May S, 1877. 1 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIGULTUBB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



333 



the general habitue of the oidinary flower show, who goes 

 away often exolaiming, " 'Boat as nsnal, mostly alike," &a. 

 Seldom have I seen the public take saoh real interest in a 

 Soral show, and never have I known them come from so far. 

 Looking aroand I saw some friends from Wales. " Ah ! " said 

 I, " what brings you here ? " " The Auriculas, " said my friend ; 

 " we oame to London on purpose." These were not growers of 

 the plant, but lovers of it ; but now, having seen it in all its 

 glory, they will be the former hereafter. Friends from Ireland 

 and Scotland, and many of our northern counties, Kent, and 

 Sussex were there — all pleased, joyous, delighted. Surely on 

 the 24th the Auricula had its revenge over the bedding plants 

 for the neglect it has experienced for so many years. Grey- 

 headed men were saying, " What a treat ! it brings back old 

 days." " Yes," said another, " it makes one feel quite young 

 again." It's a good beginning, is it not ? By this I learned 

 that it was only London show No. 1. The next y^ar there 

 would be another, and so on and on. " Where is Mr. Turner ?" 

 said I. " Here," said a voice almost close to my elbow. 

 " Thanks. Now tell me, can you help me? I am a lover of 

 Auriculas ; now I must be a grower. Here is my list I want 

 to begin with." Mr. Turner looked grave for once in his life; 

 the sunny light left his face as he slowly said, 'Ton begin 

 well," &e. George Lightbody " not to be had." Here was a 

 damper. Others I longed for " not to be had." Still I shall 

 make a beginning. Mr. Turner will help, and one or two 

 other gentlemen ; so hurrah for next year, when I trust others 

 beside myself will have taken np " the fancy " in right good 

 earnest. The south of London in particular will again be 

 what it once was — the home of the high-bred Auricula. 



The greatest difficulty appears at present, as far as I can see, 

 to obtain the plants to start with. One, of course, knows where 

 the beauties Bhown came from, but they are not in commerce. 

 As far as I can learn Mr. Turner is the only man to turn to, 

 but even he has not a "George Lightbody" to part with. 

 " He who waits wins " is an old proverb; so we southerners 

 must start with what we can get now, &nd trnst to time and 

 "a good look-out " for the rest. Yes, the National Auricula 

 Show at the Crystal Palace has come and gone — gone from 

 before our organs of vision to find a home in our memories ; 

 gone like a dream, yet leaving a waking reality. It was, and it 

 still is, in the minds of the lovers of the beautiful, for it lies 

 embalmed in that wonderful sense — memory. — Harbison Weir, 

 WeirUigh, Brenchley, Kent. 



FRIENDS AND ENEMIES. 



"A Master Gardener" is, I think, in error when he classes 

 tomtits as gardeners' enemies. I regard them as friends, and 

 am able to adduce conclnsive evidence of their insect-devour- 

 ing propensity, while I have failed to see that they commit 

 any injury to plants or fruit trees by eating or destroying their 

 buds. 



Two years ago I was surprised to find one of these little 

 birds in a plant house, apparently sporting amidst the foliage 

 and flowers of a large plant of Coronilla glauca. Every morning 

 during a week in February the bird was there when I entered 

 the house. The plant was in a corner, and was partly hidden 

 from view by other specimens, at least so much so as to pre- 

 vent me seeing what the bird saw — thousands of aphides 

 clustered around and amongst the flower trusses. Every one 

 of these insects, so far as I could see, the bird picked oS. and 

 devoured. I then brought into the house another infested 

 plant, which was similarly cleared of insects by my little 

 friend. The bird had found its way into the house through 

 a small hole in the glass, and flew in and out at will, and not 

 once during the spring had I occasion to fumigate, the tomtit 

 effectually keeping all the plants perfectly free from insects, 

 and it did not in any other way do the slightest injury. 



In bearing this testimony to the undoubted usefulness of a 

 bird which "A Master Gardener" has certainly misjudged, 

 I regret that I have not a good word to say for the bullfinch, 

 for I have had the same unmistakeable evidence of his bud- 

 eating propensity as I had of the tomtit's insect-destroying 

 nature. I regard bullfinches as implacable enemies, tomtits 

 as real friends, and I act accordingly.— J. W. S. 



I CANNOT forbear adding my testimony to that of your cor- 

 respondents " Wlltshike Rector" and Harrison Weib, in 

 reply to the very extraordinary statements of " A Master 

 Gardener" on page 290. Passing over the exploded nonsense 

 about hedgehogs sucking cows, I beg to say a word about 



bullfinches and tomtits from my ovrn personal experience of 

 many years. We are told that " the bullfinch rarely frequents 

 the garden." I can only say that for the last twenty- five years 

 not one season has passed that my Gooseberries and Currants 

 have not been more or less, generally very seriously, injured 

 by the bullfinch. I am a great lover of birds, and would 

 rather bear all their mischief than be deprived of them, but 

 bullfinches we are obliged to wage war with, as the injury 

 done by them in the spring is far worse than that of any other 

 bird in the fruit season. A friend writes me word that this 

 spring some of his trees be believes are killed, so completely 

 have they been disbudded by these birds. 



"The tomtit," says "A Master Gardener," " is a far greater 

 enemy in the garden than the bullfinch." My experience tells 

 a very different story. That pretty little bird is very greatly 

 maligned, simply, I believe, because people will not give them- 

 selves the trouble to find out the truth of what they write 

 about. I have most carefully watched the movements of the 

 tomtit, knowing that appearances were against him. I have 

 seen him diligently visiting every individual bud upon a 

 Currant tree, and on his leaving it I have gone and carefully 

 examined it, and never found a single bud broken off or lying 

 on the ground. The most cursory observer must see at once 

 that the beak of the tomtit is not formed for the destruction 

 of bads like that of the bullfinch, but is small, thin, and weak; 

 but it is well adapted for the use which no doubt he makes of 

 it — picking out insects and their eggs deposited in the inter- 

 stices of the clusters of fruit buds. He is a useful bird, and 

 ought to be protected. I never allow one to be destroyed. — 

 Sigma, Herts. 



NEW BOOK. 



Garden Receipts. Edited by C. W. QoiN. Maomillan & Co. 



This is a very useful book for reference. The recipes in- 

 clude information relative to every garden operation. One 

 extract will be good evidence in its favour. 



" Nalls. — When nails begin to rust it is almost impossible to 

 stop them from becoming eaten away in a very short time ; in 

 this case prevention is better than cure. Mix one pint of lin- 

 seed oil with 2 ozs. of black lead, stirring until the whole is 

 thoroughly incorporated; heat the nails red-hot and steep them 

 in the mixture. They should then be well drained and shaken- 

 up in an old nail-bag until dry. The linseed oil and black 

 lead cover them with a film of varnish which is impervious to 

 wet. The above proportions will serve for an almost indefinite 

 quantity." 



EARLY WRITERS ON ENGLISH GARDENING. 



No. 30. 

 JOHN CLAUDIDS LOVDO^.— Concluded. 



In 1822 appeared the first edition of the " Encyclopffidia of 

 Gardening;" a most laborious work, remarkable both for the 

 immense mass of useful matter it contains, and for the then 

 unusual circumstance of a great number of finished wood en- 

 gravings being printed with the text instead of being in separate 

 pages. This book had an extraordinary sale, and fully esta- 

 blished the literary fame of its author. 



In the early part of the year 1823 he wrote a work entitled 

 " The Different Modes of Cultivating the Pine Apple, from its 

 First Introduction to Europe to the Improvements of T. A, 

 Knight, Esq., in 1822." 



About this time also a little work wa? published anonymously, 

 called " The Greenhouse Companion," which I believe was 

 written either entirely or in part by Mr. Loudon ; but it must 

 have been by a wonderful exertion if he did write it, as during 

 the whole of the year 1823 he suffered most excruciating pain, 

 not only from his right arm, the bone of which had never 

 properly united, and to retain which in its place he was com- 

 pelled to wear an iron case night and day, but from the rheu- 

 matism which had settled in his left hand, and which contracted 

 two of hie fingers and his thumb so as to render them useless. 

 It is, however, worthy of remark, and quite characteristic of 

 Mr. Loudon, that at the very time he was suffering such acute 

 bodily pain he formed the plan of his houses in Porchester 

 Terrace, Bayswater, and superintended the building of them 

 himself, rising at four o'clock every morning that he might be 

 on the spot when the workmen came to their work. 



In 1821 a second edition was published of the " Encyclopadia 

 of Gardening," in which the work was nearly all rewritten and 

 very considerable additions were made to it. In the following 

 year, 182.5, the " Eneycloptcdia of Agriculture" was written 



