348 



JOURNAL OF nORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



r Mar ^ IBM- 



generally be accounted for by the circumstance that locality, 

 aspect, or position, has affected the reading of the instrument. 

 Sometimes a good instrument in the hands of a novice may 

 from bad hanging read incorrectly, owing to a portion of the 

 spirit becoming detached, and fixing itself at or near the end of 

 the thermometer tube, causing thereby a diminution in the 

 true reading equal in amount to the number of degrees which 

 are in tho upper portion of the instrument. And, again, such 

 error may be occasioned by the evaporation, and subsequent 

 condensation of the spirit at the upper surface of the ther- 

 mometer, a fault which can always afterwards bo remedied 

 by placing the thermometer in a position slightly out of the 

 horizontal. 



Should an observer have any doubts as to the correctness 

 of the instrument in his possession, it is much better at 

 once to test its accuracy rather than to continue any longer in 

 doubt. A good instrument furnished by a neighbour will give 

 every facility for testing and comparing, and finding out the 

 true readings. Such a comparison is very simple. Plunge both 

 thermometers in water, covering the mercury in the stem, and 

 after an interval compare the readings. If the thermometer 

 whose accuracy is doubtful reads identically with the standard, 

 of course no corrections are necessary ; but if there is a dif- 

 fereiice, the observer knows tho error of his instrument, and 

 provides against it accordingly in future readings. Such a plan 

 for testing gives only one reliable degree of temperature ; 

 therefore, the comparison should be carried on with water 

 heated to different degrees, so as to correct the instrument 

 throughout the whole scale. An accurate thermometer is an 

 essential to a gardener, and quite as important as good garden- 

 ing tools. He should be most careful that both for in-door 

 and out-door purposes the instrument be suspended in such a 

 manner, and in such a spot, that he obtain tho tnic tempe- 

 rature of the air existing at the place. Fallacious temperatures 

 caused by tho bulb being in too close contact with hot-water 

 pipes, or exposed to tho rays of the sun, are too often the cause 

 of great mischief in hothouses. A thermometer should be so 

 suspended that tho instrument tells its tale truly — viz., the 

 exact temperature of the external air, or the actual heat of the 

 forcing-pit or greenhouse. A good thermometer is one of the 

 greatest boons to a gardener, and one of the best aids to 

 weather wisdom next to the barometer, but without correctness 

 no good result can follow the study of the thermometer, either 

 taken by itself or in connection with the barometer. — X. 

 Surrey. 



INTERNATIONAL HORTICULTURAL 

 : EXHIBITION AND BOTANICAL CONGRESS. 



_We have had much gratification in learning, and the feeling 

 will be shared by botanists and horticulturists generally, that 

 at the Oxford Commemoration, on June 13th, it is proposed to 

 confer the honorary degree of D.C.L. on M. Alphonse De 

 Candolle, President of the International Botanical Congress, 

 and on Dr. Hooker. 



We also leam that the Belgian Government, as well as the 

 raUway and steam-boat companies, have accorded very great 

 facilities, by the reduction of fares for the transport of passen- 

 gers and goods by way of Antwerp or Ostend to London, on 

 the occasion of tho lutcrnational Horticultural Exhibition. 

 The Netherlands Government have also accorded a like boon 

 in regard to their fiscal arrangements. 



Through the kindness of Dr. Hooker, the Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 will, during the Congress week, be open to our foreign guests 

 at 10 A.M. instead of at 1 p.m. as usual. The Council of the 

 Boyal Botanic Society, Regent's Park, and that of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society, have also most hberally thrown their respective 

 gardens open to the distinguished "foreign members of the 

 Botanical Congress. 



PARIS EXHIBITION OP 18r.7. 

 A MEETING of horticulturists was held at the Roval Horticul- 

 tural Society's Garden, South Kensington, on Tuesday last, 

 tho 1st instant. Mr. Henry Cole, C.B., presided, and among 

 those present were Messrs. J. G. Veitch, Tamer, Laing, Ed- 

 monds, J. Lee, BuU, Moore, T. Osbom, A. Waterer, W. B. 

 Booth, &c., and Drs. Hogg and Masters. The Chairman're- 

 marked that it would no doubt answer the purpose of horticul- 

 tural builders to send subjects to such an exhibition as that to 

 be held at Paris, and the object of the meeting was to ascer- 



tain if it would be practicable for British growers to exhibit 

 their plants there, and how this might best be done. He under- 

 stood that it would be permissible to sell the plants exhibited, 

 which might save the cost of transit one way. He farther 

 stated that a park of thirty acres would be devoted to this ex- 

 hibition, and that three acres were assigned to the English, 

 who would be free to erect there what houses and fill them with 

 what plants they liked. Besides, a good deal of ground outside 

 could be planted with subjects for sale. Some discussion en- 

 sued, in which Messrs. Edmonds, J. G. Veitch, Lee, Tomer, 

 Waterer, and BuU took part, the points mooted being the free 

 transit of plants to the exhibition ; its duration ; the possi- 

 bility of keeping a certain space gay with any plants that might 

 be in season, such as -inriculas, Pelargoniimis, and other special 

 subjects ; and the mode of judging. Several gentlemen having 

 expressed themselves in favour of a continuous exhibition by 

 the removal of plants when their season was over and replacing 

 them with others, the following resolution was moved by Mr. 

 J. Gould Veitch, seconded by Mr. J. Lee, and adopted — viz., 



" That British horticulturists will be happy to accept the in- 

 vitation of the Imperial Commission to support an International 

 Exhibition of Horticulture for a period not exceeding a fort- 

 night, such exhibition to take place in a special building to be 

 provided by the Imperial Commission, and would suggest for 

 consideration that such exhibition should take place in the 

 latter end of May or the beginning of June." 



On the motion of Mr. Turner, seconded by Mr. Laing, it was 

 also resolved : — 



" That British horticnltnrists would be willing to co-operate 

 mth the British Executive in exhibiting from time to time speci- 

 mens of various plants and flowers which may be in season." 



A PEEP AT THE WOODS IN ODD PLACES. 



No. 3.— THE MANGROVE (Rhizophora mangle). 

 " Oh ! there's the land ! " I exclaimed, as on a bright, warm 

 morning I was standing on the poop of a vessel talking to the 

 captain and looking out for land. The man at the mast-head 

 had sung out " Land ho ! " more than an hour before ; but the 

 whole of this coast is so low, that it is scarcely ■<'isible nnti] 

 one is closely upon it. By this coast, I would have the reader 

 understand that I mean the land at the bottom of the Bight 

 of Benin, at the delta of the Niger, the coast where the chief 

 part of the Pahn oil trade is carried on. The place we were 

 bound to was Bonny ; and I may here notice that the daughter 

 of my old friend King Peppel, of Bonny, recently arrived in 

 Liverpool, to be educated in England. I need not tell my 

 readers that the Princess Peppel is absolutely a negro ; but I 

 can tell them that her nncle, .^jina Peppel, the King's brother, 

 who was educated in England, wrote a most beautiful hand, 

 and expressed himself in pure grammatical English, as a note 

 requesting the loan of one of the ship's boats, and which was 

 for some time in my possession, would amply testify. But to 

 return to the particular morning on which the vessel I was in 

 came in sight of the land. We were on the look-out for what 

 is by seamen called the mouth of the Bonny river, but which 

 is really only one of the many arms of the delta of the Niger, 

 and on which the town or village of Bonny stands. Now, the 

 land which we saw was in reality no land, but only trees, for 

 the land here is so low, that in many places, indeed for enor- 

 mous districts, it is only above water at low tide, and at other 

 times covered or partiaUy covered to various depths with salt 

 water, thus causing a most extensive salt-marsh country. The 

 whole of this marsh is most wonderfully and richly covered 

 with vegetation, and that of a truly tropical character, often 

 being of that fearfully rank and pestiferous nature which, to a 

 mind acquainted with tropical growth, screams and howls alond 

 " fever ! " — fever, that fearful foe which, whether coming as the 

 well-known ague or the horrible putrid fever, is equally pain- 

 fully dreaded. Almost all the edge of this district is clothed 

 with the Mangrove tree, forming a most beautiful dark green 

 edging, which, at a distance, presents nil the appearance of a 

 verdant grass-covered shore, but of a deeper tinge than grass 

 usually possesses. 



But we will not keep at a distance, for I want you to see with 

 me these Mangiove woods more closely, for yon will find them 

 worthy of inspection ; so blow, good breeze, and let us get over 

 the bar, for this is a bar river, and its passage is often attended 

 with a great amount of danger, and when we have seen the 

 trees I will tell you of a curious and painful custom relative to 

 this said bar. Well, we are over ; and now while the ship is 



