t88i.] notes from THE PAPERS. 3G9 



raised — a hybrid, with pure white flowers of large size, possessing a 

 strong but delicious })erfume that fills the house. The flowers are 

 larger than those of any existing variety we know, being more like 

 moderately-sized Lilium auratums than anything else, and are produced 

 in great profusion, and from two to four on a truss. The plant has 

 received the usual certificates, we believe, from the Royal Horticultural 

 and Botanical Societies. 



" Ben's Boiler " is the latest addition of its kind to horticultural 

 appliances. Who " Ben '^ himself is we have not the least idea, but 

 he has lately written sensibly on the subject of heating, and now we 

 have his boiler, which may be described as a Jones's " terminal end " 

 turned outside in. Externally it is a simple arch of the proper portions, 

 and the wings and auxiliary flues are all inside. Whether these flues 

 are required or no may be a matter of opinion, but the form is the best 

 conception of its kind we have yet seen. 



It cannot but have struck the frequenters of our summer flower 

 shows during the past two or three years, that there has been an ap- 

 preciable falling off in the quality of the fruit exhibited — particularly 

 Grapes, which have not been up to the mark. During the present 

 season there has not been one show, so far as we have seen or read, of 

 which it could be said the display of fruit was high class or even excel- 

 lent. Pines, of course, have been few and poor, which is not surpris- 

 ing, because the St Michael's Pines and other causes have contributed 

 to drive the English grower out of the running to a large extent [and 

 j^et to have a really full-flavoured Pine we must have an English one — 

 Ed.], and greatly reduced the interest in Pine-culture in our gardens. 

 It is not so with Grapes, however, and unless we are to attribute the 

 inferiority of the examples that have been shown to the recent bad and 

 untoward seasons we have experienced, it is difficult to assign a cause. 

 It is not at all improbable that the cold and dull seasons following one 

 another in succession for a number of years, as has been the case, may 

 have impaired the constitution of Vines under glass. The agricultural 

 papers say that the effect of the continued cold and sunless seasons 

 has been to deteriorate the quality of the hay crops, and almost to 

 destroy much of the finer and better herbage, whose place has been 

 usurped by the coarser grasses ; and it requires no stretch of the 

 imagination to believe that permanently planted indoor subjects may 

 have suffered in some degree also. The complaint of the fruiterers 

 this season is that Grapes are unusually ill-coloured. 



Currency has been given to the report that in the reductions very 

 generally taking place in gardens, owing to the depression of trade, 

 cheaper and inferior men are being substituted for good ones as head- 

 gardeners ; but those whose business brings them in contact with pro- 



