AugUbt 15, 18l57. J 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEK. 



Ill 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



AUGUST 15-21. 1807. 



Tlkoston and Shipley Horticultural Show. 



Newport UorticuUurnl Sliow. 

 9 Sunday aftgh Thinitv. 



Iiind (icuernl Mcotinps. 

 Uoyal nnrticultunil Snciot v, Fruit, Floral , 

 Tiiinworth Horticultural Show. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



h. 

 4ta( 4 



45 5 



51 



59 



8 



17 10 

 3S 11 



Moon'fl 

 Age. 



DavB, 



o 



16 

 17 

 18 



in 



20 

 21 



Clock Day 

 before of 

 San. I Year. 



4 30 



4 8 



8 56 



8 43 



8 30 



227 

 228 

 229 

 2.30 

 231 

 2fl2 

 23S 



Prom obeervatfons taken near London durint; the last forty years, the average day temporatnre of the week is 72.9^ ; and its niRhi 

 temperature 50.4°. The greatest heat was 93", on the 18th, 1842 ; and the lowest cold 32^ on the 2lBt, 1850. The greatest (all of ndn was 

 1.12 inch. 



swi:et-scf,xtrd fi.gwkrs. 



HAT the attempts which were 

 made at some of the recent 

 shows to popularise tliese, 

 by ofTcring special prizes for 

 them as a class, should have 

 been attended by such a 

 small amount of success is not much to bo wondered 

 at ; for the passion for flowers capable of atfractin^ and 

 pleasing the eye has of late years ridden roughshod over 

 all the claims of the minor sense, casting into the sliade 

 and nearly dri%-iiig out of cultivation many iine old plants 

 which, unfortunately for them, have little else thnn (heir 

 fragrance to recommend them. I5ut there are still many 

 left, especially ladies, who have not yet bent the knee to 

 the idol of sliow, and who still Imld the somewhat anti- 

 quated opinion that a flower garden destitute- of fragrance 

 is not a flower garden at all ; and it is very amusing 

 to see how some people, not intimately aciiuainted with 

 flowers, instinctively poke their noses into every flower tliey 

 meet, taking it for granted that cverj- one should have a 

 scent, and that those which have not arc undeserving of 

 the name. 



There is, however, no necessit}' for the two classes — 

 scented and scentless— coming into collision, as the require- 

 ments of both can easily be satisfied without injury to 

 either. As a rule, though subject to many exceptions, our 

 sweetest plants and flowers are tlie least showy ; their 

 mission, tlien, in the flower garden evidently is to " blush 

 unseen," to rusticatei n any ont-of-the-wa}- place where the 

 conditions essential to plant-life can be obtained, there to 

 disseminate their sweetness without obtruding their homely 

 forms too much upon the super-cultivated eye. What I 

 mean is, not that they should lie jilantcd at the back of the 

 shrubbery borders and in similar places, but that beds 

 in situations of secondary importance should here and 

 there be set apart for them, so as not to mar or interfere 

 with the beds or groups designed for show alone. In 

 those may be gro\\^^ such plants as Carnations, I'inks, 

 Double Piockets, Stocks, including the Night- scented. 

 Mignonette, Clioirantbus Marshalli, Alyssum, Candytuft, 

 (TSnotberas, Liliums, ami hosts of others known to every- 

 body, man}' of them winsome things to look at in their 

 own brief season, but most of them all but banished from 

 the flower garden proper, and now used principally for 

 increasing the confusion of herbaceous borders. 



Of fragi'ant-flowering slu-ubs there is an endless variety. 

 The common .Jasmine that winds its spray around so many 

 cottage homes, and its tender associations round so many 

 hearts, can never cease to be a favourite with all. For 

 training on the pillars or latticework of verandahs, arches, 



Ho. »38.— Vol. XIII., Kkw Seriib. 



or covered walks, but particularly for walls or ruins, it is 

 well adapted. With it may be used many of tlie Cle- 

 matises, especially C. flammula and its varieties, all well- 

 known plants, rich alike in gracefulness and delightful 

 fragrance. 



The Swcetbriar will always make its presence felt, and 

 in shrubberies or unkept grounds can hardly ever be used 

 to excess. For centui'ies poets have rhymed its praises, 

 but by gardeners it seems to be so lightl}- apfirec.iated, that 

 about many gardens not even a single plant of it is to be 

 found. 



Daphne cneonim is a delightful little flowering shrub of 

 exquisite scent, and, from its low neat habit, well adapted 

 for small circular beds. It can be propagated by layers 

 with the greatest ease and certainty, and docs well in any 

 soil that will grow PJiododendrons. D. odora is only 

 half-hardy, and cannot be ti-usted out of doors in winter ; 

 D. mezereum and laureola are both hardy, and highly 

 scented. 



The Balm of Gilead (Dracoccphalum canariense). and 

 the Sweet Verbena (Aloysia^. being balf-liardy, require 

 to be treated as bedding plants, but well repay all the 

 trouble which that may entail, thougli the latter will stand 

 any ordinary winter against a south wall if well protected. 



We saw some time ago in these pages something from 

 the graceful pen of " Wii.tsiiiuk IIixtor " about " Lilac- 

 tide," as he designates the short sweet period when that 

 delightful shrub is in bloom. Here we have no Lilac-tide, 

 but we have other times when fragi-ance and beauty aboimd 

 throughout our woods and glens, when the wild Hose and 

 Honeysuckle scramble, entwined, from rock to branch, and 

 scatter abroad their incense in grateful acknowledgment 

 of the love tliat endowed them witli such delightful odours. 

 Then we have a purple-tide, wliich no art can imitate, 

 when mountains and moors are all ablaze with blooming 

 Heather, the Sweet Gale contributing its feeble quota 

 from the marshy grounds where the Heath refuses to 

 grow, when both uniting their sweetness they load each 

 passing breeze with a perfume so delicate that no breath 

 from any home-born blossom can vie with it : yet I do 

 envy " Wir.TsniRK RKcroit " his Lilac-tide, for it is a brief 

 but gloriously perfumed season, and all the sweeter for 

 its brevity. 



The purple and white small-leaved Persian Lilacs 

 should have a place in every flower garden ; as stan- 

 dards they are very handsome, and are easily fonned by 

 grafting on the common Lilac or on the Ash. Tliey may 

 be propagated by layers, suckers, and by grafting on the 

 IVivet. 



Like music, sweet smells possess in no small degi-ee the 

 power of associating themselves in our memories with 

 particular places, persons, or circumstances, so tliat when- 

 ever we find ourselves witliin the charmed circle of certain 

 perfumed flowers, the reproductions of these are by some 

 mysterious process, and in a dim and shado^^y way, im- 

 mediately brought before us : they are also sometimes so 

 identified with certain spots in our gardens or elsewhere, 

 that if for a season they are wanting we feel uneasy and 

 j disappointed every time we pass. That gratifications so 

 No. 98S,— ToL. XSXmi., Old Sebizs. 



