Febmary 16, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICDLTDRB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



125 



are now offered in large numbers. Cytisnses are " coming in," 

 Callas are freely represented, and Azaleas, email plants with 

 dense heads of flowers, are exceedingly gay. The most effective 

 bonqnets are composed of white Camellias, Encharises, and 

 Rose bads, with a few Giant Violets between the larger white 

 flowers, and a veil of Snowdrops arranged over the entire 

 bcnquet, the " drops " being an inch and more above the other 

 flowers. The fringe as usual is of Adiantnm cnneatum. The 

 favourite "button-holes" are composed of a cream-coloured 

 Rose bud, a single pip of white Hyacinth, a spray or two of 

 Lilies and Fern. 



We are informed that Messrs. James Veitch d* Sons of 



Chelsea have obtained by pnbUc tender all Mr. Laxton's seed- 

 lino Peas and Stkawtjereies. 



A Kentish correspondent informs us that the xri 



TBEES are blosEoming with great freedom, and are now quite 

 ornamental from their immense crop of male catkins. These, 

 he says, are coveted for decorative purposes, sprays of them 

 posseseing a " sober elegance" when placed in vases that few 

 flowers can equal. The small inconspicuous female blossoms 

 are also plentifully represented, and good crops of nuts are 

 anticipated. 



We have received from Messrs. Letts & Son a set of 



their well-known diabies. They are of various sizes, and 

 available for eveiy purpose, from being carried in the waist- 

 coat pocket to being placed on the counting-house desk or 

 study table. Besides the diary they all contain a good 

 almanack, and the larger ones, especially No. 5p., also contain 

 a large amount of valuable commercial information We can 

 strongly recommend these as being highly useful. 



The Daelington Gardeners' Institute was founded 



by E. Pease, Efq., brother to the member for South Durham. 

 In addition to a valuable horticultural library he generously 

 gives £50 per annum for its support. The Institute contains, 

 besides the necfssary apartments for the librarian, library, 

 reading-room, and smoking-room. Papers are read during 

 the winter months once a fortnight. There is also a fruit and 

 floral meeting held (part of the year) weekly. The reading 

 room is well attended, especially by the young gardeners. 

 E. Pease, Esq., is President. 



We have received from Mr. R. Gilbert, Burghley 



Gardens, near Stamford, some flowers of double Primulas. 

 The individual pips are IJ inch in diameter, and are perfectly 

 double, every petal also being deeply serrated or " fringed." 

 The flowers are blush white, some of them being delicately and 

 others more heavily blotched and flaked with rose. The darker 

 types of flowers are rosy carmine, deepening towards the centre, 

 the reverse of the petals being blush pink. As fringed varieties 

 of double Primulas we have never seen any flowers superior to 

 the examples now brought to our notice. 



— — Mr. F. H. Feoud writing to us from the Gardens, 

 Hawley House, Kent, on the mildness of the season, states 

 that he has been gathering Aconites, Snowdrops, Crocuses, 

 Hepaticas, and other flowers from the open garden during 

 January. He gathered the last Roses on January 5th, one a 

 beautiful Gloire de Dijon, as good a bloom as he ever cut in 

 summer. It was cut from a plant trained to a west wall 

 rather sheltered. A white Camellia planted out of doors with 

 five others also in a sheltered position facing north, is now 

 (February Oth) in flower, and two others are in a very forward 

 state. Deciduous and other flowering shrubs are fast bursting 

 into leaf and flower, and bulbs of all kinds are appearing 

 through the ground, and vegetation generally is in a very 

 advanced state. 



We have received a copy of the new and revised edition 



of Cassell's " Household Guide," and we can testify that the 

 directions and the plates, coloured and plain, justify the 

 statement that it is useful in " every department of practical 

 life." 



Whoever wishes for full particulars relative to the 



colony of Victoria should read Hayter's " Notes on Victoria." 



In Mr. Burley's, Hereford Road Nursery, Bayswater, 



there is now to be seen a fine specimen of Asi'Idistra punctata. 

 The Aspidistras are remarkable for producing their flowers 

 under the soil, where they grow and mature and die — seldom 

 coming to the daylight. The flower of A. punctata is purple 

 in colour, has six lobes and six anthers (sessile), and a stigma 

 like that of a Poppy. 



As instances of the mildness of the weather and 



winter in South Wales, we recently noticed in the extensive 



and beautiful pleasure grounds at Margana Park, Glamorgan- 

 shire, Hawthorn in flower, Camellias as standard bushes in 

 the open air with fully expanded blooms, early Rhododendrons 

 showing colour, and Coronilla glauca, which is generally treated 

 as an inmate of the greenhouse, covered with its yellow flowers 

 in the open border, the first and last-named of these plants 

 having been in bloom since Christmas. 



The prooeamme of thb Eoyal Horticultural Society 



for the ensuing year will contain a special invitation to local 

 horticultural societies to subBcribe, and to receive in return 

 medals of the Royal Horticultural Society for distribution at 

 their local exhibitions, together with the privilege of appoint- 

 ing one of their committee to represent the society at all 

 meetings, iSio. 



At the Annual General Meeting of the Eoyal Horti- 

 cultural Society held on the 13th the following candidates 

 were proposed and duly elected Fellows of the Society — viz., 

 Jas. Aldous, Madame Bassano, Mrs. Bentham, Richard Dean, 

 William Drace, H. W. Darant, Col. H. P. Goodenough, Peter 

 Grieve, Mrs. Hargreaves, Dowager Lady Keane,Miss Longman, 

 Mrs. McGarel, R. B. Postans, Jno. C. Quennell, Mrs. Robertson, 

 G. Smith, G. D. Stibbard, G. D. Whatman, Jas. Baily, Col. A. 

 Croll, Robert Driimmond, J. D. C. Farrell, Hon. J. T. Fiennes, 

 Thos. Lyon, Sir H. St. John Mildmay, Bt., Sir Julian Paunce- 

 fote, Mrs. Lanrence Peel, T. Francis Rivers, Mrs. Culme Sey- 

 mour, Viscountess Templetown, Geo. A. H. Tucker, Count 

 Guidoboni Visconti, Robt. Wake, Edward Webb, E. A. Webb, 

 Lieut.-Col. Gould Weston, Mrs. W. Burbury, Hon. Olivia Cal- 

 thorpe, Mrs. A. Croll, <t'0. 



On the 27lh of January died Mr. William Melville, 



aged sixty-six. He was gardener for thirty years to the Earl 

 of Roseberry, Dalmeny Park near Edinburgh. Mr. Melville 

 was an ardent horticulturist and a keen bybridiser. In his 

 youthful years the Pansy was one of his favourites, and he was 

 one of the first to improve it. In his later years the Brassica 

 family attracted his attention, and he raised the Roseberry and 

 Albert Sprouts also many tine forms of variegated Kale. He 

 was also the raiser of the Champion Muscat Grape, a variety 

 seldom seen now, but when well grown no other of the Black 

 Muscats sarpasses it in flavour ; the berries are very large, but 

 resemble in colour the Grizzly Frontignan. Mr. Melville re- 

 signed his situation in 18C9, and received a handsome annuity 

 from Lord Roseberry. He retired to Jersey, where he managed 

 a range of vineries on his own account very successfully at Tyne- 

 ville St. Aubyns, where he died. He was a man of pleasing 

 manners, very fond of entering into conversation with gardeners 

 like-minded with himself. He was the father of fifteen children, 

 whom he educated and trained to good positions in life. Six 

 of his sons follow the profession of gardeners ; let us hope 

 that they will emulate tbe example of their parent, and if they 

 cannot all attain to tbe same height in their profession as he 

 did, they can deserve success. 



On the 4th iust. Mr. John Harrison, nurseryman, of 



Darlington, Scorton, and Catterick, died in his own home at 

 Catterick, at the nge of seventy-six. Mr. Harrison stood very 

 high as a Rose-grower, aud was well known as a prizetaker at 

 exhibitions. His Roses were in request over the kingdom, 

 and he also shone as a cultivator of Dahlias and Hollyhocks, 

 Mr. Harrison was a native of Yarm, and had been in business 

 at York before he took the Darlington Nursery. Those who 

 were well acquainted with him say that his love of Rosea 

 dated from a very early age, and he has been known as a 

 practical cultivator of that queen of flowers for sixty years at 

 least. 



• An American paper says the art of making scarecrows 



should be studied. It is an imaginative bit of work to make 

 an artificial hawk from a big potato and long goose and turkey 

 feathers. Tbe maker can exercise his imitative skill in stick- 

 ing the feathers into tbe potato so that they resemble tbo 

 spread wings and tail of the hawk. It is astonishing what a 

 ferocious-looking bird of prey can be constructed from the 

 above simple materials. It only remains to hang the object 

 from a tall bent pole, and tho wind will do the rest. The bird 

 makes swoops aud dashes in the most headlong and threaten- 

 ing manner. 



At the last meeting of the Linnffian Society a pot of 



growing Wheat was exhibited by Mr. R. Irwin Lynch, which 

 had been sown from the grain left in Polaris Bay, 81° 38' N., 

 by tho American Expedition. The grain had been exposed to 

 the winter frosts, 1872-70, yet the above sample grown at Kew 



