^Supplement  to 
M.rch  15,  uoo.  JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER.  227 
ReniiDiscences  of  An  Old  Florist.— No.  5. 
Amongst  those  figures  who  loomed  large  in  the  horticultural 
world  some  forty  or  more  years  ago,  and  with  whom  I  had  a  good 
deal  to  say,  was  .John  Standieh.  lie  was  conspicuous  in  every  way, 
and  when  one  saw  his  burly  figure  and  genial  countenance  coming  into 
any  place  of  meeting,  one  was  sure  the  meeting  would  not  be  dull.  It 
was  under  his  ausi  ices,  I  believe,  that  Robert  Fortune  paid  his  second 
visit  to  Japan,  and  when  he  had  been  sending  home  the  treasures  he 
had  collected  I  was  with  Standish  at  bagshot  when  they  arrived. 
There  were  flowering  plants,  shrubs  and  bulbs,  and  his  sanguine  tem¬ 
perament  made  him  see  everything  in  its  most  rosy  aspect.  He  put 
up  a  number  of  tiffany  houses  to  shelter  his  plants,  but  unfortunately 
the  breezy  downs  of  Ragshot  were  too  exposed,  and  some  of  these 
came  to  grief. 
This  was  just  before  the  opening  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society’s 
gardens  at  South  Kensington,  and  as  Messrs.  Veitch  &  Sons  had  also  their 
collector  in  Japan  in  the  j)er8on  of  Mr.  J.  G,  Veitch,  both  of  these  eminent 
firms  were  anxious  to  get  their  productions  there  for  the  opening  day. 
There  was  one  plan!  especially  to  which  much  attention  had  been  attracted, 
as  it  was  believed  this  would  create  a  great  sensation.  Messrs.  Veitch 
and  Sons  won  the  race,  and  were  rewarded  by  the  great  crowds  which 
clustered  round  their  platit  during  the  whole  of  the  day.  It  was  thus 
that  Lilium  aurstum  (the  golden  rayed  Lily  of  Japan)  first  came  before 
the  Rritish  public.  I  believe  the  firs^  bulb  sold  was  purchased  by 
the  late  Mr.  Sigismund  Rucker  for  £15  15s.  Since  then  what  thousands, 
I  may  say  millions,  have  been  imported  from  Japan,  and  what  a  rich 
harvest  the  clever  nurserymen  of  those  islands  have  reaj)ed  from  it. 
Still  there  is  a  diffici.lty  experienced  in  growing  it,  which  nearly  all 
cultivators  have  felt.  1  say  nearly  all,  because  now  and  then  one  does 
come  across  a  vigorous  clump.  As  a  rule  growers  treat  it  more 
like  an  annual,  they  go  to  the  auction  marts,  buy  a  quantity  of  the 
bulbs,  but  they  never'expect  to  .see  anything  of  them  again  after  the 
first  year  ;  some  they  may  grow  for  themselves,  and  others  they 
dispose  of. 
There  is  another  flower  in  which  Mr.  Standish  took  a  great 
interest  at  one  time,  the  Gladiolus,  but  he  had  a  very  curious 
notion  concerning  it ;  he  believed  that  the  poor  heathy  soil  of 
Bagshot  was  especially  adapted  for  them,  and  in  fact  recommended 
for  their  cultivation  that  where  the  soil  is  not  poor  enough  it 
should  he  burnt.  Experience  has  proved  how  utterly  wrong  this 
was,  for  they  thrive  best  in  the  rich  unctuous  loam  of  Cambridge¬ 
shire  and  Somersetshire.  Mr.  Standish  raised  a  number  of  seedlings, 
some  of  which  he  distributed,  but  they  \|ere  never  of  any  great 
value,  and  they  would  cut  a  sorry  figure  iilongside  of  the  splendid 
blooms  which  we  are  now  in  the  habit  of  seeing  in  the  metropolis 
raised  by  Kelway,  and  Burrell. 
When  Roses  first  began  to  come  to  the!  front  and  new  varieties 
were  beginning  to  reach  us  from  France,  [Mr.  Standi sh’s  attention 
was  attracted  to  them,  and  being  acquainted  with  Mons.  Le  Roy 
of  Angers,  and  hearing  that  his  foremaa,  Trouillard,  had  been 
engaged  in  raising  seedlings,  he  determined  to  go  and  see  for  himself 
what  they  were.  It  was  somewhere  in  the  sixties  that  Standish 
determined  to  go  to  France,  and  as  I  was  much  interested  about 
Roses,  he  asked  me  to  accompany  him.  What  a  jolly  time  we  had 
of  it !  We  stayed  in  Baris  and  visited  some  of  the  principal  nursery¬ 
men  there  ;  thence  we  went  on  to  Tours,  passing  through  the  beautiful 
and  historic  country  of  Touraine,  .and  at  last  reached  Angers.  The 
result  of  this  trip  was  that  S  anuish  had  the  satisfaction  of  exhibiting 
in  the  Hanover  Square  rooms  that  grandly  coloured  Rose,  a  seedling 
of  Gdnnt  des  Bataille.s,  Eugime  Appert.  I  do  not  think  that  in  colour 
it  has  ever  been  excelled,  while  its  foliage,  so  beautifully  dark  and 
velvety,  added  considerably  to  its  merits.  Its  shape,  however,  was 
indifferent,  and  now  it  is  very  rarely  seen^  But  there  was  another 
Rose  which  w'e  saw  there  that  has  proved  tf)  be  a  great  acquisition — 
Celine  Fomstier.  This  was  purchased  and  distributed  by  Mr.  Standish, 
and  as  a  garden  Rose  is  greatly  valued.  Itsjdelightful  colour  and  flori- 
ferousness  give  it  a  great  claim  on  the  loveij  of  a  garden ;  yet  it  is  not 
an  exhibition  Rose.  Nevertheless  I  havelseen  some  very  creditable 
blooms  of  it  in  exhibition  stands.  Staudiii|b  was  very  anxious  liimself 
to  raise  some  good  Roses,  never  succeeding,  however.  One  he  raised 
which  he  called  Canon  Hole,  but  it  was  noj  up  to  the  mark. 
John  Standish  always  brings  to  my  mind  another  veiy  keen 
florist,  the  Rev.  Joshua  Dix.  He  was  dn  enthusiastic  angler,  and 
many  a  day’s  fishing  did  Standish  proaire  tor  him.  Though  he 
was  a  great  lover  of  angling,  he  wis  also  a  great  lover  ot  a 
garden.  Before  I  came  here  he  officiated  as  the  curate  of  the  next 
parish,  and  some  friends  of  his  resiled  in  Westwell.  They, 
too,  were  lovers  of  the  garden,  and  mliny  were  the  choice  plants 
that  their  friend  used  to  procure  for  thtm.  It  was  on  their  house 
that  there  grew  the  finest  plant  of  Cloh  of  Gold  Ro.se  I  think  I 
ever  saw.  The  first  year  that  I  saw  it,  it  lad  from  200  to  300  flowers. 
and  it  was  a  t-igiil  woilii  going  many  miles  to  see.  The  house  itself 
belonged  to  a  neighbouring  landlord,  and  when  the  ladies  died  his 
gardener  was  let  loose  upon  the  ])lace  to  alter  it,  and  I  may  say  to 
spoil  it.  The  poor  Cloth  of  Gold  was  cut  down  !  and  so  thoroughly 
resented  the  insult  that  it  never  flourished  afterwards.  Moreover,  the 
perpetrator  of  this  Gothic  act  never  seemed  to  think  ho  had  done 
anything  barbaric.  Mr.  Dix  was  also  a  great  lover  of  the  Gladiolus, 
and  tried  to  make  the  flower  more  popular  by  getting  up  a  special 
exhibition  of  it.  I  have,  however,  digressed  a  good  deal  from  my 
journey  to  France  with  Mr.  Standish. 
Le  Roy’s  nursery  was  at  that  time,  and  I  believe  is  still,  celebrated 
for  his  wonderful  collection  of  Pear  trees.  The  climate  of  Angers  was, 
of  course,  favourable  for  them,  and  as  we  went  through  the  gardens 
we  saw  magnificent  specimens  of  the  most  celebrated  varieties.  Surely 
an  immense  number  of  the  collection  were  utterly  useless;  and,  after 
all,  it  is  not  on  the  400  or  500  varieties  on  which  Pear  growers’ 
attention  is  fixed,  but  on  a  comparatively  smaller  number  of  selected 
sorts.  At  that  time  Camellias  were  very  much  in  favour,  and  there 
was  one  grower  at  Angers — Mons.  Cachet — who  had  a  collection  of 
very  beautiful  plants;  I  believe  they  were  grown  entirely  in  the 
open  air,  but  were  placed  during  the  summer  between  high  pvergreen 
hedges,  the  brilliancy  of  their  foliage  being  unsurpassable.  It  is 
simiular  how  fashion  changes  !  at  that  time  no  more  grateful  present 
cou'd  be  made  to  a  young  lady  going  to  a  ball  than  a  bloom  of  a 
white  Camellia;  now  the  Rose  must  take  its  place. 
On  our  way  back  from  Angers  we  stopped  in  Paris  and  visited 
together  .some  of  the  more  famoui  nurseries  around  that  capital.  They 
compared  very  unfavourably  with  those  of  our  own  metropolis, 
and  even  as  far  as  the  Rose  nurseries  were  concerned  there  was  always 
disappointment.  A  thunderstorm  had  occurred,  and  the  Roses  were 
all  spoiled  !  This  we  were  told  so  often  that  we  began  to  think  thunder¬ 
storms  were  ordered  on  purpose.  Amongst  those  visited  were  Thibaut 
and  Keteleer,  where  we  were  most  hospitably  received,  but  in  no  garden 
did  we  see  the  signs  of  lavish  expenditure  that  meet  us  in  many  of 
the  grand  establishments  about  London.  After  we  had  finished  our 
brief  but  pleasant  journey  to  France,  I  had  many  talks  with  Mr. 
Standish,  and  discussed  his  various  plans,  some  of  which,  to  say  the 
least,  were  visionary.  Amongst  these  may  be  classed  his  ideas  of 
rushing  Strawberries  to  early  market.  He  proposed  to  start  an  express 
between  Ascot  and  London,  to  be  run  by  post  horses,  the  relays  of 
which  were  to  be  jJaced  all  along  the  route.  Like  most  enthusiasts, 
he  never  saw  any  difficulty  in  the  way  !  they  were  all  brushed  aside 
as  unworthy  of  consideration.  He  was  one  of  those  men  whose  worth 
it  is  always  jfleasant  to  remember.  I  am  always  thankful  that  I  was 
enabled  with  the  assistance  of  many  friends  to  have  his  portrait  and 
that  of  his  friend,  Mr.  Dix,  placed  in  the  Council  room  of  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society.  It  may  be  that  belore  long  they  will  have  a 
more  appropriate  place  than  that  which  they  at  pircsent  occupy.  But 
I  wondered  at  that  time  whether  either  ot  them  wou'd  be  remembered, 
or  whether  they  woubl  share  the  fate  of  that  marble  bust  that  used 
to  be  in  the  conservatory  of  South  Kensington,  and  which  when  the 
Society  removed  from  that  ill-omened  |)lace  no  one  could  be  found  to 
tell  whom  it  represented. — D.,  Deal. 
- — — 
Gardening  in  the  Sixteenth  Centnry. 
Our  Earliest  Writer. 
fl’iiOMAS  IIiLi.  is  said  to  be  the  earliest  English  writer  on 
gardening.  The  date  of  the  first  of  several  editions  on  “The 
Profitable  Arte  of  Gardening,  &c.,”  does  not  seem  quite  clear.  The 
Hon.  Miss  Amherst,  in  her  “  History  of  Gardening  in  England,” 
mentions  his  first  work  as  “A  most  briefe  and  pleasant  tieatyse, 
teachynge  howe  to  dress,  sowe,  and  set  a  garden,”  A.u,  15G3  ;  and 
adds,  “  A  second  edition  is  unknown.”  In  a  list  of  his  works  at 
the  end  of  another  edition,  described  as  being  “  the  thyrde  time 
increased,”  a.d.  1568,  he  mentions  that  of  A.u.  1563  as  having  been 
“encreased  Viy  me  ye  seconde  tyrne,”  To  this  third  edition,  of  which 
I  propose  to  give  some  account,  is  added  “The  Phy.sicke  Helpes” 
to  each  of  the  plants  described.  Having  no  i)revious  English 
authorities  on  gardening.  Hill  was  obliged  to  go  back  to  the  ancients, 
and  gives  a  list  of  some  twenty  or  more  Greek  and  Roman  writers 
from  whom  he  compiled  his  work. 
Old  Engliah  Garden  Plans, 
A  woodcut  of  a  garden  gives  an  idea  of  what  prevailed  from 
the  earliest  times  to  the  seventeenth  century,  when  landscape 
gardening  came  into  vogue.  It  consisted  of  a  rectangular  enclosure 
made  by  walls,  palings,  or  shrubs  with  trees,  in  which  a  well  and 
an  arbour  were  recognised  necessities ;  the  beds  were  laid  out 
in  rectangular  forms  with  paths  between  them.  Ho  also  gives  two 
