THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 287 
Tue Lowrer Grounns, Aston’ Park, BramivewaM, are this season un- 
usually gay with bedding plants, and present some superb examples of carpet 
bedding. 
Tie Roya Boranic GaRpENs, Kew, were, on the occasion of the Bank Holi- 
day, on Monday, Aug. 7, visited by 64,613 persons—the largest number that has 
yet passed through the gates in one day. 
Tur Catatocue oF Litirs issued by Messrs. Krelage and Son, of Haarlem, 
is remarkable for its completeness, and will be found of great service to cultivators 
desirous of forming collections of these beautiful flowers. 
Mr. H. Cannett, or Swan.ey, Kent, forwarded us, a few days since, a boxful 
of seedling petunias and fuchsias of the most sumptuous character. To describe 
them is simply impossible, and perhaps the best we can do is to recommend those 
who are interested in such things to run down to Swanley to see and judge for 
themselves. We have certainly never seen a finer lot of petunias and fuchsias than 
we now have before us, and we have seen some good things in our time. 
Messrs. Sutton anp Sons, of Reaprne, have recently taken into partnership 
Mr. Arthur W. Sutton, who has long been actively engaged in the seed-growing 
department of their business. 
GLoRiosa SUPERBA, which has long been known in this country as a stove plant, 
is, according to Mr. Thomas Short, quite hardy, and succeedsif planted in light 
rich sandy soil, in a dry situation—at the foot of a wall or on rockwork, perfect 
drainage being indispensable. A few ashes or fern placed over the stations occupied 
by the plants is said to be of service in severe winters. 
Tur PerstAn’s Love ror Frowrers.— Very beautiful is the Persian’s love 
for flowers,” writes Dr, George Birdwood, in the Atheneum. “In Bombay I found 
the Parsees use the Victoria Gardens chiefly to walk in, ‘to eat the air,’—‘to take 
a constitutional,’as we say. Their enjoyment of it was heartily animal. The Hindu 
would stroll unsteadfastly through it, attracted from flower to flower, not by its 
form or colour, but its scent. He would pass from plant to plant, snatching at the 
flowers and crushing them between his fingers, and taking stray sniffs at the ends 
of his fingers as if he were taking suuff. His pleasure in the flowers was utterly 
sensual, Presently, a true Persian, in flowing robe of blue, and on his head his 
sheep-skin hat— 
* Black, glossy, curl’d, the fleece of Kara-Kul,’ 
would saunter in, and stand and meditate over every flower he saw, and always 
as if half in vision. And when at last the vision was fulfilled, and the ideal flower 
he was seeking found, he would spread his mat and sit before it until the setting 
of the sun, and then pray before it, and fold up his mat again and go home. And 
the next night, and night after night, until that particular flower faded away, he 
would return to it, and bring his friends in ever increasing troops to it, and sit and 
sing and play the guitar or lute before it, and they would altogether pray there, 
and after prayer still sit before it, sipping sherbet and talking the most hilarious 
and shocking scandal, late into the moonlight: and so again and again every even- 
ing until the flower died. Sometimes, by way of a grand finale, the whole company 
would suddenly rise before the flower and serenade it, together with an ode from 
Hafiz, and depart.” 
Tue Storm or Juty 23.—On the evening of Sunday the 28rd of July, a 
terrible storm of hail occurred in the eastern and northern suburbs of London. 
Every kind of glass, whether windows, hothouses, photographers’ studios, and such 
like, facing north and west, suffered wreck more or less complete ; and all kinds of 
crops, flowers, fruits, and vegetables were so completely destroyed, that in some 
cases it was’a difficult matter to determine how some plots of land had been occupied 
previous to the disaster. Gardeners and florists were the principal sufferers, and in 
many cases their losses aresimply ruinous. A committee was formed for the purpose 
of raising a relief fund. The chairman, Mr. John Fraser, of Lea-bridge-road, 
appeals to the public at large for the means of alleviating the distresses of those 
amongst the sufferers who are least able to bear the loss. We are assured that ten 
thousand pounds would not cover thedamage done. The committee propose to raise 
four thousand ; and towards this they have obtained only five hundred pounds up 
to this time. Subscriptions may be forwarded to the treasurer, Mr, Shirley 
Hibberd, Bridge House, Stoke Newington, or to any of the branches of the London 
and County Bank. 
September. 
