424 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICOLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jane 16, 1870. 



is raised on 254,403 acres of land. The three eonnties in the 

 State which produce the most Potatoes, join each other — viz., 

 Washington, Rensselaer, and Saratago, their aggregate pro- 

 duction reaching within a fraction of 2,500,000 bushels, or 

 more than one-eighth of the total of the whole State. — (Boston 

 Cultivator.) 



PORTRAITS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, and FRUITS. 



Morhodes Colossus (Large-flowered Mormodee). Xat. ord., 

 Orchidacere. Lm?!.,GynandriaMonandria. — Nativeof the moun- 

 tains of Central America, at 7000 feet elevation. Flowers pink, 

 with yellow margins. — (Bot. Map., t. 5R40.) 



Plectrantfius colf.oides (Colens-flowered Plectranthns). 

 Xat. ord., Labiatic. Linn., Didynamia Gymnospermia. — Na- 

 tive of the Neilgherri hills, Hindostan. Flowers purple and 

 white.— (Ibid., t. 5841.) 



Hechtia (?) GHiESBREcnTn (Gbiesbreght's Hechlia). Nat. 

 ord., Bromeliacere. Linn., Hexandria Trigynia. — Native of 

 Mexico. Flowers insignificant, but odorous, like those of the 

 Hawthorn.— (Ibid., t. 5842.) 



Miltonia Warscewiczii (Warscewicz's Miltonia). Xat. ord., 

 Orchidacere. Linn., Gynandria Monandria. — Native of Peru. 

 Flowers brown, purple, and yellow. — (Ibid., t. 5843.) 



Ophrts Speculum (Looking-glass Ophrys). Xat. ord., Or- 

 chidacefo. Linn., Gynandria Monandria. — A ground Orchid. 

 Native of grassy hills In Southern Europe and Algiers. Flowers 

 purple, steel-blue, and yellow. — (Ibid., t. 5844.) 



Clematis — Princess Mary. — " A charming new Clematis, of 

 the Florida race, descended from Clematis Standisbii, and one 

 of a fine batch recently obtained by Mr. C. Noble, of Sunning- 

 dale. It is the most distinct break we have yet seen from the 

 violets, greys, and whites which are the ordinary colours of 

 the large -flowered forms of Clematis ; and its very pleasing 

 shade of rosy pink will render it a most welcome acquisition. 



" The niche which this novelty is adapted to fill is that of 

 an early-blooming hardy or conservatory climber. It is of free 

 but slender growth, with quite the habit of C. Standisbii, and, 

 like that plant, is adapted either for pot culture or for planting 

 out in the conservatory, or against a conservative wall. As a 

 spring exhibition plant, blooming freely about the month of 

 May, this, with others of its race, is to be highly recommended. 

 With the double white C. Fortunei, the double blue C. John G. 

 Veitcb, and the hybrids Mr. Noble has introduced to public 

 notice — e <7.,MissBatenian, Albert Victor, Lady Londesborougb, 

 &c, a very charming group might bo made up. Though the 

 exact parentage of tho individual seedlings has not been pre- 

 served, we learn from Mr. Noble that C. Star^dishii, Fortunei, 

 and Sophia flore-pleno, with C. lanuginosa fthe two former 

 principally tho seed-bearers), were the parents of his hybrids 

 — a race of free-blooming, early-flowering varieties, which, pos- 

 sessing vigour of growth, combine also fine form and unwonted 

 substance of petal, with some exquisite tints of colour. We 

 learn, moreover, that the plants are perfectly hardy." — (Florist 

 and Pomologist, 3 s. iii. 121.) 



A DISTRICT WITHOUT SONG BIRDS. 



I am an old man, more's the pity; but nothing makes me 

 feel more old and old-fashioned than the pleasure I felt, living 

 in an atmosphere of railway literature, at reading " Horta- 

 tor's " imitation of dear old Isaac Walton's Btyle in your num- 

 ber of May 26th, upon one point in which I feel inclined to 

 add a very few lines. It is a common observation that most of 

 onr everyday enjoyments are bo much a part of our surround- 

 ings, that we do not feel them to have existed until some acci- 

 dent deprives us of them. Light, heat, sweet odours, grateful 

 tastes, soft colours, are scarcely appreciated until their ab- 

 sence is felt; but the want of the presence and song of birds 

 is, fortunately, so uncommon in this country, that " Horta- 

 tor's" charming description of the enjoyment they add to the 

 gardener's pursuits leads me to add my late experience, for the 

 first time, of the total absence of feathered songsters. 



I travelled during the past May from Marseilles to Genoa 

 without having seen or heard the note of one bird ; the Bavages 

 had eaten them all. I had recoiled with horror from the banks 

 of yellowhammers and robin redbreasts seen in the German 

 markets, but I had no idea until now of a whole country stript 

 of birds. I saw three instances of chasseurs equipped with 

 double guns and fully armed to do death unto a breeding 

 linnet, but I never saw the linnet ; and though I felt an uneasy 

 want, I never fully realised what that want was until, in the 

 Casoini at Florence, I again heard the full chorus of blackbird, 



thrush, and nightingale, and felt that such was one of the 

 enjoyments given by a merciful Creator to soothe the labours 

 and sufferings of fallen humanity ; and while sitting in my 

 garden overseeing the bedding-out, I never so thoroughly en- 

 joyed the intimate and confident company of blackbirds and 

 thrushes hopping about, jerking their tails, and filling the air 

 with their wood notes wild. I shudder at the idea of a former 

 gard«ner of mine, who asked his mistress to persuade me to 

 cut some magnificent hedges because they sheltered vermin. 

 "What vermin?" said Bhe. "Why, them blackbirds and 

 thrushes." The worst punishment I could wish for such a 

 Vandal would be one spring in a land devoid of feathered song, 

 and for the vile reason that the Frenchmen had eaten the 

 songsters. — C. 



SOCIETY OF ARTS EXAMINATION OF 

 GARDENERS. 



PRIZES. 



George Downton, Richmond Parochial Library, gardener — 

 Floriculture, first-class certificate, with first prize of £5, and 

 the Royal Horticultural Society's prize of £5. Fruit and Ve- 

 getable Culture, first-class certificate, with first prize of £5, 

 and the Royal Horticultural Society's prize of £5. 



William Jones, Liverpool Institution, gardener— Floricul- 

 ture, first-class certificate, with Becond prize of £3, and the 

 Royal Horticultural Society's prize of £3. Fruit and Vegetable 

 Culture, second-class certificate, with the Royal Horticultural 

 Society's prize of £3. 



CERTIFICATES. 



NOTES FROM PARIS. 



Many times have I visited this gay capital, but never have I 

 seen it in better guise than now. The weather, for May, was 

 hot, even to July heat — hotter tenfold than when I was there 

 in August last, when the caf<h were closed and the boulevards 

 only frequented by persons who wished to keep themselves warm 

 with brisk walking. Then the cafes chantants were deserted, the 

 merry-go-rounds had no riders, and the " concerts des Champs 

 ElysL'es " were performed to empty benches. A bitter wind 

 swept the streets, scattering the withering leaves of the trees far 

 and wide. Nov all was different : everybody was out, the " ple- 

 biscite " had passed, and by the aspect of matters you»wouJd 

 never gue.-s that there were any " irruconciliables," and even 

 the affaire Pierre Eonaparte seemed forgotten. And how 

 charming the boulevards looked with the freBh tender foliage 

 of the trees, which dust and heat bad not as yet tried to spoil; 

 and how beautiful were the Horse Chestnuts crowded with their 

 white blossoms ! True, the plants had not as yet been turned 

 out into their beds, and so those places which are more or less 

 dependant on them were not in such height of beauty as 

 later in tho season, but the freshness of the foliage was an 

 ample compensation for this ; for, after all that has been written 

 on the parks, promenades, &o,, of Paris, I am persuaded that 

 the one great charm is the combination of foliage and buildings 

 in the boulevards. Take the trees away and Paris would be 

 beautiful, for the taste of Baron Hausemann and the power of 

 Napoleon III. have made it so. But without them it would 

 not be Paris. It is these planted streets, too, that mark the 

 great advantage that it has over London, for in everything else 

 pertaining to parks, etc., I firmly believe we have the advantage. 

 Nowhere in Paris have they what we have iu London — such 

 parks as the Green Park, Hyde Park, and KensiDgton Gardens. 

 They have, it is true, the Bois do Boulogne and the Bois de 

 Vincennes, but then you must drive out some miles to see their 

 beauties, while in London yon have them in the very midst of 

 the population — so much so, that we know that one of them 

 has been selected as the chosen rendezvous of demagogues and' 

 agitators of all kinds. 



Nor is this all. No place in Paris that I know, not even the 

 Bois de Boulogne itself, can boast of such trees as we have in 



