October 8, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICDLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



319 



succulent plants. His plant has been grafted on a Stapelia, 

 probably S. Plantii."— (/JwZ., t. G115.) 



KNipHorii RoopERi. Nat. ord., 'UWiaoex. Lin?;., Hexanjria 

 Monogynia. — Native of South Africa. Flowers orange, tipped 

 with scarlet. It is about 2 feet high. — (Ibid., t. Gllti.) 



Achillea AGERATiroLiA. AVf. orrf., Composita). Linti.,Syu- 

 genesia Superflua. — Native of Greece. Flowers white, with 

 yellow disk. " This charming little plant is a native of the 

 mountains of Greece, and was first detected (in Crete ?) by 

 Sibthorp, and it has since been gathered on the mainland by 

 Prof. Orphanides, of Athens, in the middle region of Mount 

 Olympus, at an elevation of 5-7000 feet.— (/6id., t. 0117.) 



WESTWARD HO!— No. 2. 



The kindly influences which the Journal exercises on many 

 of its supporters came to my aid at my next resting place, and 

 to it I owe my pleasant sejour at Cheltenham. My friends 

 were (as nearly all Cheltenham was) away frona home, and an 

 acquaintance originated by our mutual love of flowers and our 

 interest in the Journal stood me in good stead. I have pre- 

 viously described Dr. Abercrombie's garden in Suffolk Square, 

 and the wonderfully fine Pelargoniums, Carnations, and Pico- 

 tees grown by him. To him, as to a great many, this has 

 been a trying season — to him more than many, for the soil of 

 his garden is very light, and many plants which ought to have 

 grown out and filled up their spaces did not do so ; while 

 what he calls his gem beds — small beds filled with different 

 plants, were quite a failure. I noticed one very good effect 

 produced on his long border by Crystal Palace Gem Geranium, 

 the flowers being left on, which gave a very beautiful hue of 

 colour. Owing to a change of gardeners and to an interregnum 

 of some time his Pelargoniums were not quite up to the mark 

 of last year, although very fine. Of course I could not be at 

 Cheltenham without giving a look-in at Mr. Cypher's, who, 

 however, seems at this season of the year to be in a chronic 

 state of exhibiting. Travel where you may in the " west 

 countrie," probably you will see huge vans, with " James 

 Cypher " on them, performing an up-and-down movement, as 

 I saw them at Bristol, or impeding your own train while they 

 are being shunted. At such a time your ideas of flower shows 

 are not of a very roseate character. Suffice it to say his plants, 

 which were in the act of being packed when I was there, were 

 of their usual excellence, and that the bouquets which Miss 

 Cypher was making up were of that excellence which has won 

 her so good a name not only in Cheltenham but all through 

 the west. 



Amongst those ornaments of a profession which can boast 

 of so many good men and true with whom it has been my good 

 fortune to make acquaintance, are men of very different bear- 

 ing ; and at the Taunton show last year I had promised Mr. 

 Cramb, in response to his most pressing invitation, that I 

 would if possible pay him a visit ; and although it was a very 

 hurried one, and although the glories of the place where he so 

 ably acts as gardener have been amply detailed in the pages 

 of this Journal, yet must I say something of my visit to 



TOKTWORTH. 



Hurried it was indeed. I had promised to be at Bath in 

 the evening, and I could not get away from Cheltenham until 

 twelve ; and when I arrived at Charfield station I found that 

 I had to walk some two miles and a half to. the house. The 

 day was lovely, the country beautiful ; and although I was 

 companionless, I most thoroughly enjoyed a delightful walk. 

 As I neared the well-known seat of Lord Ducie, on every side 

 one saw the signs of a thoughtful landlord, for the delightful 

 residences and well-kept grounds would strike any stranger ; 

 and when once entered the gardens, the care and skill mani- 

 fested everywhere bore witness to the fact that it was under 

 the management of a first-rate gardener, everything was in 

 such perfect order. The kitchen gardens are at a good distance 

 from the mansion, and are contiguous to a very excellent house 

 in which Mr. Cramb resides. Lord Ducie being one of those 

 employers who consider that their gardener is worthy of some 

 better home than oftentimes falls to their lot. 



In going through the long range of vineries I was particu- 

 larly struck with the uniform goodness of both Vines and 

 Grapes. It is well known that Mr. Cramb has been engaged in 

 a controversy on the subject of calcareous soil and the injury 

 it does to the Grape. Various statements have been made pro 

 and con. on the subject; but as Mr. Cramb truly said, " The 

 proof of the pudding is in the eating. While I had the lime- 



stone here I could not grow my Grapes properly ; I took it all 

 out, and you now see the result." And certainly nothing could 

 be grander than they were. Along the back wall of the houses 

 were some remarkably healthy plants of Camellias from which 

 he had, he told me, taken au immense quantity of bloom. 

 At the mansion all was in confusion. The conservatory erected 

 a few years ago had become rotten, and a new one was in 

 course of erection at a cost of £4000. In front of the house 

 a very beautiful parterre was in full bloom ; but I had only 

 time to take a rapid glanoe over it, and the very beautiful 

 stretch of landscape beyond, with its picturesque lake and sur- 

 roundings. 



I could only give this rapid glance at the beauties of Tort- 

 worth, but I made a promise, which. I hope to fulfil, of spend- 

 ing a long day there next year, when I shall be able to say 

 more about it to the readers of our Journal. I hurried on to 

 Bath, where I meant to have visited Vellore, the beautiful seat 

 of my much-esteemed friend the Rev. Charles Kemble, rector 

 of Bath ; but alas ! when I arrived it was but to hear that he 

 was laid low in illness, and that to the great regret of his fellow 

 citizens he had that day resigned his living. I saw something, 

 however, in the way of fruit-growing which I hope to tell about 

 by-and-by. — D., Deal. 



UTILISING LAWN MOWINGS. 

 A FRENCH correspondent sends the following on this subject, 

 but there are few of our English gardeners who are not alive 

 to their value. They are, he remarks, a manure but little used, 

 but nevertheless useful in the garden. I refer more particu- 

 larly to the grass cuttings of large parks, which, if collected in 

 a heap and frequently watered, would in the course of two 

 years form a manure suitable for kitchen-garden crops, and 

 at the end of five or six years would be reduced to a vegetable 

 mould especially suitable for Peas when mixed with the natural 

 soil. This mould is particularly suitable for sandy soils, where 

 it gives the best results ; it may also be used in composts for 

 herbaceous plants and Pine Apples. It would therefore, adds 

 our French correspondent, be very desirable to turn to account 

 in the above way the cut grass from the many beautiful parks 

 and lawns of England. 



THE BEAUTIFUL AND USEFUL INSECTS OF 

 OUR GARDENS.— No. 25. 

 Listening one day to an individual who was humming an 

 old English song, expressing the romantic wish, "I'd be a 

 butterfly," &o., we suggested to a friend who, with some mo- 

 difications of his own, holds in the main to the theory of 

 evolution as propounded by certain philosophers of our time, 

 that the words of this piece might be modified to suit modern 

 knowledge, and made retrospective instead of prospective. 

 "We do not really hope to be butterflies," said I; "but on 

 your hypothesis we might sing, ' I was a butterfly ' in the 

 person of some ancestor." My friend assumed a severe look 

 at such trifling with science. "No!" he replied, "there's 

 no reason to suppose mankind passed through that stage of 

 existence. From the successional order there were various 

 offshoots during a long course of ages. Man, in the progress 

 of his development, touched the borders of insect life, he may 

 even have been an insect, but hardly a butterfly : he must have 

 been one of the elementary types. Supposing I had a great 

 aunt who married a John Smith, you would not say that I am 

 the host of Smiths that may have descended from him, though 

 these might claim me as a very distant relation." I politely 

 acquiesced, and remarked, "Then, though Tennyson, in his 

 call to us urging us to a nobler life, is right in saying — 



" Live upwards, working out the beast. 

 And let the ape and tiger die," 



we have no occasion to repudiate the qualities of a butterfly, 

 because we haven't got them." But I have since thought how 

 these qualities, or instincts if they are to be so called, are mis- 

 understood by the most of us. 'The traditional character of a 

 butterfly is that of a selfish, indolent, foolish creature, to whose 

 career a speedy close seems a fitting penalty. Much of this is 

 a mistake. On the other hand, as I am reminded by these 

 sunny autumn days, there are numerous butterflies flying 

 hither and thither, prudently filling themselves with honey 

 while they can get it, in preparation for their life of repose 

 during the winter. With prudence, too, these will ere long 

 seek out fitting works in which they can await the call of the 



