, Kew, he came south and 
entered upon his new duties in 1880. After serving 
a year and eight months in the propagating depart¬ 
ment, he was appointed sub-foreman in the Orchid 
department. 
Here he continued his labours with unabated 
ardour till May, 1885, when he thought it time to be 
moving again to fresh fields and pastures new, as be¬ 
hoves all earnest and energetic young men. Long 
before this, however, he had attended all the courses 
of lectures given to students in Kew Gardens, and 
secured all the certificates obtainable for the same. 
Wnen about to leave, Mr. Ashton was appointed to 
a foreign post, but before the time for his departure 
had arrived he resigned,at the same time securing the 
position of Orchid grower of the trade collection of 
J. R. Wood, Esq., of Barvins Park, near Potters 
Bar, Herts. While here, Mr. Ashton met the young 
lady who now shares his sorrows and joys; and 
since he married her he has always considered it one 
of the most fortunate steps he took. 
After a sojourn of three years at Barvins Park, he 
was appointed foreman in tbe Orchid department of 
the Liverpool Horticultural Company, at GarstoD, 
which position he held for about three years—until, 
in fact, he was offered the post of foreman and 
occasional traveller to Messrs. Charlesworth, 
Shuttleworth & Co., of Bradford, with whom he 
stayed several yea r s. At length, however, he found 
it necessary to leave this northern district on 
account of his wife’s health, which had never been 
good during his residence there ; and he accepted the 
position of traveller for Messrs. W. L. Lewis & Co , 
Southgate, N., later on being promoted to the man¬ 
agership of the establishment In 1893 he was ad¬ 
mitted into partnership. Shortly after this period 
he had the serious misfortune to lose the use of his 
left eye, owing to a severe attack of influenza, from 
which he has never fully recovered. 
Altogether the subject of this sketch has had a 
wide and varied experience, but is yet a young man 
with many years of useful life before him as far as 
human eyes can discern; and we wish him many 
years of enjoyment amongst bis favourite flowers. 
He still carries the same unassuming demeanour, 
and possesses the same genial and courteous 
disposition as when we first met him in 1880 at Kew. 
He himself entertains lively and grateful recollec¬ 
tions of Kew; for in all his wanderings he has never 
met with more consideration from anyone than 
from Mr. W. Watson, of Kew, to whom he has 
great pleasure in acknowledging that he owes a very 
large amount of the knowledge that he now 
possesses. Furthermore, he considers that the 
advantages of a course at Kew are invaluable as he 
has proved not only from the education acquired, but 
by reason of the class of men one meets there. 
Certainly the more important positions in horti¬ 
culture throughout the world are mostly held by 
ex-Kewites. 
In the Kew days of which we speak the wages 
obtainable by the young men were on a much lower 
scale than at present and many a one found it 
insufficient to make ends meet. Notwithstanding 
this, when it got rumoured that Mr. Ashton was 
about to leave the establishment, tbeyoung men took 
counsel together and organised a subscription list 
amongst themselves, and collected sufficient with 
which to precure and present Mr. Ashton with six 
volumes of useful books, including the “ Treasury 
of Botany,” "Treasury of History,” "Treasury of 
Geography,” &c., which he has since found very 
useful. Under the circumstances, this will serve to 
indicate the estimation iu which he was held by his 
contemporaries. 
-- 
PRIMULA SINENSIS ALBA PLENA. 
This is an old but really a most useful plant to cul¬ 
tivate for flowering in the warm greenhouse from 
early in November to the end of March, and I think 
it a great pity that it is not more often met with in 
private establishments, especially where white 
flowers are in great demand. A well flowered plant 
in a five or six inch pot well repays the little extra 
attention that it may be necessary to give it through 
the summer months. I find it most useful, either as 
a pot p ant for indoor decoration of the mansion, or 
to cut from for small glasses, as well as for button 
holes, and, to adopt the old saying, one can cut and 
come again, if only a dozen plants are grown. 
What a boon to us gardeners if only a scarlet one 
could be given, and prove almost continuously in 
flower, as the one above mentioned. Some gardeners 
condemn it because the individual flowers are so 
small compared with the newer, named varieties, 
but are these varieties so free flowering as the old 
double white ? I trow not. The last named varies 
a good deal as regard size of flower; some come 
much larger than others, and the additional name 
grandiflora is given it by same growers who consider 
it an improvement on the type ; but this is not my 
opinion. I maintain it is only a matter of culture 
and find as a rule that those plants having one 
crown give the finest flowers. 
I have a good batch of over one hundred, as I 
consider it is one of the most useful plants that can 
be grown by those who can command a temperature 
not below fiity degrees during the night, with a 
corresponding rise in the day. If the Editor can 
find space in his valuable paper, and thinks it would 
be instructive, I will give my mode of culture in a 
future issue. [Please do so, Ed.j— J. Maytie, 
Bid n, Devon. 
-- 
STRANGE FREAK OF A BLACKBIRD. 
Although there are two blackbirds concerned in 
my story (a cock and a hen), only one of them (the 
her) was of much interest. This bird came into my 
greenhouse in the spring of 1896, and although I was 
in the house at the time, she seemed to have made 
up her mind that I had no intention of doing her 
harm ; for she set about examining the interior quite 
regardless of my presence. One of the Camellia 
bushes seemed to please her very much as she 
returned again and again to a particular branch, 
turning herself and giving a satisfied tuck, tuck, all 
the time. 
About a fortnight after her first visit she laid the 
foundation stone, or stick, of her nest on the 
Camellia bush in my presence. The frame-work of 
the nest was soon finished with strong, dry material 
of different kinds ; she then began to line it with wet 
muddy, half decayed leaves and fibre of different 
kinds, sitting well down and turning herself round, 
beating the inside of the nest with her wings. I hap¬ 
pened to be washing flower-pots in the house at this 
time, and she seemed to be very much interested in 
what I was doing, coming close up to me and pick¬ 
ing up any wet material from amongst the water on 
the floor. I tried her with a bit of my wet cloth, 
which she picked up and carried to her nest, coming 
back for more, till she had the bulk of the washing 
cloth beaten into her nest. 
After she had the nest perfectly formed with wet 
material she lined it with dry soft grass. After a 
few days rest four eggs were laid (one per day). 
Hatching then commenced, and in due time four 
young blackbirds made their appearance. She was 
not afraid when visitors came in to see her w hile she 
was sitting. The cock did not assist her in any way 
up to this time, but he started to carry food after 
the birds were hatched. He was very timid. 
The food consisted of the larvae of the Noctuidae 
family of moths, the larger larvae of the family 
Tipulidae, the perfect insects and their larvae of the 
order Coleoptera, the earthworm (Lumbricus), the 
Julidae, Scolopendrae, &c. In fact every creeping 
thing was picked up except very small animal life 
and slugs. If gardeners only knew what a quantity 
of garden pests the blackbird destroys, particularly 
at nesting time, they would not kill them when 
caught in their Strawberry nets. The loss of a 
Strawberry or two is nothing compared to tbe good 
they do. 
The hen continued to feed the ycung birds for a 
few days after they were fledged, then started to 
build again. The cock continued feeding much 
longer —till they were full sized. Two nests of birds 
were brought out in 1896, the first inside the green¬ 
house, the second outside, the same thing being re¬ 
peated in 1897. 
As soon as the young birds of the last nest were 
able to look after themselves the mother left them 
and roosted in the greenhouse alone. She came 
readily to my call, being always rewarded with some 
of her tit-bits that I came to know about. 
When snow covered the ground and the frost held 
everything in an icy grip she remained mostly inside 
the greenhouse. I fed her every day, and she got 
water from the tank inside the greenhouse, on the 
side of which she often perched herself, when the 
water was running into it, accompanying the mur¬ 
mur of the water with a soft low song (for the hen 
sing«). The soug sounded like a far away echo of 
the full bold notes of her mate No more, however, 
will I hear her song of gratitude, for an ominous 
patch of feathers lay near her haunts, and I have not 
seen her since. —IF. K. 
--*•- 
TIE PUNT HOUSES. 
Th« Stove. 
As we are now in the dead of winter and the plants 
for the most part in a state of comparative rest, 
nothing should be done to unduly excite them. The 
night temperature should stand at about 6o° Fahr., 
with a substantial rise during the day, that is if the 
weather is fine If we experience very frosty or cold 
windy weather there will not be very much difference 
