JUNE. 175 



chioness of Bath, Satisfaction, Sovereign, Purple Perfection, and 

 Emperor. I\Ir. Dobson furnished twelve plants, which came next in 

 order of merit. Mr. Bragg, of Slough, had a third collection. Cut 

 blooms, 36 varieties : 1st, Mr. Turner ; 2d, Mr. Dobson. Among these 

 the best kinds were Perfection, Monarch, Royal Albert, Comet, Satis- 

 faction, Sampson, Nonpareil, Beauty, Sir J. Cathcart, Purple Perfection, 

 Queen of the Isles, Primrose Perfection, Mr. Marnock, Salamander, 

 Earl Mansfield, and Royal Visit. The Pansies generally were very fine. 

 Mr. Gaines had six herbaceous Calceolarias, and Mr. C. Turner a 

 collection of thirty Auriculas. The best of these were Lancashire Hero, 

 Oxonian, General Bolivar, Ringleader, Lovely Ann, Superb, Attraction, 

 Ne Plus Ultra, Venus, Lady Jane Grey, Smiling Beauty, Duke of 

 Cambridge, and Conspicua. Mr. Gaines exhibited a collection of 

 Mimulus, both in cut state and in pots, some of which were very 

 prettily marked. 



NOTES ON THE MONTH. 



May has now passed by us, and during the greater part of the 

 month the same dull cold weather that has marked its predecessors 

 has prevailed. Our observations go to prove this to have been the 

 coldest ]May within our memory, the temperature of the month beino- 

 greatly below the average. Early in the month frosts, some of them 

 very intense, as on the 4th and 8th, when our thermometer registered 

 11° of frost, and on the former night a fall of snow from one to three 

 inches deep, were general throughout the western counties, continuing 

 on the high grounds for 48 hours. Fortunately for the fruit crops, 

 neither Cherries, Apples, nor Pears were with us forward enough to 

 receive any injury ; had they been in bloom at the time, as they were 

 on the 24th of April, 1854, the crop would again have been destroyed. 

 I believe I may affirm that throughout the mid-western counties these 

 fruits will be a safe crop. Some early Pears and Cherries in enclosed 

 gardens, which were more forward in bloom, are injured, but the late 

 blooms have set, and will save a crop. Peaches, Apricots, &c., are a 

 heavy crop ; indeed, never do we remember seeing the Peach under 

 such favourable circumstances ; the dryness of last summer and the 

 present spring, with the extreme low temperature we have experienced, 

 kept the trees from blooming till the middle of April, and the result 

 has been (at least with all the walls I have examined) the best set of 

 fruit gardeners have ever had ; and the trees are breaking into clean 

 healthy wood, without a curled leaf upon them, and at the same time 

 remarkably free from insects. Our own trees had no protection except 

 a wide coping, and yet the low night temperature which has occurred 

 more or less ever since the trees commenced blooming has had no 

 injurious effect upon them, and I attribute their present strong and 

 healthy appearance to their being fully exposed to light. Of course in 

 April the sun (when we got any) warmed the walls considerably by day, 

 and as I have a false coping 10 or 12 inches wide, which helps to 



