380 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



and we predict for it a more extensive cultivation than any plant we know of the 

 same character. 



Amongst Dickson & Co.'s collection we noted a number of crosses from the 

 common wild Violas, but none of them as yet at such a stage as to require special 

 notice, though they are probably on the road to it. The same firm showed a 

 very pretty bedding Pansy called Celestial, a great improvement on Cliveden 

 Blue, and others like it. 



Amongst Messrs Downie, Laird, & Laing's collection we noted a very large 

 bold bedding Pansy of deeper blue than Celestial, and much larger, named 

 Blue Nymph : these are great acquisitions, and their colours are sufficiently dis- 

 similar to make both desirable additions to every collection of bedding-plants. 



Mr Paul, nurseryman, Paisley, showed a very promising dark shrubby bedding 

 Calceolaria. Messrs Drummond Brothers, George Street, Mitchell & Arnot, and 

 Dickson & Sons, sent large assortments of pretty plants ; and Mr P. Neil Fraser, 

 the Treasurer of the Society, sent as usual a great many pretty Ferns from his 

 extensive collection of these plants. 



The sensation in the way of fruit was a seedling Strawberry raised by Messrs 

 Moffat of Fordeldeen, near Dalkeith, named Duke of Edinburgh. It forms 

 enormous coxcomb berries, one of which weighed 2\ oz., many over 2 oz. It also 

 in many instances produces enormous conical berries. It got a first-class certifi- 

 cate on the ground of its great size. In flavour it is slightly superior to the 

 Elton Pine. 



We feel that in this brief notice we are omitting much that was well worthy 

 of remark, but we have no alternative, as our space for such purposes is limited. 



The members of the Society, to the number of forty, sat down to an excellent 

 dinner in the Albert Hotel, Hanover Street — Mr Thomson of Dalkeith in the 

 chair, and Provost Deans, nurseryman, Jedburgh, croupier; when the usual 

 loyal and patriotic toasts were proposed and responded to. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE ' GARDENER. 



Sir, — In going through the gardens of John Blackwood, Esq., Strathtyrum, 

 near St Andrews, I was very much struck with a figure in the flower-garden filled 

 up with very simple materials — namely, Mangles's Variegated Geraniums pegged 

 down, and Pansy Imperial Blue pegged down amongst it also. I said to Mr Angus, 

 the intelligent gardener there, that I had not seen anything so striking in any 

 flower-garden I had visited this season. Mr Angus replied, it was the bed that 

 caught the eye of every visitor first as they came in ; and, as I have said, the ma- 

 terial was so simple, I thought it was well worth noticing in the ' Gardener.' 



John Downie. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



A Beautiful Japanese Tree. — The spring we have scarcely yet escaped from 

 is the most difficult that has been encountered by garden vegetation during the 

 memory of man. We have not had very severe frost, it is true, but the long- 

 continued easterly breezes affected the trees worse than any frosts we have ever 



