JOUKKAL OF HOETICULTORE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



[ December 17, 1S74. 



We should have passed this, no doubt, with no more than 

 a pleasant thonght ; bnt it so happened a few hours after 

 to find ourselves admiring the arrangement of a stand of 

 flowers in another cottager's abode of a very different charac- 

 ter. Its simplicity, its gracefulness struck us how erroneous 

 it is to think a mass of showy flowers are necessary to form a 

 pleasing group. In this stand it was not the material but the 

 method that made it so pleasing. It contained bnt little from 

 the garden but just a Eose bud or two. Mignonette, Sweet Pea, 

 and a Geranium or two ; the rest were from everybody's garden 

 — the hedge. This the arranger had dealt unsparingly with, and 

 right well were they arranged with the garden flowers. I stiD 

 see the beautiful hues of the Bramble leaves, the Grasses and 

 Ferns with a few wild flowers and berries, of which the wild 

 Hose's heps and the pink Comfrey stood out most tellingly. 

 What a diuerence one had presented in these two arrangements 

 ^one flat and heavy, the other light and springy. The one 

 induced but a glance, and the eye seemed to require no more ; 

 the other, the more one viewed it the more you wished to do 

 BO. But here is the point I wish to csnclude with : The first 

 party had never seen an exhibition of arianged floxers, 

 there weie no cottagers' societies in her neighbourhood ; the 

 other had seen and exhibited in one. Never was I so con- 

 vinced of the benefits those societies do, when well conducted, 

 than in the last few years in Carmarthenshire. — Johx TiVLOB, 

 Bardtcicke Grange. 



SOME OF THE VEGETABLE PKODUCTS OF 

 CEYLON.— No. 4. 



iLuzE OE I>-DiAS CoES. — This most valuable grain thrives 

 well in the greater portion of the island. As Mr. Sharpe most 

 truly remarks, that considering how well Indian Com thrives 

 in Ceylon generally, and how wholesome and nutritious a grain 

 it is, ranking unquestionably among the first of cereals, the 

 extension of the cultivation is every way to be desired. Its 

 growth might be indefinitely extended, while the value of the 

 produce, as an article of diet substituted for or alternating 

 with Rice, cannot be over-estimated. In some of the elevated 

 regions of the central province it grows luxuriantly, as it dues 

 in the lowlands, so that it would seem adapted to every vari- 

 ation of climate experienced in the island. As a vegetable the 

 young cobs when boUed are excellent, and the fried com is by 

 no means to be despised. Cakes prepared from the flour are 

 very palatable and wholesome. In North America, from the 

 torrid to the temperate zone, this cereal is a most important 

 article of diet. 



The extension of the cultivation of Maize and the improve- 

 ment of the Grasses of the colony would, specially through the 

 agency of small Chinese and other farmers and stock-raisers, 

 do much to improve the existing cittle, sheep, and poultry ; 

 and for such produce the town and port of Galle in the southern 

 province of the island, and of Colombo in the western province, 

 the places of call for so many large steamers with very nume- 

 rous passengers for continental India, China, and Australia, 

 <tc., would present admirable markets for its disposal, besides 

 the large demand within the colony. 



VisnxA. — Much attention is being paid by my friend the 

 able Director of the Boyal Botanical Gardens in Ceylon (Dr. 

 Thwaites), to the cultivation of this valuable plant, and diffe- 

 rent modes of growing it are being tiled. Dr. Thwaites thinks 

 the best system to follow is to train the plants upon strong 

 trellises, to which it firmly attaches itself by means of its 

 aerial roots, as the plants app?ar to be mnch more manageable 

 under this treatment, and it thrives quite as well upon the 

 treUises as when it is growing upon the trunks of living trees. 

 Much care is being bestowed upon the curing of the Vanilla 

 pods, so as to prepare them in the style required for the 

 European markets, and is adapted in the Isle of Eeunion. 

 Vanilla is indigenous to Nicaragua in Central America. The 

 pods when they bec3me yellow are placed in heaps for a few 

 days to ferment, afterwards flattened by the hand, and care- 

 fully rubbed with cocoa-nut oil, and then packed in dry 

 Plantain leaves, so as to confine their powerful aromatic odour. 

 In a note I have before me from a competent authority, to 

 whom I sent a sample of Ceylon Vanilla to be reported n'pon, 

 it is stated that the quality is considered very good, although 

 it wanted more colour. To make it obtain the highest market 

 price, the pods onght to be largo and quite black. The best 

 pods of the sample were considered to be worth 70.^ per lb. ; 

 the lowest 5^'^. per lb. If sent for the London markets, it is 

 recommended that it should be packed in tinfoU and done up 



in half-pound packets, and then enclosed in tins containing 

 6 or 7 lbs. each. 



Dr. Thwaites is of opinion, as Vanilla is so easy of cultiva- 

 tion in parts of Ceylon, that if only a comparatively small 

 price is obtained for it in Europe such would cover the cost of 

 labour. — E. Eawdox Power, Ceylon Civil Service (Retired), 

 Tenby, South Wale/. 



NEW HORTICULTUKAL CLUB, 

 Is answer to numerous inquiries addressed to me privately, 

 and which I may take as an indication that others would like 

 the same information which I have given to them, will you 

 kindly permit me to say that the only reason why more active 

 steps have not been taken in bringing the Club more pro- 

 minently before the general body of horticulturists, is that we 

 have so far been completely baflied in our attempt to find 

 suitable accommodation, and that we are desirous, before 

 issuing any further statement, to be able to say that we can 

 offer our friends the full benefit of membership ? The very 

 cordial manner in which the proposition has been welcomed 

 by representative men in the various branches of horticulture, 

 leads the Committee to believe that when we have completed 

 our arrangements we shall be enabled to establish the Club on 

 a satisfactory and permanent basis. — The Seceeiaby. 



GARDENING IN INDIA. 



EsGLisHMES introduce their recreations wherever they mi- 

 grate to. The first morning after my arrival at Calcutta I 

 met an old friend at a cricket match, though the temperature 

 was so high that it was played at sunrise. So have they over- 

 come difficulties of climate and cultivate European garden 

 ' plants. 



Dr. Spry, the indefatigable Secretary of the Agricultural 

 Society, published at the close of 1841, " SupgestioES for Ex- 

 > tending the Cultivation and Introduction of Useful and Orna- 

 mental Plants, for the Improvement of the Agricultural and 

 Commercial Eesources of India." It is full of highly interest- 

 ing and important information. 



Anyone placed amid plants and vegetables exhibited annually 

 at the Agricultural Society's Show, would not guess that the 

 vegetables there collected were the produce of Calcutta gardens, 

 cultivated by native mallees. 



There are Celery, Cabbages (Red, Drumhead, and Savoy), 



' Spinach, Turnips, French Beans, Endive, Carrots, Lettuces, 



Red Beet, Artichokes, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Peas, Cauliflowers, 



Watercresses, &c., that wotild not shame an EngUsh gardener 



at Ftilham. 



Now that railways have facilitated journeying to northern 

 India, the neighbourhood of the Himalaya Mountains is 

 more than ever a region of resort during the hot season. 

 There, with air cooled by the snows eternally crowning the 

 highest elevations of the world, one mountain rising to 

 29,000 feet, the climate is pecttliarly suited to the culture of 

 European fruits and vegetables. Bungalows — villas we should 

 call them in England — have multiplied ; and one town, Simla, 

 having a resident population of six thousand, and full twelve 

 thousand more as visitors, has gardens numerous enough to 

 support a professional whose card is now before me, and may 

 be useful for reference to some of your readers, so I copy it : — 

 "H. Bwye, Practical Gardener, Seedsman, and Florist, Col- 

 lector of Coniferae and other Seeds, Simla, Punjab, India. 

 Plans designed and prepared for the layicg-out and improve- 

 ment of gardens ; the erection of horticultural buildings, and 

 work relative to horticulture undertaken." — G. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



At a recent meeting of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, Mr. Thomas Mcehan referred to a former 

 communication in which he exhibited specimens of Euphoebia 

 coKDiTi, or E. HrMisTKAiA, coUccted by him in the Rocky 

 Mountains, and which, normally procumbent, had assumed an 

 erect habit on being attacked by a fungtilus .Ecidium En- 

 phorbisB hypericifoliie. He now found that the common trail- 

 ing Euphorbia of our section, E. macnlata, when attacked by 

 the same fnngulus, assumed the same erect habit. There was 

 an additional interest in this observation, from the fact that 

 with chacge of habit of growth there was a whole change in 

 specific character in the direction of E. hypericifolia. In a 

 comparison of the leading characters of the two species, we 



