August 8, 1865. j 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



103 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Month 



Week. 



Tv 

 W 

 Th 



F 

 S 



Sun 

 M 



AUGUST 8—14, 1865. 



Pm-plo Melic Grnss flowers-. 

 Sir J. E. Smith Imrn, 1759- 

 Ciiliimiut flowers. 

 Arlielioko flowers. 

 Mifhfielmas Dixisy flowerfl. 

 9 Sunday avteu Tiunitv. 

 Meadow Siifl"rou flowers. 



AvoHiRO Temperature 

 ueur LouUoD. 



Mean. 

 (12.1 

 (12.4 

 04.0 



f\:i.r< 

 oa.o 



02.2 

 01 .1) 



Koiii in 



lust 

 18 years. 



DayH. 

 16 

 14 

 17 

 17 

 14 

 17 

 16 



San 

 lUnefl. 



h. 



SCaf 4 



Snn 

 Sets. 



Moon 



HiHC'H. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



m. h. 

 llnf « 

 31 7 



61 8 

 10 10 

 27 11 

 after. 

 61 1 



Moon's 

 Afc'c. 



Days. 

 17 

 18 

 19 

 2(1 

 21 

 ( 

 23 



Clock 1 

 before 

 Sun. j 



Day 



of 



Year. 



23 

 14 

 6 



5.5 

 40 

 35 



220 

 221 



222 

 2S:3 

 22.1 

 225 

 226 



From ollscr^•nlions taken near London durins the last thirtveifjlit years, tlio average day temperature of the week is 74.0", and its nigbt 

 temperature 50.8'. ,Tbo greatest beat was 92^, on tbe lOtb, 1842; and the lowest cold, 82% on tbo IStb, 1839. The greatest fall of 

 miu was 1.14 inch. 



ON AND ABOUT THE ROCKS AND SANDS 

 OF TENBY.— No. 1. 



T will be a comfort to many 

 to read, as most comforting 

 is it to me to be able to 

 i\-rite, that there is one 

 ciijciyablc seaside town — 

 thdUfjh railways have done 

 all they can — still very difficult to be arrived at. This 

 difficulty of access keeps away those ])leasiu-e-and-easc- 

 (lestroyers — stuck-up personages, who tliink the coat makes 

 the gentleman, and expensive di'essing the lady. There 

 are none of these at Tenby : hut every one owns Common 

 Sense as the ruler of the place, and lives, and journies 

 about, and wears costumes conducive to mental relaxation 

 and liodily in\-igoration. They come to obtaui these rc- 

 unimators. and are wise enough to pui'sue them without 

 needless encumbrances and hindrances. 



No place was ever better described by its name, for 

 Tenby (WTitten Dinbych in old MSS.), is only a southern 

 mode of pronouncing Denbigh, meaning a little fortress on 

 a hill ; and such it always was from the earliest record 

 when the Danes were here, just one tliousaud years since, 

 until its fortifications wei-e tinally shattered by the Crom- 

 wellian camion in l(i4s. Tlie hill is of mountain limestone, 

 and is a long narrow peninsula — so narrow, that the houses 

 on one side its mam street loolc over the southern sands, 

 and the liouses on the other side similarly look across the 

 northern. Those sands and their enclosing rocks yield a 

 rich ingatheruig to the naturalist. 



Geology- is not among the special objects of this Journal, 

 yet I will crib a little of its space to tattle a few sentences 

 about the fossil plants of the Tenb}' geology. The moun- 

 tain limestone on wliich Tenby rests passes inland, and 

 that limestone supports all the coal strata of Wales. Some 

 of those strata, or " coal measures," are of anthracite coal : 

 those not antluacite are rich in fossil Ferns, Equiseta, and 

 even of those princes of the vegetable kii^.gdom, the Palms. 

 Near Hean Castle is that veui of black clay fi'om which is 

 formed tlie best of firebricks. In that clay are found tbe 

 roots of I'alms. telling of an ago before the Flood, when our 

 climate must have b^en trojiical. Passing along the coast 

 towards Tenby a portion of tlie rocky strata is passed, so i-ic.li 

 in some fossil cryptogamia as to be knowni as Fern clift'. In 

 the opposite du'ection is Saundersfoot, where on the sliore 

 are found the " beetle stones " polished at Tenby for orna- 

 mental pui-poses. They are black nodules of clay iron- 

 stone, havmg in their centres white vegetable petrifactions, 

 the sections of which sometimes approach an insect form. 



There are evidences that the sea is receduig from some 

 parts of the adjacent coast, and that it has encroached 



Ko. 228.-V0L. IX., New Series. 



upon tlic coast in other neighbouring parts. Tims, oppo- 

 site to Amroth Castle, about six miles to the mn-tli-east of 

 Tenby, visible at low tides, are the remains of the forest 

 known in the days of the bards as Coed Traeth. The 

 wood of tlie submerged trees for the most part is decayed 

 and crumbles when pressed between the iingers, but s(«ne 

 of it is quite sound. 



Four miles to the west of Tenby the sea has receded. 

 Tliere is the Vale of St. I'lorence — a name bestowed by 

 the earliest Flemish settlers in oiu' island, but known to 

 tbe Britons as Tregyor ; and those are still living who 

 remember when boats rowed to the village, which is now 

 more tlian three miles from the sea. Its waters, liowevcr, 

 liave left one evidence of theii- former presence, for the 

 Sainplure (Crithmum maritunimi), still grows near a bridge 

 not far frcnn the village. 



The soil in every direction is extremely Ught, and I am 

 struck by the evidences of tbe prevalence of deep tUlago 

 and liberal surface-stirring both in the fields and the 

 gardens. Such good cultivation has been tauglit to the 

 farmer and gardener by practice alone : but it is perfectly 

 consonant with tlie suggestions of science, and has long 

 been advocated in this Journal. Last year Professor 

 Churcli carried on a series of experiments instituted spe- 

 cially to prove or disprove the benefits alleged to be tlio 

 result of deep tillage and frequent surface-stirring. After 

 long-continued diwight he ascertained the quantity of water 

 retamcd in the thirteenth inch of soil, measuring from the 

 surface. In one case, where the soil had been deeply cul- 

 tivated during the previous autumn, no less than 2H.() per 

 cent, of tbe apparently dry layer exammed was water. In 

 another, where the subsoil was taken from uncultivated 

 land, wliich had not been disturbed within memory, the 

 per-centage of water was V.>:>. In a tliird case, the subsoil 

 of a kitchen garden, whicli had been deeply trenched in 

 autumn, yielded 2(1.2 per cent, of water. In a fourth, tlie 

 subsoil ill the same garden, where the bed had only been 

 half dug, yielded 20.5 per cent. There had been no rain 

 to speak of since the spring, and yet these enormous quan- 

 tities of water still remained m the subsoil. The soil 

 experimented on is " a light caleai-ooiis clay loam, resting 

 on the forest marble." 



Wliilst wTiting the concluding word I was summoned 

 from my desk to see the imcoveriug of the statue of " iVlbert 

 the Good," in the presence of his youthful son Piince 

 Artliur. I shall not pause to detail the ceremony, nor 

 dwell on this evidence of how thm-ouglily, even to its 

 furthest verge, loyalty pervades our Queen's home islands : 

 but I will give expressicni to my oft-recurruig thought — 

 What a testimony it is to the mirivalled beauty of tbe 

 olijects of the gardener's art, that they alone are selected 

 as tbe best decorations on all festal occasions. Nay, more : 

 no artist designs, or could design, an ornament without 

 copying some vegetable form, and that no such ornament 

 was ever suggested of which the t>lie and the superior 

 could not be gathered from among om- plants. It is tnic 

 that the yachts and even the very smallest Tenby lishing- 

 boat is decorated with flags of bright and many colours : 

 but how poor and monotonous are they compared to the 

 No. 880.— Vol. XXXTV., Old Series, 



