September 2, 137S. ] 



JODBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE OABDENEB. 



203 



branches of Siberian Crab and Denyer's Victoria Pinm, loaded 

 with frnit, to show their free-beariuf; character. 



A. Smee, Esq., Finsbury Circus, sent fruit of Benoni Apple, 

 an excellent early sort, very distinct in appearance. A new 

 early seedliuf? Apple was sent by Mr. T. Thirkel, seedsman, 

 Wisbeach. The frnit was very highly coloured, conical-shaped, 

 but deficient in tlavour. 



Mr Dancer of Chiswick sent a dish of the Sultan Plum from 

 a standard tree. It is an excellent kitchen Plum. 



A wbite-spiued Cucumber was sent by Messrs. Kelway & Co,, 

 Langport. From the accompanying photographs it is evidently 

 a very free-bearing sort; but it was not thought superior to 

 other white-spined sorts. 



Mr. R. Dean of Ealing sent specimens of Cobbett's Maize and 

 the new Japanese Radish reported upon at the last Meeting. 

 Excellent specimens of Lord Suflitld Apple and Black Diamond 

 Plums were sent by Mr. T. Smith of Iver. Mr. Voice of Horley 

 sent an improved Cucamber frame, very light in appearance, 

 and seems exceedingly well adapted for growing the fruit. The 

 frame G feet by 4 had twenty fine specimens, some of them 

 20 inches long. Mr. G. Sage of Ashridge Gardens sent a collec- 

 tion of eight sorts of Filberts and Cob nuts ; the branches were 

 loaded with fine fruit. A vote of thanks was given for them. 

 Mr. W. Paul oi Waltham Cross sent a collection of fifteen sorts 

 of Apples, seven sorts of Pears, and five sorts of Plums, in very 

 good condition. 



Flor.\l Committee. — Mr. B. S. Williams in the chair. First- 

 class certificates were awarded to Mr. J. Croucher for Begonia 

 metallica, a bulbous-rooted variety with lustrous foliage and a 

 pink flower ; also for Fourcroya variegata. To Mr. Rawlings for 

 Dahlias J. C. Qaennell, orange, and John Bennett, yellow and 

 vermilion. Also to Mr. C. Turner, Slough, for Dahlia Triumph, 

 a perfect miniature bloom of maroon-scarlet colour ; and tor 

 Rose Rev. J. B. M. Camm, the queen of sweet Roses, which 

 should find its way into every garden. To Mr. Keynes for 

 Dahlias Lord of the Isles, a splendid yellow of fine shape ; Mag- 

 gie Fairbairn, rosy lilac, of fine form ; Charles Leicester, a rich 

 maroon red, of great quality; and John Downie, a purple ma- 

 roon, a large full flower; and to Mr. Eckford, for Verbena Ann 

 Spiers, blush, with a pink eye, large truss and pip. Second- 

 class certificates were awarded to Mr. Bull for Pescatorea 

 Dayana splendens; to Mr. Turner for Dahlia Yellow Globe ; and 

 to Mr. Keynes for Dahlia Dr. Livingstone, rosy lilac and yellow. 



Mr. Williams exhibited a collection of plants consisting of 

 Orchids, Dracontias, itc. Mr. Harris and Mr. Turner staged 

 Dahlias; and Mr. King, gardener to Col. Holder, Binfield, 

 Berks, sent a Silver-variegated Pelargonium Marion Harper, 

 very free. Cut specimens of Aristolocbia gigas came from Mr. 

 Smee, Finsbury Circus ; Crinums from Mr. Williams, Fortis 

 Green, Finchley ; and from Mr. Green Streptocarpus Greenii, 

 a distinct greenhouse plant previously noticed. From Messrs. 

 Osborn & Sons, Fulham, Pyrethrum laciniatum aureum, var. 

 Cut specimens of Clematis from Mr. Noble, Bagehot, Gladioli 

 from Messrs. J. Kelway & Son, and Phlox Drummondii from 

 Mr. Dean. 



THE YUCCA, GOOD SPECIMENS. 



I THINK it will be admitted that few plants give a more 

 tropica! aspect to outdoor vegetation than the Yucca, more 

 especially where it is met with in a thriving condition and its 

 surroundings are of a becoming kind. Bat it is not one of 

 the class of plants that admits of being shifted about from 

 place to place, nor will it submit to the ever-changing cha- 

 racter that fashionable flower gardening has now-a-days sub- 

 jected 60 many of its tenants. Although when grown in a pot 

 it can be moved at pleasure, but when planted out it ought to 

 be allowed to remain several years in the position chosen for 

 it, taking care that no encroaching neighbour invades its ter- 

 ritory ; and if the situation, &c., be a suitable one for it, and 

 the season favourable, its flowering may be depended upon in 

 due time. It flowers freely, especially after fine hot summers 

 or dry autumns ; that of last year being on the whole favour- 

 able, the display of blooms this season has been better than 

 for some years, and we all know that when they do bloom 

 well they are not easily excelled by flowers of any other kind. 

 The spikes of fully expanded blossoms being certainly longer 

 and more dense than even the best-grown Hollyhocks, and 

 the rigid upright growth enhances its value. 



Unfortunately its season of blooming is not like that of 

 most other plants limited to a particular time of year, but it 

 would seem that whenever the plant attains the flowering 

 condition it endeavours to do so, and if that should be in 

 autumn, well then all hopes of a successful issue is gone ; and 

 such being the case last autumn, several plants that had 

 shown bloom and advanced a little way towards that object 

 were arrested by the severe weather, and were truly and prac- 

 tically "nipped in the bud." Rome, however, did not ad- 



vance thus far, and have bloomed well this season in most 

 places where they are grown. Amongst others in this neigh- 

 bourhood was a fine plant in the garden of L. D. Wigan, Esq., 

 at Oakwood, near Maidstone, which had three fine spikes of 

 bloom upon it ; and as we all know only a comparatively small 

 proportion of plants bloom every year, and with only one 

 spike each, the other is the more remarkable, and I have only 

 once seen it equalled, and that was here seven years ago, when 

 a plant, I think of Y. recurva, had three spikes of bloom upon 

 it all at one time, and each about 10 feet high ; but we have 

 not any this season with more than one btem, and as several 

 were destroyed, or rather their bloom spikes were killed in the 

 winter, we have not had sc many this season as has often been 

 the case. Neither have those of Y. recurva been so good as 

 they often have been ; but one of Y. gloriosa, or what I have 

 always called gloriosa, a rigid-leaved one, the leaves in the 

 centre slightly ribbed — no doubt to afsist their stiffness ; this 

 plant I thought had bloomed so well that I took the trouble of 

 counting the flowers, as well as measuring it. 



The plant alluded to grew in a border along with several 

 others in a sheltered place. A wall 10 feet high sheltered it 

 on the north, and trees and shrubs did the same in other 

 directions, it being, however, tolerably open to the south. 

 The stem of the plant was destitute of leaves for about 18 inches 

 np ; after which a dense mass of foliage terminated in the 

 flower spike, which up to the last remained as nearly upright 

 as possible from the collar of the plant to the tip of the spike. 

 The said spike consisted as usual of a central stem and a 

 number of branchlets of each from 9 to 18 inches long, and so 

 densely loaded with flowers that the weight of the whole must 

 have been no slight matter packed as they were so closely 

 together. The height of the plant and stem to the base of the 

 lowest branchlet was ."> feet <i inches, and from the base of the 

 lowest branchlet to that of the highest one was Ti feet; while 

 the centre spiko rose 1 foot 7 inches higher still, making the 

 total height of the plant when in flower, measuring from the 

 ground, 12 feet 1 inch, or the length of flower spike 6 feet 

 7 inches, every part of which was densely packed with its 

 beautiful egg-shaped blooms of a beautiful pale colour, and 

 each about the size of that of a duck's egg or larger. The total 

 cumber of flowers was 701 ; the number of branchlets being 

 forty-two, each having from nine (the lowest numberl to twenty 

 fully perfected blooms upon it, the number on the terminal 

 spike being thirty. It would be wrong to say that the whole 

 of these were all out at one time, but it is not too much to say 

 that quite five hundred must have been in perfection at once, 

 and the others in advanced bud. Has that been excelled any- 

 where ? and under what circumstauces was the plant grown 

 that excelled it ?— J. Eobson. 



NEGRO LARGO FIG. 



A FEW years ago this variety was strongly recommended by 

 Mr. Fleming, but as it had only just been pnt into Messrs. 

 Veitch's hands for propagation, plants were not attainable. 

 This year two plants, which I obtained from that firm, have 

 fruited, and perhaps it may not be uninteresting to your readers 

 to learn the result. 



The plants are vigorous growers, and I define this by saying 

 that when stopped at the fifth leaf, instead of merely forming 

 a dormant bud they shoot forth again strongly. The fruit is 

 large, high flavoured, and earlier than the average, but it has 

 one defect — namely, that the neck, though thick, is not strong 

 enough for the fruit, and when the latter falls downwards in 

 ripening the neck generally gives way, splitting in two, and the 

 fruit breaks off. It might, however, be tied up. So, on the 

 whole, I recommend this variety as worthy to be grown even 

 in a very limited collection. — G. S. 



NEW BOOK. 



Insectivorous Plantx. By Chakles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S., &a. 

 With illustrations, London : J. Murray. 



This, like all the writings of Mr. Darwin, is very interesting 

 and exhaustive. All who are conversant with plants know 

 that the leaves of the Venus's Fly-trap, Dionff'a muscipala, 

 and of the Sundew, Drosera rotuudifolia, have the power to 

 close over any insect that alights upon their upper surface; 

 but no one has examined the phenomena so accurately as Mr. 

 Darwin. We will combine several extracts from his pages 

 relative to the Sundew :— 



" If a small organic or inorganic object be placed on the 



