. until we have early Cauliflower. 
286 
THE GARDENERS' 
CHRONICLE. 
[May 2, 
weeks, until, and concluding about, the middle of July ; 
2 good succession of “heads” will thus be produced 
until the end of December, and by taking up the plants, 
should the weather be very frosty, and laying them in 
by the roots, in an open shed, and protecting or expos- 
ing them as may appear necessary, by bearing in mind 
that they are but little hardier than the Cauliflower, 
d heads of the last sowing may be kept until the 
middie of January. This variety is also very useful 
when sown early in September, and planted under hand- 
glasses, or treated in all respects similar to Cauliflower, 
and producing heads much superior. Snow’s Superb 
White Broccoli is well deserving of general cultivation; 
from sowings made last year in the middle of May, and 
early in June, very good compact white heads were 
produced from the end of November to January, quite 
superseding Grange’s White, which is contemporary 
with it. Legge’s Late White Broccoli is also an inva- 
luable variety, producing heads at atime when they 
are most wanted, although the produce is not so fine in 
appearance as that from either of the former ; with us 
they fill up a deficiency, having just commenced cutting 
this variety, with every probability of their continuing 
The value of this va- 
riety is enhanced by reason of its extreme hardiness, 
having stood uninjured the severe weather of the first 
three months of 1845, a property which will apply to 
few other sorts —J. H., Amport House, April 20. 
Gold Mohur Plant.— Amongnotice pond 
ina late paper, I read-“a Gold Mohur is a coin, not a 
plant.” Some years ago a friend brought home some 
seeds from Bombay ; among them was one sort, to 
which he gaye the above name: he described the plant 
as being common and well known there, and the blos- 
soms exceedingly beautiful, of a bright gold colour; the 
seeds were evidently leguminous, probably of a genus 
nearly allied to Phaseolus ; they vegetated, but the 
plants soon damped off. I have never been able to 
ascertain the botanica! name of the plant.—* [The 
clue thus afforded by our kind correspondent has en- 
abled us to ascertain to which plant the name of Gold 
Mohur is applied. It is mentioned in Graham’s Cata- 
logue of Bombay plants as the Gool Mohur, a name 
applied to the Barbadoes Flower-fence (Poinciana 
pulcherrima). 
Weather Rules. — Your correspondent “G. W.” 
(p. 269), appears to wish to[have a statement of the 
quarter from which the wind blew, at the time of the 
vernal equinox. In the neighbourhood of the Cheviot 
Hills we had a strong wind from the south, with a con- 
siderable fall of snow, accompanied by drift, on the 21st. 
I cannot state with accuracy from what points of the 
compass the wind blew on the preceding and sul 
mon Water-eress. There is another cruciform plant, 
the Cardamine hirsuta, or hairy-bitter Cress, which 
appears to me to have hardly received the notice which 
it deserves, as a warm, aromatic vegetable condiment. 
The plant is well known to botanists as one of those 
which appear early in the spring ; but it generally grows 
in such a small quantity (being found on dry banks, 
and drawn up very early to flower and seed), that the 
foliage affords scarcely anything to supply the table. 
It is, however, when it can be obtained in sufficient 
quantity, a very delightful Cress ; not so succulent as 
Water-cress, but more bitter, and approaching more to 
the flavour of Lepidium sativum, or common garden 
Cress. I have chanced to fall in with it, this season, in 
larger quantities, as to foliage, than I have ever seen it. 
I cannot doubt that the spot is better adapted, than the 
dry banks where we usually find it, forthe development 
of its stems and leaves. I have tried it more than 
once as a salad,and have found it very pleasant; I 
doubt not also very strengthening to the digestive 
organs. It is on a moist bank, partly of gravel, sloping 
down to a slow rivulet, which is, in fact, the outlet to 
a town-drain. The soil is here much richer than that 
in which we commonly find the Cardamine hirsuta ; 
there are many such spots, where nothing can be grown 
to answer a useful purpose. I mention this fact to 
draw the attention of those to it who cater for the public 
gratification. Might not an artificial soil be formed in 
which the hairy-bitter Cress might be brought to a state 
of great luxuriance, and made a profitable article of 
speculation? I send a small quantity of the plant, that 
you may judge by your own taste of its qualities as a 
salad. I may add, by way of postscript, that canaries 
are extremely fond of the leaves, as well as of those 
of Water-eress.— Wm. Ilott, Bromley, Kent. [Its fla- 
vour is very agreeable. ] 
a NOS 
Societies. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ANNIVERSARY, May 1.—The Lord PmupHoz in the 
chair ; succeeded by C. B. Warner, Esq. The report 
of the auditors upon the accounts of the Society for the 
past year, and a report from the Council on the pro- 
gress of the Society for the last six years, were read to 
the meeting. It was moved by Mr. George Glenny, 
seconded, and resolved unanimously, that the thanks of 
the Society are due to the Council for their report. It 
was moved by Charles Devon, Esq., seconded, and re- 
solved unanimously, that the Council be requested to 
print and circulate the report. It was suggested by 
Robert Gordon, Esq., that it is desirable that in future 
heet be distributed 
d 
days, for my attention was not drawn to Dr. Kircher's 
weather tables till some time afterwards, though I am 
almost sure that the storm commenced from the north 
at the beginning of the week, and that the wind veered 
round to the south a day or two previous to the 21st.— | 
.- W.J. 
Hedge Budding.—I cannot agree with your corre- 
spondent (p. 221), regarding this mode of budding. 
Independently of the casualties to which the plants 
would be subjected in such a situation, great difficulty 
is experienced in procuring them with good roots. 
am in the habit of taking up a large number of briars 
annually, many of which, after being taken up, require 
to be thrown away for want of roots, Now, this would 
lead to much disappointment, in the event of their 
having been budded with a fine variety of Rose, and 
after standing until February, 1848, proving to have 
no roots, or perhaps so few as to keep the plant in a 
weak state. No time, 
budding in the hedge, and I am sure that none is lost 
by taking up the stock and budding them afterwards ; 
on the contrary, a decided advantage accrues from this 
method, In October I take up all the best briars from 
the hedge-rows I can find, being careful to select those 
of a brown colour, which I find to be more durable 
than those having a bright green stem. They are then 
planted in a light soil, and headed down to about the 
height to which they are intended to be grown. During 
the same autumn they will form fine young fibres, and 
be ready to push shoots vigorously early in spring, and 
by June and July they willbe fit for working. By this 
method I have budded plants in June, which have 
shown flower-buds in the short time of 35 to 40 days 
afterwards, and which have continued in bloom until the 
blossoms were destroyed by frost, the sorts being hybrid 
Perpetuals. It will therefore be seen that no time is 
lost, but much gained, by securing stocks with good roots. 
As regards the time of the day for budding, I think that is 
of little importance ; success chiefly depends on the state 
of the stocks and shoots to be budded from ; in them, the 
sap ought to be flowing freely, and therefore I find moist, 
dull,and warm weather toanswer the operation best, which 
atall times ought to be performed as quickly as possible. 
Your correspondent intends to bud in August and 
September, but I have often found the shoots then to 
be so well ripened that some difficulty is experienced in 
raising the bark for the reception of the bud. To 
obviate this inconvenience, about the middle of June 
last year I went over all the stocks intended to be 
budded late, and eut off all the shoots close to the stem. 
By September the plants had made fresh shoots just in 
a fit state for budding, nearly all of which are growing 
at the present time.— Robert Cassiles, gr. to the Rev. 
J. P. Jones, Kemble Ewen, Wilts. 
Cardamine hirsuta.—A. good deal has been said lately, 
in * Chambers's Journal " and other publications, about 
the cultivation of the Sisymbri turtium, or eom- 
m 
, in my opinion, is gained by |J 
the annual bala at the meeting 
a fortnight previous to the Anniversary, in which sug- 
estion the Chairman and Secretary acquiesced on the 
| part of the Council. The Society then proceeded to 
| ballot for Council and Officers for the ensuing year; 
after which General Caulfield, Charles Devon, Esq., and 
J. C. MeMullen, Esq., were appointed Serutineers, who 
reported that the Lord Prudhoe, W. H. Pepys, Esq., 
and Mr, Loddiges, had been removed from the Council ; 
and that the Right Hon. Sir George Staunton, Bart., 
M.P., E. Baker, Esq., and F. G. Cox, Esq., had. been 
elected in their room ; and also that His Grace the 
Duke of Devonshire had been elected President; 
Thomas Edgar, Esq., Treasurer ; and J. R. Gowen, 
Esq., Secretary for the ensuing year. 
BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 
April 9.—Professor Batrour in the chair. H. Ivory, 
jun., Esq., was elected a Resident Fellow, and F. 
Townsend, Esq., Trinity College, Cambridge, a Non- 
Resident Fellow of the Society, The following commu- 
nications were read:—1. Botanical Excursions in 
Upper Styria in 1842. By Dr. R. C. ALEXANDER. In 
this paper Dr. A. gave an account of various excur- 
sions to the mountainous parts of Styria, during which 
he visited the Schékel, Lantsch, Leoben, Reiting, Yol- 
ling, Klagenfurt, and Saltzbach. He also gave a detail 
of the various plants observed during his tour ; and 
stated that he had collected in all about 900 species, of 
which upwards of 20 were new to the flora of Styria. 
The paper was accompanied by alist of the principal 
plants colleeted south of the Drave. Specimens from 
the Society’s Herbarium, contributed by Dr. Alexander, 
were produced to illustrate the paper, of which an ab- 
stract will probably appear in the “ Annals of Natural 
History,” and in the Society's * Transactions.” 
2. Remarks on the claims of certain species of plants 
to be considered indigenous to Britain. By Mr. 
Stark. At the commencement, Mr. S. adverted to the 
progress of Botanical Geography, and particularly to 
the labours of Mr. Hewett C. Watson, in his works on 
the distribution of the British flora. Passing over 
the instances of shrubs and perennial herbaceous 
plants found apparently wild, but which have un- 
doubtedly eseaped from the garden, he directed the 
attention of the meeting to the large family of annual 
corn-weeds, and their claims to be regarded as 
truly indigenous to Britain. Though universally 
dispersed wherever the plough and the agency of 
man extended, the fact of their not being found asso- 
ciated with other annuals where the land was waste 
and uncultivated, seemed to prove that they were the 
companions of the cereal grains, and with them had 
been introduced at a very remote period. Some of 
them (of which several instances were given) are con- 
fined to one side of the island, or to certain districts of 
the country, which showed that, notwithstanding their 
probable exotie origin, they were more or less subject 
to the laws regulating the distribution of organic life. 
He expressed his opinion that it would be desirable, 
both for the interests of science and agriculture, that 
these plants and their prevalence or rarity in various. 
districts should be recorded in our catalogues, local 
floras, and other works of a similar description. — , 
Mr. James M‘Naz exhibited flowering plants of two: 
curious species of Arum (A. cordatum and A. cornutum), 
raised in the garden of the Horticultural Society, from 
seeds sent home by William Jameson, Esq., Saharun- 
pore, in April, 1843. The flowering spathe of the one 
was two feet, and of the other 18 inches in length, both 
being beautifully mottled with brown and yellow spots ; 
and, what is very remarkable, the two species were 
sown on the same day, and after receiving the same 
treatment for about three years, flowered within 24 
hours of each other. Beautiful specimens of Pinguicula 
grandiflora, from Bandon, near Cork, communicated by 
Miss Carpenter, Bristol; of Vaccinium macrocarpum, 
from near Mold in Flintshire, by Dr. Bidwell, Abrighton; 
and of Dianthus cæsius, from the debris of Salisbury 
Crags, by Mr. John Laing, Experimental Garden, were 
exhibited to the meeting. 
MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
April 15. — J. S. Bowerbank, Esq. in the 
Chair. Sir R. I. Murchison; J. B. Simmonds, Esq. ; 
W. G. Few, Esq. ; E. G. Allan, Esq. ; R. J. Bagshaw, 
Esq.; and Julius Page, Esq. ; were elected Fellows. 
A paper was read on the structure of the guinon-worm 
(Filaria medinensis), by George Busk, Esq., surgeon to 
the Dreadnought hospital ship. From his position, the 
author stated, he had frequent opportunities of examin- 
ing this parasite. It was endemic in certain districts 
of Asia and Africa, and persons coming from such dis- 
stricts were those who were affected with it. In the 
first instance, this animal ‘seemed introduced into the 
flesh by means of exposure to water in which it was 
contained. What the nature of the life of the animal 
out of the human body is, has not yet been ascertained. 
After its introduction, it remains in the body 12 or 18 
months, and attains a length of from 4 to 6 feet, when 
the flesh begins to suppurate, and it comes away. The 
author went into the minute details of the structure of 
this animal, and concluded by stating his conviction 
that the Filaria medinensis was only an intermediate 
state of some animal whose existence had not hitherto 
been suspected. He stated that he was led to 
this conclusion from the analogy of this animal 
with the trematode entozoa, in which Steenstrup, 
in his highly curious work on the “ Alternation of Ge- 
nerations,” just published by the Ray Society, had 
pointed out that they were intermediate states of other 
animals.—Dr. LANKESTER stated that he was not aware 
that there were any facts amongst genera and species 
in the vegetable kingdom which supported Steenstrup's 
theory; he would, however, point out the cycle of de- 
velopment which the leaf passes through in the floral 
envelope, stamens, and pistil, as indicative of a law of 
the same kind applying to an individual plant.—The 
PnxsrpENT referred to the infusoria of paste as exhibit- 
ing certain points of structure which would lead to the 
conclusions that they were intermediate forms of some 
animal not known.—At the close of the meeting, Mr. 
E. J. Quexert exhibited sections of a Potato, in which 
the sound parts were found penetrated with portions of 
afungus. 
Mebietus, 
Course of Arboriculture, Theoretical and Practical. 
(Cours élémentaire, &c.) By M. A. Dubreuil. 12mo, 
pp. 613. Paris: Victor Masson, and Langlois. 
This is a nice little book, very neat, very prettily “ got 
up ;” rather useful, and not very profound. The 
author touches upon everything, and only touches : but 
what he does is safely done. There are no general 
views, but there are no new errors. The directions for 
practice are old, but they are the best of the ancient 
fashion. If no one of experience will learn much, no 
one without experience will learn error. The book is 
a specimen of the juste milieu school. “ Medio tutis- 
simus ibis” should have been M. Dubreuil’s motto. 
Whether this criticism be complimentary, or the re- 
verse, will be determined by the peculiar constitution 
of men's minds, Those who think to do pretty well, 
without striving to do better, is the true mission of gar- 
deners, will study M. Dubreuil; by those who advocate 
the go-a-head system he will be thrown aside. We 
shall not judge between the parties. All we can say, 
in addition, is that the book is ornamented by many 
very nice woodeuts, and some steel plates, representing 
singular ancient trees. A favourable example of the 
‘author’s style is afforded by the following extract :— 
“In considering the age of the trunks of certain trees 
more than 800 years old, like those of the Chapel Oak 
of Allouville in the Lower Seine, or more than 1400 
years old, like those of the Yewsin the hedge of Routot, 
in the department of the Eure, one would be inclined to 
believe in the immortality of some among them. One 
might fancy that these trees are exempt from the 
general law, that every organised being must perish in 
a given time. Nevertheless, if we examine their mode 
of growth we find that they come within the law ; that 
is to say, that in them, as in all plants, life is prolonged 
in each of their organs only for a few years. In fact, 
the essential living parts of the tree, that is to say, the 
youngest layers of the liber and the alburnum, scarcely 
preserve their functions more than two or three years, 
at the end of which time they are replaced jby new 
