in February or March, by the aid of a gently heat, in a light and rich moist soil ; they should not be watered till they have made their second leaves, and when large enough for handling should be pricked off in a cold frame ; they are subsequently transferred to the llower-bed. Hollyhocks thrive best in a well-trenched and manured sandy loam. The spikes as they grow must be staked ; and water and, for the finest blossoms, liquid manure should be liberally sup plied to the roots. Plants for exhibition require pruning of side growths ; and it is recommended, when the flowering is over, and the stalks have been cut off 4 to G inches above the soil, to earth up the crowns with sand. Some of the finest double-flowered kinds of hollyhock will not bloom well in Scotland. The plant is susceptible of great modi fication under cultivation. The forms now grown are due to the careful selection and crossing of varieties, first by Mr Charles Baron, a shoemaker at Saffron-Walden, and afterwards by Mr Paul of Cheshunt, Messrs R. P>. Birch am, W. Chater, Downie & Laird, John Laing, Anthony Parsons, and other well-known floriculturists. It is found that the most diverse varieties may be raised with certainty from plants growing near together. Darwin from the seed of 11 out of 18 varieties procured 62 plants, all perfectly true to their kind, and from the seed of the remaining 7 varieties 49 plants, half true and half false. Mr Masters of Canterbury, he relates, saved seed from a great bed of 24 named varieties planted in closely adjoining rows, each of which faithfully reproduced itself, with only sometimes a shade of difference in tint. Since the abundant pollen of the hollyhock becomes ripe, and is for the most part shed, before the stigma of the flower affording it is ready for its reception, the preservation of the individuality of different varieties flourishing side by side, in spite of the frequent visits of bees (unless, as suggested by Mr Turner of Slough, those insects be debarred access to the pollen and stigmas by the doubleness of the flowers), would appear to be due to the prepotency of the pollen of each variety on its own stigma over that of all other plants. The hollyhock is very liable to the attacks of slugs, and to a disease occa sioned by a fungus, Puccinia malvacearum, which, originally from South America, attained notoriety in the Australian colonies, and finally, reaching Europe, threatened the exter mination of the hollyhock, the soft parts of the leaves of which it destroys, leaving the venation only remaining. It has been found especially hurtful to the plant in dry seasons. Wild mallows, upon which also it is parasitic, do not appear to be very injuriously affected by it. As means of getting rid of this pest the following expedients have been resorted to : the application of a weak aqueous solu tion of Condy s fluM, which in killing it turns its natural light grey colour to a rusty black, or of a strong solution of soft soap with sulphur (" Gislmrst compound ") ; the de struction of the plants, and their replacement by healthy stocks ; and, as practised by Mr Chater, cultivation in highly-manured trenches, with all possible exposure to the open air, and mulching during summer.
See Danvin, Var. of Anim. and Plants under Domcst., ii. 107, 310 ; Treas. o/Bot.,^1 ed., 1874 ; M. C. Cooke and M. J. Berkeley, Funiji: their Nature, Influence, and UMS, p. 230,1875; Florist, 1875; Floral World, 1877 and 1879; Gardener s (Jhron., 1877, i. 114, and 1878, i. 766, and ii. 478; and, for fig. of pollen of holly hock, Botany, vol.iv.p.189.
HOLMAN, James (c.1787–1857), th 3 "Blind Traveller," was born about 1787. He entered the British navy in 1798 as first-class volunteer, and was appointed lieutenant in April 1807. In 1810 he was invalided by an illness which resulted in the total and hopeless deprivation of sight. In consideration of his helpless circumstances he was in 1812 appointed one of the royal knights of Windsor, but the dulness and seclusion of such a life harmonized so ill with his active habita and his keen interest in the outside world that he requesfcj.1 leave of absence that he might go abroad. This being granted, he in 1819, 1820, and 1821 journeyed through France, Italy, Switzerland, the parts of Germany bordering on the Rhine, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In 1822 he published a narrative of his journey. His enjoyment in his travels was derived from the love of locomotion and the attendant exercise, the varieties of company and of topics of conversation, and the informa tion and descriptions he obtained from eye-witnesses, which constantly supplied him with new materials on which to exercise his imagination. He again set out in 1822 with the design of making the circuit of the world, but after travelling through Russia into Siberia, he was arrested when he had managed to penetrate 1000 miles beyond Smolensk, and after being conducted to the frontiers of Poland, returned home by Austria, Saxony, Prussia, and Hanover. The pretext for arresting him was the suspicion of his being a spy, but the probability is that the authori ties wished to prevent him from persevering in what they must have regarded as, to one in his helpless condition, a foolish and hazardous adventure. An account of his journey was published in 1825. Shortly afterwards he again set out to accomplish by a somewhat different method the design which had been frustrated by the Russian authori ties ; and an account of his remarkable achievement was published in four volumes in 1834-35, under the title of A Voycuje round the World, including Travels in Africa, Asia, Australasia, America, &c., from 1827 to 1832. His last journeys were through Spain, Portugal, Wallachia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Syria, and Turkey ; and he was engaged in preparing his journals of this tour for the press
HOLT, Sir John (1642–1710), lord chief-justice of the Court of King s Bench in the reigns of William III. and Anne, was born at Thame, Oxfordshire, December 30, 1642. His father, Sir Thomas Holt, possessed a small patrimonial estate, but in order to supplement his income had adopted the profession of law, in which he was riot very successful, although he became sergeant in 1677, and afterwards for his political services to the " Tories " was rewarded with knighthood. After attending for some years the free school of the town of Abingdon, of which his father was recorder, young Holt in his sixteenth year entered Oriel College, Oxford. He is said to have spent a very dissipated youth, and even to have been in the habit of taking purses on the highway, but after entering Gray s Inn about 1660 he completely renounced las old habits and applied himself with exemplary diligence to the study of law. He was. called to the bar in 16 o3, and, although his youth hindered his immediate success, when once he had an opportunity of manifesting his talent he speedily acquired a lucrative practice. An ardent supporter of civil and religious liberty, he distinguished himself in the state trials which were then so common by the able and courageous manner in which lie -supported the pleas of the defendants. In February 1666 he was appointed recorder of London, and on the 22d of April he was made king s sergeant and received the honour of knighthood. His giving a decision adverse to the pretensions of the king to exercise martial law in time of peace led to his dismissal from the o. Hce of recorder, but he was continued in the office of king s sergeant in order
