2 
JOURNAL  OR  HORTIOUlTURR  AND  CORTAGE  OARdENER. 
Juljr  1. 
productioDs,  it  being  easy  to  identify  many  of  his  curious  descrip¬ 
tions  by  them.  In  this,  the  tricentenary  of  G-erarde’s  “  Herbal," 
and  whilst  this  unique  Victorian  reign  is  being  honoured  to  the 
confines  of  the  Empire,  though  shorn  of  much  of  the  pomp  and 
pageantry  surrounding  the  Virgin  Queen,  it  is  easy  to  link  this 
humble  ray  of  the  long  ago  with  the  brilliant  scintillations  of 
literary  light  surrounding  the  sceptre  of  our  own  illustrious 
Sovereign.  All  honour  then  to  Gerarde,  the  pioneer  penman  of 
the  subject  we  love. 
Stretching  far,  far  back  to  the  fourth  century  b.c.,  we  may  note 
the  earliest  known  attempt  to  bring  the  objects  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom  within  the  pale  of  science  by  that  eminent  pagan 
philosopher  Aristotle,  but  no  definite  results  appear  to  have 
obtained  until  comparatively  recent  times,  and  these  it  is  not 
difficult  to  trace  to  the  study  of  medicine.  Those  who  studied 
medicine  were  led  to  study  plants,  which  latter,  in  the  most  re- 
markable  instances,  became  the  all  -  absorbing  passion  of  the 
student’s  life.  But  a  few  of  the  honoured  names  associated  with 
our  subject  can  be  included  here,  and  those  few  are  chosen  more 
with  the  object  of  pointing  a  moral  to  young  labourers  in  the 
great  garden  of  Nature  than  to  adorn  a  tale  whose  chapter's,  as  far 
as  we  can  see,  will  never  be  finished. 
In  1656  was  born  Joseph  Pitton  de  Tourneforte,  of  a  noble 
French  family,  who  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-one  obtained  his 
heart’s  desire  and  pursued  the  study  of  botany  amid  many  dangers 
and  privations  among  the  Alps  and  Pyrenees,  forming  a  large 
collection  of  plants,  and  making  many  important  observations. 
Due  recognition  awaited  him  by  being  appointed  assistant  professor 
to  M.  Fagon,  then  curator  of  the  Jardin  de  Roi.  In  1688  he  made 
further  explorations  in  Southern  and.  Western  Europe,  to  the 
further  enrichment  of  the  royal  gardens,  and  finally  his  ripened 
experience  and  leisure  were  devoted  to  composing  several  compre¬ 
hensive  works,  which  marked  a  distinct  advance  in  the  methods  of 
classification  employed  by  his  predecessois.  De  Tourneforte,  who 
died  in  1708,  furnishes  us  with  a  striking  example  of  that  love  of 
Nature  which  led  him  to  early  abandon  a  luxurious  life  and  become 
her  ardent  and  accomplished  pupil.  In  1682  Ray  proposed  the 
classifying  of  plants  according  to  the  natural  system  ;  laying,  in 
fact,  the  foundations  upon  which  Jussieu,  De  Candolle,  Brown, 
Lindley,  and  others,  have  brought  the  system  to  its  present 
perfection. 
It  is  with  reverential  feelings  one  now  approaches  a  name 
holding  a  unique  position  in  the  annals  of  our  subject — if  not  in 
the  history  of  the  world  ;  this  is  Linnaeus,  the  Latinised  name  of 
Sir  Charles  Lintd,  or  Von  Linne,  the  son  of  a  Swjidish  clergyman, 
born  in  1707.  To  attempt  the  analysis  of  a  chaiacter  so  diversified, 
so  distinguished  in  the  varied  phases  of  botanist,  natural  historian, 
mineralogist,  and  doctor  of  medicine,  would  be  impossible  ;  sufficient 
for  our  purpose  to  briefly  outline  the  career  of  this  remarkable 
naan,  whose  great  mental  attainments  were  second  only  to  his 
untiring  application  to  work,  and  work  carried  out  in  the  most 
methodical  manner.  The  circumstances  of  his  birth  may  account 
for  that  innate  love  of  nature  so  early  developed,  the  simple  charms 
of  the  Swedish  pastor’s  garden  and  the  necessitous  seclusion  in 
which  they  lived  accounting  for  that,  but  the  manner  in  which  he 
went  onward  and  upward  to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  fame  a  young 
student  could  possibly  aspire  to,  marks  him  as  a  man  of  phenomenal 
mental  endowments. 
At  the  age  of  twenty,  young  Linn^  left  home  to  enter  the 
university  of  Lund,  and  reaped  the  advantage  of  being  kindly 
received  by  Dr.  Stotmus,  a  physician  and  naturalist.  A  year  after 
found  our  hero  anxious  to  pursue  his  studies  in  the  wider  field 
afforded  at  Upsala,  and  here  the  first  pinch  of  poverty  was  felt, 
his  father  with  difficulty  being  only  able  to  allow  him  £8  sterling 
towards  this  course  of  his  education.  Early  struggles  were  to  him 
but  the  incentive  to  self- advancement,  and  he  quickly  rose  to  the 
occasion  by  gaining  a  Royal  scholarship,  and  further  enhanced  his 
fneacs  by  private  tuition.  Recognition  could  not  be  denied  a  man  , 
who  so  early  asserted  his  right  to  it,  and  under  more  favourable 
circumstances  be  now  commenced  the  writing  and  arrangement  of 
those  exhaustive  works,  which,  so  far  as  botany  is  concerned,  may, 
to  some  extent,  have  been  displaced  by  simpler  methods,  but  will 
never  fail  to  excite  and  command  the  admiration  of  all  scholars. 
One  visit  only  was  paid  by  the  learned  Swede  to  England,  where 
some  little  jealousy  seems  to  have  detracted  from  its  pleasure  ;  but 
by  this  time  his  botanical  fame  had  spread  through  the  whole  of 
Europe,  although  it  was  not  confined  to  that  science  alone,  for 
every  branch  of  natural  history  engaged  the  attention  of  this 
wonderful  man. 
His  early  excursions,  chiefly  on  foot,  extending  over  10  degrees 
of  latitude,  and  reaching  within  the  arctic  circle,  are  speaking 
witnesses  of  that  indomitable  energy  which  even  privation  and 
hardship  were  powerless  to  abate,  and  the  mind  of  the  man  is  still 
further  shown  in  that  indefatigable  zeal  which  led  him  into  a 
practical  study  and  examination  of  the  mines  of  his  country,  the 
results  of  which  were  no  sooner  acquired  than  to  be  again  dis¬ 
seminated  in  his  teachings.  We  also  find  him  at  this  time  taking 
out  his  degree  as  a  doctor  of  physic  (he  eventually  obtained  tb« 
post  of  physician  to  the  Fleet).  As  well  as  from  his  own  Sovereign 
the  reputation  of  Linnaeus  procured  for  him  honours  from  all  the 
chief  centres  of  learning  in  Europe,  and  at  his  death  in  1778  a 
general  mourning  took  place  at  Upsala,  whilst  the  same  generous 
monarch,  in  bis  speech  from  the  throne  at  the  State’s  Assembly, 
lamented  the  loss  Sweden  had  sustained  in  the  death  of  her  gifted 
son. 
In  the  endeavour  now  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  character 
of  Linn® us,  the  impression  obtains  that  his  nationality  is  veiled 
under  his  vast  labours  and  manifold  accomplishments  ;  that  his 
gifts  were  for  all  people,  as  the  results  of  them  will  probably 
endurq  for  all  time.  His  library  and  herbarium  are  now  in  posses¬ 
sion  of  the  Linr^an  Society  of  London.  To  do  justice  to  the 
memory  of  a  great  countryman  of  our  own,  whose  labours  were, 
perhaps,  more  in  accord  with  our  own  work  of  gardening,  and  also 
to  include  a  brief  sketch  of  those  eminent  French  and  German 
scholars  who  have  done  a  lion’s  share  in  scientific  horticulture,  we 
may  well  occupy  another  short  paper. — Invicta. 
(To  be  concluded.) 
FIBROUS  ROOTED  BEGONIAS. 
At  one  time  these  useful  Begonias  were  largely  grown  for 
winter  flowering.  Fashion  then  changed  the  order  of  things,  and 
for  several  years  they  almost  dropped  out  of  cul  ivation,  only, 
however,  to  reappear  again  in  another  form  rf  gardening.  Some 
of  the  varieties  were  found  to  be  well  suited  for  summer  bedding. 
For  this  purpose  their  good  qualities  were  quickly  recognised  by 
many,  and  they  now  rank  among  the  most  popular  of  summer 
bedding  plants.  In  this  way  a  great  impetus  has  been  given  to 
their  culture,  with  the  result  that  hybridists  again  turned  their 
attention  to  them,  and  have  now  given  us  a  race  of  very  dwarf 
varieties  extremely  useful  for  planting  as  edgings  to  flower  beds 
or  borders. 
In  January  last  I  sowed  seeds  of  Sutton’s  Miniature,  Fairy 
Queen,  Duchess  of  York,  and  Reading  Snowflake.  The  plants 
resulting  from  these  sowings  I  found  of  great  service  in  pots 
throughout  the  month  of  May,  as  they  supplied  just  the  kind  of 
material  required  for  use  in  conjunction  with  Fern  in  forming 
edgings  to  jardinieres,  vases,  or  bowls  in  carrying  out  house  deco¬ 
rations.  1  have  also  several  beds  of  them  in  the  flower  garden 
which  are  already  beginning  to  make  a  good  display.  I  have,  how¬ 
ever,  reserved  some  for  growing  in  pots  for  autumn  flowering. 
These  will  be  shifted  at  once  into  5-inch  pots,  have  the  flowers 
removed,  and  be  grown  in  pits  throughout  the  summer,  and  I  look 
forward  to  securing  a  fine  batch  of  dwarf  flowering  plants  of  a 
type  none  too  plentiful  during  the  autumn  and  early  winter 
months.  Now  that  fibrous  Begonias  are  generally  recognised  as 
being  good  summer  bedding  plants  many  cultivators  are  again 
growing  some  of  the  varieties  largely  for  winter  flowering,  as  they 
see  clearly  that  on  account  of  their  wonderful  floriferousness  they 
are  well  able  to  hold  their  own  against  many  modern  plants  much 
grown  for  the  same  purpose. 
Those  on  the  look  out  for  a  new  feature]  in  winter  flowering 
