

■ ■ 



6 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[Jan. 6, 



^-*P- 



tlie) *rre quite 



w ur« ami a* perfect as 



it 



, Dl . thraedMbrentmodeli, we of copper, end botanical tour to the sooth of England «* Jersey^ ^ 



,. v hid I 'I "» Jwlyr eeini the eighth month 



dscban tribe hat been in bloom tfl the open air. 



During the next four months they prill be m 0ow< r under 



•ItM, * it there difficulty in hating them in 



tooceerion throughout the whole- year.— The following were 

 Mooming in the gardr •» i f .ins, q., Bowater Cres- 



cent, Woolwich, on the -Jth of December, fit : — 



VllJC* vwnegrata 



of a form totally unlike those nsed in England ; none are 

 conical, and the makers with whom I have conversed m 

 Paris appear to think that form no way superior to theirs. 

 *rt :i5 ..-.«i ;« r n »land and France for Pines are alto- 



course of which he mentioned the various plants observed 

 so far as peculiar to those districts, or only of rare occur- 

 rence in Scotland. He was rather surprised to notice 



species crowing in considerable quantity that have, for 

 .. ° .. i „.;„~i., ..,~~k^,i ♦„ *u. o . 



Ti.. «niU u«ed in England and France ... . _ T . . „ 



I . \Jlr\„t • in almost every Pinery that I have seen the most part, been very sparingly supplied to the Society 



^^Tl^^^^ *•• predominant J -a circumstance which shows the desirableness of EogluJ 



in Lneian-i, & . _ . . i. Botanists keeping hi view, when making their annual col. 



t s« 



u 



Sittoca V- rane^lfane 



am 1 ffikiaaiura 



Virginia ck 



1 *ct M e Not 



*e 

 pianthm U'lfolro* 

 Brown's Moll Pink 

 seapenola frarilks 



Phlox it ol ra 



■hlox tardlfW* 

 >Vmoi>Mla atomaeia 



Slalvafragiaes 



Frenrh II .ney suckle 



polyanthus 



4Brap« HysHnthS 

 I.i 



/r!m»u< I'm- ' rubra 



l ii mm (Hityphyllua 



1U\ ■-> 



l rut nicer 



<Knothera r.traptcra 



V. -dlfloWCrS 



I » 



Dwarf is 



I ill-* 



•• F»ira« 



pjnaa)ai lea 



tocarpos sea her 

 I .plio»i»enasaa erube»cens 

 Primroses 



Anemones 



Pansse* 



riiichinm 



Lo hells cracilis 



irteulas 

 Knea herbarea rubra 

 Frtcam< i-rranca 



i!m rat! 



( 'lirvn lemnms 



d new 



iana acaulls 



M .V ilostl 



l>aphi»«* rnr ti 



>tc * Single Rus«lan Violets 

 Hspatiras 



M liu Pi«k 



ma n atnm, and 



Sweat \n im». 



informs ns thst tli ii at 



Htbbert, 1 ., near Watford, 



'•, a Caw of the old double striped variety, having 



,ur fully r \ >l b s, and more rrady t<- open. It 



grow ■ m i wull, snd eicept being sHoated near 



tl sOgls of a wall with a teath«we§t aspect, it hat had no 



l ther pfoteetlon i u the frOStl tlint ha thready visited 

 thst els- —Mr. 1 * writes from / as fol- 



, ws: - We were COmp r-d last w to cut the Graff 



here, wh i was softer t ieptetnber. CauliHower- 



j irrU : of a wall have bee* growing rapidly for 



last five weeks. T herbaceous plants are springing 

 fast, 'ks p tfd buds to >wer this winter. 



< alarm tl in b no next the iwall. Muurandyas, 



Tx>asns, Petunias, are quite green. Khodochiton is in 



low . Cobaa sea 1 ns produced iho its two feet long 



ecently. All the Verbenas that were left out are quite 

 healtl , and some in llower. The congregation of the 

 Free Church of CswdOT w;is sitting in the open air till last 

 ■wr»-k, when they got into a wood'-n erection* 63 ft. by 



;s ft. They felt \ Us colder, as the oldest of them said 



they er taw such Id winter. 



Another correspondent 

 JA he »rat of 



Foreign Correspondence. 



" Pari*, Dec. I ;.— As the subject of Pink growing 

 appears just now to attr much attention in England, 

 perhaps the result of my observati • upon the culture of 

 them in France may be of service to some of your readers, 

 • -specially as 1 have id the opport Ity of seeing the dif- 

 ferent modes of pot and open ground culture upon a larcje 

 •cale, in all stages and s . not only in Paris, Versailles, 



and Meminn, but also in the northern and western depart- 

 ments. The ne was when 1 -J and 21bs. were considered 

 si good sizfl for a Queen, and libs, for a Providence ; but, 

 tharvfca toth«' improvements in science, hot-water, and open 

 ground culture, a new era has commenced, ami the Pine- 

 grower is effecting as great a revolution in his department 

 as the Floricultural amateur has accomplished with Pelar- 

 goniums Roses, or Dahlias. As the Potager, or King's 

 Kitchen Garden, at Versailles, is the largest establishment 

 for fruit in this country, and moreover, has the honour 

 to have been the first in passing the rubicon of customary 

 usages, I cannot do better than detail the mode of cultiva- 

 tion, and varieties most esteemed. This garden was laid 

 out by " La Quintinie," in the time of Louis XIV., and 

 no expense wr spare* 1 to render it a worthy appendage 

 to the palace of \ ersai \, which was then the residence 

 of the R v st t sit in F.urope. The pf at distribution 

 of the fruit-par i retains a great similarity to the plans 

 cf La Quiu ie, in ln'Rl. with the exception of the forcing 

 department, winch at that time consisted only of a few 

 frames fur Melons, C embers, and small Salads. It 

 was not till about tl tear 1702 that the Pine-apple was 

 introdiu the Potager, and so litt was then known 



of its culture, that no mention is made of any fruit having 

 been obtained till 30 years after ; in fact, this and other 

 tropical fruits do not appear to have received much atten- 

 tion until the time of the Empire ; since the peace still 

 greater improvements have been made ; many new houses, 

 especially for Pines, have been erected, and the hot-water 

 system all hut entirely adopted. The honour to which 

 it has now attained is more particularly due to M. Massey, 

 the present director of the Royal Gardens, and to the 

 chiefga asr In the forcing department, M. Grison, who 

 have, within the last few years, so successfully introduced 

 the open ground system of culture. The whole of the 

 succession-pits and fruitini;-bouses are now heated by hot- 

 water, tan has been entirely discarded ; all the water-pipes 

 are of copper, — some round, others open, gutters, 5 or 6 

 inches wu.c, by 3 deep, like those in use at the Hon. R. 

 Clive's, at Hewell ; the*e last are now coming into general 

 use for bottom-heat. In England I believe almost all the 

 pipes for warming the atmosphere are round — here, on 

 the contrary, the greater part are flat and upright, from C 

 to 8 inches high and 1 inch thick ; In these the water is 

 said to circulate quite as freely ; and moreover a great 

 advantage is gained by the comparatively short time in 

 which any given degree of heat may be obtained, the dif- 

 ference being about three to five ; on the contrary, how- 

 erer, it is lost quite as rapidly. The boilers, of which I 



in England. ^ . ■*■■_«. 



at Paris, Versailles, and I understand at almost every 

 other place in France, they are now grown in peat ; some 

 persons have tried loam and leaf-mould, others loam and 

 peat, or common earth and blsck sand, but none of Chese 

 composts have proved satisfactory ; nevertheless, many 

 eminent Horticulturists, and among them M. Poiteau, 

 the editor of the M Bon Jardmier," still think that a 

 stronger soil would be better suited to the end in view : 

 not so, however, the actual growers; the universal 

 opinion amonjr them is, that pure peat is for every variety 

 the best adapted to insure a rapid growth, which they 

 con r so essentially necessary to obtain large fruit ; and 

 certainly the health and vigour of the plants, and the 

 enormous fruit which has been obtained in this soil would 

 lead you to believe their opinion well founded. The 

 treatment of the plants when young, and indeed through- 

 out all their stages in pots (with the exception of soil), 

 is very much the same as in England ; it is therefore to 

 the advantages of the open-ground culture that I would 

 direct the attention of English growers. The suckers are 

 planted in August and September, and remain till May in 

 pits of the lowest temperature, when frames for the 

 summer are prep d of dung and Chesnut or Oak 

 leaves, well mixed and sweetened, of four feet thickness, 

 which is found to retain a steady bottom-heat of 18° to 20° 

 of lie lurour ( 7 2 to !•> Pshr.) for a much longer time than 

 from drag alone ; upon this is a bed of peat (sometimes 

 mixed wuii a few decayed leaves and black sand), about 

 eight inches de. in which the young plants are set at 

 sufficient distance apart to allow for six months' growth. 

 These frames are well protected by straw mats at night, 

 and as the summer advances air is liberally given, and 

 water as occasion may require. Rapid progress under this 

 treatment is soon apparent ; here they remain till the end 

 of September or middle of October, when they are. once 

 more repotted in 21s or 16s in pure peat, and placed in 

 the winter pits with a bottom-heat of 22° to 2">" of 

 K iumur (82 to 08" Fahr.), while the atmosphere 

 ranges from 15° to 17° (82° to 86° Fahr.) In the 

 following May those which are to fruit in pots are 

 shifted into 16l or 12s, while those for the open ground 

 are planted in the fruiting-houses, the soil of which is 

 pure, peat 9 or 10 inches deep ; the bottom-heat is now 

 increased to 25°, and the air never below 17° or 18° ; in 

 September and October many of the plants are showing 

 fruit, which comes to maturity in time for the Paris 

 season, which commences in December. Such is a brief 

 outline of the open ground system, as practised at Ver- 

 sailles and elsewhere. This treatment has not, however, 

 been found equally advantageous to every kind of fruit ; 

 it is only in the Cayenne, Enville, Jamaica, Providence, 

 and one or two other varieties, that the increase of size 

 has been most apparent; very little difference has been 

 perceptible In the sixe of the Queens (at least at the 

 Potager) and by far the greater number of this kind are 

 still grown in pots. There are at this time some splendid 

 specimens of the larger kinds in the open ground, espe- 

 cially among the Cayenne Lis; some short time ago I 

 noticed two magnificent fruits of this variety on two- 

 year old plants ; they were in every respect perfect 

 models of form, and must have weighed, I think, up- 

 wards of 12 lbs. each. I measured one, which was 

 ll^ins. long, by 8ins. wide. These are not solitary in- 

 stances of the advantages of this system, for I have before 

 seen others of equal magnitude and beauty ; while fruit of 

 the same variety in pots has not weighed more than 

 5ibs. or Gibs. ; similar results have attended the Envilles 

 and Providence, of which there are some almost, if not 

 quite, as large. These two last have been hitherto exten- 

 sively grown on account of their weight ; but the irregu- 

 larity of form in the Enville, and secondary quality of the 

 Providence, will now no longer permit them to retain the 

 place they have hitherto done, neither of them being at 

 all comparable, either in form, size, or flavour, to the 

 Cayenne Lis, or Epineux, which are second only in deli- 

 cacy of aroma to the Queen, and infinitely superior in 

 every other respect, being without dispute the noblest 

 Pines in cultivation. The Queens weigh, on an average, at 

 Venailles about 3lbs., in the open ground ; some few 

 have reached 41bs., or more ; but very many have 

 also been less than 21bs. ; those in pots have been some- 

 what smaller — the difference in size of this kind under the 

 two systems has notivaried more than one-fifth ; while the 

 Cayenne and Providence have increased more than one- 

 fourth. The number cultivated in this garden is above 

 2,000 ; more than two-thirds are Queens ; then follow 

 Providence, Cayenne, Enville, and Jamaica. Many 

 others are grown for the sake of variety, such as Antigua, 

 Poli blanc, Moscow, Queen, &c. Sec. ; but the first-named 



sorts constitute the grand resource for the Royal family 

 and Court. In a few days I will send another paper on 

 this subject, and also a description of some seedling Pines, 

 which have been lately obtained in Paris and Versailles, as 

 well as of the different, boilers now in use. 



Societies. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 

 This Society held its second meeting for the season on 

 Thursday, the 14th ult.,— W. C. Trevelyan, Esq., in the 

 chair. Mr. C. Lawson, Junior, Edinburgh, was elected 

 a Resident Fellow. A donation of specimens, from Sierra 

 Leone, presented by A. Gerard, Esq., was placed on the 

 J table. Professor Graham read the continuation of his 



lections, that such species, though not uncommon to them, 

 must be always in demand among their Scotch brethren. 

 The Professor also made some observations on the climate 

 and general aspect of the island of Jersey, in reference to 

 its height above the level of the sea, the nature of its soil, 

 &c, as bearing on the vegetation. At the close of public 

 business the meeting proceeded to the election of office- 

 bearers for the present year, when the following gentle- 

 men were appointed : — viz., President, Professor Graham; 

 Vice-Presidents, Dr. Neill, David Steuart. Esq., W. C. 

 Trevelyan, Esq., and W. H. Lowe, Esq., M.D.— Edin- 

 burgh Evening Post. ^T 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 j an , l _-G. Newport, Esq., in the chair. A new put 

 of the Transactions of this Society was announced and 

 laid upon the table. A list of officers for the ensuinr, 

 year was read over. Mr. Ingpen exhibited a birds' nest, 

 apparently belonging to the hedge-sparrow, which had 

 been built during the past month. An extract was read 

 of a letter from Mr. Fortnum, of Adelaide, in South 

 Australia, to the Rev. F. \V. Hope. He had obtained i 

 Phaena. with one of its legs broken off, and he had fedH 

 on the leaves of the Gum-tree, and on shedding its skin, 

 in the place of the leg which was broken off a new one, 

 but very small and imperfect, had made its appearance. 

 At the second time of shedding the skin the leg was mucli 

 larger, till at last, after four sheddings, it assumed i 

 natural size. A remarkable fact in the habits of Phss» 

 midte is, that the moment they are out of their old skis 

 they commence eating it. Mr. Fortnum had captured at 

 Adelaide three species of Mantispa, and also of Ascala- 

 phus. He had found noNecrophaga. A communication 

 was read from Dr. Thomas Savage, in which he stated 

 that he had discovered in tropical Africa a new species of 

 Mecyonorhina, very closely allied to M. polyphenol. 

 An extract of a letter from Colonel Hearsey to Mr. West- 

 wood, from central India, was read. He had taken abund. 

 ance of Diopsis, the double-headed fly, at different times and 

 in different places. Mr. Westwood described two new 

 species of sacred Beetle, for which he proposed the name 

 Ketocerus. They are most nearly allied to the genm 

 Ileleo-cantharis. The President referred to M. Fort- 

 num'i, remarks on the reproduction of the legs of PhasmL 

 He had found that the Myriapods possessed the same power 

 of reproduction, and he" had seen the legs and antenna 

 of the Julus and Lithobius both reproduced. This repro- 

 duction did not take place when the animals had ceased 

 to grow. He did not consider Swammerdam's theory of 

 the developement ot one skin or skeleton within another 

 at all borne out by the facts of the case. Mr. Water- 

 house thought that the constant reproduction of the p«ts 

 in Crustaceous animals was accounted for by the fact that 

 they never came to maturity. There was not a period, si 

 in insects, when they ceased to enlarge and throw off their 

 skins. Other remarks were made by Messrs. Yarrell, 

 Marshall, Westwood, and others. 



I 



Iftebietos. 



Lessons on Animals, Vegetables^ and Miner aU.^ J 

 By Mrs. Marcet. 12mo. Longmans. I 



Tins is a trifle, produced with the skill which its an- 

 thoress is well known to possess ; but only suited to the 

 verv youngest of children. It is, in fact, in some respects, 

 an 'anticipation of the knowledge which the ordinary 

 events of a child's life are sure to produce, unless very 

 extraordinary means of obstructing knowledge are re- 

 sorted to. 



That the admirable arrangements of the creation we 

 far beyond the comprehension of man, is only denied by 

 those who are ignorant of the extent of their own igno- 

 rance. Nevertheless, we are no great admirers of U* 

 forced construction placed by some people upon very com- 

 mon facts. We should have thought that so clever a per- 

 son as Mrs. Marcet would be above all ad captand"* 

 speculations ; and yet we are reluctantly obliged to in- 

 quire what else is the following : — fo 



"There is an umbrella over the stem of every tree v 



prevent the rain from wetting it. , 



44 The children laughed and wondered what the teacn 

 meant. He then showed them the print of an Oak, §V 

 ing, look at the head of this tree ; is it not very mucn » 

 the shape of an umbrella ? and it answers the P^P ?^ 

 one completely, for it prevents the trunk of the tree m"» 

 being wetted. You see how good God was when he mao v 

 the trees, to give them such a shape that the rain cann 



reach the stems to rot them." ' • 



Surely we need not add that this is entirely wrosgr 

 and that the office of the head of a tree is anything ratn 

 than to prevent water falling on the trunk and we " ,D ^ 

 If it were really as Mrs. Marcet states, what would becoo* 

 of all the unfortunate trees pruned to the form ot war 

 handles, with which suburban and other villages abound 



NOTICES of NEW PLANTS WHICH ARE EITHE* 



USEFUL OR ORNAMENTAL. 



Cattieva makgivata. White-bordered flowered caiu^j 



(Store Epiphyte.) Orchi acesc. Gynandria. M "f"?"*:,,,. jo- 

 piant is a perfect gem of its class, and becomes additionai^^ 

 teresting fiom tiie circumstance of its adaptation to the : p«i | ^ 

 of the cultivator ia a picturesque point of view; as it 

 grown on a log of woo 1, and suspended from the root or ni ^ i 

 house. It is one of the many treasures in the c°"cci i 

 Messrs. Loddiges, «f Hackney, and was imported »y •" 



