312 JSfotes and Gleanings. 



Fine Plant of Lilium Auratum. — Who can say that we have even yet 

 produced Lilhan auratum in all its beauty ? Certainly the specimen shown on 

 the 17th of August, at South Kensington, by Mr. Goode, gardener to the Dow- 

 ager Lady Ashburton, Melchet Court, Romsey, Hants, was by far the grandest 

 which has yet been seen in public. This noble specimen was originally bought 

 as a single bulb, at the price of three guineas, and has not since been disturbed, 

 but has been potted on as one entire plant. It had this year eleven fine, strong- 

 flowering stems, each about eight feet high, and bore on the whole one hundred 

 and fifty-two blooms, of which about one hundred and thirty were fully expanded 

 when exhibited. The specimen was universally admired, no less for its perfect 

 cultivation than for the beautiful condition in which it was shown, not a flower 

 being bruised or pollen-stained, even though the plant had been brought a dis- 

 tance of eighty miles on an open railway truck. This plant was worthily awarded 

 a Lindley medal. Florist and Pomologlst. 



The Victoria Regia. — M. Van Hulle, chief of the Botanical Garden of 

 Ghent, says the diameter of some of the leaves of the Victoria Regia have now 

 reached nine feet, and the circumference twenty-seven feet. He recently piled 

 bricks on one of the leaves, not until it was crushed down beneath the weight, 

 but only until a slight rent had commenced. The weight was then put into 

 a scale, and found to be two hundred and forty-six pounds. 



Gardeners Magazine. 



The Growth of Pear Trees in 1869. — A very peculiar feature in our pear 

 trees upon walls this year is, that they have made very little growth. Those that 

 have in previous years been most prolific in young wood, are this year quite re- 

 markable for its absence. We have only three or four trees that I may call 

 heavily loaded with fruit, so that it is not their fruitfulness which has caused a 

 less vigorous growth than usual. With the exception of one tree upon a west 

 wall, we have had scarcely any late summer pruning to do. I can only account 

 for it through the excessive drought of last summer, which did not permit the 

 trees to lay up their usual store of nutriment for this season. I do not know 

 that I need confine this remark to pears, because apples and plums are about on 

 a par with the pears in the matter of growth. Our pear crop is above an aver- 

 age. Plums, which were so promising on the 8th of May, are now scarce, owing 

 to the cold weather which occurred after that date. Apricots, which had set 

 abundantly before that time, all dropped from the trees during the last week in 

 May. J. C. C, In Gardener'' s Magazine. 



Covering Seeds. — I may have missed seeing it recommended, but I 

 have never found any covering for small seeds equal to short grass mown from 

 the lawn. This is strewn over the seeds to about half an inch in depth, and then 

 the usual watering given. It soon shrivels and becomes light, so that the seeds 

 come through it freely. The birds, at least here, never attack them, and my 

 crops never fail. At this cabbage-sowing time it will be found most efficient. 



T. J^., in English Journal of Horticulture. 



