December 1, 186S. ] 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTTJEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



4,25 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



DECEMBER 1—7, 1863. 



December moth. 



Winter Tortrix moth. 



Pin-tailed Duck comes. 



Furze flowers. 



Caspar Bauhin died, 1624. Bot 



2 Sunday in Advent. 



Polyanthus flowers again. 



Rain in 



last 

 36 years. 



Davs. 

 17 

 16 

 19 

 111 

 21 

 21 

 19 



Sun 

 Rises. 



m. b. 

 45af 7 

 47 



Sun 



Sets. 



Sloon 

 Rises. 



m. h. 



6 10 



11 U 



morn. 



16 



22 1 



31 2 



42 3 



Moon 

 Sets. 



m. b. 



26 11 



45 11 



5 



Moon's 

 Age. 



20 

 21 

 < 



23 

 24 

 25 

 26 



.Clock 

 after 

 Son. 



10 52 

 10 29 



Day of 

 Year. 



333 

 336 

 337 

 338 

 339 

 340 

 341 



From observations taken near London during the last tbirtv-six years, the average day temperature of the week is 47.6°, and its night 

 temperature 35.1°. The greatest heat was 62', on the 1st, 1857 ; and the lowest cold, 14°, on the 5th and 6th, 1844. The greatest fall ot ram 

 was 0.52 Inch. 



GAI{DEN" GHOSTS. 



JLKN I was in London some 

 weeks ago everybody was 

 talking about tbe Ghost, 

 and "Tlio Ghost" was upon 

 every bare wall, scaifokling- 

 board, and omnibus. As 

 you went out of Euston 

 Station, at both windows of 

 your cab appeared a Ghost. 

 Your paper was full of 

 Ghosts ; and a great head- 

 ing, "Visit of the Ghosts 

 to the Lord Chancellor," 

 was followed by an account 

 of their visit, and how they 

 behaved, and what his learned Lordship said ; but to 

 none of them would he grant the patent — in fact they 

 were only scientific Ghosts, or would-be patent Ghosts. 



Now I possess a real Ghost. This is the Ghost of a 

 lady — a very wicked lady, who used to do very wicked 

 things. The front terrace-walk of our house is some- 

 times called " The Ghost's Walk." I have seen her 

 twice — once while seated at luncheon at one o'clock in 

 the day, and once at night, when I took her for one of 

 the maid servants, and desired her to take some hot 

 water to my room. Several people have also seen her ; 

 but I am very an.xious to see her again, to ask her a 

 question or two regarding some treasures she knows all 

 about. 



•* Near the Cell there is a well. 

 Near the well there is a tree. 

 Under the tree the treasure be." 



So it is said in old verses referring to this house and my 

 Ghost. One peculiarity about my Ghost is that she is 

 only seen about once in four or five years, and then only 

 by those who have eyes capable of seeing more than 

 other people, or who from disposition, temperament, or 

 inclination are on the look-out for something uncommon 

 and novel. My Ghost's name when she was in the flesh 

 was Lady FeiTers, and out of compliment to her I have 

 named a white variegated Geranium of mine " The White 

 Lady." My " White Lady " has scarlet flowers ; but I 

 have hox^es among my seedlings of finding a good strong- 

 growing variegated one with Madame Vauoher flowers, 

 which I shall call " The Ghost." 



But setting aside patent Ghosts, do you not agree with 

 me that this capacity which some people have and some 

 have not, or which they have not at all times, of seeing 

 Ghosts, explains in some degree the sentimental opinions, 

 the theoretical fancies, or, as the owners call them, prac- 

 tical opinions concerning ancient and modern gardening 

 — may not these diverse notions about ancient and modern 

 flower-gardening, herbaceous versus bedding plants, be 

 explained by the fact that some of us see Ghosts under 

 certain conditions or circumstances — at all events are on 

 flie look-out for them ? JS"o doubt my reverend brother 

 in Wiltshire was looking out for a Ghost when he raised 

 "with outstretched walking-cane some little border flower 

 No. 140.— Vol, V,, New Seeies. 



nestling in its leafy bed." That was keeping the Ghost 

 at a distance at all events. Fancy our florists at a Hor- 

 ticultural Committee meeting turning up a flower with 

 an outstretched walking-cane ! 



We all of us at times have a Ghost-seeing humour, 

 and that, no doubt, accounts for the change of opinion 

 which comes over us near the beginning of autumn about 

 some of the new bedding plants. There is, for instance, 

 the Coleus Verschaff'elti. When I saw it in July at the 

 Crystal Palace Mr. Gordon and myself both set it down 

 as a failure, but in September it was cpiite a different 

 thing. The Ghost had been at it, or I was in a Ghost- 

 seeing humour, for I liked it amazingly, and made up 

 mj' mind to follow Mr. Earley's advice about it next 

 season. Perhaps after a few years' acclimatising it may 

 become as easy to manage as a variegated Geranium. 

 The same may be said of the Aniaranthus melanchohcus 

 CTiber. When I recommended, in the description of the 

 bedding-out at the Crystal Palace, a certain careful treat- 

 ment of it, I had seen so many failures even by first-rate 

 gardeners, that I was induced to mention Mr. Veiteh's 

 mode of managing it. But "W.M. A.'s" account, at 

 page 151, of his easy success makes it at once everybody's 

 plant. Mine, though tolerable in the first part of the 

 summer, became very shabby latterly, the slugs making 

 terrible havoc among its loaves. 



In certain quarters there has been as much sensation 

 created by a plant as by the Ghosts. A contemporary 

 gardening periodical recommended the Golden Balm as 

 an edging, in such glowing language, that it was to beat 

 even the Golden Chain, and remain as a permanent orna- 

 ment ; but the writer forgot that plants, like departed 

 ladies and gentlemen, have sometimes a Ghost-like ten- 

 dency. A certain purchaser, on the sti'cngth of the sug- 

 gestion, bought some plants of a London florist, and 

 golden and beautiful they were when ho bought them. 

 But one rather wet day lie went to look for his golden 

 beauties — vanished. "Why, they are aU green now!" 

 Off he started for the vendor's, and, as I was informed, 

 used by no means Ghost-like language there. 



Now that Ghost-caught customer of the said florist 

 leads me to express surprise that no one as yet has 

 seconded your editorial proposal to have an exhibition 

 of bedding plants in 1864. From what I have witnessed 

 this year, the variety of opinions on the merits of plants 

 and the changes of opinion which experience brings 

 about (the Coleus ^'erschaflelti is a case in point, as weU 

 as the Golden Balm), an exhibition of bedding plants is 

 as desirable for the nurserymen as for the public. For 

 myself, I hereby record my conviction as an amateur, 

 that such firms as Messrs. Carter, Henderson, Wilhams, 

 Lee, Veitch, &c., never have and never will recommend 

 anything which they do not believe to be what they 

 describe it ; and if I knew nothing about bedding plants, 

 I could go with the utmost confidence to any one of 

 those firms, and I am quite sure they woidd supply con- 

 scientiously what they considered best adapted to my 

 wants : and therefore for any one to suspect our first- 

 class nurserj-men of uufaii- or dishonest attempts to 

 No. 792.— Vol. XXX., Old Seeies, 



