186 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 5, 1868. 



fine condition ; also a box of cut Camellias. His Variegated Zonal 

 Pelargoniums were extremly good specimens, and in great variety. 

 He also exliibited some Aacubas well coyered with berries, some fine 

 specimens of Erica Willmoreana, and a collection of Polyanthus 

 which originated from the common Primrose. These flowers will be 

 foond most useful for spring decoration, and are worthy of attention, 

 for by perseverance in their culture a gi"eat improvement may be 

 expected. The two varieties, Waltham Primrose and Waltham "White, 

 with their circular flowers were very neat and showy. A special 

 certificate was awarded for the Camellias, and auother_was given for 

 the group of plants. 



Messrs. Smith, Dulwich, brought 'a small collection of their Varie- 

 gated Zonal Pelargoniums, and among them were some seedlings of 

 first-rate quality. Comet, a yellow ground with broad bronze zone, 

 was very much noticed and admired. A special certificate was 

 awarded. Mr. Standish exhibited three seedlings of Aucuba japonica 

 — namely, quercifolia, ilicifolia, and crassifolia. When larger plants 

 these will most probably be considered worthy of notice. There 

 seemed to be much distinctive character belonging to each. Mr. B. S. 

 Williams, of Holloway, sent a fine collection of Orchids, containing 

 many fine specimens — among them a tine Oncidium abortivum, the 

 curious flowers of which give a great elegance and delicate chai-aoter 

 O the whole plant. A special certificate was awarded for the collection. 



Mr. Dobson. of Isleworth, sent a large collection of Primula sineu- 

 sia in every shade of colour. The plants were remarkably well grown, 

 and densely covered ^rith flowers. A special certificate was awarde d 

 them. Mr. Richards, gardener to Lord Londesborongh, exhibited On- 

 cidium macranthnm hastigerum with large yellow flowers, marked all 

 over with brown spots or stripes. A first-class certificate was awarded 

 it. Mr. Moore, gardener to the Earl of Shrewsbui-y and Talbot, tent 

 a collection of cut t)rchids, among them a tine spike of Odontoglossum 

 Alexandrse, for which a special certificate was awarded. It was pre- 

 sented to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. J. Day, Esq., sent 

 some very fine Orchids, among them Odontoglossum Bluntii, O. glori- 

 osum, and O. intermedium, which received a first class certificate ; 

 also Cattleya Mossiie superbissima, a fine purplish rose flower. A 

 special certificate was awarded the collection. Major T. Clarke 

 brought some cut specimens of flowers, Orchids and others, among them 

 Pelargonium semperflorens, a very pretty delicate flower — a special 

 certificate was awarded. Messrs. Osborne, Fulham, exhibited a pretty 

 group of well-grown plants. A KhoJodendron covered with flowers 

 was very beautiful, and the collection of spi"ing flowers, exhibited in a 

 basket of moss, was much admired. A special certificate was awarded. 

 Mr. Dean, Ealing, brought a plant of the dark-red flowering Prim- 

 rose, not unlike many other seedlings. 



Gener-U. Meetikg. — "W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., F.R.S., in the 

 chair. After the usual formal business, and the election of eight new 

 Fellows, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley proceeded to notice some of the 

 most remarkable subjects exhibited. 



Mr. Berkeley said that at the last meeting he had directed attention 

 to an extremely pretty Gongora, which was unnamed, and he had 

 since found it to be a variety of Gongora maculata, described by Dr. 

 Lindley in the "Botanical Register" in 1847 under the name of 

 G. bufonia leucochila, but at the end of the same volume identified as 

 a mere variety of G. maculata, being there named G. maculata tri- 

 color. There were also at the same meeting two or three Thujas — viz., 

 T. Zuccariniana, T. falcata, and Juniperus japonica, about which his 

 opinion was asked. The other evening he was at the Linnean Society's, 

 and there he saw a collection from Dr. Hooker, and in it he could 

 find no trace of such a plant as T. Zuccariniana. Juniperus japonica 

 be believed to be the same as J. chinensis. 



With reference to the beautiful collection of Cattleyas from Mr. 

 Marshall, the whole he believed were varieties of Cattleya Warsce- 

 wiczii. He next directed attention to Dendrobium glumaceum, 

 with a spike resembling that of a Grass, and to the fine example 

 of Oncidium macranthnm hastigerum. from Lord Londesborough's 

 gardens at Grimstone Park, and Mr. Pierce had infonned him 

 be had found the same variety some years ago in the neighbonrhood 

 of Quito. The white Cyclamen coum and Iris reticulata, from Mr. 

 Atkins, were then mentioned, also the Crimean Snowdrop, to the 

 beauty of which, however, the specimens sent did net do justice. 

 After noticing the very elegant flowers of Hotteia japonica, plants 

 of which were shown by Messrs. Veitch, Mr. Berkeley remarked 

 of Primula denticulata floribunda, shown by Messrs. E. G. Hender- 

 son, that the size of the trusses depended on the lateral fusion of the 

 footstalks. A plant with vei-y ornamental leaves 14 inches long and 

 9 inches wide, and supposed to be a Begonia, exhibited by Mr. Wilson 

 Saunders, was then refen-ed to as being one of the most interesting 

 plants in the room, and, tliough nearly allied to the Begonias, probably 

 belonging to a distinct genus. With regard to Skimmia odoratissima, 

 of which a plant was also shown, Mr. Standish had informed him that 

 in raising plants fi-om seed he had found that the male plants were iden- 

 tical with odoratissima, and the female with oblata, and the conclusion, 

 therefore, is that the two are merely the different sexes of the same 

 species. Mr. Berkeley then brought under notice some cut Rhodo- 

 dendron flowers, pioduced in the open air in Denbighshire, and which 

 bad been sent by a fi-iend of his, with whom on the slate the Rhodo- 

 dendi'ons were a sheet of beautiful flowers, whilst at Abergele, on the 

 mountain limestone, they failed almost entirely. At the last Meeting 



he had read a letter respecting the damage done to the woods at Adare 

 Manor, in Ireland, by Lichens. People naturally wish to know bow 

 it is that Lichens do so much injury to trees. Their mycelium does 

 not enter much into the tissues, or when it does, seems to be on ex- 

 tremely good terms with them. In Cinchonas, for instance, which 

 were so attacked, the medicinal properties of the bark were stronger. 

 The popular opinion was that Lichens injured trees by feeding on 

 their sap, and Shakspeare, in the Comedy of Errors, has 

 " Usurping ivy, brier, or idle moss, 

 ■\Vbo, all for want of pruning, with intrusion 

 Infect thy sap, and live on thy confusion," 



by idle moss meaning Lichens. For his own part he believed that 

 though, like some parasites, they obtained certain substances from the 

 hark, the injury whirh they did was chiefly by their depriving the 

 plants of the access of air and light. 



Another subject which he wished to mention was that at the last 

 Meeting he was shown a piece of wood affected, it was thought, by 

 dry rot. Now, there were two forms of dry rot, the one produced by 

 a fungus, Merulins lachrymans, the other not ; and in the one case 

 there was a remedy, in the other none. The fungus could be destroyed, 

 or rather its progress checked for some years, by corrosive sublimate, 

 although decay, as in the case of kyani^ed timber and railway 

 sleepers, would ultimately take place. The other fonn of diy rot 

 was a kind of slow combustion, called eremacaosis, in which oxygen 

 combines with the combustible portion of the wood, namely hydrogen 

 and carbon. Now, taking wood to consist of thirty-six equivalents of 

 carbon, twenty-two of hj'drogen, and the same of oxygen {Cse. H22, 022,)» 

 the withdiawal of one equivalent of carbon and two equivalents of 

 oxygen for the formation of carbonic acid, and of one equivalent of 

 oxygen and one equivalent of hydrogen, forming water, would reduce 

 the proportion borne by the oxygen and hydrogen to the carbon ; and 

 if the withdrawal of the last two elements were continued, it was a 

 question whether carbon only would not be left. After referring in con- 

 nection with this subject to the recent discovery of a new acid, called 

 xylic acid, in the decayed matter of the trunks of trees, Mi'. Berkeley 

 read an account of some trees on a wall covered with a galvanised wire 

 trellis, and in which it was stated that the shoots appeared scorched, 

 and were killed where they came in contact with the wire. One ex- 

 planation of this occurrence might be the variations in the temperature 

 of the wire at different times ; another, that galvanised wire being 

 rough, would, no doubt, fretthe shoots where they touched it, and the 

 expansion and contraction of the wire would alone be a constant cause 

 of this fretting. In confirmation of the latter view, it was mentioned 

 that at Chiswick, where smooth, painted wire is used the trees were not 

 injured. After notioiug a fine branch of Aucuba japonica covered witb 

 berries, sent by E. A. Brande, Esq., Sulhampstead House, Tumham 

 Green, as justifying the prophecies made on the introduction of the male 

 plant, Mr. Berkeley directed attention to some exceedingly well- 

 executed water-colour drawings of plants, maile by Mr. F. W. Bnr- 

 bidge. one of the Chiswick students, and which showed that the So- 

 ciety had taken an important step in the right direction when they 

 had determined on admitting students at the Chiswick garden. 



Mr. Wilson Saunders said that before the Meeting closed he wished 

 to draw attention to Sempervivum holothiysnm, on account of its 

 handsome spike of yellow flowers being so showy at this time of year. 

 The plant was of verj- easy culture — in fact, it was almost impossible 

 to kill it, in proof of which he said he had put a stem of it aside to 

 dry for his museum, and though it dwindled for awhile it again grew 

 after several months. There were five or six other Sempervivums, 

 which came from the Canaij Islands, and he would be happy to give 

 to the Fellows cuttings of the one his gardener had shown. Referring, 

 then, to the fine collection of Cattleyas exhibited by Mr. Wilson, Mr, 

 Marshall's gardener, he said they were all imported I'lants, and though 

 it was not known why they produced such different coloui-s in their 

 native country, it was necessaiy to be very careful of attributing any* 

 thing specific to colour, for it was very unsafe to do so. All who were 

 present at the Meeting must feel vei-y much indebted to Mr. Marshall 

 for bringing such a collection ; but however different the flowers wera, 

 he (Mr. Sannders) thought he could discover five or six so-called 

 species, which would have to be cut out of the list of species. After 

 remarking that a peculiar and fine tint of yellow had made its appear- 

 ance among variegated plants lately, and that he could not tell why 

 we were getting this peculiar colour, he said that he had now to direct 

 attention to the fact that the Council, in their desire to promote 

 scientific horticulture, bad, in addition to the Fruit and Floral Com- 

 mittees, both of which did their work admirably, resolved on having a 

 third Committee, the objects of which have already been fully set 

 forth in a previous column. By the next Meeting (March 17th), Mr. 

 Saunders hoped that the organisation of the Committee would be suffi- 

 ciently advanced for the names of the members to be aunoimced. It 

 was not intended that they should exclusively consist of Fellows of the 

 Societv. 



Major Trevor Clarke said there were two Lichens growing on the 

 front of his house, one of which coiTodes the stone, whUst the other, 

 if scraped off, leaves the stone intact ; probably Mr. Berkeley could 

 tell him the names. 



Mr. Berkeley declared his inability to do so without examining them, 

 but named two which were likely to be found in such a position. 



Major Trevor Clarke having offered a few bulbs of Calanthe vestita 

 for distribution, the proceedings came to a close. 



