508 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 9, 1875. 



similar trees will as Bpeedily as poBsible be placed in various 

 parts of the town. Long may they live and flourish. 



AURICULA CULTURE AT SHEFFIELD. 



The richest and healthiest collection of Auriculas that I 

 know of among Sheffield growers is that of Mr. Simonite. 

 They are grown in alow span-roof house. The only protection 

 against the sooty air is that the ventilation is at the side and 

 not overhead ; and such a marvellous amount of dirt falls on 

 the roof glass as to render much shading from the sun quite 

 unnecessary. It is such smoked glass that the sun looks only 

 like a great moon through it. My friend cleans his Auriculas 

 from insects as I do with a small brush, and this is the only 

 cleaning the foliage gets unless we have a plant much infested, 

 and then it is dipped overhead in soft-soap water. 



The plants I speak of at Sheffield are in grand health and 

 wonderfully clean, but of course not bo bright in the white 

 meal and clear in the green as those are which have the benefit 

 of Bweet country air. — F. D. 'Rorser, Kirkhy Malzcard,Ripon. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



An extraordinary abnormal specimen of the common Poly- 

 roDY (Polypodium vulgare), has been submitted tons by the 

 Hon. and Eev. J. T. Boscawen. The fronds were gathered 

 from a plant growing in a garden at Lauuceston. One of 

 them had the pinna; partly of the normal shape, the remainder 

 being curiously crested and divided, but the other frond was 

 totally dissimilar, and was in fact perfectly distinct from any 

 example we have seen of this genus. So finely was it divided, 

 so feathery, and apparently bo perfect, that it resembled the 

 HymenophyUums rather than the Polypodiums. No Fern, 

 either native or tropical, could be more charmingly elegant 

 than this remarkable example, and if the form should prove 

 conBtant it cannot fail to be a valuable addition to our hardy 

 Ferns. 



Mrs. Evans of The Ferns, Eynesbury, writes to Bay 



that she regrets not seeing the Cheshunt Hyreid Rose named 

 among the fragrant varieties, as she thinks that for delicacy 

 of perfume it stands unrivalled, and also adds for beauty of 

 colour and continuance of bloom. 



Messes. Sutton ct Go's stand at the Birmingham 



Club Cattle Show was very superior. The collections of seeds 

 and roots were some of the finest ever exhibited. Occupy- 

 ing a conspicuous position in the Show was a magnificent dis- 

 play of forty handsome silver cups upwards of two hundred 

 guineas in value. These, with medals and other valuable 

 prizes, amounting in all to five hundred guineas, will be pre- 

 sented by Messrs. Sutton & Sons to various agricultural and 

 horticultural societies during next year for the best specimens 

 produced from their seeds. 



Messes. Caktee & Co.'s Stand at the Agricultural Hall 



is as good as it was at the Birmingham Show. 



The Auricul.1 (says " Nature ") is said to be the only 



Alpine plant which has come into general cultivation in the 

 gardens of the rest of Europe. In a pamphlet entitled "Die 

 Geschichte der Aurikel," Professor Kerner traces the history 

 of the discovery and cultivation of this plant from the time of 

 L'Escluse (Clusius), who first transplanted this species and 

 the hybrid P. pubescens, Jacq., in 1582, from the Tyrolese 

 Alps to Belgium. The latter species, and not the true 

 P. Auricula, L., which quickly disappeared from cultivation, is 

 believed by Professor Kerner to be the real ancestor of the 

 cultivated Auriculas of our gardens. The two were known at 

 the time of Clusius under the names of " Auricula-ursi I." 

 and " Auricula-ursi II.," from the supposed resemblance in the 

 shape of the leaves to that of the ear of a bear. The hybrid 

 P. pubescens, which had been lost from the German and 

 Austrian Alps for nearly three centuries, was rediscovered by 

 Professor Kerner in 18G7 in a single locality in the Tyrol. 



According to the " Journal of the Chemical Society," 



a German chemist, Herr Haberlandt, has published elaborate 

 tables, showing the minimum and maximum degrees of tempo 

 rature at wbiob various seeds wiU germinate. Wheat, Barley, 

 Eye, Oats, Buckwheat, Sugar Beets, Linseed, Poppy, Clove, Lu- 

 cerne, Peas, Rape, Mustard, and others have their minimum be- 

 low 4.75' cent. (40.5'Fah.) The minimum for Saintfoin, Pimper- 

 nel, Carrot, Cumin, Sunflower, Cafs-tail Grass, Sorghum sac- 

 oharum, Sorghum vulgare, and Maize, is between 4.75' and 



10.5' cent. (40° and 51° Fah.) The maximum limit for Cori- 

 ander and Marjoram is between 25° and 31.25° cent. (77° and 

 88.2' Fah.) ; for Wheat, Eye, Barley, EngUsh Ray Grass, 

 Vetches, Horse Beans, Peas, Chick Peas, Mustard, Red Cab- 

 bage, late Kohl Rabi, Turnips, Eadishes, Madder, Fennel, 

 Carrots, Parsley, Linseed, Poppy, Tobacco, and Aniseed, be- 

 tween 31.25' and 37.5= cent. (88 2° and 'J'.K', Fah.) ; for Beans, 

 Clover, Lucerne, Early Kohl Eabi, Buckwheat, Chicory, Sun- 

 flowers, Spurge, and some sorts of Cabbages, between 37.5° and 

 43.75° cent. (99.5° and 108.7° Fah.) ; and finally, for Maize, 

 Sorghum vulgare, Turnip Eadishes, Hemp, Teasel, Gourds, and 

 Sweet Melons, between 41.2° and 50° cent. (100° and 122" Fah.) 

 Other tables are appended showing the per-centage of seeds 

 germinating at different temperatures, the number of hours 

 elapsing before the rootlets reached a length of two millimC-tres 

 (6-100 inch), and the average growth of the rootlets in two 

 days of different temperatures. In all cases there is increased 

 root-growth from 18.75° cent. (64' to 77 Fah.), and in nearly 

 all a decrease from 31.25° to 87.5° cent. (88= and 99° Fah.). 



POBTKAITS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, .\nd FRUIT. 



PaoTEiNOPnALLra RiviEEi. A'^a(. orrf., Aroidea;. LiHn.,Mon- 

 ceoia Polyandria. — Native of Cochiu-China. Flower dark green 

 and reddish purple. — {Bot. Mag., t. 6195.) 



Ferula (Euryanc.icm) SniiEUL. Nat. onl., Umbelliferas. 

 Linn., Pentandria Digynia. — " The plant is a native of Turke- 

 stan, where it inhabits mountains east of Samarkand at an 

 elevation of 3000 to 4000 feet. It was there discovered by 

 the celebrated traveller Fedschenko in 1869, who sent roots to 

 Moscow in 1871. According to Fliickiger and Ilanbury's 

 admirable work the Sumbul plant here described — which is 

 remarkable for the fetid, musky, and milky juice of its root — 

 was introduced into Russia in 1835 as a substitute for musk 

 and a remedy for cholera ; thence it reached Germany in 1840 

 and England in 1850, where it was admitted into the pharma- 

 copceia in 1867. In commerce the root is imported in trans- 

 verse sUces 1 to 5 inches in diameter, with a dry papery bark, 

 resinous inner surface, and spongy farinaceous central por- 

 tion, which has a musky odour and bitter aromatic taste." — 

 (Ibid., t. 619G.) 



Ceocus vELucHENSis. Nat. ord., Indsicevs. LiHn., Triandria 

 Monogynia. — " It was discovered by Signor Yrioni whilst col- 

 lecting for the late Dean Herbert on Mount Veluchi (Tym- 

 phrestus), near the northern border of Greece (not the Morea, 

 as inadvertently stated by Herbert in his final monograph oS 

 the genus in the Journal of the Horticultural Society), and 

 has since been found on the Parnassus range, and in the 

 mountains of Thessaly, Thrace, and Transylvania. The 

 abrupt white tip to the otherwise purple perianth- segments 

 shown in the plant drawn in the " Botanical Register " is no4 

 a specific character. We have lately received from Col. Trevor 

 Clarke a flower of C. vernus with perfectly similar coloration. 

 C. veluchensis is still a very rare plant in cultivation." — 

 —{Ibid., t. 6197.) 



Caeica CANDA3IAECENSIS. Nat. otd., Passiflorere. Linn., Di- 

 oicia Decandria. — " The graceful Uttle tree was raised from 

 seeds sent from the Ecuadorian Andes by the late Professor 

 Jameson of Quito to the late Mr. Hanbury, with whom it 

 flowered in an open border at Clapham in 1874. A specimen 

 received from him again both flowered and fruited abundantly 

 at Kew during the past summer and autumn, in the open air, 

 where it was stood out after being brought into bud in a 

 greenhouse. According to Mr. Haubury this is the species 

 mentioned by Mr. Spruce in his and M. de Mello's very learned 

 and interesting paper on the Papayaccii?, published in the 

 Journal of the Linnean Society quoted above, as the Cham- 

 biiru, or common Carica, of the Ecuadorian Andes, where it is 

 cultivated up to an elevation of 9000 feet for the sake of its 

 edible fruit. Mr. Spruce adds that when he visited the moun- 

 tain of Tungnragua in February, 1858, the ground was strewed 

 with its ripe and rotting fruits, which were smaller and sweeter 

 than that of the common Papaw, and were the favourite food 

 of the bears that infest the forests of that mountain." — (Ibid., 

 t. 6198.) 



Dendrobium AMiJiNuii. A'rtt. or(J., Orchidaccic. LinH., Gyn- 

 andria Monandria. — Flowers white tipped with purple. Na- 

 tive of Nepanl and Sikkim. " Flowered by Mr. Bull, who 

 received it from the Himalaya (probably Sikkim), where it 

 was found at an elevation of 5000 feet. It flowered in June, 

 1874, in his nursery."— (Tlid., t. 6199.) 



Plum — Prince of ]i'ales.—" It appears to have been raised 



