CURRENT NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
We have to record, with great regret, the death of 
Henry B. Ellwanger. Esq., of Rochester, N. Y., who 
died August 7th. in the 38th year of his age. Mr. Ell¬ 
wanger was the son of Geo. Ellwanger. Esq., the senior 
member of the well-known firm of Ellwanger & Barry, 
the most enterprising and successful nurserymen in the 
United States. Mr. Ellwanger's life was a happy blend¬ 
ing of the ideal and the actual. Inheriting from his 
father a true love of the beautiful in Nature,-combined 
with energy and strict business principles, he devoted 
his life assiduously and with untiring interest to the 
improvement in and the cultivation of the Rose. His 
love for the Rose was no mere fancy, or fickle caprice: 
but fervent and enduring. Not satisfied with the im¬ 
provement that other rosarians had made in the Rose, 
in the most careful, energetic and systematic way, he 
turned his attention to producing new varieties, by care¬ 
ful selection and hybridization. In this work he was 
eminently successful, having produced several very 
beautiful varieties of acknowledged merit, besides an 
immense number that have not as yet been fully tested. 
In his death, the Rose has lost one of its truest, best 
friends, as he was the only man in this country that 
made its cultivation and development a special work. 
Those only, who have read his book, "The Rose, - ’ can 
fully appreciate his labor of love, in Rose culture. 
Mr. Ellwanger was quiet and unassuming in manner, 
kind and genial in disposition, highly esteemed by all 
who knew him; a man. indeed for whom everybody had 
a good word ; he therefore leaves a wide circle to lament 
his loss. 
Mr. Da>'a, of the Sun has been so fortunate as to 
secure Wm. Falconer of the Harvard Botanical Gardens, 
to superintend his private gardens at Glen Cove, N. Y. 
■While this may be very desirable for Mr. Dana, we can 
but feel that it will prove a loss to Harvard College, 
and this they appreciate, as we understand that it is 
against their wishes that the change is made. 
* * 
* 
At each weekly meeting of the Massachusetts Horti¬ 
cultural Society, there are special prizes offered for the 
best display of flowers of a certain class. One week it 
will be for Rhododendrons, another, Roses, and so on 
through the year, each week being for the most season¬ 
able ones. At the meeting held August 18th, Gladiolus 
was the specialty, and the display was very fine, credit¬ 
able alike to the Society and the exhibitors. 
Mrs. T. L. Nelson, of Worcester, carried off the first 
prize for the best twenty named varieties, and the 
second, for the best six. James Cartwright was awarded 
the prize for the best general display. 
T. Bacheller, Esq., took the first prize for the best ten 
varieties; also for the best six. 
J. C. Hyde, Esq., exhibited his new hybrid, White 
Gladiolus, for which he had previously received the So¬ 
ciety’s Gold Medal, an award to which he was justly 
entitled. 
C. L. Allen & Co., made a special display of their 
Seedling Gladiolus, in which wero Emma Thursby, Bayard 
Taylor and Martha Washington, and was awarded the 
Society’s Certificate of Merit, Choice Roses, Dahlias, 
and miscellaneous flowers and vegetables wero also ex¬ 
hibited. 
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* 
Some idea of the English mania for orchids may be 
had from the prices paid for rare varieties at a recent 
auction sale in London. Thus Cattleya Triance Dodg-- 
soui, a single plant, fetched 8025; Leliaanceps Dawsoui, 
$410: Cattleya exoniensis, §380; a smaller plant, §250; 
Cattleya Triame Osmani, 81,075. and Dendrobium Ains- 
worthi. 8330. 
Note—Within the past two years, a single plant of 
Augrrecum brought over 8000 at an auction in New 
York. 
* * * 
* 
The Southern l )'oriel says, that a flower garden owned 
by Mr. Ott, of Aiken. S. C., contains 1,000 bushes of 
Roses, over 200 varieties, and that the air is redolent 
with the perfume of ten thousand Roses in bloom at the 
same time. Mr. Ott has been experimenting for nearly 
fifteen years in the cultivation of Roses, and has demon¬ 
strated that the most tender and delicate kinds can be 
grown in that section in the open air without the least 
protection. The Tea, China, Bourbon, and Noisette 
varieties are produced in luxurious profusion, and with 
a constant succession of blooms from March to Decem¬ 
ber. Some years he has had Roses in bloom on the 18th 
of December, and one year he gathered them on Christ¬ 
mas Day from bushes in the open garden. 
From earh' spring to late fall, his garden is one of 
delight to the eye and smell, and its wealth of beautiful 
colors and fragrance, well entitles it to the appellation 
of “the land of Roses.” 
* * 
* 
We would advise any one that wishes to become a 
good plant-grower, not to give up trying, with one or 
two failures of a certain kind of plant. Some one suc¬ 
ceeds admirably with just the kind of plant you have 
failed with; if you will patiently work with good reso¬ 
lution until you have fully succeeded with some plants 
which you have hitherto failed with, you will have done 
much to establish habits that will enable you to succeed 
more uniformly and more generally in the future. 
When a plant fails you, use a little "grit” patiently. 
* * 
* 
The big trees of California are over-topped by the 
Peppermint trees (Eucalyptus piperila) of Australia. 
Baron F. von Mueller, of Melbourne, describes one of 
the gigantic height of 480 feet. Professor T. K. Bruner 
says, “ It is well known that North Carolina comes next 
to the great West in the production of trees. Major 
Bomar of that State has just felled a chestnut which 
measured nine feet in diameter. The tree was a sapling 
when Columbus was sailing westward in search of the 
undiscovered world.” 
