376 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



The Imperishable Stiiatfokd Labels are now manufactured by Mr. J. 

 Smith, Label Factory, Stratford-on-Avon. The samples lately sent us are beau- 

 tifully finished, the lettering being so boldly produced that wearing out is not to be 

 thought of, and a coating of fifty years' dirt could not interfere with their le'vbiHty. 

 "We must give these the palm before all other plant-labels as the very first ia merit, 

 while they are astonishingly cheap. 



International Potato Show. — It is intended to hold an international ex- 

 hibition of potatoes at Lyons next year, in connection with the great meeting of 

 the Cercle Ilorticoie Lyonnais. The schedulo will provide for six classes, and the 

 premier prize will be a silver cup, to be awarded to the competitor who shall have 

 produced the largest and finest crop from one tuber. The judges will consider 

 quality and quantity as of equal importance. 



The LoruoN Clvb has been proposed for affording a common centre for those 

 interested in horticultural pursuits. It is contemplated to esiablish it in a centnil 

 position near Charing Cross, and, as far as practicable, it will afford its members 

 the conveniences aid facilities of a West End club. Several gentlemen well 

 known in the horticulturiil -world have consented to act on the Council, and at a 

 meeting recently held in St. James's Hall for making rules, and arranging other 

 preliminary matters, a long list of names of gentlemen desirous of becoming mem- 

 bers was read. A subscription of two guineas per annum for country members, and 

 a trifle more for town mimbers, is contemplated, but this point is as yet not settled. 



Califoknia is succeeding admihably as a GjiAPE-GROwisG Region, this 

 season's vintage being placed at 10,000,000 gallons, against a yield of 4,000,000 

 gallons in 1873, and 2,500,000 in 1872. At the same rate of increase she would 

 soon become one of the greatest grape-growing countries in the world. 



RtspiEATiON AND ^SUTRITION OF pLANTS. — M. Corenwinder has, says Nature, 

 contributed to a recent meeting of the Socicte des Sciences of Lille an exhaustive 

 series of observaticas on the processes of Respiration and Nutrition in Plants. 

 He supports M. Claude Bernard's view, that the process ordinarily knov/n as the 

 respiration of plants — tiie decomposition of the carbonic acid of the atmosphere — is 

 really a process of digestion, and that simultaneously with this plants carry on, by 

 day as well as by night, a true process of respiration, similar in all respects to that 

 performed by animals, consisting in an oxidation of the carbonaceous matters of 

 their tissues. By a very careful series of analyses, performed mainly on the Lilac 

 and Maple, M. Corenwinder determined that the proportion of nitrogenous matter 

 in the leaves gradually and progressively diminishes Irom the time that they emerge 

 from tlie bud till their fall, the proportion of carbonaceous matter increa>-es very 

 rapidly during April and May, and then remains nearly stationary till October; 

 ■wliile that of the incombustible substance increases during tlie whole period of 

 vegetation. He distinguishes, therefore, two periods in the vegetative season of 

 the plant. Tlie first peiiod, when nitrogenous constituents predominate, is that 

 during which respiration is the most active ; the second, when the proportion of 

 carbonaceous substance is relatively larger, is the period when respiration is com- 

 paratively feeble, the carbonic acid evolved being again almost entirely taken up by 

 the chlorophyll, decomposed, and the carbon fixed in the true process of digestion. 



Messes. J. Carter and Co. announce their intention of offering lor compe- 

 tition at the meetings of the K U.S. a series of prizes for vegetables, as in pievious 

 years. The fifty guinea "Carter Cup," with money prizes of £10 10s., £7 7s., 

 £5 5s., and i'3 iis., will be offered for competition at the provincial meeting of the 

 Society, and it is to become this year the absolute property of thu employer whose 

 gardener wins it. 



A Directory of Botanists, comprising lists of gardens, and directors of 

 gardens, and professors and curators of the whole world, has been published under 

 the superintendence of Professor Morren, at Xo. 1, Boverie, Liege. It contains the 

 names and addresses of about 750 botanists. 



The Peach Harvest at Montreuil in 1874 has, says the Moniteur Ilorticoie 

 ^e/g^e, been exceptionally abundant, and the gross produce has been estimated at two 

 millions of francs. There are at Montreuil GOO growers, who have gathered sixty 

 millions of Peaches. During one month, 50l.',00o Peaches arrived every morning 

 at the Halles Centrales of Paris. 



