•^72 



JOttRNAL OF HOETICULTDBE AND COTTAGE GABDENKB, 



[ Aiiril 0, IR'6. 



and was buried ia the chancel of its church. It waa erro- 

 neously stated in the "Gentleman's Magazine" that a stone 

 with an Insciiplioa was placed over the grave, and some years 

 subaequently the stone was turned and another inscription cut 

 on the other side. But a memorial has recently been placed 

 in the chancel by one of his descendants, Eichard Laurence 

 Pemberton, Esq. He is represented by the families of Pem- 

 berton, Goodchild, and Hale, which last-named family has 

 recently become extinct. Mr. Pemberton possesses the original 

 portrait of Mr. Laurence and his wife Mary, who died in 171G ; 

 also several articles of plate which belonged to him, including 

 a handsome tankard with his arms, and crest, and initials. 

 The name is sometimes spelt Lawrence, but wo retain the ii, as 

 it appears in his "New System of Agriculture," and as still 

 do the family's representatives. 



DO RABBITS EAT LILTUMS.' 

 In the spaces in groups of ehrubs we have varieties of the 

 following species of Lilium — viz., croceum (aurantiacum), 

 davaricum (umbellatum), candidum, longiflorum, martagon, 

 Buperbum, and pyrenaicum, with auratum, speciosum (lauci- 

 folium), Humboldti, and tigrinum, in positions to which rabbits 

 and hares have free access, and I do not remember any injury 

 having been done to the Liliums by those animals. Lilinms 

 do remarkably well in Bhododendron beds, and neither plants 

 suffer damage from hares or rabbits. I may mention that 

 both rabbits and hares abound here, the timid hare being bold 

 enough to take every bit of grass and stem down to the soil of 

 over a hundred Carnations of the tree kinds, many over a 

 yard high, in a position opposite a potting shed — the domicile 

 of two cats, and not a dozen yards from the shed. Bold in- 

 deed are hares and rabbits in seeking to satisfy their cravings 

 for dainty morsels. The daintiest fare to set before hares is a 

 free-growing succulent Carnation, and in shrubs they seem to 

 prefer Skimmia japonica to all others. 



I have been often surprised at the remarkable scrutiny of 

 bares, and especially rabbits, exercised upon any plant intro- 

 duced to their sporting and feeding ground. These animals 

 never fail to test the foliage of any introduced shrub or the 

 bark of a tree, whether it be had from a distance or merely 

 transplanted from one part of the grounds to another. Last 

 spring we moved a quantity of common Laurel, which had not 

 been interfered with for years, to from 2 to 400 yards only 

 distant from their old positions, and during the past winter 

 the Laurels have been denuded of foliage and the stems and 

 shoots as bare of bark as a flagstaff, which the animals did 

 not touch in their former quarter^. Great novelty-admirers 

 are hares and rabbits, admitting nothing of any kind in the 

 herb way to pass without a testing of its quality. If the 

 subject introduced be relished speedy execution ensues, but if 

 distasteful the nibbling will be less and less, and ultimately 

 abandoned. Hares and rabbits — what a liking they have of 

 barks 1 Not Cinchonas of course, but ©f Ehus cotinus, " aro- 

 matic and astringent," says llr. Hogg in his " Vegetable King- 

 dom," page 'ill, "enumerated as one of the substitutes for 

 Peruvian bark." (^Uiite as partial are they to the bark of Ehus 

 typhina, one of the highest astringency, followed by Ash 

 (Fraxinus excelsior), its " astringency and bitterness " caus- 

 ing it to have " been used as a substitute for Peruvian bark." 



Of the young shoots or small branches of Ash hares and 

 rabbits have an uncommon liking in hard weather. To strew 

 the branches of that tree near to recently-planted plantations 

 in severe weather may be a means of attracting the animals to 

 them, and mitigate the severity of their attacks on the fresh- 

 planted trees, accompanied by a little hay and some Mangolds, 

 with Turnips, the freedom of the plants from attack will show 

 the " penny-wise-and-pound-foolish " policy of the non-feed- 

 ing as compared with the feeding practice. Our experience is 

 that these animals will eat of most trees and shrubs, but they 

 do not eat Lilinms. — L. aku L. 



PORTRAITS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, and FRUITS. 



SAccoLABinu Hendeesonianum. Nat. ord., Orchidaoeaj. 

 Liiiit., Gynandria Monandria. Flowers pink. — " It was im- 

 ported from Borneo, and flowered in 1874; but Dr. Eeichen- 

 bach states that it has been in Europe ever since the year 

 1862."— (Bof. Marl., t. (5222.) 



Sedusi ruLciiELLDM. jY«(. oc(/. , CrassuUcete. Linn., Dec- 

 andria Pentagynia. Flowers purplish pink. — " It is a native 

 of the mountains of the Unitad States, from Virginia to 



Georgia, growing in rocky places. Sent by the Rev. Mr. Ella- 

 combe from his rich and admirably named collection at Bitton 

 Vicarage between Bristol and Bath, one of the most favoured 

 climates and soils in Britain for a general collection of the 

 herbaceous plants of temperate climates, and of which ad- 

 vantages its accomplished occupant makes the best use. It 

 flowers both at Bitton and Kew in -Jnly, and must not be con- 

 founded with two plants commonly known in gardens as 

 S. pulchellum — namely, S. sexangularo and S. Lydium." — 

 {Ibid , t. 622:5.) 



HypoESTEs akisiata. Nat. ord., Aaanihsicea!. Linn., Vi&n- 

 dria Monogynia. — " The genus Ilypoestes consists of some 

 forty South African, Indian, and Australian plants, many of 

 them weedy in habit and far from attractive in flower, to which, 

 however, the present forms a conspicuous exception, being re- 

 markable for its bright purple flowers, which are produced in 

 profusion, and are prettily striped and spotted on the upper 

 lip. It is a native of extra-tropical South Africa from Algoa 

 Bay to Natal, and is common in shrubberies, where Forbes 

 collected plants for the Horticultural Society in the year 1822. 

 It would no doubt form an attractive warm greenhouse plant 

 if properly treated as to wintering, for, like all Cape plants, it 

 must have a season of almost absolute rest. It flowered at 

 Messrs. Veitch'a establishment in February, 1874."— (76ic(., 

 (. 6224.) 



AiNSLi.EA ■Walkeei. Nat. ord., Compositae. Linn., Syn- 

 genesia Superflua. Flowers white. — " A most graceful little 

 plant, belonging to a very little known genus that inhabits the 

 mountains of North-eastern India, China, and Japan, and of 

 which only one species had been found in Hong-Kong until 

 the discovery of this species by Capt. A. L. Walker when 

 Brigade-Major in the island. Both species are instances of 

 the wonderful localisation of the plants of that little island, 

 which has been so well discussed by iientham in his Flora of 

 Hong-Kong. A. fragrans, the kind already described, and 

 which has broad radical leaves, has been found on Victoria 

 Peak, where it is so rare as to have been gathered by only one 

 collector. The exact locality of A. Walkeri is not known, but 

 as it has escaped the notice of such keen collectors as Cham- 

 pion, Hinds, Hance, Wright, Seeman, Wilford, and others, it 

 cannot but be very rare and local. Though only containing 

 twenty-nine square miles, the diminutive island of Hong-Kong 

 contains upwards of one thousand native species of flowering 

 plants and Ferns, which is only one-third less than the British 

 Islands possess. Many of the most striking of these are more 

 rare even than the Ainsli^as. Thus, speaking of the trees, 

 Bentham states of one that only three trees of it are known 

 in the island ; of another that it was seen but once ; and of a 

 third that its existence is only known from a specimen picked 

 out of a faggot of wood which a Chinaman was carrying home ! 

 Such facts as these, coupled with Capt. Walker's discovery of 

 this Aiuslioea, render it more than probable that not a few 

 novelties still lurk in this little British possession. AinsUa5a 

 Walkeri was communicated by Mrs, Walker of Chase Cottage, 

 Enfield, with whom it flowered for the first time in December 

 last, the plant being then three years old." — [Ibid., t. 6225.) 



Dendp.obicm fuscatcji. Nat. ord., Orohidaceic. Linn , 

 Gynandria Monandria. — " D. fascatum was first known from 

 specimens collected by Dr. Hooker in the hot valleys of the 

 Sikkim Himalaya and the Khasia Mountains in 1848-1850, 

 where it is far from uncommon. A fine drawing of it (by a 

 native artist) exists in the Cathcart collection of Himalayan 

 plants at Kew, and represents many racemes from one stem, 

 one of which has fifteen flowers, all of a deep orange, almost 

 orange-brown. It flowered in the garden of F. Currey, Esq., 

 F.E.S., Sec. L.S., in April, 1864, and was imported, we believe, 

 from the Khasia Mountains." — {Ibid., t. 6226.) 



Alliim ANCErs. Nat. ord., Liliacejr. Linn., Hexandria 

 Monogynia. — " Eemarkable for its dwarf habit, broad, flat, 

 acutely-angular stems, and very dense umbels of bright purple 

 flowers with acute segments. It inhabits the Sierra Nevada 

 portion of the Rooky Mountains, both upon the Califomian 

 and Nevada sides, at an elevation above sea level of from 4 to 

 5000 feet, and of course, like all the other known species of 

 the genus — now, according to Dr. Regel's estimate, above 

 250 in number — is quite hardy in England in the open air. 

 With Messrs. Veitoh it flowered in May, 1815."— {Ibid , 

 t. 6227.) 



Plum. — Rivcr.^'s Blue Proline. — " Our specimens of this 

 amazingly prolific Plum were teat to us by the Rev. W. F. 

 Radclyfia as Rivers's No. 4, and we have since ascertained from 

 M2S8rs. Rivers ct Son that this No. 4 is to bear the name above 



