230 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ March 23, 1876. 



Adiantnm farleyense, Parsley Ferns, &o.,line your path, and 

 you long for the wealth of the Rothschilda so as to buy them 

 all. Then out once more into the open to see how the Rosea 

 look, and magnificent standards there are, and numbers of them 

 Btill left to tempt the visitor. 



But while lingering here the cathedral's deep musical peal of 

 ten bells tell yon that it is near twelve, and that evensong will 

 Boon be sung, and you stroll away to that glorious decorated 

 pile which is now being so beautifully restored. Evensong is 

 now said at twelve noon, and very odd it sounds to hear one 

 of the evening prayers read before you have well digested your 

 breakfast. But there is a very good reason for this temporary 

 arrangement, for it is the workmen's dinner hour. If you visit 

 ns on the 23rd of June, the day of our next Rose show, if we 

 don't give you a welcome and send you back home in good 

 health and good spirits, well, my name is not — John B. M. 

 Camm. 



PEIMULA DENTICULATA. 



It is a very modest grower, not unlike our common Prim- 

 rose in its appearance, having a rather close tufted growth, 

 from which rise early in February mealy stems about 6 inches 

 high crowned by umbels of lilac flowers with yellow eyes, 

 each pip flat and having no cup or reflex. It is indeed of 

 dainty loveliness as a pot plant for the greenhouse during 

 February and early March, continuing a long time in beauty. 

 Its flowers, though small as compared with P. amcena and vars., 

 are numerous^over thirty in some instances in an umbel, 

 not the least charm of the plant being its mealy stems. I 

 have had plants of it in bloom the past fortnight, or from 

 the middle of February, and it certainly will last a consider- 

 able time, as several umbels riso from a crown, and as these 

 are tufted the bloom is profuse. I have had the plants in a 

 light airy greenhouse since September. 



What this plant appears to require is a rather stiff or yellow 

 loam with grit, and to be placed in a frame after flowering, 

 keeping cool, airy, and moist, with plenty of light but shaded 

 from hot sun, and potted in July or early August so as to have 

 the plants well established before autumn. It is no miffy 

 plant, but possesses a good hardy constitution, free alike in 

 growth and flowering. Its flowers contrast well with the clear 

 fragrant yellow of the Abyssinian Primrose which flowers at 

 the same time. — G. A. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



The Council of the Royal Horticultural Society have awarded 

 to Db. Hogg a Gold Medal for his discovery of a new classifi- 

 cation of Apples. 



Fkom the extremely mild climate of the Scilly 



Islands it might be thought that they would contain many 

 plants unknown in England. Such, however, is not the case, 

 for with the exception of the trees and shrubs specially culti- 

 vated in the Abbey gardens, the rare sorts of Ferns, as the Asple- 

 nium marinum and Osmunda regalis, form the chief botanical 

 curiosities. The violent storms to which these Islands are 

 exposed hinder the growth of trees, the absence of which gives 

 to the Scillies a somewhat barren look ; indeed even bushes 

 need to be protected from the wind by walls or hedges in order 

 to do well. The great crop of the islanders is that of Potatoes, 

 which are ready for digging on an average ten weeks earlier 

 than in the midland counties, and is one of the chief sources 

 of their wealth. Next in size to St. Mary's, and of more 

 interest to the tourist, is Treeco, on which the lord proprietor 

 of the Islands resides. Leland speaks of Tresco as the largest 

 of the Scillies, and it would seem that either he was incorrect 

 in his account or that Bryher and Samson, which are now 

 separated from Tresco by the narrow channel of New Grimbsy 

 harbour, in his day formed with it one large island. The lord 

 proprietor resides at the Abbey, the gardens of which are one 

 of the great sights of Scilly. In those gardens rare tropical 

 plants and trees, which in England can only be kept under 

 glass, flourish in the open air through the wonderful mildness 

 of the climate. 



Gabdenebs in the north need not envy their southern 



friends on the genial weather which they are enjoying; the 

 spring quarter opened most unpropitiously, and the ground 

 yesterday in London was covered with snow. 



Messes. Macmillan & Co. have commenced publishing 



" Science Peimees," their purpose being to furnish the first 



instruction needed by a pupil in any science he wishes to 

 master. The first number is " Botany." The author. Dr. 

 J. D. Hooker, shows in it that he is able to effect that most 

 difficult of combinations, brevity and clearness. It contains 

 many and good illustrations. 



Very deservedly Mr. D. Thompson's " Handy Book of 



THE Flower Garden " has reached its third edition. It is one 

 of the most useful on the subject, telling which flowers to 

 select, how to arrange, and how to cultivate them. 



Magdalen College, Oxford, is leading the way in an 



" innovation " which will be heartily welcomed. It has com- 

 menced FREE CODBSES OF LECTURES ON BOTANY, ZOOLOGY, AND 



chemical physics, free to artisans resident in Oxford, and 

 delivered by Professor Lawson and Messrs. Chapman and Yale 

 on Saturday evenings in Lent, Easter, and the long vacation. 



An experiment in heating by the aid of gas is being 



carefully conducted by Messrs. Veitch & Sons in one of their 

 plant houses at Chelsea. The apparatus, which is patented, 

 is perfectly novel, inasmuch as the elements of combustion, 

 instead of vitiating the atmosphere, are turned to account in 

 supporting the plants. The principle is this— that the noxious 

 gas, instead of escaping into the atmosphere and polluting it, 

 is hermetically sealed in a metal cylinder, in which is a pipe 

 conducting a regular current of cold air from the external at- 

 mosphere, and the gaa coming in contact with this cold surface 

 condenses and trickles down into a vessel placed at the bottom 

 of the apparatus. This gas water is given to the plants. The 

 stove is having a rigid and careful trial, the most tender 

 plants being placed immediately over it, and are watered with 

 the "home-brewed" hquor. Not the slightest smell can be 

 detected from the stove, and as we saw the plants they were 

 healthy and floutishing. 



The recent heavy dales have done much damage to 



ornamental and forest trees in many districts. We have 

 noticed some large trees blown down iu Kew Gardens ; also 

 some of the fine Elms fringing the moat which surrounds 

 Fulham Palace, the Ecat of the Bishop of London, have been 

 uprooted by the violence of the storm. 



A corkespondent informs that all that is required to 



obtain a full crop of berries on the Aucuba bushes, is to 

 plant male plants in the garden, not necessarily close to — that 

 is, touching the female plants, and without further trouble the 

 trees will become clothed with richly-coloured fruits. This ia 

 in a great measure confirmed by the Aucubas at Denbies, 

 which are referred to in another column as being heavily 

 fruited with but slight aid given by the gardener. Aucuba 

 berries are this year unusually plentiful, and the plants con- 

 taining them are highly attractive. 



In addition to the grant of forty guineas made by the 



Alexandra Palace Company towards the prizes of the second 

 International Potato Snow to be held iu September, special 

 prizes are contributed by Messrs. Satton & Sons, Messrs. 

 James Carter & Co., Messrs. G. Gibbs & Co., Messrs. Hooper 

 and Co., Messrs. Daniel Brothers ; also by the President, James 

 Abbis, Esq., J. P., Mr. Harrison, Mr. Dean, Mr. Freeman, &o. 

 It is anticipated that the Show will be unprecedentedly large 

 and successful. Mr. Peter McKinlay is the Hon. Secretary of 

 the Exhibition. 



At the recent speing show which was held at Man- 

 chester, first-class certificates were awarded to Mr. B. S. 

 Williams, Victoria Nurseries, HoUoway, for Aralia elegant- 

 issima, Bertolonia Van Houttei, and Cyclamen persicum gigan- 

 teum; and to Messrs. W. iS; G. Caldwell & Sons, Knutsford, 

 for a new seedhng Azalea. First-class cultural certificates 

 were awarded to Her Majesty the Queen for a collection of 

 Apples and Pears ; to Captain Shaw, Baxton, for Cymbidium 

 eburneumand Sophronitis grandiflora; to Mr. Joseph Broome 

 for Dionasa muscipula ; Mr. Leech for Dendrobium Wardianum ; 

 Mr. Barlow for a collection of Hyacinths ; and Mr. Cooper for 

 Chinese Primulas. The exhibition, we are informed, was a 

 successful one. 



EOSES FBOM CDTTINGS-A NEW HOSE. 

 That some of the hardier Roses, as John Hopper, G^nCral 

 Jacqueminot, and Edward Morren, can be raised readily from 

 cuttings I have no reason to doubt, indeed, I have proved it ; 

 but I maintain that for many years own-root Roses will not 

 bear anything like so fine a bloom as Roses budded on the 

 Manetti. Of course you can obtain any number of blooms on 



