August 18, 1900. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
809 
Thoroughly clean pots should be used. Crock them 
with the utmost care to the depth of 3 in. or 4 in., 
and cover the crocks with clean fibre. Employ a 
a compost of fibrous loam and peat, one half each, 
and brocken crocks, pieces of charcoal the size of 
finger-nail?, and coarse silver sand at the rate of one- 
fifth each. Sphagnum is used, but this we do not 
recommend. Mix thoroughly, and after having 
examined the roots and pruned off any decaying 
parts, even washing them, if the previous compost 
was bad, place them within the pot, spreading them 
well out, and work the turfy compost all around 
them firmly. Do not use a rammer, but consolidate 
the compost by gentle knocking and tig^it pressing 
with the fingers. Keep the base of the plant level 
with the rim of the pot. As a rule the surface of 
the compost around the plants is slightly mounded 
up to keep the base of the stem drief and healthier. 
It may put you to some inconvenience to get good 
fibrous peat and loam, but if you wish your 
Anthuriums to grow well you must obtain it. 
Always use water for dewing, and for watering with, 
which is of the same temperature as that of the 
house in which they grow, and a stove is necessary 
with a minimum of 63". 
-- f - 
DEATH OF AN EMINENT HORTICUL¬ 
TURIST. 
Mr, John Laing, V.M.H., F.R.H.S. 
It is almost unnecessary to introduce the name of 
Mr. John Laing to our readers, so well known has he 
been for many years past to a wide circle of the 
horticultural fraternity and others. It is our sorrow¬ 
ful duty to intimate that he died at 3 p.m. on Wed¬ 
nesday, the 8 inst., at his residence, Stanstead Park, 
Forest Hill, at the age of seventy-seven years. 
Though he had passed the allotted span of three 
score years and ten, he seemed a robust, hale, and 
hearty man till quite recently. We had some indi- 
Mr. John Alexander Laing, F.R.H S. 
cations of the symptoms that old age and hard 
work were telling strongly upon his constitution last 
autumn when he fell down helplessly at the Crystal 
Palace, and had to be conveyed home. The imme¬ 
diate cause of death was a stroke of paralysis, which 
was quite unexpected, as he had greatly recovered 
his wonted health. 
Mr. John LaiDg was born in October, 1823, in the 
parish of Careston, Brechin, Forfarshire, so that 
he only wanted some seventy-six days of completing 
his seventy-seventh year. Horticultural work was 
truly his natural sphere of action, and we have the 
evidence that he commenced work as a lad in the 
gardens at Old Montrose, under Mr. Reid, an 
enthusiastic gardener and exhibitor of those days, 
who, no doubt, imparted to his subordinate some of 
the fire which stimulated his own activity. A col¬ 
lection of hardy herbaceous plants is generally a 
feature of northern gardens, and Mr. Reid had a 
good one, which he used to good account in impart¬ 
ing a love of plants to his pupil. Mr. Laing took up 
the subject in considerable earnest, collecting and 
identifying the wild plants of the neighbourhood by 
study and the use of books in his leisure time, which 
was by no means great, for Old Montrose was by 
that time little else than a market garden with work- 
Mr. John Laing, V.M.H., FR.H S. 
ing hours from 5 a m. to 8 p m., four days a week 
during summer. But " Where there’s a will there’s 
a way," and Mr. Laing pushed his studies in spite of 
difficulties. He remained at Old Montrose for four 
years, receiving many hints from a medical student, 
his companion, till the latter received an appoint¬ 
ment at Manilla. 
After acquiring a good knowledge of the British 
phanerogams in the district he took up the study of 
cryptogams, particularly Mosses and JuDger- 
manniae. 
The next stage of his career was spent at Kinnaird 
Castle, the seat of the Earl of Southesk, where he 
acted as journeyman gardener, and continued his 
studies Here he discovered several Mosses pre¬ 
viously unknown in the district, as well as Corallor- 
rhiza innata, a rare British Orchid. Long hours in 
the garden were here again the rule, and by way of 
compensation the young men were allowed an eight 
days' holiday in the year. On the occasion of the 
first of these Mr. Laing and a couple of his friends 
started on a botanical excursion to the Grampians, 
visiting Ballatar and Lochnagar, climbing the 
mountain till on the summit they discovered the 
beautiful Azalea procumbens covering the ground 
with broad, smooth carpets of its leathery evergreen 
leaves. Saxifraga rivularis and several other inter¬ 
esting plants were amongst their t finds. Looking 
across the Dee they enjoyed the magnificent pros¬ 
pect of Ben Macdui and other big bens in that 
region. They spent the night in a farm 
house in the spital of Glen Muick, and resuming 
their journey visited Glen Clova and Loch Brandy, 
in whose dark waters they found Lobelia Dort- 
manna. On the following day they found Lychnis 
alpina, Linnaea borealis and Sonchus alpinus. 
After two years at Kinnaird Castle Mr. Laing 
went to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, 
when the late Mr. McNab was curator. Here the 
study of botany was more actively pursued than 
ever, and during one of his rambles discovered on 
the Salisbury Craigs a rare Dianthus, which had 
never before been known in the district. When a 
specimen was shown at a meeting of the Edinburgh 
Botanical Society the learned professors hinted that 
he must first have planted the Dianthus and then 
discovered it. Taking the clerk of the society with 
him one evening he pointed out the plant in an 
almost inaccessible position. For this discovery he 
was made an associate of the society with all the 
privileges of a Fellow without having lo pay. He 
took advantage of the monthly meetings and ex¬ 
changed specimens with the society and its members. 
He was endeavouring to qualify for the curatorship 
of a botanic garden or to go abroad as a collector. 
Failing to secure an appointment vacant at Madras 
he determined to enter the nursery business. 
In August, 1847, Mr. McNab secured his 
^.appointment as manager of the Onchan Nursery in 
the Isle of Man, and he was so successful that he 
was offered the business on favourable terms ; but 
he could not decide upon settling here and resolved 
to leave the island. 
The Royal Caledonian Society offered a Silver 
Medal for the best fasciculus of British Mosses in 
r847, and Mr. Laing decided to compete, but felt 
rather afraid of Mr. Mclver, of Kew, who had been 
collecting Mosses all over the country for the late 
Sir William Hooker. He therefore resolved to 
limit his collection to specimens collected within a 
radius of ten miles of Edinburgh. Mr. Mclver in 
the meantime received an appointment to go to 
Madras, and Mr. Laing arranged his Mosses while 
in the Isle of Man and sent them to Edinburgh, 
where the prize was awarded him unanimously. 
Professor Greville, Dr. Balfour, Dr. Neil, and others 
examined the collection, finding everything 
correctly named except one variety to which they 
did not give a name. Mr. Laing was very proud of 
that Medal and frequently spoke of it. He also 
treasured his collection of Mosses, which he has 
shown us more than once, with fond recollections. 
He has also recounted to us some of his most arduous 
and most successful botanising journeys from which 
he returned faint, weary, and hungry, till he 
arrived at some human habitation where he could 
get food. 
His Dext move from the Isle of Man was to 
Chester where he was given the management of the 
indoor department of the nursery of Messrs. F. and 
J. Dicksons’ Nurserr. Later on he was offered the 
control of the whole business, but he declined on 
the ground that he was not qualified for the post. 
Mr. James Henry Laing, F.R.H.S. 
After that he became gardener to the Earl of 
Rosslyn, Dysart House, Fife. Here floriculture 
took a firm grip upon him, displacing his ardour for 
botany. Lord Rosslyn had a splendid collection of 
Rhododendrons, and was also fond of Hollyhocks. 
Under Mr. Laing’s care the latter soon rivalled the 
Rhododendrons. He set himself the task of crossing 
the small and compact English varieties with the 
large Scotch strain having broad guard-petals, and 
with the new strain he beat both the English and 
Scotch competitors at the Edinburgh shows. He 
also took to improving the Show Pansy, and was 
remarkably successful. Some of his finest, includ¬ 
ing Countess of Rosslyn, Colonel Wyndham, &c„ 
eclipsed all others of that day. He was the first to 
flower Rhododendron dalhousieanum in Europe, and 
this fact was recorded by Sir William Hooker in the 
Botanical Magazine. By hybridisation he raised 
