<F 
1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
759 
Pine-Apples.—There have been cut and weighed at Bic- 
ton-gardens within the last three weeks, four Queen Fine- 
Apples, the united weight of which was 22lbs. 2 oz. ; the 
crowns were from 2 to 3 inches high, and the stalks 3 
inches in length. These were well swelled and very hand- 
some fruit, one weighed 6 lbs. 2 0z.— W. Dawson. 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
THE TAMWORTH FARMERS’ CLUB. 
We hasten to lay before our readers extracts from a speech 
delivered by Sir Robert Peel, on the occasion of a public dinner, 
Celebrating the institution of this club. Our extracts are from a 
report in the 7 
f man, without permanent injury to the land, 
That is the single object for the promotion of which 
f d the more we bear it in mind 
during all our meetings and discussions, the more shall we con- 
ae the intentions of its o: ‘iginal fo 
by 
y y ‘ » 
stions, by having doubts solved, by comparing expe- 
i i I shall be the last man to 
experience is 
of the utmost 
©xperience a very impei 
confined to hi; 
pursued, he will prosper, and that his personal experience will 
insure success, depend upon it he will be greatly disappointed, 
it is impossible to travel for ten miles through this country, 
itis impossible to go through this parish, without seeing that 
Mere reliance on personal experience as a farmer will not insure 
Success, You see the different degrees of fertility in land o: 
€qual natural strength—you see where the land is cultivated by 
farmers having the advantage of personal experience, the 
Breatest difference in the re: , if one brings to bear the 
advantage of chemical and geological science, and the other 
Merely relies upon the benefits of his own personal observation, 
(Cheers,) Then, gentlemen, another mode by which the farmers 
ay acquire information is by having access to books—by the 
Of 1s, 
‘eal 
every disposition to make that 
us to increase the facilities for acquiring agricul- 
tural knowledge bythe perusal of books. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, 
y which agricultural knowledge may be promoted 
and extended,—and I very much doubt whether this will no 
Sound the most effectual miode,—is by m 
ind, not for th i 
nat be 
each his own mind against the 
iving knowledge 
elonging to this 
the character of owners of the soil 
that 
of good practical farmers, who derive profit from the cul- 
tivation of the soil. As an 
of my valued and respected friend, Sir F. Lawley, the President 
I unfortunately do not unite those two capacities, 
Tam alandiord, but I cannot say Iama practical farmer, deriving 
Now, although we may know very little practically about agri- 
Culture, yet, living in this agricultural district, and coming con- 
ly in communication with you, my opinion is that landlords 
‘without having such practical knowledge, may greatly contribute 
ie the improyement and advancement of agriculture. I take for 
stance the breeding of stock—the improvement of stock within 
this district, 1 speak for myself—improvement begins at home ; 
i and well under- 
ent in 
st bull for i 
Bose of j sas 
@nd their 
gri- 
can 
m. 
culture, 7 : : 
rict for 
but deeply interested in promoting its prosper 
te to its advancement within that particular dis 
‘Ose prosperity I have the chief concern. Then, ag 
a landlord, little conversant with a 
‘it 
Tenet t0 experiments in agriculture, Lhave not the slightest doubt 
thing: : more bewild, 
sult: 
whether 
ul, may 
: she di 
eriment had been fairly made ; whether 
0 made the experiment had not a prejudice in fayour of 
manure, and gave it some advantage in the trial which 
hot entitled to, Landlords, then, have this means of benes 
Y tenuntry—namely, af making experiments and exhi- 
tically interested in 
e" 
AtNeais 
Sitting thetr 
thag® the results to those who may be 
doubting take the article of artificial manure,—jet 
€xperiments 
ences that 
are exhibited to the tenantry at the proper season, they will 
be better able to determine hereafter whether they will go to the 
expense in purchasing it, and they will have greater confidence 
in the expectations they have founded upon that trial. You 
remember, gentlemen, I set out by stating that practical observa- 
tions are much more valuable at meetings of this kind than any 
elaborate eloquent i of agri- 
culture. I therefore directed a friend of mine, who I knew had 
carefully made an experiment with respect to the merits of a new 
manure, the name of which I haye no doubt is quite familiar to 
you—guano—I directed him to make an experiment with the 
greatest care and fairness, and communicate to me the result. 
Gentlemen, he has done so, and am quite sure you will excuse me 
if I state to you the particulars of that experiment. My friend 
took a field of two acres, and planted it with Potatoes. 
ridges in which the Potatoes were grown were of the same length, 
and the Potatoes were of the same quality, and the produce of the 
several ridges having been taken up and measured, the average 
result of the produce —(the soil being the same, the Potatoes the 
same in quality, the manure being applied with perfect fairness, and 
exactly in the same manner)—the average result of the produce 
v is:—The stable manure gave a proportionate return of 
9 bushels of Potatoes, Potter’s manure 11 bushels, and guano 
1p bushels, Tasked for further details, in order that the informa- 
tion might be more complete, and here ti 
and Potter’s manure (so 
ler. The total expense, including every charge, was 10/.; 
and calculating the value of the Potatoes at 1s. 
d then exhibiting the 
result to theiractual inspection, a landlord not himself practically 
acquainted with agriculture, without presuming to teach you the 
best method of farming, may, in co-operation with his tenants, do 
much for the improvement of agriculture, There is another 
matter to which I think it right to advert, where the landlord, 
although he may know nothing of agriculture, has the oppor. 
tunity of benefiting the occupying tenant,—I allude to game. 
(Cheers.) Gentlemen, there are few more eager sportsmen than 
Tam; but, seeing the competition to which the farmer of this 
country is exposed, and to which he must look forward, I 
a9 
3 
3 
® 
a 
° 
Ej 
& 
& 
a 
g 
5 
, (Cheers.) I will do 
for their destruction, and with respect to hares 
also, I will willingly forego any gratification of mere sport. 
that if any tenant of mine will inform me that the hares on his 
farm exist in such a quantity that they are doing him serious 
damage, I shall be perfectly ready to give orders for their imme- 
diate destruction (cheers) or their reduction to such an extent as 
shall satisfy him that no danger whatever can be sustained by 
him. (Cheers.) You perceive, gentlemen, that I am adhering 
to the advice I gave, that instead of general vague observations 
we should attend to practical matters, and I do hope that those 
gentlemen whom I see around me, and who have more experi- 
ence than I haye—if they have any observations to offer more 
valuable than those I can mak: 
this institution, (Cheers,) Let us all, landlords and tenants, 
meet together within this district, for the purpose of promoting 
that one t—the i i ; it is a noble 
uit, and we shall be amply repaid by our success in the 
cultivation of the soil. (Cheers,) 
NOTICES or NEW PLANTS WHICH ARE EITHER 
USEFUL OR ORNAMENTAL. 
PARVIFOLIA, Small-leaved Oleaster. (Hardy 
Shrub.) Eleagnacex. Tetrandria Monogynia,— 
Making allowance for the effects of climate, we may identify this 
plant with the Eleeagnus parvifolia of Wallich and Royle, a shrub 
from the north of India, of which abundant specimens were dis- 
tributed by the former botanist. They are more grey, indeed, and 
their silvery scales are more abundant, but this is a mere differ. 
Evergreen 
ence in degree. Indeed, the Sirmose specimens, from the collec. 
The Ka- 
tions of Webb and Gerard, are as green as our own. 
although 
ey deliciously 
sweet, I a hardy evergreen shrub or small tree, succeeding 
well in any good loamy soil. lowers freely in June and July 
and is only increased by seeds or by suckers, which are sometimes 
produced when the plants become old. It was raised in the 
garden of the Horticultural Society from seeds received from Dr. 
Royle.—Botanical Register. 
Acacia sPHcrABiiis.. Showy Acacia, (Greenhouse Shrub.) 
Leguminose. ygamia Moneecia.— Among 340 species of 
‘Acacia enumerated by Mr. Bentham this is one of the finest: and 
it certainly is the very handsomest we have seen from New Sout 
Wales, beautiful as many of them are. Unfortunately our Means 
of publication render it impossible to represent the softness and 
delicacy of surface which are among its principal characteristi 
the shoots, are of the clearest and softest yellow. It isa native 
of Wellington Valley, and other places on the east coast of New 
Holland, where it was found by the late Mr. Allan Cunningham 
and by Mr. Frazer. For its introduction to this country we are 
indebted to H. B. Lott, Esq., who presented it to Messrs. 
Lucombe, Pince, & Co., of Exeter, from whom we received a 
flowering specimen last April. It belongs to the same section of 
the genus as A. discolor and dealbata, but is probably more 
decidedly a greenhouse plant than they are, for it comes from 
the country to the north of Sidney, and therefore naturally 
inhabits warmer latitudes. Frora both it is known by its broad, 
smooth, glaucous leaflets, and by the gland found in these species, 
in connexion with the petiole. — Botanical Register. 
SciLLA PeRUVIANA; Var. discolor, 
with S. peruviana. At first sight, however, it seems so different 
that it cannot be regarded as the sa: iT 
ever, confess our inability, after a careful examin; 
cover any other distinction between them than that of the colour 
of the flowers, which are neither white nor bright blue, as in the 
previously known states of S. peruviana, but a dirty pale fawn. 
colour. The seed-vessels have exactly the mucronate form 
ascribed to S. peruviana. It is no doubtas hardy as the Pernvian 
Squill, and although not so handsome, still worth a place in a 
bulb garden.— Botanical Register. “ 
LOXINIA DIGITALIFLORA. Fox-glove-flowered Gloxinia. 
(Stove Herbaceous Perennial.) zesneraceee. Didynamia An. 
giospermia.— This beautiful and distinct species is of very recent 
introduction, and has flowered in several of the London nurseries, 
It is no doubt of Mexican or South American origin, though we 
haye no information as to its exact native locality. It belongs 
to the caulescent part of the genus, producing stems from six to 
nine inches in height, with the flowers so closely arranged as 
almost to cluster at the top of them, From other allied species 
it is easily known by its short, somewhat roundish, and very 
thick, leathery, yet firm and rigid foliage, which is borne in 
opposite pairs, with scarcely any stalk; and by its particularly 
long and small-tubed flowers. The latter, too, have an unusually 
regular limb, which is of a rich purplish crimson hue, resembling 
greatly the colour of the flowers of Achimenes grandiflora. Like 
the rest of the genus, it requires a peculiarly moist heat while it 
is growing, and remains dormant in winter, when it should 
proportion of decayed manure or leaf-soilmixed with it; and, in 
addition to this, to furnish them at once, er they have fairly 
started into growth, with a pretty roomy pot. 
that which they would present if grown in the ordinary conditions. 
—Paxton’s Magazine of wy 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Iodine in Nasturtium aquaticum. By Dr. Muller. 
—From the remarkable smell of the fresh herb I was 
Several 
induced to submit it to chemical examination. 
well extracted with distilled water; sulph 
added to the solution, but not suflicient to 
its alkaline reaction; the mixture was 
nearly to dryness, the residue mixed with aleo 
to separate the sulphate of potash which had 
the filtered solution evaporated to dryness. 
treated with nitric acid and starch, afforded 
istic blue colour of iodide of starch, a 
phosphate of soda and oxide of i 
Ann. der Pharm, for July, * oted in the Chemical 
Gazette.—[It is a great pity t it chemists are not more 
exact in their language when they travel out of their own 
branch of science. Here is a very curious fact rendered 
useless by a neglect of Botanical accuracy. There is no 
such plant as Nasturtium aquaticum. Does the learned 
author mean the common Watercress, Nasturtium 
Officinale ?] 
Gigantic Hollyhock.—As something has been said of 
late as to the gigantic height of two Hollyhocks, a corre- 
spondent informs us that the Rev. F. V. Lockwood, Vicar 
of Minster, in Thanet, had a Hollyhock cut down the 
other day (which may still be seen) measuring the extra- 
ordinary length of 17 feet from the surface to the 
top. Such a one has not, we believe, been heard of before 
in the island.— Kentish Observer. 
Fossil Infusorie in Salt.—A curious discovery has 
recently been made as to the cause of the red colour of 
the rock-salt received from the Punjaub, supposed to be 
occasioned by oxide of iron. This turns out to be in 
reality caused by the remains of fossil infusorie, which, 
though now in a pretty pickle, have all at one time been 
alive. Thered matter seems to be siliceous, and is not 
acted upon by nitric or muriatic acids. This fact has for 
some time been familiar to naturalists in reference to 
much of the rock-salt found in various parts of Europe— 
it was suspected and now is verified in that of the Seikh 
country.—Bombay Times. 
Swan River Vegetation —Eracripnm.— Dr. Lind- 
ley describes two species of a new Swan River genus of 
this order, which he calls Conostephium pendulum, and 
C. minus, which he says are, both rather pretty shrubs, 
with one-sided spikes of flowers, whose pallid calyx 
strikingly contrasts with their conical corollas. These 
plants are both common near or in the town of Perth, 
flowering in autumn. The beautiful Lissanthe verticillata, 
with broad leaves in distant whorls, grows among the 
hills by the side of the York road, and is sometimes called 
the native Currant. A charming plant of this family is 
the Cosmelia rubra, found in swamps near Albany, King 
George’s Sound. Several of this family bear fruits that 
may be eaten when nothing better is to be had. I have 
added many species since Dr. Lindley wrote his Botany 
{ of the Swan River colony ; among others, a very beautiful 
Sprengelia, met with in the journey to Mount William. 
Drummond, in the Inquirer, 
GARDEN MEMORANDA. 
Broughton tales ioc 19.—I have just seen through the gardens 
Broughton-ha. 
The leaves and branches are covered with the most delicate 
bloom, and the flowers, produced in large masses at the end of 
al fg he id the Rey. John Clowes, to view 
the Orchidaceous plants of that establishment. On entering the 
house that is set apart for that purpose, the first thing that 
— 
