Beptembar r, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOHTIGULTHRE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



171 



Nowbero do the Heaths flourish more, or bloom more 

 brightly than in the moist atmosphere of the Bouthern Cornish 

 roast, and it has been said that one of its parishes, Mylor, is 

 the only one of the 11,700 parishes of I'lngland, in which all live 

 of our native Ericas, as well as their half-siater Calluna, can 

 be found native. Erica vafjans, the Cornish or Goonnelly 

 Heatli, has its special residence in that district of the Lizard, 

 which I daro say very few know, is a true Cornish name, 

 JAazhcrd, much thrust out, as is the land seaward. It was 

 once thouplit, and Murray even retains the error, that this 

 Heath is only found there in the soil resting upon the serpen- 

 tine formation ; and as a serpentine contains about forty per 

 cent, of magnesia, it was thence concluded that abundance of 

 magnesia is necessary for its growth. This is only another 

 illustration — 



" How man too riislily oftrn deems 



Of that which is from Unit which seems," 



for Erica vagaus is found far from any serpentine formation 

 on Connor Down, in this county, in Glamorgan, Portugal, and 

 North Africa. 



How joyously fresh, also, do the Ferns look here — those 

 gentles of the Cryptogamic world — and some of the rarest h.ive 

 their whereabouts at the Land's End. Asplenium marinum, 

 fine and abundant, is in the coves around. Who'e plants were 

 for sale near the very small inn, the actually last inn in Eng- 

 land, although another at Sennen, half a mile inland, has on 

 the east side of its sign, " The Last Inn in England," and on 

 its west side, " The First Inn." Then, Aspleuium lanceolatum, 

 which is specified in onr English floras as " very rare," and so 

 it is in other parts of this island, but about Penzance it may 

 be described quite as correctly by the words " very abundant." 

 In more northern districts I never saw it so large and vigorous, 

 except when grown in the shaded part of a greenhouse, the air 

 in which was well charged with moisture. I cannot but think 

 that that rarest and most graceful of our Ferns, the Maiden- 

 hair, is to be found on the rocks of tlie very many coves and 

 caverns between the Land's End and Godfrey Island. The 

 belief here is, that it is growing nowhere except in a damp 

 cave on the beach at Carrack Gladden, about midway between 

 St. Ives and Haylc. Mr. Woods, a Snssex botanist, write.^ 

 thus about this Fern, " I walked from St. Ives as far as the 

 ferry towards Havle, but, instead of crossing to the Causeway, 

 I landed on the Towans, and on that d.iy and the next had a 

 good hunt over them. I hunted also the Black cliff, and the 

 clitTs by Gwithiau for the Adiantura, but in vain. It seems to 

 grow on a tufa formed by the action of the water on the shelly 

 sand, but I hardly found any such combination of shade and 

 moisture, as to promise well ; I was, however, prevented by 

 the tide from coasting the whole length of the rocks at Gwi- 

 thiau." It is such hindrances, that, in my opinion, prevent 

 this Adiantum being found elsewhere than in that Carrack 

 Gladden cave. Casual visitors must always be so restricted in 

 their botanical searches, but if some sufficiently qualified resi- 

 dent would pursue the research, I believe it would be found in 

 other cavities along that space of coast. Wo are told by our 

 comprehensive friend, " Murray's Guide," that the cave at 

 Carrack Gladden, " until lately was festooned and lined with 

 Maiden-hair ; but the Ferns have been, to a great extent, de- 

 stroyed by the ' natives,' for the purpose of increasing the 

 value of the plants they have for sale. The cave might, and 

 should be, closed by an iron grating." That it does grow else- 

 where in the Briti-h Islands, than in that cave, is certain, for 

 it has been found at Barry Island, and Port Kirig, on the coast 

 of Glamorganshire, on the southern of the Arran islands, and 

 on the banks of the Carron. 



Of the other native Ferns which are rare, Hymenophyllum 

 tunbridgense is to be found at (.'arn Galva ; Ophioglossum vul- 

 gatum. at Phillack, and the Scilly Islands, the proper name of 

 which is Si/lleh, or islands dedicated to the sun. 



I will but mention one other rare plant, rather abundant 

 near Penzance, Sibthorpia europ.nsa, the Cornish Moneywort. 

 It is truly a graceful little plant, its trailing stems and its de- 

 licate pinky white flowers are now in full vi^jour. 



If any reader of these notes wishes for a full enumeration of 

 the plants, "abcut the Land's End," it is to bo found in a 

 list published by Dr. Montgomery, of Penzance, who is not 

 only, as I have good reason to testify, an able physician, but a 

 skilled botanist. That list was originally published in the 

 " Reports of the Punsanco Natural History and Antiquarian 

 Society," one of the many associations for the promotion of 

 science which characterise this county. This society was formed . 

 in 1839, and still is active. A complete set of its Reports can 



now be met with very rarely. In that now before me, I see a 

 list of " The Mosses about Penzance," with full directions 

 where to find them, being a result of the researches of Mr. 

 Alfred Greenwood; "A List of the Lichens," found in the 

 same neighbourhood, by Mr. Pentreath ; " The Wild Flowers 

 and Ferns of Scilly," by Miss L. and Miss M. Millett ; " Fungi 

 of the Neighbourhood of Penzance," by a brother of those 

 ladies ; and a list of some of the Alga;, by Mr. Ralfs, who 

 resides at Penzance, and is well known as one of those who are 

 best acquainted with our native plants. 



The Koyal Geological Society of Cornwall is another justly 

 distinguished association. Its museum is one of the best in 

 the United Kingdom, and will now soon have a worthy abid- 

 ing place. This society was instituted at Penzance, in 181-1, at 

 the suggestion of the late Dr. Paris, who then resided there. 

 His work on " The Soils of Cornwall," would entitle him to a 

 notice in notes " About the Land's End," even if he had no 

 other claim. He wrote also a life of Sir Humphry Davy, who 

 was a native of Penzance, and the house of whose birth has 

 now become most inappropriately a second-hand furniture 

 shop, for Sir Humphry's world-wide fame is founded on no 

 secondhand researches. His "Agricultural Chemistry" is 

 no exception to this claim of originality, for although Lord 

 Dundonald had pointed out the importance of applying che- 

 mistry to the cultivation of the soil, yet Sir Humphry was the 

 first to elTect that application. Between the years 1802 and 

 1812, ho pursued those researches which one year later he pub- 

 lished as " Elements of Agricultural Chemistry," but they are 

 equally illustrative of horticulture, and it has been observed, 

 by one on whom his mantle has descended, that " the single 

 work of Sir Humphry Davy is nearly all that chemical science 

 has, in this country, been induced to contribute to the ad- 

 vancement of agricultural theory during the first forty years of 

 the present century." But the application of chemistry to the 

 culture of the soil is not the only exertion of his intellect which 

 entitles Sir Humphry to the regard of the readers of " our 

 Journal," for in one of his letters he says, relative to the pre- 

 servation of eggs for incubation, " It will be a great point if 

 the principle of life can be made to sleep in the ova of birds 

 and fishes, as it is in the seeds of plants. I wish Mr. Knight 

 would try if eggs that have been kept three or four months in 

 lime water, will have retained the vital principle. I have more 

 hope in electrical than in chemical interferences — such as 

 covering eggs with resin or varnish, or exclusion of the air by 

 machinery. Lime water seems to prevent the action of air on 

 the egg by its electrical effects." — G. 



A BASIffiT OF FRUIT. 



At a local horticultural show a prize was offered for the best 

 " basket of fruit." Does this mean a very large basket, having 

 within it ten or twelve smaller baskets containing the fruits, 

 or does it mean one of moderate size, holding its own contents ? 

 A few words in your next would greatly oblige — A Grower of 

 Fkuit, Clialti'i-ia. 



[This is one of many instances in which a want of definite- 

 ness is much to be lamented. A washerwoman's clothes-basket 

 and a punnet equally come within the definition of " a basket." 

 A. basket contaioiug other small baskets does not come within 

 that term, for they are plural. Then according to common 

 acceptation, though not correctly, "a basket of fruit " would 

 include a basket containing many kinds of fruit, as well as a 

 basket containing one kind.] 



prG:\rY vines in pots. 



Havino been on a tour through Ireland, and having while 

 there an occasion to call at Newcastle, the seat of the Hon. L. 

 Harraan King-Harman's, I there saw a very excellent mode of 

 growing Vines in pots, which is, I believe, if not new, prac- 

 tised but very rarely. 



Meeting with Mr. W. Henderson, the very able gardener 

 there, he wished, he said, to show me some "new ; lints" in 

 one of the vineries. I there saw on a wide back sh'.!i two rows 

 of Vines in pots, the back row being white Grapes, while those 

 in the front rof were all black. The two rows thus formed a 

 ribbon border, the effect of which was really excellent. 



" Nothing in all that," say my readers. No, but when I say 

 that the Vines alluded to were all cuttings planted last Feb- 

 ruary, in four and six-inch pots, grown and fruited in the same 



