•2H 



JOURNAL OF HOBXICULTUBB AND OOTTAQE GABDENER. 



[ Januarj 14, 1875. 



(?oo(l, Raspberries being inferior in size and maggotty. Blacls 

 (Jarraats were very inferior in crop and quality. Nats abun- 

 dant, and wild fruit unusually so, Brambles especially, hanging 

 in clusters not unlike Grapes. Tlie Scarlet-berried Elder was 

 particularly fine, and the common Elder plentifully fruited. 

 Mountain Ash bore in plenitude its attractive berries, and the 

 quantity of heps on the Sweet Briar enormous, rendering 

 them beautiful objects in contrast with the snow of Dacember. 

 Cotoueaster microphylla was resplendent with its coral beads 

 upon its deep shining green-setting ; C. Simmonsi, though 

 having larger berries, and being more or less plentiful, are not 

 nearly so effective as those of C. microphylla, from the leaves 

 of C. Simmonsi becoming partly sere, it at best being only 

 partially evergreen. It is fine, however, for catting for deco- 

 rative purposes, its orange fruit having a fine effect. For 

 cutting, however, no berried plant is equal to the Euonymus 

 europteus var., their opening capsules being very beautiful; 

 they are, however, soon over. Berberis (Mahonia) aquifolia 

 fruited very freely, as also B. Darwinii, but the fruit of these 

 though very profuse is not nearly so beautiful as that of the 

 common Berberry, or B. dulcis. The fruit of the common 

 kind, B. vulgaris, and its white and yellow-fruited varieties, are 

 very ornamental in early autumn. Sloes plentiful, but Crabs 

 were thinner than usual, though the Siberian was heavily 

 loaded, and what a beautiful object it is with its highly- 

 coloured fruit ! Haws were not abundant, and Holly is often 

 much more heavily loaded with its berries, which gives it its 

 charm for Christmas decorations. The fruit of the wild Rasp- 

 berry was not nearly so fine as I have known it, and it is 

 plentiful in the woods here, having unquestionably been sown 

 by birds, to whose agency is to be attributed the springing- 

 up everywhere of Currant and Gooseberry bushes, especially 

 in the vicinity of the kitchen garden. Guelder Rose is not 

 sparing of its berries, but they are not attractive ; and though 

 we have no finer object in the landscape in spring than the 

 gorgeous bloom of the Bird Cherry (Cerasus pa Jus), it fruits 

 very sparingly. Aucubas do not berry from the circumstance 

 of quadrupeds stumping them, otherwise they are very beauti- 

 ful. I might linger over the berries of the Portugal and com- 

 mon Laurel, also Yow and many others, not omitting the 

 beautiful Skimmia japonioa, which is of no use whatever 

 where there is hare o rabbit, only to afford them a dainty 

 morsel ; and there are the Gaultherias and many other berry 

 or fruit-producing plants, all of greater or lesser beauty ; and 

 the reason I allude to them is to point the beauty they impart 

 to woodlands, yea, and ornamental grounds too, when the 

 flowers are becoming scarcer day by day, and the yellow 

 falling leaves acquaint us of the sealing of vegetation in 

 winter's embrace. 



Those berries and fruits, what do they remind me of ? They 

 cause the mind to picture in its eye the richness of the spring 

 tide of promise. The landscape all aglow with the bright golden 

 yellow of the Whin and Broom, the snowy whiteness of the Black- 

 thorn, the Bird Cherry heightened iu effect by the delicate 

 tinting of the Crab, remind of the time of blossom and flowers 

 — Nature's promise of future benefits. They remind of the 

 time of the singing of birds, without which the woodland, the 

 field, the garden is without its amplitude of charm. Well may 

 the ijirds sing. Instinctively they love to sing amid flowers. 

 The drier the atmosphere the clearer their note ; yea, they sing 

 as the promise is of a rich full crop of fruit. If there are 

 none of these berrifd shrubs, fruit-bearing trees, the land- 

 scape is a barren one in spring and autumn — a wilderness that 

 knows only the note of the solitary birds. 



Berries and fruits tell us of the provision Nature has made 

 for the recipients of its bounty. The birds, whose songs all 

 delight to hesr, will be spared to us over a severe winter to 

 gladden us with their song again in spring. Yes, if birds are 

 wanted provide those for them upon which thoy subsist. It 

 is futile to plant fruit or berry-bearing plants and not expect 

 to have birds, and equally puerile to expect birds to sing 

 sweetly in spring, to busy themselves in destroying slugs, 

 worms, grubs, beetles, caterpillars, moths, butterflies, and 

 swarms of lice- — one. other, or all blighting more or less the hope 

 of the husbandman and of the birds — and not calculate that 

 they will help themselves to the fruit. What are the poor 

 creatures to live upon when the juicy insect food fails? Are 

 they to keep the trees free of the grubs at the roots, and the 

 caterpillars and lice of the head, without hope of reward? 

 Instinct, setting aside reason, point they ought not; but as 

 the fruit of the garden is for more rational beings, let us not 

 forget that the labourer is worthy of his hire. Let no one be 



so selfish as to delight in the song of birds, admit bis help 

 when no harm is done, but when the harvest arrives deprive 

 the birds of their share. I do not mean admit them to the 

 fruit unrestrained, for this would be instinct governing reason ; 

 nor destroj- them, for that would be to deprive us of their 

 song, and the further use they will be iu destroying insects. 

 But whilst we prevent them of the fruits of the garden by nets, 

 provide for them in the ornamental grounds shrubs and trees 

 that produce fruit or berry, to them a substitute for the fruits 

 of the garden. Upon these grounds I advocate fruit and 

 berried plants. 



If the berried and fruit-bearing plants are beautiful in them- 

 selves, in spring covered with blossom, and laden with fruit 

 in autumn ; if birds are attracted by them, being most abundant 

 in and near gardens, and orchards, farmyards, and vineyards, 

 plant such things, the wild fruits of our land, for our native 

 and migratory songsters. — G. Abbey. 



CHANGING THE COLODB OF FLOWERS. 



If flowers naturally coloured violet are exposed to the smoke 

 of a cigar, they are observed to change colour and assume a 

 green hue, which is more pronounced the more intense the 

 original colour. This effect may be had — c t/., with the Thlaspi 

 Violet, or Iberia umbellata, and the Julian, or Hesperis ma- 

 tronalis. The change is due to ammonia in the tobacco. Start- 

 ing from this phenomenon, an Italian Professor (M. Gabba) 

 has made a number of experiments to ascertain the changes 

 produced by ammonia in the colours of different flowers. His 

 method was to put a little ammoniaeal solution iu a basin, 

 and place a receiver over it containing the flower. In this 

 v/ay he found blue, violet, and purple flowers became green, 

 carmine-red flowers black, white flowers yellow, A'C. The most 

 singular changes were presented by flowers in which several 

 tints are combined ; the red lines change to green, the white 

 to yellow, and so on. Another remarkable example is that of 

 Fuchsias with white and red flowers, which the ammonia 

 changed to yellow, blue, and green. After the flowers have 

 undergone these changes, if they are placed iu pure water they 

 retain their new coloration several hours, then gradually 

 resume their original hue. Another observation by M. Gabba 

 is, that the flowers of the Aster, which are naturally inodorous, 

 acquire an agreeable aromatic odour under the influence of 

 ammonia. Tney change from violet to red when moistened 

 with dUute nitric acid. On the other hand, if enclosed iu a 

 wooden case where they are exposed to vapours of hydrochloric 

 acid, they assume in six hours a beautiful carmine red, which 

 they retain when placed in a dry and shaded place, after being 

 dried in the air and in darkness. 



[The above extract has been sent to us with a query whether 

 we know of any other changes to be effected in a flower's 

 colour. We know that many may be rendered white by sub- 

 mitting them to the fumes of burning sulphur. We were told 

 by an amateur gardener that he had rendered the flowers of 

 the Primrose purplish by growing the plants in cow dung. 

 Can any of our readers inform us of such changes of colour 

 induced by applications to the roots of growing plants? — Eds.] 



DEATH OF MR. JOHN GIBSON. 



HoKTicuLTURE has lost one of its brightest ornaments in the 

 death of Mr. John G-ibson, late Superintendent of Hyde Park, 

 and formerly of Battersea and Victoria Parks. He died after 

 a long and lingering illness ou the morning of Monday last at 

 half-past flve. 



Mr. Gibson's father was gardener to Sir Edmund Antrobus ■ 

 at Eaton Hall, Congleton, iu Cheshire, where the sou was bom 

 in 1815. He has, therefore, finished his course at the com- 

 paratively early age of fifty-nine. Mr. Gibson's gardening 

 career began with his father, but in 18S2 he was apprenticed 

 to Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Paxton, then gardener to the 

 Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. Such were the progress 

 he made, and the characteristics he exhibited, that he was 

 commissioned by the Duke to proceed to India as a collector 

 of plants, and especially to bring home living specimens of the 

 famed Amherstia nobilis. The success which attended his 

 efforts is well known ; the Amherstia was introduced, and 

 flowers of that gorgeous tree have occasionally been exhibited 

 at flower shows ; and along with it some of the finest Orchids 

 whioh now grace our plant houses and exhibitions. Of these 

 we may merely mention Deudrobium Devonianam, Gibsoni, 



