September 18, 1873. ] 



JODBNAL OP HORTICDLTURB AND COTTAGE QAEDENEK. 



217 



Dean, of EaJinf;, sent a basket of double dwarf Marigolds of 

 varieties, of which Eanuncaliflora, Aurea floribunda, and Aurau- 

 tiaca floribvmda were the most notable. 



DUNDEE HORTICULTURAL SHOW. 



{From a Correspondent .) 



The enterprising horticultural Society of this large and 

 flourishing town had a most successful Exhibition on the 

 4th, 5th, and 6th iust., in the Drill Hall and square in front. 

 It was opened on the 4th inst. by James Yeaman, Esq., the 

 newly-elected M.P., President, who delivered an appropriate 

 address. With the exception of the show in the Baxter Park 

 when the British Association met iu Dundee, the Society has 

 had no exhibition equal to that just past. The fulfilled entries 

 were 1678, being for plants, 241 (pots, 811 in number) ; cut 

 flowers, 429 ; fruit, 300 ; vegetables, 708. The amount of prize 

 money was i'280. The visitors. Including members and friends 

 <the chief support of the Society), numbered 13,106, and the 

 amount paid by the general public for admission was £217 7s. 



The pot plants were a splendid sight, aud showed that the 

 wealthy merchants of Jutopolis are not devoted to jute alone. 

 The first prize for nine stove or greenhouse plants was the 

 ■challenge cup presented by Joseph G-rimmond, Esq., Corbett 

 Castle, and fa in money ; this was fairly won by Mr. B. M. 

 McMillan, Mr. Grimmond's own gardener. The local nursery- 

 men — viz., Messrs. W. P. Laird & Siucl.air, and Messrs. John 

 Stewart i Son, vied with each other in carrying off prizes in the 

 different departments, greatly to the advantage of the Show. 

 Messrs. Robertson & Galloway, Glasgow, took the first prize for 

 the best twenty-four Gladioli. The first prize for the best 

 eighteen Dahlias went to Mr. John McPherson, Polmuir Gar- 

 dens, Aberdeen. The Alpines were numerous, aud included 

 many rare and fine specimens ; the first prize for the best 

 thirty was won by Mr. A. Pattison, Baxter Park. 



The cat flowers, as a whole, were very good, but unmistakeably 

 affected by recent cold and rainy weather. The table-decora- 

 tions, hand, table, and button-hole bouquets were very numer- 

 ous and gorgeous, not a few of them tastefully put up. There 

 were also some good floral devices. 



The fruit was excellent. Mr. George Reid, gardener to Bailie 

 Moncur, won the first prizes for the best four bunches of 

 Grapes, best black bunch, best bunch of Lady Downe's, and 

 beat bunch for bloom. The first prize for the heaviest bunch 

 was gained by Mr. George Gillespie, gardener to James Paterson, 

 Esq., Binnettles, who also received the first prize for two Pine 

 Apples. 



There was an abundance of vegetables of every kind, all in 

 good condition. The little hamlet or clachan of Balledgarno, 

 in the Carse of Gowrie, entered in all the departments, and 

 carried away no less than twenty-seven prizes. 



There were two tables, 10 feet by 6, laid out as specimens of 

 dessert decoration, everything complete for a banquet. The 

 first prize, £.5, was awarded to Mr. David Goss, gardener to 

 Col. Macdonald, St. Martin's Abbey, Perthshire. The second 

 prize, .t'3, went to Mr. Mackie, landscape gardener, late gardener 

 to the Earl of Camperdown. The merits of both were warmly 

 discussed, and the general opinion appeared to be pretty equally 

 divided. 



REPORT ON THE BRISBANE BOTANIC GARDEN. 



We are truly pleased to find from Mr. Walter Hill's official 

 statement that this colonial garden continues its useful and 

 prosperous course under his good management. We have only 

 apace to spare for the foUowing extract : — 



" The fibre-producing plants have commanded special atten- 

 tion on account of the great and increasing demand that has 

 arisen in the mother country for materials for the manufacture 

 •of paper and textile fabrics. For some years past we have had 

 the following plants in cultivation in the Garden : — Crotalaria 

 jnncea (Bengal Hemp), Cannabis sativa (Indian Hemp), 

 Linnm usitatiasimum (Flax), Corchorua capsularis (Jute), 

 Urtica nivea (China Grass), Hibiscus cannabinus (Sunue), 

 Hibiscus sorbifolia (Rosella Hemp), Musa teitilis (Manilla 

 Hemp), Sida retnsa (Queensland Hemp), &c. 



" Samples of the material manufactured from these plants 

 lave been exhibited at several of the agricultural and horti- 

 cultural shows in Queensland, at the Intercolonial Exhibition 

 in New South Wales, and at the International Exposition held 

 in London in 1802. Upon the last-named occasion the fibre 

 of the Sida retusa commanded great attention. The sum of 

 £''i'> per ton was offered for it in large quantities, according to 

 Bample, and it was anticipated that an increased demand 

 woald raise the price to £00 per ton. So many inquiries were 

 made of me on the snbject that, at my private ezpeuso, I im- 

 ported two machines from England, at a cost of £100, which 

 I was led to believe would answer the purpose of dressing the 



fibre so as to render it saleable ; unfortunately they turned out 

 to be quite unsuitable for that object. A sample of Sida retusa 

 was also shown at the Loudon International Exhibition last 

 year, aud siace then I ha^ve been inundated with letters on the 

 subject, to very few of which I have been able to reply, owing 

 to my time being otherwise employed, aud the absence of 

 clerical assistance. Such questions have been put as the 

 foUowiug : — If a Company were formed, would they be able to 

 find five thousand acres of laud suitable for the cultivation of 

 this special product, aud where would it be situated ? What 

 would be the produce per acre were the land properly culti- 

 vated ? Do you know of anyone who understands the cultiva- 

 tion of fibre-producing plants, &c. ? It is to be regretted that 

 the great demand for the fibre of a plant which grows as a 

 weed iu Queensland, and is becoming a pest to the farmers, 

 cannot be better supplied. 



"Late advices inform me that small lots of the Sida are 

 saleable at only from £14 to £17 per ton ; but a steady and 

 roUable supply would no doubt have the effect of raising its 

 value, especially as it appears to be wanted to meet the re- 

 quirements of the English manufacturers. 



" The past year there have been distributed to 480 applicant^, 

 60,000 cuttings of twenty varieties of Sugar-cane, 2000 plants 

 and 4500 cuttings of three species of Mulberry — viz.. Moras 

 alba, M. multicaulis, and M. latifoUa, C400 Coffee plants, 

 2000 Tea plants, 10,000 Chinese Grass-cloth plants, 3000 Ginger 

 roots, 400 papers of Tobacco seed, 6 lbs. of Indigo seed, 8 lbs. of 

 Sun Hemp seed, 6 lbs. of Jute seed, besides 9040 of other useful 

 plants. From the above it will be seen how extremely useful 

 the establishment has been in dispersing superior trees and 

 other plants over the country." 



A MELON-CUCUMBER. 



We received from Mr. A. Spary, gardener, DigsweU House, 

 Welwyn, the foUowing communication : — " A remarkable freak 

 of Nature may be seen at the present time in the nurseries of 

 Mr. John Watson, St. Albans. In a span-roof house occupied 

 on the south side with Munro's Littlo Heath Melon, and on 

 the north with Cucumbers, is a Cucumber plant on the Melon 

 side bearing both Cucumbers and a Melon. The Melon is 

 about the size of a goose egg, aud slightly elongated in form ; 

 and although there is a small crack in it, caused, I think, from 

 overwatering, Mr. Watson thinks that it will ripen and pro- 

 duce seed. Was this compound fruit caused by the action of 

 the Melon poUen on the Cucumber blossom ? or was it wrought 

 previously in the parent of the Cucumber plant '? Mr. Watson 

 is of the former opinion, as he has not grown Melons for a 

 very long period. Have any of your readers met with a similar 

 instance?" 



We requested Mr. W. G. Smith, the botanist and draughts- 

 man, to examine the " Melon-Cucumber," and the following 

 is the result : — 



Acting upon your request to visit Mr. Watson's nurseries at 

 St. Albans, and make a drawing and notes of his Melon growing 

 upon a Cucumber plant, I went there, and now send the re- 

 sults. 



Until the present season Mr. Watson had not grown Melons 

 for thirty years, and the Melon-Cucumber fruit here illustrated 

 grows upon a Cucumber plant on the north side of a span-roof 

 Cucumber house, in which house on the south side are planted 

 a few fine Munro's Little Heath Melon plants. The pollen 

 of a male flower of a Melon was probably transferred to the 

 female flower of a Cucumber by some insect, and so the curious 

 hybrid has arisen. 



The Melon-Cucumber is 4,J inches long and 8J inches round. 

 It seems externally to be exactly intermediate between its two 

 parents ; its general form is that of the Melon ; its skin is 

 yellowish green, and furnished towards the fruit-stalk with a 

 few Cucumber hairs, the fruit-stalk itself and the base of the 

 fruit is that of the Melon. Mr. Watson believes the fruit wUI 

 properly ripen and pioduee seed, but wliat the nature of tho 

 interior of the fruit may be time can only show. On the axil 

 of the stem which produces this cross-bred is a Cucumber leaf 

 of extraordinary size measuring no less than 1 foot 2 inches 

 across, and exactly 18 inches from the cross-bred grows a very 

 fine Cucumber as shown. My first feelings of surprise are 

 somewhat lessened when I remember how very prone somo 

 species of Cucurbitaceoo are to produce very diverse vai'ieties 

 amongst themselves, as the Melon with its white, yellow, or 

 red flesh, and its smooth or tuberculated bark, and the nu- 

 merous varieties thrown off from the Cucumber. Tho two 



