May  18,  1899. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
411 
prices  will  be  none  too  high.  The  lateness  of  the  season  is  attributable 
to  the  cold  weather,  and  not,  as  some  people  seem  to  think,  to  the 
blight  or  whatever  it  may  be  called,  that  has  affected  the  Asparagus 
the  last  year  or  two.  This  rust  which  affects  the  plants,  it  may  be 
mentioned,  caused  many  growers  to  have  dire  misgivings  as  to  the 
future  of  the  vegetable  in  this  locality,  but  it  is  now  generally 
admitted  that  it  was  the  result  of  the  dry  seasons  more  than’anything 
else. 
Some  of  the  gardeners  swear  by  soot  for  Asparagus,  and  though 
it  is  a  very  good  thing  to  use,  especially  on  some  kinds  of  land, 
too  much  of  it  is  injurious.  It  is  a  capital  dressing  for  heavy  land, 
and  contains  manorial  properties  in  that  it  possesses  a  good  propor¬ 
tion  of  ammonia,  potash,  and  sulphate  of  lime,  but  care  is  needed 
in  its  use.  Another  thing  that  the  gardeners  should  remember  is 
not  to  keep  the  beds  in  cut  for  too  many  years.  Nowadays  careful 
gardeners  do  not  keep  a  bed  nearly  so  long  as  they  used  to,  and 
though  it  is  an  expensive  crop  to  bring  out,  it  will,  we  think,  be 
found  to  pay  well  to  plant  out  fresh  beds  more  frequently  than  they 
have  been  doing.  We  are  not  so  sure  about  the  benefit  to  be  derived 
from  planting  in  the  now  fashionable  narrow  beds,  but  the  experience 
of  the  next  few  years  ought  to  settle  this  vexed  question  one  way  or 
the  other. 
Cabbage  are  working  off  better  than  they  were  last  year.  Some 
of  the  gardeners  have  not  been  so  fortunate,  however,  and  describe 
the  Cabbage  as  a  funny  ”  crop.  Some  people  thought  they  were 
going  to  make  a  lot  of  money,  bought  the  crop  on  speculation  before 
it  was  fit  for  market,  and  burnt  their  fingers  pretty  considerably. 
One  thing  against  the  crop  was  the  fact  that  plants  were  very  difficult 
to  procure  last  year,  and  the  ground  was  too  dry  to  plant  them,  and 
consequently  there  are  not  so  many  grown  this  time  as  is  the  case 
some  years. — (“Evesham  Journal.”) 
ROBERT  FORTUNE,  PLANT  COLLECTOR. 
[The  following  narrative  by  Mr.  W.  J.  Gordon,  in  the  long 
established  and  altogether  excellent  serial,  the  “  Leisure  Hour,”* 
will  be  perused  with  interest  by  many  readers  of  the  “  Journal  of 
Horticulture.”] 
We  have  all  heard  of  what  the  man  deserved  who  made  two 
blades  of  grass  grow  where  one  grew  before,  but  what  shall  we  siy  of 
him  who  not  only  introduced  the  Tea  and  other  plants  into  India,  but 
brought  among  us  over  200  species  and  varieties  from  the  Far  East, 
most  of  which  are  now  so  established  in  our  gardens  that  they  seem 
to  have  been  with  us  for  ages  ?  The  man  was  Robert  Fortune — aptly, 
and  inevitably,  named  the  most  fortunate  of  plant  collectors — who 
was  born  at  Kelloe,  in  Berwickshire,  in  1813,  and  died  in  the  Gilston 
Road,  Brompton,  in  1880. 
He  began  as  a  gardener’s  apprentice  and  worked  his  way  up  in 
about  a  dozen  years  to  bs  Superintendent  of  the  Indoor  Department 
at  the  Horticultural  Society’s  Chiswick  Gardens;  and  he  was  after¬ 
wards  for  a  short  time  Curator  of  the  Apothecaries’  Garden  at  Chelsea. 
When  peace  was  made  with  China  in  1842,  Fortune  was  sent  out  as 
botanical  collector  by  the  Horticultural  Society.  He  arrived  at  Hong 
Kong  in  July  the  next  year,  after  a  passage  of  four  months  from 
England,  and  immediately  set  to  work  by  sending  home  Chirita 
sinensis,  whose  elegant  Foxglove  lilac  fiowers  he  found  under  the 
dripping  rocks  of  the  island’s  ravines,  where  the  Ferns  and  creeping 
shrubs  grew  in  crowds.  On  the  hills  he  came  across  the  yellow 
Orchid  Spathoglottis  Fortunei,  which  he  promptly  despatched  after 
the  Chirita.  In  August  he  was  off  to  Amoy,  whence  “some  very 
pretty  Roses  producing  small  double  flowers  of  great  neatness  and 
beauty  ”  were  collected  and  sent  to  Chiswick.  From  Amoy  he  went 
to  Chimoo,  where  he  was  attacked  by  the  natives,  and  among  the 
plants  which  were  nearly  destroyed  in  the  fight  was  Abelia  rupestris, 
which  ultimately  arrived  safely  in  England. 
His  next  hunting-ground  was  the  island  of  Chusan,  which  he 
visited  again  and  again.  Here  he  met  for  the  first  time  the  beautiful 
Wistaria  sinensis  wild  on  the  hills,  where  it  climbs  among  the  hedges 
and  on  the  trees,  its  flowering  branches  hanging  in  graceful  festoons 
by  the  sides  of  the  narrow  roads  that  lead  over  the  mountains.  The 
purple  variety  was  already  known  in  England,  having  been  intro¬ 
duced  in  1816  from  Consequa’s  garden  at  Canton ;  but  the  white 
variety,  which  he  afterwards  found  at  Soo-chow  and  sent  home  from 
Shanghai,  was  new.  F rom  Shanghai  he  also  sent  home  the  beautiful 
Cryptomeria  japonica,  the  Japan  Cedar,  a  species  of  Pine  of  much  the 
same  character  as  the  Araucarias  of  Chile  and  Norfolk  Island,  which 
is  now  to  be  found  in  every  nursery,  though  it  has  not  yet  attained 
the  height  it  does  in  its  native  land,  where  it  furnishes  the  long  poles 
that  are  generally  to  be  seen  in  front  of  the  Chinese  temples.  Another 
great  find  at  Shanghai  was  the  Anemone  japonica,  which  he  dis¬ 
covered  in  full  flower  amongst  the  graves  of  the  natives  round  the 
ramparts. 
*  56,  Paternoster  Row,  London. 
To  get  to  Soo-chow,  which  was  not  then  open  to  Europeans,  he 
had  to  disguise  himself  as  a  Chinaman,  with  pigtail  complete.  It  was 
a  dangerous  game  and  nearly  ended  seriously.  He  went  because  the 
gardeners  at  Shanghai  told  him  it  contained  a  great  many  nurseries 
from  which  came  nearly  all  the  plants  they  had  for  sale.  This  turned 
out  to  be  untrue,  but  he  succeeded  in  bringing  away  the  white- 
Wistaria  already  mentioned,  a  fine  new  double  yellow  Rose,  and 
Gardenia  florida  Fortunei  with  large  white  blossoms  like  a  Camellia. 
In  the  spring  of  1844  he  was  back  in  Chusan,  which  he  described; 
in  his  “  Wanderings  in  China  ”  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful  islands  in- 
the  world. 
“  In  the  mornings,”  he  said,  “  the  grass  sparkles  with  dew,  the  air 
is  cool  and  refreshing,  the  birds  are  singing  in  every  bush,  and  flowers 
are  hanging  in  graceful  festoons  from  the  trees  and  hedges.  The  new 
plants  of  the  Island,  some  of  which  I  had  discovered  in  the  preceding 
autumn,  I  now  saw  in  flower  for  the  first  time.  Early  in  spring  the  hill¬ 
sides  were  covered  with  a  beautiful  Daphne  with  lilac  flowers  (Daphne 
Fortune!)  ;  Azalea  ovata,  certainly  one  of  the  finest  and  most  distinct 
plants  of  this  kind  which  I  have  introduced,  also  grows  wild  on  the  hills,, 
and  was  in  full  bloom  at  this  period.  A  fine  new  Buddleia  (B.  Lindleyana) 
had  a  moot  graceful  appearance,  as  its  long  spikes  of  purple  flowers  hung 
in  profusion  from  the  hedges  on  the  hillside,  often  side  by  side  with  the 
well-known  Glycine  (Wistaria  sinensis).  Another  plant,  certainly  one- 
of  the  most  beautiful  shrubs  of  northern  China,  the  Weigela  rosea  (now 
Diervilla  rosea,  the  Bush  Honeysuckle)  was  first  discovered  in  the  garden 
of  a  Chinese  mandarin  near  the  city  of  Tinghae  on  this  island.  This- 
spring  it  was  loaded  with  its  noble  rose  coloured  flowers,  and  was  the 
admiration  of  all  who  saw  it,  both  English  and  Chinese.” 
In  January,  1845,  he  made  a  short  visit  to  the  Philippines  with- 
the  object  of  procuring  a  supply  of  the  beautiful  Orchid  Phalsenopsis- 
amabilis,  which  Cuming  had  sent  home  a  few  years  before,  but  whicK 
was  still  extremely  rare  in  England.  Arriving  at  Manila  he  started; 
for  the  Lagtma,  a  large  lake  in  the  interior  of  the  island,  in  the  neigh¬ 
bourhood  of  which  was  a  farmhouse  where  he  stayed  as  guest. 
Making  an  Indian’s  hut  in  the  wood  his  headquarters,  he  held  there- 
a  sort  of  market  for  the  purchase  of  Orchids. 
“  The  Indians,’’  he  says,  “  knew  the  hour  at  which  I  should  return  to- 
the  hut,  and  on  my  arrival  I  generally  found  the  ground  in  front  strewed; 
t  with  Orchids  in  the  state  in  which  they  had  been  cut  from  the  trees,  and 
many  of  them  covered  with  flowers.  The  Phalaenopsis,  in  particular, 
was  singularly  beautiful.  I  was  very  anxious  to  get  some  large  speci¬ 
mens  of  the  plant,  and  offered  a  dollar,  which  was  a  high  sum  in  an- 
Indian  forest,  for  the  largest  which  should  be  brought  to  me.  The  lover 
of  this  beautiful  tribe  will  easily  imagine  the  delight  I  felt  when  one  day 
I  saw  two  Indians  approaching  with  a  plant  of  extraordinary  size,  having 
ten  or  twelve  branching  flower-stalks  upon  it,  and  upwards  of  a  hundred 
flowers  in  full  bloom.  ‘There,’  said  they  in  triumph,  ‘is  not  that  wortR 
a  dollar  ?’  I  acknowledged  that  they  were  well  entitled  to  the  reward, 
and  took  immediate  possession  of  my  prize.” 
It  is  worth  noting  that  for  the  first  example  of  this  Orchid  which* 
Cuming  had  sent  home  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  gave  100  guineas. 
This  huge  plant  of  Fortune’s,  which  reached  Chiswick  safely,  was- 
the  largest  specimen  ever  seen  in  Europe. 
Returning  to  the  North  of  China  in  the  beginning  of  the  spring,, 
he  remained  there  till  the  end  of  the  summer,  travelling  between 
Shanghai,  Chusan,  Ningpo,  and  other  parts  of  the  interior,  visiting 
them  at  intervals  as  the  plants  came  into  bloom.  In  this  way  a  large 
number  of  Tree  Paeonies,  Azaleas,  Viburnums,  Daphnes,  Roses,  and) 
many  other  plants,  all  new  to  Europe  and  of  great  beauty,  were  from> 
time  to  time  added  to  his  collection  and  shipped  to  England. 
China  is  not  a  pleasant  place  to  travel  in  even  now;  in  those  early 
days  it  was  really  dangerous  for  a  European  to  be  found  outside  the 
few  treaty  ports.  His  difficulties  and  adventures  must  remaiu 
unrecorded  here,  with  one  exception,  his  encounter  with  the  pirates,, 
which  will  serve  as  an  example.  It  was  on  his  voyage  from  Foo-chow 
to  Chusan,  when  he  was  the  only  European  passenger  on  a  native- 
junk.  They  were  about  sixty  miles  from  the  Min  river,  when  the 
captain  and  pilot  came  down  to  his  cabin  to  tell  him  that  they  saw  a 
number  of  pirates  right  ahead,  lying  in  wait  for  them. 
“  I  ridiculed  the  idea,”  he  says,  “  and  told  .them  that  they  imagined* 
everv  junk  they  saw  to  be  a  pirate  ;  but  they  still  maintained  that  they 
were  so,  and  I  therefore  considered  it  prudent  to  be  prepared  for  the 
worst.  I  got  out  of  bed,  ill  and  feverish  as  I  was,  and  carefully  examined 
my  firearms,  clearing  the  nipples  of  my  gun  and  pistols,  and  putting  on 
fresh  caps,  and  also  rammed  down  a  ball  upon  the  top  of  each  charge  ot 
shot  in  my  gun,  put  a  pistol  in  each  side  pocket,  and  patiently  waited  for 
the  result.  By  the  aid  of  a  small  pocket  telescope  I  could  see  as  the 
nearest  junk  approached  that  her  deck  was  crowded  with  men  ;  I  then 
had  no  longer  any  doubts  regarding  her  intentions.  The  pilot,  an 
intelligent  old  man,  now  came  up  to  me,  and  said  that  he  thought 
resistance  was  of  nc  use  ;  I  might  manage  to  beat  off  one  junk,  or  even 
two,  but  that  I  had  no  chance  with  five  of  them.  Being  at  that  time  in 
no  mood  to  take  advice  or  be  dictated  to  by  anyone,  I  ordered  him  off  to 
look  after  his  own  duty.  I  knew  perfectly  well  that  if  we  were  taken  by 
the  pirates  I  had  not  the  slightest  chance  of  escape  ;  for  the  first  thing 
they  would  do  would  be  to  knock  me  on  the  head  and  throw  me  over- 
