10 



JOUKNAL OP HOBTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Jdy 16, 1B68. 



a greater fall of temperature at night than was expected ; but 

 still no rain. The heat, so great in the second week in June, 

 has decreased so much that at the time I write, July Cth, the 

 temperature is below the average of ordinary seasons. Extreme 

 heat is, therefore, not the cause of the dryness, for although it 

 has been very warm, the thermometer in the shade has never 

 risen higher than it did on the 14th of August last year, and 

 not quite so high as it did during some of the hottest days in 

 the summers of 1830, 18J5, 1857, 1858, 1850, and 1HC5. The 

 heat, instead of increasing after the longest day, has dimi- 

 nished ; and the hottest days which occurred in former years 

 being after that period, it is not unlikely that we may expe- 

 rience the same this season. 



As heat is not one of the characteristics of the season, to 

 what are we to attribute the scarcity of rain ? Perhaps the 

 most likely theory is, that having had considerably more than 

 the average amount of rain in the last three years, a dry 

 ieason was necessary to restore the balance ; and if cycles of 

 ten years or more to a considerable extent resemble each other, 

 the present year may be expected to be unusually dry, if it has 

 to do little more than make up a quantity equivalent to the 

 rainfall of the preceding four years ; for I find the total rainfall 

 for the years 1861, 1862, 1863, and 1864, was 94.95 inches, 

 while the amount in the next three years — viz., 1865, 18CG, and 

 1867, was '.12.71 inches, nearly equalling that of the previous 

 four. Although the first six months have been remarkably 

 dry, there does not seem to be any certainty of the drought 

 continuing. The autumn of 1859 was an exceedingly wet one, 

 although the early part of the season was so dry. 



As to the effects of the dry weather on vegetation, there are 

 few cultivators in the southern and eastern districts of England 

 who have not for weeks looked on their various crops with 

 great anxiety and alarm. Strawberries came in, one kind after 

 another, with a rapidity that shortened the season. Lettuces 

 ready for use one day had run to seed by the next, while the 

 anxious cultivator poured almost in vain canfuU after canfull 

 of water on his nest crop to prevent it following the example 

 of the first. Cabbages changed their hue from a pale crisp 

 green to a sickly blue, and later in the season became the prey 

 of caterpillars. Potatoes, promising well at one time so far 

 as crop went, are threatening to arrive at a very small size, and 

 in many cases are too far advanced to benefit much by rain 

 without injury to their quality or danger of disease. Peas, 

 alas ! will soon be over, the pods not filling, although I have 

 seen the haulm more infested with mildew. Against this list 

 of evils wo have the counterbalancing benefits of Scariet 

 Banners and Dwarf Kidney Beans doing well ; and Kidge Cu- 

 oambers. Tomatoes, and Onions are also enjoying the near ap- 

 proach to the heat of their native climes. Although the growth 

 of fruit trees and shrubs may have been shorter than usual, 

 the wood will probably ripen well. 



Of hardy fruits, as already stated the season for Strawberries 

 was short, and Easpberries, which promised well, have suffered 

 by continued drought, but Currants and Gooseberries have 

 been plentiful. Pears are rather a thin crop, but Plums are 

 abundant, and Apples a full average. The greatest drawbacks, 

 however, of a dry summer are the lack of herbage for cattle, 

 and the very slight hay crop, which has in many places not 

 been worth cutting. Many pasture fields have passed from the 

 green to the brown condition, and may now be said to be white, 

 the few remaining blades or stems being bleached to that 

 ooloor. The dry atmosphere seems to have even reached the 

 loots of plants which usually penetrate deep, as Yarrow, Plan- 

 tain, and Clover, and they are fast passing into the condition 

 of the grasses. 



In the flower-garden most plants have been arrested in 

 their growth where they could not be watered, or rather tbn.-e 

 planted in May have made but little progress, but they hnve 

 flowered well and in many cases prematurely. Calceolarias 

 especially. On the whole the occupants of the flower garden 

 have benefited rather than otherwise by the dry weather, and 

 many of them are in a condition of fair promise if rain fall 

 -soon. In beds, however, containing trees, shrubs, and other 

 robnst subjects, which rob the bedding plants of their proper 

 anpport, these, except where they have been assisted with water 

 or otherwise, are in anything but a happy condition. In beds 

 well prepared before being planted with fair-sized bedding 

 Pelargoniums, Verbenas, Lobelias, and Gazanias, these, after 

 having been once watered, have made satisfactory progress. 

 Nierembergias have not done so well, and Viola cornuta, as I 

 calculated on a ftw weeks ago, has ceased blooming much 

 earlier than it ought to have done. Possibly watering might 



have saved the beauty of this plant as well as secured the 

 more robust growth of others, but where water cannot be had 

 many plants must take their chance, and probably a large pro- 

 portion of them will do as well without as with unlimited 

 quantities of cold spring water. Here we have not watered 

 anything excepting plants in pots, or in raised artificial mounds 

 or beds ; all those on the level ground have only received a 

 slight watering at the time of planting, and none since. The 

 progress of the more tender subjects as Coleus, Castor-oil 

 plants. Tobacco, ornamental Maize, and some others has not 

 been so rapid as I expected, and excepting Calceolarias, which I 

 fear will flower out, nothing as yet has arrived at the condition 

 which can be called good. One of the plants at present in 

 its best condition is the Golden Feverfew, which is really a 

 useful plant. I wish I could say as much of Dactjlis glomerata 

 variegata, a much older acquaintance. Centaurea candidissima 

 threatens to be more green than before, while Cerastium is 

 evidently suffering much from the drought, which on the whole 

 seems to favour Petunias, Tagetes siguata, Tropieolums, and 

 that very pretty annual Portulaca Thellusoni ; but the begin- 

 ning of July is too soon to pass an opinion on the merits of 

 flower garden plants. I may state, however, in respect to the 

 important family of Pelargonium, that the dry season has 

 proved the superiority of the robust varieties over those of 

 more limited growth, and with me two old kinds of no great 

 merit. Punch and Magenta, are about the best of their class at 

 the present time, none of them having had any water, except- 

 ing naturally, since they were planted. 



Those who keep registers of the weather may be interested 

 to know, that from the Slst of April to the '2'2nd of May we 

 had only 0.11 inch of rain, but that fell on four days. A little 

 rain also fell on May '22nd, 23rd, 24th, and '25th, and a very 

 heavy thunderstorm occurred on the 29th. In June there were 

 slight showers on the '2nd and 4th, followed by hot dry weather, 

 with a little more rain on the 22nd, making only 0.51 inch in 

 all. The hottest days during June were the 13th, 14th, 16th, 

 17th, 20th, 2lBt, and 27th, the maximum temperature being 

 90° on the 20th, and the same degree of heat was registered 

 on the 14th of August last year. The winds have changed fre- 

 quently without any change in temperature. The barometer 

 has generally been high, the extreme maximum reading during 

 the month being 30.07 inch, on the26ih at noon, and the lowest 

 29.43 on the 22nd, at the same time of day. Greater extremes, 

 doubtless, have been attained, but these are the highest and 

 lowest of my readings, which are always taken at noon. 

 Thunder has scarcely been heard since the 29th of May, and 

 Uttle or no lightning has been seen. — J. Eobson. 



NOTES ON 



THE ROY.M. BOTANIC SOCIETY'S 

 JULY SHOW. 



This, like the Society's preceding two Shows, was a great success in 

 every point of view; bnt one circumstance diminishtd the extent, 

 variety, and beauty of this as it has done of other exhibitions — namely, 

 the practice, now becomicK too general, of continuing the show longer 

 than one day. This prevents many horticulturists from exhibiting, 

 because the second day entails an expense upon them which the prizes 

 are not sufficiently large to cover, and in many instances employers do 

 not like their plant houses denuded for a longer period than one day. 

 Another serious objection is, that when the exhibitor comes from a 

 long distance his employer's plants are spoilt by the time they are 

 brought back again ; for a whole week is occupied in taking them to 

 and from the show, and by the time they are placed in their former 

 quarters most of their beauty and freshness will have gone. Nothing 

 destroys the beauty of a plant so soon as keeping it in an exhibition 

 tent two or three days ; and the case of fruits is still worse, for to 

 keep a dish of Peaches, Strawberries, Figs, and many other fruits 

 longer than one day after they have been gathered, is to spoil them 

 entirely, and render them perfectly useless. Add to this the great 

 expense which has ehietiy to he borne by the exhibitor, and there is, 

 I think, enough to deter many from bringing their productions to an 

 exhibition which is to be continued beyond one day. I therefore think 

 that the Royal Botanic and other societies would do well to discon- 

 tinue the two or more days' show, unless it be once now and then on 

 any special occasion like the great International Horticultural Exhi- 

 bition of 1S6G, or the Manchester National Exhibition, when a very 

 large expenditure is incurred, and when the funds will admit of the 

 exhibitor being properly remunerated for his trouble. 



The plants exhibited were generally well grown, and in very good 

 condition, considering the very hot and trying season we have had. 

 Amongst the new and rare plants a very curious Bromeliaceoas plant 

 from the South Sea Islands, said to be a Puya, was exhibited by 

 Messrs. J. Veitch A: Sons. It has hard spiny leaves, and a strong 

 branching habit, and bears a stout upright tiower stem, which waa 



