380 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAP.DENEE. 



[ November 7, 1865. 



the past summer, and that received first-class certificates, have> 

 ■we are glad to hear, passed into the handset Mr. Turner, of 

 Slough, who will, no doubt, soon increase their number sufficiently 

 to be able to supply them to the public. The D wager Duchess 

 of Sutherland is the best Nosegay strain of Donald Beaton, but 

 different in colour from any other of that class, having also 

 trusses larger than Stella. Cliveden Rose is also of a most brilli- 

 ant tint. All ot them are more or less different in colour from 

 any other vaiieties in this class, and will prove great acquisitions 

 for the decoration of the flower garden. 



A PLEA FOR ATHYRIUMS. 



Few countries have a higher appreciation of ancient lineage 

 than the English ; mere mushroom rank, apart from ancient 

 birth, is simply a higher form of vulgarity, and meets with but 

 small consideration excepting from the lower varieties of its 

 own species. But wisdom has been ever accorded to length of 

 days, and the accumulated wisdom of many generations is 

 supposed to dwell with certain inhabitants of particular places. 

 For myself, being an inhabitant of the British Isles, I am dis- 

 posed to agi-ee with this idiosyncracy, when carried out to a 

 fair construction. I am ready to defer to ancient lineage, and 

 quite willing to give up the claims to a patient hearing I am 

 about to advance, should one of older family than myself 

 speak. 



It will be, perhaps, difllcult for me to adapt the language of 

 my race to the modem human tongue, which I consider in 

 itself poor and barely sufficient for the wants of the scattered 

 genus ; still it is all they are acquainted with, so I must reduce 

 my facidties to the human level. I am, as I said, an inhabi- 

 tant of the British Isles, but my people exist over the entire 

 known and (humanly spealdngj unknown world. A few thou- 

 sand years more or less are nothing to me. '^^len the first 

 human creature stepped on British land I was here to welcome 

 liim. One of my family saw Romulus in Eome, another 

 greeted Nimrod on the plains oi .-issyria. But why speak of so 

 recent a period, when I have lived through Tertiary, Creta- 

 ceons. Oolitic, Triassic, Permian, and Carboniferous, some of my 

 ancestors claiming acquaintance even with the Old lied Sand- 

 stone and Silurian, — but I myself consider this going a little too 

 far. Should, however, our claims to antiquity be disputed, we 

 have only to point to our burial grounds (millions of oiu' race 

 having been embalmed in such fashion as would sorely puzzle 

 man to imitatej , and they sufficiently testify to the truth of my 

 assertion. 



During all these years we have been allowed to manage our 

 families in our own way ; and I think I may fairly say we have 

 earned general respect from our arrangements. I cannot help 

 laughing at the poor attempts I see human creatures make at 

 imitating us. Alas ! they know but little about it ; and had I not 

 a personal gi-ievauce, becoming too great for aerogenical, not to 

 say foliaeea'kish endurance, I should content myself with 

 smiUiig and waiting. 



I wish to stand well with the whole world — I o^vn it is a 

 ■weakness, but I do think it a trying circumstance that these 

 human creatures will assign to me a family so overgrown and 

 so constantly increasing that I fauly give up all attempt at 

 managing them. Moreover, they really do not belong to me ; they 

 are many of them only neighbours' children, who, their tastes 

 and habits of life assimilating with mine, have taken up their 

 residence near me. I am not ashamed of them, they are near 

 relations, and do me much credit ; but, for all that, they are 

 far too numerous for me to look after them as I could wish. 

 Besides, I have heard rumours of a grand International Exhi- 

 bition, when I expect a great many foreigners of distinction 

 nearly connected with my family, and I shall be gi^ieved for 

 them to be able to throw out skits at England, as I greatly fear 

 they will, and all through a misunderstanding which has 

 arisen between ourselves and the biped animals of the Eeceut 

 period. Why should I have such an overgro'wn family, when 

 so many of my relations have none ? Why should England 

 have not more, if so many as, foriy-four species of Ferns, 

 when there are two thousand in the world ? 



Of coiu'se if there were only nineteen in Britain that would 

 he sufficient an.swer, but I ask. Are there no more? Who 

 deci^^s the point? Wlio decided that my cousin Asplenium 

 trichornanes should be one species and viride another ? I see 

 ■no difference to speak of, saving that one is gi'een and the other 

 black in ihe rachis. Our friend Mr. Moore says, describing 

 A. trichornanes, " rachis not winged, black throughout ; frond 



normal; pinnules entire or erenate; " and of A. viride Mr. 

 Moore only says " rachis not winged, green above." 



I have no jealousy in my composition, but I do think if my 

 aunt Asplenium is to settle viride in a house of her own, that 

 my child odontomanes deserves one quite as much. I do not 

 find fault with my aunt, but I <\o not forget that we had the 

 same grandmother ; and my mother Athyrium and aunt Asple- 

 nium were considered to have so strong a family likeness that 

 they were often taken for each other. One may say, indeed, it 

 was more the shape of their dress than any graver distinction 

 that separated them, my mother's petticoat being fringed 

 instead of plain ; and I. do think it a little hard that while 

 my cousins Asplenium fontanirm, lanceolatum, adiantum- 

 nigrum, marinum, trichomanes, viride, ruta-muraria, ger- 

 manicum, and septentrionale should have little or nothing of 

 family cares, I should have nearly a hummed unruly children 

 apportioned to me. They are none of mine. I disclaim them. 

 Let odontomanes set up housekeeping for herself — she and her 

 already large family are sufficient for one house ; let her be 

 Athyrium No. 2. No one will mistake her for me, when once 

 she is settled. I found one of her chikken in a ditch the other 

 day, and very pretty she was. Her frond was about 1.5 inohes 

 from apex to root, of an elongated lanceolate shape, the pinnse 

 curving crescent-wise to the apes of the fi^ond, the pinniUes con- 

 nected to the secondai-j' rachis by a very visible leafj' margin, each 

 pinnule so deeply notched or toothed as to render them almost 

 pinnatifid. Does this answer to the description of my normal 

 state? Then again in the xjjecics of odontomanes, in fronds 

 both young and old, the indusium is singularly absent or out 

 of sight, and, when visible, it is more kidney-shaped than 

 oblong. Odontomanes has already many varieties, some stumpy 

 with ovate fronds, some much forked, some 2 feet and upwards. 

 Then there is rha-ticum with her red-legged variety, quite as 

 worthy of distinction, for all I can see, as black-legged tricho- 

 manes. And davallioides ? — why, one of her pinna; is as fine 

 as many a frond, alrd as minutely divided. Yes, davaUioides 

 must be a species too. 



Something must be done for me before the International, 

 but who wUl do it ? I appeal to our friends Dr. Hooker, Mr. 

 Moore, and Jfr. Newman. Cannot they, in consideration of my 

 ancient lineage and high birth, provide more suitalde accom- 

 modation for the numerous family of — Filix-fcemisa ? 



CULTURE OF THE MAXGO, MANGOSTEEN, 

 AND OTHER TROPICAL FRUITS. 



It has often surprised me that persons, whose means enable 

 them to maintain continued fires in hothouses, should waste 

 their energies in producing at Christmas tasteless Asparagus 

 or miserable Kidney Beans, while they might, with no more 

 trouble, and not much more exi^euse, enjoy the luxury of tro- 

 pical fruit. Surely it is more reasonable to employ heat for 

 the pmiiose of producing things v/hich cannot be grown with- 

 out it, than to waste it upon articles which may be had of 

 better quality, though somewhat later, in every cottage gar- 

 den. Holding these views, I was much pleased at seeing the 

 letter of " .J. H." in page 340 of your Journal, and hope that 

 its perusal may stimulate those who are able to cultivate the 

 Mango. 



There are, however, in that letter two points on which I 

 would make an observation. First, " J. H." most liberally 

 offers a cutting ; but do Mangoes grow from cuttings ? I have 

 never heard of their being raised except from seed, and grafted 

 when needful. However, there woidd not be much difficvrltj- 

 in getting from the West Indies Mango stones packed in damp 

 earth. These would serve as stocks upon which " J. H.'s " 

 cuttings could be grafted. Secondly, the high winter tempera- 

 tm^e which " J. H." has so successfully employed cannot, I 

 think, be necessary. I remember reading in some travels in 

 the north-west of India that the party encamped near a Mango 

 tope, and that in the morning water froze. Again : I under- 

 stand that Mangos grow at SahSranpur, which, in addition to 

 considerable elevation above the sea, is in latitude 30° ; they 

 grow also in Madeira. 



Bombay is considered the head-quarters of the Mango. 

 Possibly grafted trees of the Alfonso and other choice varieties 

 might be procurable from thence. At the Crystal Palace two 

 healthy Mango trees may be seen ; they flower freely, but do 

 not set their fruit. 



If I mistake not, " J. H." is conversant ■with many other 

 tropical fruits besides the Mango ; if so, I should feel obliged 



