THE FLORIST. 249 



and sultry ; and on the day on which I am writing (August 10) four 

 sheep have been killed, and a small haystack consumed, by three 

 several flashes of lightning within a short distance of my house. 



My bed of Pelargonium cuttings suffered a good deal, as I im- 

 plicitly followed the directions of Mr. Dobson (oh, fie ! Mr. Dobson), 

 in protecting them from the sun by day, and exposing them to the 

 frosts of a July night. Well might the late Mr. Rogers say, " The 

 summer has set in with the greatest severity." Probably their lia- 

 bility to injury depended in some measure on their state of growth, 

 and not altogether on the tenderness of constitution of the different 

 sorts ; but the order in which they most suffered was as follows : 

 Cavalier, Marc Antony, Crusader, Gustavus, Erectum, Competitor, 

 Rosetta, Rosy Circle. All others escaped. 



G. J. 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



At a meeting held in Regent Street on the 7th ult., Mr. Fairbairn 

 of Clapham exhibited a beautiful collection of Cape Heaths, for 

 which he received a Banksian medal. Mr. Moore of Chelsea sent 

 Plumbago Larpentse, which we are sorry to state has hitherto not 

 realised the expectations formed of it. Dr. Lindley remarked that, 

 as it was found on the old walls of Shanghae, where the winters are 

 even more severe than ours are in England, it might possibly be 

 found to do best out of doors, in a warm well-drained herbaceous 

 border, or on rock-work. This, however, requires to be proved by 

 experience. Messrs. Veitch shewed two plants from a greenhouse, 

 and flowers and leaves gathered from the open ground, of a new 

 Oxalis, from Peru, called Elegans. It is unsuited for a greenhouse, 

 as a glance at the specimens exhibited proved ; but to the open garden 

 it certainly forms a great acquisition, for it is very pretty. "The 

 leaflets are firm, fleshy, of a dark rich green, and stained with pur- 

 ple on the under-side. From the centre of these rises a stalk about 

 nine inches high, bearing a truss of five or six rose-coloured flowers," 

 having a green eye surrounded by a well-defined belt of dark purple : 

 it received a certificate. Some Verbenas were shewn by Messrs. 

 Henderson and Harrison, and Mr. Turner of Slough sent most 

 beautiful boxes of Carnations and Picotees, even at this late season, 

 and a pan of Heartsease. A certificate was awarded the Carnations 

 and Picotees, and a similar award was made to Messrs. Wrench for 

 two Fuchsias from their little greenhouse on the leads of their ware- 

 house at London-bridge. The garden of the society furnished a 

 nice collection of Achimenes, among which was the beautiful deep 

 crimson A. pyropsca, a species not so well known as it should be, 

 for it is quite a gem of its kind ; the new Abronia umbellata, a 

 pretty greenhouse plant, with delicate pink heads of flowers some- 

 thing like those of a Verbena : we should think that it would 

 do well for bedding. Along with it were Bigonia acuminata, the 



