398 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTOKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 4, 1875. 



Dickson's bnncb, and placed it in like manner, -when it was 

 found that with the ounce weight removed it would not balance 

 the 26 lbs. ; 1 lb. was then removed, and according to my 

 recollection 10 ozs. added, and not 15 oza. as some have 

 ■written. When it was thus discovered that Mr. Dickson was 

 vanquished there was no cheering or manifestation of feeling 

 of any sort, and Mr. Dickson may rest assured that there 

 was no animus against him in any form whatever, but a hope 

 that further effort would lead him to regain the position he 

 once held of being the grower of the heaviest bunch on 

 record. 



It is true Mr. Dickson's bunch is said by him to have 

 ■weighed 26 lbs. 8 ozs. when weighed at home, and while it was 

 unfortunate for him that it lost so much weifjht on the way, 

 the Judges had nothing to do with that ; their duty was to de- 

 cide according to the evidence placed before them. When 

 these large bunches were placed in the exhibition room Mr. 

 Dickson's was not nearly eo compact and well-formed a bunch 

 as Mr. Curror's, and required a great many more strings to 

 keep it in position than the other ; but until the Judges were 

 done with it there was no evidence that it had suffered in any 

 ■way, and I saw it replaced on the board and put back beside 

 the other on the marble slab in front of the mirror in good 

 condition. 



In the position they were thus placed in no one could see 

 the stem of Jlr. Curror's bunch without getting upon or over 

 a bench of fruit that stood in front of the marble slab referred 

 to, and I fear many observers came to the conclusion that the 

 bunch was two and not one, on no better evidence than the 

 shape of the bunch. 



I was most careful in examining both bunches under this 

 head, having been one of the Judges that awarded the prize to 

 Mr. Hunter's great Hamburgh bunch at Belfast, where the 

 same plea was set up after the bunch was removed, but not 

 before. On that occasion, as on the recent one, the bunch 

 was a single one attached to the lateral by one single homo- 

 geneous stem. 



I had written this far when the Journal was handed to me, 

 where I note that you have closed the corre.spondence about 

 this matter. I, however, hope that as my object is to explain 

 what really was the state of the cise, and this from the very 

 best means of observation, that you will insert what I have 

 written; pressing engagements and absence from home pre- 

 vented my doing it earlier. — W. Thomson, Tweed Vineyard. 



A STANDARD MAGNOLIA GRANDIFLOEA. 



This grand plant we usually find trained against walls with 

 a south aspect, ■where its large, bright green, glossy foliage Is 

 pleasing all the year round, and during late-summer months 

 its value as a decorative plant is greatly enhanced by its large 

 white fragrant flowers. It is very rarely that we see it grown 

 either as a bush or pyramid, yet I feel confident there are 

 many sheltered nooks in the south of England where, if so 

 grown and treated kindly, it would do well. In the north no 

 doubt it would be impracticable. 



We have a standard pyramid growing in the open flower 

 garden here which has attained the height of 26 feet, with 

 branches covering a circle 12 feet in diameter. It has a clean 

 bole 3 feet in length, which at 1 foot from the ground has a 

 girth of 21 inches. It is true the habit of the plant is some- 

 what straggling, nevertheless it is very much admired by all 

 who see it, more especially when in bloom, and this grand 

 plant is very rarely without bloom from the early part of July 

 until frost arrives. The foliage being so much larger than 

 other evergreens it makes a very striking object, even in the 

 dull months of winter. 



This plant speaks volumes in favour of the mildness of the 

 climate of Clevedon, which, by the way, is rapidly becoming 

 one of the most fashionable watering places of the west. — 

 Thos. Foote, Gardener, Clevedon Court, Somerset. 



wonder they are not more grown than they are, being of easy 

 culture and can be dried-off and stored away for nearly hall 

 the year, giving next to no trouble. To keep them Biiccessfnlly 

 when at rest the Caladium should not be subject to a lower 

 temperature than 60'. — D. Thomson (in Tlie Gardener). 



CALADIUM ARGTRITES AND GESNEKA 

 CINNABARINA. 

 About the prettiest and most effective arrangement possible 

 with two plants, is to form a row of these, plant about. The 

 rich velvety crimson foliage of the Gesnera brings out the 

 striking beauty of this the most beautiful and useful of all 

 Caladiums, aud vice versa. They are two of the most useful 

 and effective decorative plants that can be grovra, and it is a 



OLLA PODRIDA— A CONTINENTAL TOUR.— No. (J. 



In my last I left off at the Like of Lucerne, from there we 

 returned ii" Basle to Paris. There was not much in a tedious 

 journey between Basle. and Paris of fourteen hours' duratioa 

 to interest any of your readers in a horticultural point of view. 

 One thing that struck me was the immense quantity of Cherry 

 trees that were grown in part of the district that we passed 

 through which were laden with fruit. I believe a great many 

 of these Cherries are grown for the sake of making liqueurs of 

 their kernels. Some of the trees were very beautiful — the fruit 

 of that brilliant red just before approaching to ripeness ; and 

 it showed pretty clearly how free the country was from small 

 birds of all kinds that such quantities could be grown in open 

 standards unprotected. The almost total want of animal Ufe 

 of any kind, either of birds in the trees or cattle and horses in 

 the fields, is a great drawback to English taste. We may be, 

 and no doubt are, too much overrun in many places with the 

 British house sparrow, which I am convinced does more harm 

 than good, in spite of all that his numerous admirers may say 

 for him as a destroyer of insects ; but wo miss abroad our British 

 songsters and robins, and that most useful of all birds the 

 starling ; for while mentioning birds I cannot resist a few words 

 of praise of a bird which I believe does more good to the farmer 

 and horticulturist than any other as the active destroyer ol 

 wireworm, cockchafer grub, and all larviB of the sawfiy tribe. 



I need not say much about Paris, as I have already in the 

 pages of the Journal made remarks on the parks and gardens 

 there. I think anybody who went in for the mixed flower- 

 border style of gardening would have their faith much shaken 

 by inspecting the gardens at the Tuileries and the Luxembourg. 

 Both gardens were planted this year and last in as nearly as pos- 

 sible the same way — about four to six different kinds of plants 

 being used in clumps, as Ageratum, Calceolaria, Antirrhinum 

 White Cosmos, with standard Lilacs trimmed to a iead, inter- 

 spersed with a few standard Roses. These plants were generally 

 in circles of seven plants, or planted round the standards, and 

 the whole bordered with three rows of Geraniums ; but these 

 Geraniums were planted in a mixed style, as each row was the 

 same, but had four different colours — scarlet, salmon, white, 

 and pink — planted plant for plant iu a row, and generally a 

 repetition of the same sorts of Geraniums. The effect o£ 

 whole lines of parallelogram-shaped beds being all planted and 

 bordered the same way was most monotonous. For instance, a 

 large square garden in front of the Tuileries, between the Rue 

 de Rivoli and the river Seine, is divided by two broad paths 

 at right angles to each other in four equal quarters. Each of 

 the four equal quarters has a bed about 6 feet wide going 

 round it, and each of these 6-feet-wide beds was planted, aa. 

 far as I could see, with identically the same plants and identi- 

 cally the same way, and bordered with these interminable rows 

 of mixed Geraniums. 



The gardens in front of the Cafes Chantants in the Champa 

 Elyssees were certainly planted in better taste, as here, as a. 

 general rule, the beds are large, and contain evergreens and 

 deciduous shrubs, and are bordered by different kinds of bed- 

 ding pliints, each bed generally having only one or two kinds 

 of plants, but used in masses. For instance, a bed of Rhodo- 

 dendron edged with three rows deep of scarlet Geraniums, 

 with two rows of Lobelia in front ; aud scarlet Hibiscus with 

 white-leaved Geraniums ia front. Here, too, aud up the 

 L'Avenue de I'lmpcratrice and in the Pare Monceanx, some of 

 the larger-leaved subtropical plants, as Canna, Riciuus, Zea, 

 Cannabis, Caladium, &a., are used, though my visit was too 

 early this year to see them to any advantage. I can congratu- 

 late them, too, on an improvement on their grass in places, 

 especially about the Champs Elys£c5es, where the mowing 

 machine is much more freely used ; but in the Pare Monceaux 

 and in the Tuileries gardens and Luxembourg they still prefer 

 to let the grass grow for two or three weeks and lay it flat by 

 the hose. The Pare de Buttes Chaumonts is capable of being 

 made a very beautiful place if it were not in some respects 

 very artificial with sham concrete rocks and very shallow lakes, 

 and hardly any flowers are made use of; almost the only bed 

 being one of Valerian. There is a great opportunity here for 

 large masses of herbaceous plants, and one would Uki to see it 



