Jane 19, 1878. ] 



JOUBNAIi OF HORTIGOXjTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



487 



Oriental Plane (Platanus orientaUs), lOGO years; Lime (Tilia 

 europfea), 1100 years ; Oak (Quercusliobur), 1500 years ; Cedar 

 of Lebanon, 2000 years ; Taxodium distiuham, 3000 years ; 

 Yew (Taius baccata), :;200 years. These ages are taken from 

 the coucentrio annual layers of the oldest trees hitherto 

 observed. 



EXTRACTS FKOM DB. HOOKER'S REPORT 



ON THE KOYAL GAEDENS AT KEW, DDEI.\G 1&73. 

 [Concluded from page 4G8.) 



Instructions have been received to introduce the Teak into 

 •Jamaica, and the West African (Liberian) Coffee into Ceylon, 

 where the ravages of the coffee blight, a minute fungus (Hemileia 

 vastatrix), are still very serious. 



The cultivation of Tea in Ceylon (upon which a rejiort was 

 ■called for from Kew a few years ago) is successfully established, 

 and the quality pronounced satisfactory. The Cinchona con- 

 tinues to flourish in the island, and the bark has been pro- 

 nounced of the best quality. 



The Director of the Botanic Garden there is actively promot- 

 ing the cultivation of Chocolate, for which the climate of the 

 island is admirably suited. 



A skilful Superintendent (trained in the Glasnevin Botanic 

 Garden) has been sent out from Kew to the Botanic Garden of 

 Natal, and has taken with him a large collection of economic 

 plants. 



A gardener has been sent from Kew to the Embassy Garden 

 at Constautinople, and another as superintendent of the Agri- 

 Sorticultural Society's Garden at Calcutta. 



Under instructions from the Secretary of State for the Colonies 

 •a skilled propagator has been sent from Kew to superintend the 

 extension of forest plantations in the Island of Mauritius. 

 Others have been selected for the Tea and Cotton plantations 

 in India. 



Dr. Henderson, of the Indian Medical Service, after devoting 

 .a year to the study of his Turkestan collections at Kew, has 

 been appointed locum tenens at the Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 Calcutta, during the absence in Europe on sick leave of Dr. King, 

 the present Superintendent. 



The yield of Cinchona in the Indian plantations is already 

 "very large, and the bark has fetched good prices in the English 

 market ; the manufacture of quinine has been estabhshed in 

 the Nilghiri plantations, and mil shortly be commenced in the 

 Sikkim Himalaya. 



Among the most valuable presentations to the herbarium are 

 «the Eev. C. New's plants, collected on the Alpine zone of Kilima- 

 njaro, the only hitherto visited snow-clad mountain in equa- 

 torial Africa, which possesses a remarkable interest, as the 

 flora of the Alpine zone of Africa was previously wholly un- 

 known. A notice of it is being prepared for immediate publi- 

 cation. A fine collection of two thousand Brazilian plants has 

 been received from Mr. Glaziou, Director of public parks, .tc, at 

 Bio de Janeiro. A beautiful collection of Appalachian Mosses 

 has been received, with many other plants, from Dr. Gray, of 

 Cambridge, U.S. ; and of Mexican and New Caledonian plants 

 from the museum of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. The very 

 valuable herbarium of Dr. Kottler, made by himself and the 

 ■early missionaries in India, has been presented by the authori- 

 ties of King's College ; as containing the types of many species 

 imperfectly described by the first Indian botanists, and repre- 

 senting the state of the botany of the peninsula at the beginning 

 of the century, it is of great interest and importance both in a 

 scientific and historical point of view. 



A beautiful collection of Burmese Orchids has been presented 

 fcy the Bev. C. Parish. Dr. Brandts, F.L.S., Conservator of 

 Forests for India, has placed his herbarium, formed in many 

 parts of India, at the disposal of this establishment, to be 

 selected from ; together with a collection of Tibetan plants, 

 ■made by the Bev. Mr. Heyde. Mr. Kurz, Curator of the her- 

 barium of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, has transmitted large 

 Burmese collections made by him during a late mission to that 

 country. 



For novelty as well as interest no contributions are of greater 

 "value than Beccari's Borneau plants, amounting to 1850 species, 

 communicated by Professor Parlatore, of Florence ; M. Maximo- 

 wicz's Japan plants, a splendid series ; Dr. Henderson's collec- 

 tions, made during Forsyth's mission to Ya.rkand ; and Dr. 

 J. Anderson's, made duringthe expedition to Tunan, the botany 

 of the two latter countries having previously been wholly un- 

 known to science. 



Sales of Okchids — Mr. Stevens on the 28th of May sold 

 439 lots for about £500, and 380 lots on the 31st for £400. 

 Amongst the highest purchase bids were £8 lis. for a mass of 

 Dendrobium Bensonia! ; £5 15.s. for Cattleya Schilleriana Eeg- 

 nelli ; £5 10s. for LaiUa majalis ; £G lO;;. for Cattleya Mendelu ; 



£9 for Masdevallia Harryana; and £12 12»-. for Disa grandi- 

 flora superba. 



WOODLICE AND WEEDS. 



I HAVE tried tlie plan suggested for trapping these vermin by 

 placing some boiled Potato in a flower pot laid on its side with 

 a little moss, but without the slightest effect. A much better 

 trap is a flower-pot saucer turned upside down, and if smeared 

 inside with a little ordure it will be the more effective. I catch 

 dozens under each early in the morning, and more in the 

 course of the day. 



Salt boiled in water and applied direct from the kettle has 

 been recommended for destruction of weeds, which I have found 

 of Uttio avail, and it is, furthermore, an expensive process as 

 compared with hand-picking. A boy at Is. a-day will get rid 

 of them entirely at a tenth-part of the cost of salt. — J. M. A. 



[Manure has nothing to do with the production of either 

 woodlice or slugs. The parents travel to the soils most suited 

 to them, and there breed. — Ens.] 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



Miss Stanley, sister of the Dean of Westminster, adopts 

 a novel mode of rewarding those of the deserving poor who 

 come within the sphere of her influence. This estimable 

 lady dispenses what may be called a kind of floeal chaeity, 

 and through the agency of district visitors distributes large 

 quantities of flowers to the poor at their own homes. It would 

 be impossible to find any class of the community who do not 

 take pleasure in the cultivation of flowers, and no one can 

 doubt that, by giving the humbler classes of the people oppor- 

 tunities for employing their time in this direction. Miss Stanley 

 is performing a work of genuine philanthropy. It is only to 

 go into one of the metropohtan parl:s on a Sunday afternoon 

 in the summer, to be convinced of the enjoyment which the 

 sight of the flower beds creates amongst the immense numbers 

 who congregate there, and it is very rare that an act of wilfal 

 damage has to be punished. A suggestion has been made that 

 hospitals have a claim upon public sympathy in this respect, 

 and that, as newspapers and periodicals are supplied to the 

 sick poor, flowers also might be furnished to them. The idea 

 is unquestionably a good one, and it might be worked out so 

 as to relieve the tedium of the dreary hours which many are 

 compelled to spend in our public institutions. — (Davenlnj 

 Express.) 



We understand that Mr. B, S. Williams, of HoUoway, 



has been intrusted with the Floeal Decorations at the Guild- 

 hall on the occasion of the Shah's visit to the City. 



Amongst the industries in which soldiers employ their 



leisure in France, not the least is Steawberky cultivation. 

 At Bagnolet, near Paris, three hundred soldiers from the forts 

 of Eosny and Eomaiuville are daily occupied for six hours in 

 watering the Strawberries. The fruit is picked from each 

 plant eight times in a year, the second gathering taking place 

 four days after the first, the four next at intervals of three 

 days, and the two next in ten days. In a good season the 

 grower gathers at one time five baskets per 100 yards, or six 

 hundred per hectare (a trifle over 2 acres). As each basket is 

 sold at Is. 3d., the eight gatherings bring in about £260 per 

 hectare. The grower, however, spends £140 on the culti- 

 vation of his ground, his clear profit being about £120. — 

 (Graphic.) 



At a dinner recently given at Delmonico's in New 



York, the Dinnee-eoom Decorations consisted of banks of 

 moss brought on purpose from the south, in which masses of 

 flowers of the choicest kinds were placed, " including several 

 hundred yellow Roses which cost one dollar each." Down the 

 centre was a tank full of water, over which was an aviary of 

 song birds, and in the midst of the water two live swans swam 

 about, the whole being adorned with superb flowers. Water 

 Lilies, and Ferns. 



The Golden Champion Grape. — I entertain a very high 

 opinion of this Grape, and am sorry to find it has done so 

 badly with Mr. Douglas. With me it has succeeded admirably 

 in an early house, setting -well, and resembling in bunch that 

 famous Grape the Bowood Muscat, but larger in berry. My 

 late employer, T. V. Morgan, Esii., considered it one of the 

 finest-flavoured Grapes he had tasted. I remember showing 

 it to Mr. Wills the same season in excellent condition. I 



