598 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 
[SEPT. 5, 
presents can scarcely be desired. A rich soil and bot- 
tom heat constitute all the magic I have used to produce 
it. As it is now exceeding the height which the dimen- 
sions of my stove will accommodate, being more than 7 
feet from the pot, I am proposing to cut it down after it 
has flowered, and after it has made new wood to re- 
move it from the Pine-pit and give it a period of rest. 
The season appears to have been particularly favour- 
able to gardening, both in regard to indigenous and 
exotic productions. A Quisqualis indica in my hot- 
house,which I have often threatened to destroy, because 
for successive years ithas flowered so indifferently, has 
been this year loaded with flowers. There are hundreds 
if not thousands on it still, and seems likely to go on 
blossoming for another month. May I venture to add 
that I have among the Orchids a beautiful specimen of 
Phaius albus, which Mr. Lyons says “is a very difficult 
plant to cultivate,” decorated with flowers. I am rather 
proud of this production, as Iam quite a beginner in 
growing Orchids, and my facilities are by no means 
great, and altogether of a make-shift character. Ihave 
now in flower Achimenes argyrostigma, longiflora, pa- 
tens, pieta, rosea, &c. ; Asclepias curassavica, ZEsehy- 
nanthus maculatus, Begonia semperflorens, nitida, and 
sinuata; Cerbera Ahouai, Clerodendron fallax and 
hastatum ; Crossand dulefolia, Erant va- 
riabile, Franciscea uniflora, Gardoquia Hookeri, Ges- 
neras and Gloxinias of various kinds, Hedychium 
coronarium, Justicia carnea, Lantana aculeata and mu- 
tabilis, Oxalis sensitiva, Oxyanthus hirsutus, Pentas 
carnea, Poinciana pulcherrima, Quisqualis indica, 
Strelitzia reginæ, Ruellia splendens and macrophylla, 
Torenia asiatica, Turnera ulmifolia and elegans, &c.— 
Derwent, Sept. 1. [Bravo !] 
Potato Disease caused by Atmospheric Influence.— 
The accompanying extract of a letter, just received, 
may be interesting :—“I am sorry to say the Potato 
plight has this season reached us, and in such a way as 
roves distinctly its being atmospheric; it has fallen most 
severely on the Island of North Ranaldsay, and in por- 
tions of Sanday, Stronsay, and Westray. An intelligent 
countryman from Sanday, just now here, tells me that 
one day (two weeks since) he observed a very dense 
fog resting in patehes on certain parts of the island ; 
at times it was so defined that he could point out the 
exact measure of ground over which it rested. It hung 
low over the ground, and had the appearance of a light 
powdering of snow. In passing, it fell down on his 
small farm, and he smelt it very unpleasant, exactly 
like, he says, the bilge water of a ship—a sulphurous 
sort of stench. After the wind rose and cleared off 
those lumps or clouds of fog, there remained on the 
Grass over which they had hung, as well as on the Po- 
tato-shaws, an appearance of grey dew, or hoar frost. 
The next morning he noticed the leaves of his Potatoes 
slightly spotted ; in two days the shaws began to droop 
and wither, turning pale yellowish ; he now observed 
that the tubers in the ground under the diseased plants 
were covered by minute white specks, which soon be- 
eame small maggots, and before ten days not a shaw 
was in his Potato patch, more than if it had been a bare 
fallow, while the stench of.the rotting Potatoes was 
very bad. This was one of the spots where the fog 
bank had rested most palpably ; but everywhere through 
the island the disease, after the fog, began in spots and 
corners of fields, and spread more slowly over all. A 
heavy rain, which followed, is supposed to have washed 
off some of the poisonous matter in the more favoured 
spots. This man never saw anything of the disease 
before, and having read little, he gives the account 
fairly as it appeared to him, Infection in these cases 
is quite out of the question; and they so distinetly 
trace the spotting of the leaf, and the sickening and 
drooping of the plants, to the fog, or stinking mildew, 
that I am inclined to believe the disease altogether 
originates in atmospheric influence, though infectious 
after it has caught the plants. The progress from 
_ infection seems to be comparatively slow; the fields 
upon which the blight first fell, or made its appearance, 
went off in a very short time."— W. M*Inroy, The 
Burn, Brechin. 
Potato Disease.—l got seed Potatoes from Cadiz, 
Bilboa, Lisbon, Oporto, Naples, Holland, two different 
parts of Germany, and from Lancashire. I planted 
them in various parts of the farm and garden ; they 
have all fared alike—they are all diseased! I can hear 
of only one small patch for miles around that is not so. 
—An Old Sub.— It, is needless to mention that the 
blight gets worse and worse in this quarter (Norwich). 
But as some consider sprinkling the tops with dry lime 
a remedy, it may be worth remarking, that lately I ob- 
served diseased Potatoes growing within the range both 
of smoke and dust from a lime kiln.—J. Wighton. 
Copper Works, Effluvia and the Potato Crop.—A. 
gentleman from Swansea upon a visit here a few days 
ago,in the course of conversation mentioned that in 
that neighbourhood the crop was worse than in most 
other places, which he attributed to the copper furnaces; 
which had the effect of blighting most other vegetable 
produc My inf is a highly respectable 
inhabitant of the place, and as he was glad to obtain 
some sound Potatoes here for his own use, every 
reliance may be placed upon his testimony.—-S. Collier, 
Witney, Oxon. 
Rosa Hardii.—A. correspondent will be glad to be 
informed by and after whom this plant was named, its 
origin from seed, and the time, place, and circumstances 
of its introduction into England; two rumours being 
afloat, one that it was raised from Persian seed, the 
other that it is a mule between Rosa berberifolia and 
clinophylla, which its spines and foliage contradict. 
[It is mentioned in “ Paxton's Magazine of Botany ” to 
be a hybrid, raised between R. berberifolia and R. in- 
volucrata by Mr. Hardy, gardener at the Luxembourg 
Gardens, Paris, and has been named after its originator, 
see p. 775, 1843. The above account is stated to have 
been taken from ^ Rivers’s Rose Amateur'sj Guide ” 
for 1840, p. 161. From its not presenting any resem- 
blance to R. involucrata, however, the statement has 
been doubted, and upon reference to “Gore's Rose 
Fanciers’ Manual,” 1838, Hardi berberifolia is 
there said to have been obtained that year by the acci- 
i ion of that kable plant the Rosa 
licifolia or hyll ane 
p . P (Lowea 5 
Lindl.) by R. microphylla growing near it, and this is 
believed to be a much more probable pedigree for the 
plant, if the flowers only are to be considered ; but the 
leaves throw other difficulties in the way. We have 
always understood that one of its parents was R. clino- 
phylla, but perhaps some of our correspondents may be 
able to satisfactorily clear up the matter. 
Sussex Fig-Orchard.—Nothing has more agreeably 
surprised me during a six weeks’ tour in Kent and 
Sussex than stumbling this afternoon quite unexpectedly 
(for the guide-books say not a word of it) on a Fig- 
orchard, close to Worthing, producing annually, on stand. 
ard trees, from 1000 to 1500 dozen of ripe Figs. I have 
eaten very good Figs from standard trees in Devonshire, 
but was not at all aware that this fruit could be profit- 
ably cultivated so much farther to the eastward. This, 
however, is the ease at West Tarring, a picturesque 
village two miles west of Worthing, where a gardener 
of the name of Pelling, and his father before him, have, 
for many years, devoted very advantageously a piece of 
ground, about an acre in extent, to the growth of Figs, 
of which his average crop has been as above stated ; 
but this year, owing to the spring blights, it will not 
exceed 50 dozen. Several of the trees are very old, 
with trunks nearly a foot in diameter. These are said 
to have been suckers or layers from a tree in the 
adjoining garden of Thomas à Beekett, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, who is stated to have had a palace here. 
However this may be, Mr. Pelling does not now confine 
his growth to this kind, which is pear-shaped, about 21 
inches long, externally bluish-green, with a red pulp, 
and which he calls the “ Brown Turkey :” he also cul- 
tivates, but in much smaller quantities, a small 
globular green sort, with a narrow division of the 
leaves, which he calls the “ Madagascar ;” and an- 
other, which I did not see, the “Green Naples.” 
It is said that it has been tried to grow Figs 
in other places near Worthing, without success ; 
but the advantage of the locality of West Tarring 
must ¢hiefly depend on its being sheltered by the 
Downs, at the foot of which it lies, from the north and 
east winds ; and as there is much land adjoining, simi- 
larly eireumstanced, it would be easy to extend the 
cultivation there, if it were found profitable to send 
them to London by railway. The Fig-trees do not 
often suffer materially from frost ; but in 1838 some of 
the larger ones (but not the oldest) were killed down 
to the roots. I have always found my Italian friends 
somewhat incredulous as to our having Myrtles in the 
open ground, in some parts of England, without pro- 
tection in winter; and I fear it would still be more 
difficult to convince them that 60 miles from London 
we can grow ripe Figs in profusion, from standards in 
the open air—which, indeed, I should not myself have 
been able to assert before my experience of this after- 
noon.— W. Spence, Worthing, August 25. 
Foreign Correspondence. 
St. Petersburgh, Aug. Y (new style), 1846.—F rom Stock- 
holm here the zigzag intermittent course of the steamer, 
whose traffic is more between Sweden and Finland than 
between Stockholm and Petersburgh, gave us an oppor- 
tunity of seeing hing Abo, Helsingfors, an 
Revel. The general aspect of Finland is the same as 
that of the part of Sweden we saw—the same granite 
rocks, Pine woods, and lakes or gulfs full of islands. 
At Abo there is little to interest one ; the town is re- 
built, indeed ; there are some good new houses, and a 
considerable trade is carried on with Sweden, but there 
is no longer any university, The observatory is turned 
into a naval school, and the country houses and gardens 
about the town are few. There has, however, been 
lately formed a bathing establishment, with a consider- 
able garden, supported, as I understood, by a society in 
some,degree botanical and horticultural, where there are 
green and hothouses, and a iderable variety of plants. 
cultivated. Helsingfors, now the capital of Finland, 
and the seat of the university, is beautifully situated on 
the shores of a broad harbour ; has many handsome 
new buildings, and every appearance of prosperity. 
Arriving there at past nine one evening, and starting 
at eight the following morning, we had not time to see 
much ; but went over the gardens of the bathing es- 
tablishment, planted with a good deal of taste amongst 
the rocks at the mouth of the harbour, about half a 
mile from the town. These gardens, quite open to the 
public, were very gay with the common summer flowers, 
and have been formed, as I am told, at a iderabl 
= 
of them showed me over the garden ; the total number 
of plants in the collection they value at 6000 species. 
The houses contain several tall specimens, and Some, 
fine for their age, of Australian and Cape shrubs, but 
rather drawn. In the out-door department the best 
things are the Siberian plants, received through Peters- 
burgh, and the Californian annuals, which succeed re- 
markably wellin these northern latitudes. A bed of 
Amsinckia spectabilis, and another of Hymenoxys cali- 
fornic, a rather weedy looking things with us, were here 
both of them a mass of flower, the Amsinckia a very 
rich yellow. At Revel our stay was so.short that we 
were only able to see Ekaterindal, a really fine garden 
and grounds, originally planted by Peter the Great in 
the French Louis XIV. style, attached to the palace of 
the same name built by him, It is about a mile from 
the town, under a hill or bank, upon which appear to be 
several private country houses with gardens or grounds, 
and is said to be much resorted to by the inhabitants of 
Revel, and no wonder, the cool shaded avenues and well 
kept walks looked so tempting this roasting weather. 
The country generally on this side of the gulf entirely 
loses the rocky character of the northern shore, and 
merges into the sand of North Germany. Here at St. 
Petersburgh, the number and extent of gardens belong- 
ing either to imperial palaces, or establishments, or 
to private noblemen, is so considerable, and there is so 
much that is interesting in the efforts made to counter- 
act the effects of an eight months’ winter, for the sake 
of three or at most four months’ enjoyment, that it would: 
take much more time than I have to spare to collect 
the information necessary to give a connected general 
account of them; I shall only, therefore, content myself 
with a few notes in the order in which they occur to me. 
The first I have visited have been the Botanical Garden 
in the Apothecaries’ Island, and those of Count Nessel- 
rode, Count Peroffsky, the Minister of the’ Interior,, 
Prince Viazemsky, and other noblemen in that and the 
adjoining Kamenoi and Elagin islands, which, with a 
few smaller islands, are commonly called “the islands,” 
and are a very favourite and beautiful evening drive at 
this time of year. The Botanical Garden has been de- 
scribed in detail in the “Botanical Magazine,” which 
renders it unnecessary to say anything as to its extent, 
the size of the houses, &e., with the exception of the 
works commenced since that paper was written. These 
consist chiefly in the conversion of the central of the 
three lines of plant houses into a palm-house on a large 
scale, with iron ribs, the first attempt to use that metal 
in this climate for hothouses. It was not thought safe, 
without further experience, to trust entirely to iron and 
glass, as in the large new houses built or building in our 
country ; so that the north wall, entirely brick, is carried. 
up to nearly the full height, use being made of it for the 
erection of seed-rooms, store-rooms, &e., at the back. 
The iron ribs of the whole of the upper part of the 
house are cased in wood, to break in some measure the 
direct influence of the cold on the iron, and the sashes 
or lights are entirely of wood, The whole height of the 
house is 68 feet to the top of the ridge, the length 230, 
though not all quite so lofty as the central portion. 
This work was commenced last year; a considerable 
portion of it will be glazed in before the weather breaks 
up this year, and the remainder will be completed next 
year, the workmanship, being under the close and con- 
stant inspection of Dr. Fischer himself, as well as of his 
friend the architect Mr, Fisher, who are both of them 
on the spot, is such as would do credit to any of our 
own builders, and there is little doubt that the whole 
will be a worthy rival to our new houses at Kew, espe- 
cially idering the additional to be over- 
come. It still remains, however, to be tried, and as it 
appears to me not without a good chance of success, 
whether the curvilinear iron houses with the ribs cased 
in wood and double sashes might not perfectly resist the 
winter, and save the heavy mass of brickwork at the 
back of the one now constructing. The plants in the 
present range of houses are in excellent order (so far as 
not interfered with by the building of the new one); 
under the care of Mr. Tielmann, formerly gardener to 
Baron Hiigel, at Hietzing, and now about to leave, 
having received the appointment of Inspector of Gardens 
in Nassau. The collection of Orchidaceze is more eg- 
tensive than I expected to find, and that of Aroidea,. 
1 d M. led is 
Seitamineze, and other 1 » 
very considerable, When well grown they are à 
great ornament to hothouses, and too much neglected’ 
with us, In the Orchideous-house here they 
have a particularly good effect mixed with some of 
the larger erect Orchideze in the bottom of the houses. 
whilst the smaller and the pendulous Orchidess are 'SuS*- 
pended above them. The large Palms were so mucl 
packed up or spread about temporarily whilst their 
house is building, that I could not judge of them. The 
Pandani are numerous, and were remarkably fine speci- 
mens; several very good Zamias and dwarf Palms» 
chiefly from Karwinski's Mexican collections. I observed 
also many good Brazilian plants fromRiedel’s collections; 
fine specimens of Marattia alata and fraxinifolia, Tri- 
chopteris densis, Did hl and, other 
Ferns; a Dioscorea Mexicana, with a stem as big as 
Testudinaria ; iderable tree of Pereskia gran- 
expense, a good deal of the soil being brought there. On 
the other side of the town, at a short distance from it, 
lies the botanical garden, in a very pretty situation, and 
being still young the trees and shrubs show a vigorous 
and healthy vegetation. Near the centre is a neat 
building containing the lecture-room and the residence 
of the Professor, Tengström, and the head gardener 
(whose name I unfortunately omitted to note), who both 
any T ja 
dilolia, full of flower, and several good specimens i 
more common hothouse trees, not so drawn up aS ay e 
northern hothouses I visited in Denmark ue 
The total number of species of all kinds p i 
the garden is estimated at between 13,000 and 14,000 5 
but amongst these the out-door herbaceous plants do not 
bear so large a proportion as m German botanical. 
gardens—in the first place, on account of the climate 5. 
ae 
