36& 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ NoTomber 14, 1867. 



worthless. Amy Hogg promises well, but I have only just 

 made its acquaintance. 



Of other varieties not named by your correspondent, among 

 Zonals I greatly admire St. Fiacre, a profuse-bloomer every- 

 where, and especially charming in the greenhouse, where it is 

 one of the latest in bloom ; Eoi d'ltalie, magnificent as an 

 old plant to stand singly ; Spitfire, a profuse-bloomer and 

 dazzling crimson scarlet in poor soil ; Dr. Lindley, very fine ; 

 Zfilie, which I had from Jersey, a very free-bloomer, with a 

 broad, almost black zone nearly covering the leaf, colour cerise 

 lose ; Crystal Palace Beauty, a vigorous grower, with fine 

 trusses of cerise magenta blossoms, each flower as large as a 

 crown-piece, with thick round petals ; and Souvenir de Sir Joseph 

 Paston, a splendid pale-eyed bright pink variety, with immense 

 trusses, heaii ideal in colour, and unrivalled as a pot plant in 

 the greenhouse ; I cannot speak of it yet as a bedder. Rose 

 Rendatler, also, I greatly admire as an old plant standing singly, 

 with its abundant trusses of pale salmon blooms and well- 

 defined salmon pink eye. Many other varieties I have on trial, 

 which have each their distinctive beauties, as Trentham 

 Scarlet, Paul I'Abbii, Christabel, Magenta, Beaton's Pet, &e. ; 

 but I am not sufEoiently acquainted with them yet to recom- 

 mend them specially. 



Of Variegated Pelargoniums I have tried several varieties, 

 but have found none surpassing in their several shades of 

 white and cream the old Flower of the Day, Bijou, and 

 Alma, or among gold-edged varieties Golden Fleece, Golden 

 Chain, and Cloth of Gold. All the latter love partial shade, 

 and thrive in rich loose soil. Cloth of Gold is least tolerant 

 of summer sunshine and drought. Golden Fleece is invaluable 

 for its dwarf procumbent tendency and profuse-blooming 

 qualities ; as an edging to, or dotting a bed of blue Lobelia, it 

 is exquisite. Of the former. Bijou has the purest white. It is 

 apt to grow leggy if left to itself ; but judicious nipping will 

 make it grow as bushy and squat as can be desired. Alma is 

 naturally dwarf, and is the next purest white ; but Flower of 

 the Day, with its rich cream-coloured foliage and moderate 

 growth, makes one of the best of edgings.— B. & W. 



Theke are two varieties that " A. 0. W." has not named ; 

 one of them, now an old kind. Lady Middleton, and I never 

 saw a more beautiful, soft, glowing bed than I had of it this 

 summer and autumn. In fact, when other beds " were withered 

 and gone " this lovely Pelargonium burst out afresh, and was 

 like a glowing jewel until late in October. Let any one but try 

 this variety in a not-rich soil, and he will not be disappointed. 



There is another Pelargonium, a Nosegay, and it quite sur- 

 prises me how little is said about it — namely. Rival Nosegay ; 

 such trusses of crimson magenta flowers I never before saw. 

 The habit of the plant, too, is first-rate — dwarf and bushy, 

 and continually throwing up fresh blooms. I had some eight 

 or ten plants of it bedded out this season, and I have cut them 

 up in pieces, so as to have a good stock for next year. I only 

 wonder how comparatively indifierent kinds are lauded, and 

 this splendid variety passed by. Beauty (Williams), makes a 

 very bright and effective bed ; so does Flower of Spring — I do 

 not mean the variegated ; and in a fine, warm, dry season 

 Amelina Grisau and Eugene Mezard, amongst the painted 

 varieties, are very beautiful sorts in a moderately rich bed. 



The catalogue of useless sorts, as bedders, would I fear be 

 too tedious to give. Amongst Variegated Pelargoniums I am 

 old-fashioned enough to say that Bijou is a great favourite still. 

 It has a fine silvery leaf, and its flowers are far from being 

 mean or despicable. Golden Chain, much abused for its slow 

 growth and delicate constitution, is, in my opinion, a beautiful 

 and distinct bedder. As a pot plant (I have not tried it as a 

 bedder). Emperor of the Nosegays is a splendid variety. — 

 W. H. B. 



UNSEASONABLE STPaWBERRIES. 



The Strawberry-beds in my kitchen garden present a rather 

 remarkable appearance for the time of year, and afford strong 

 evidence of the unusual mildness of the season. A large num- 

 ber of the plants are in flower, and five or six of them have 

 developed full-sized fruit of strong healthy appearance, some 

 of which are partly coloured : one of them would already make 

 a very fair show upon the dessert-table. Comte de Paris is 

 the sort that seems most forward in this unseasonable fruiting. 



My beds lie in a warm situation sloping to the south-west, 

 but do not receive the benefit of all the sun that is to be had 

 at this time of year. 



My Raspberry-canes have continued to ripen fruit up to the 

 present time ; I have still some quite-eatable berries upon 

 them. 



1 shall be interested to know whether any of your correspon- 

 dents can give similar reports from their gardens. — F. H. 

 Jansoe, Oakbauk, CIMehurst, 



NOVEMBERS AND JUNES. 



In my paper on an analysis of the weather, which you did 

 me the favour to notice in your Journal, it is stated as a result, 

 that the eight cold Novembers which occurred between the 

 years 18.51 and 1861 were followed by Mays and Junes of a 

 similar character. These coincidences, as far as they go, seem 

 to be worthy of consideration ; but many more years of ob- 

 servation must elapse before it can be determined whether the 

 atmospheric conditions of November do exercise any positive 

 influence upon those of succeeding seasons. There can be 

 little doubt, however, that cold in early autumn, followed by 

 unfavourable weather about the time of the summer solstice, 

 interferes sadly with the quality and quantity of vegetable pro- 

 ducts. Such is the case, at all events, in Guernsey, where 

 October is generally a wet warm month, and where, beyond 

 slight and transient hoar-frost, seldom does any material lower- 

 ing of temperature take place until the end of November. In 

 the course of twenty-four years' observation the minimum ther- 

 mometer in October did not fall below 37°, and on two Novem- 

 bers only, during the same period, did the temperature fall 

 below freezing-point. 



Under normal circumstances, therefore, vegetation continues 

 active until late in the year, and the sap-vessels of plants re- 

 main filled with aqueous juices, in which state it is a received 

 axiom, they are most of all susceptible of injury from depression 

 of temperature. A slight degree of frost, therefore, in Novem- 

 ber will act upon them more prejudicially than a much greater 

 degree at a more advanced period. When frost, however, does 

 chance to occur too early, vegetation becomes so much checked 

 that the due consolidation of young shoots is prevented ; and, 

 even though their sap-vessels may not become ruptured by 

 congelation of their watery contents, the deposit of those special 

 secretions designed for future assimilation is impeded, if not 

 entirely frustrated. Now, as this process of assimilation is in 

 progiess about June, unfavourable weather at this time, even 

 mere absence of sunshine, tends to interfere in no slight degree 

 with the due maturation of crops, prevents fruit from acquiring 

 proper richness of flavour, and predisposes it to decaj'. 



Combinations as untoward as the foregoing being, happily, 

 exceptional in this climate, it may be well to pass in review 

 the occurrences of an ordinary year, and the present affords ns 

 a fair example, especially as a tolerably favourable June suc- 

 ceeded a mild November. 



On referring to my analytical tables it will be found that the 

 month of November, 186G, was moderate as to temperature 

 and rainy days. Subsequent observations show that January, 

 18G7, was cold ; February very warm and rainy ; March cold and 

 equally wet ; April boisterous and bleak, with heavy showers 

 of hail on the 20th and 21st. This leads me to remark that 

 extensive fields of ice had previously been met with by navi- 

 gators off the coast of Newfoundland, nearly in the course of 

 our isothermal line. For many years past I have been induced 

 to ascribe breezes unusually keen during the spring and sum- 

 mer to the presence of icebergs in our latitude, however far 

 removed from us in point of longitude. This opinion was 

 strenuously opposed by a late meteorologist, but the coincidence, 

 nevertheless has been of frequent recurrence ; remarked by others 

 as well as myself, as is proved by the following passage from 

 the Illustrated London Neus of the 1.3th of April, 1867 : — " It 

 has been asserted that the severe weather recently experienced 

 in Great Britain and France was due to atmospheric disturb- 

 ances in the North Atlantic Ocean ; and all arrivals at Liver- 

 pool from New York, and other ports of the United States and 

 Canada, report unprecedented quantities of ice in mid-ocean, 

 about 44° N. lat. and 53° W. long. One vessel had to sail two 

 hundred miles in a southerly direction alongside a perfect con- 

 tinent of ice." 



But to resume. About the middle of May, strong gales with 

 occasional storms of thunder, lightning, and hail, occurred, and 

 the air was generally chilly and bleak ; but, owing to some in- 

 tervals of warm sunshine, the temperature was somewhat above 

 the mean of years. In June, gentle, but, nevertheless, keen 

 breezes predominated from N.E. and N.W., but, as the rainfall 



