.) 



THE ( ARI)i:Nl US' CHRONICLE. 



[Jan. la 



Aid 



t. 





Alf 



w\th nne' j 



Wfi ?hey mtr »" (1 l r 



-d rbed.4 or Lor 



ro dance. It grows abut 



IT W ,- .1 for I * or 1 orders. 



* one of tin mat interesting 



I* 1 1 f wj? About inches 

 vet, an its flow ?ire a ry 



MV> m*j«. ow,a. eed abundantly It 



k well adapted f »"»* or Lortw. 1 » ts also a 



Ven i txinuitm.—T flowera of thi* plant much 

 r^g, .„ i l Mar 1, with Urge coarao leave 



It gro »bout » foot ,»<i i»^ 7 !l «")' P ,ftnt 



f li far* 



m i tfrwidflfer*— This most beautiful new 



annual was exhibit! at one of the < bis wick exhibitions 

 this year r t rut time by Messrs. Veitch. It snr- 



Btttoca vis la in the besot) : its 1 ell-shaped 

 a i leeg Stamens, which exhibit the anthers to 

 so good advantage It rows a foot high, and flowers 

 pr .fusel I * native of I abfornia. 



Aim .•«•.— -This makes a very pretty bed, and 



one seed will furnish many varieties. It is a 



stiff gr plasty s U a foot in height. It is 



native of 1 u. /, //. Ikchnt . 



fetfU*. U term ;Te - ir;Ti pther „ f the fir9t di ing i 





« do* ng " is incorrect^ if, M JOB statem 



10 inches or one . t. The term "shallow spits" is 

 not, I leve. used by Jr. mith, and ,s calculated to 



,.',l..ptl, .. a spit is under >od by all farm 

 Ubot; rsasal ,t 10 inches. Mr. Sin.th say*, « The 

 icings at first are to he as mnch as two spits deep, but 

 the depth is to be m-asured year after y;ar until they 

 reach the depth of : or 24 inches." 



* 



. That which was of old tfce fJP 

 5 operated strongly upon lm ^* 



« 



The term u two 



, deep » has misled many, and I have no doubt has 

 Kiven rise to many failure?, owing to the coht of double 



a 



Home Correspondence. 



Qraftrd 1 'emfrons (are page 6).— Your n rre- 



ipMdr ne "J. 1 moat sorely be unacquainted a h the 



improved methods <-f raftn heae fine plants now 

 emj yed by 0«r beat propagat », or he would nevt -r 

 have written as lie has done. 1 eookl show him thousands 

 grafted io stteh a way that nearly all are ro, d from 



the senn md are on their own roots, whilst li mi 

 rate f *r them to throw up a sucker. There i« much 



M rnanv of 



PBu eee s my declamation Hgaiafl grafted U 

 which are far better tiian if they were not grafted. 

 This owtcry against them may be attributed to sev< d 

 Cine mi the'prii pal <*ie beiog tbar unthn log j i -ons 

 have sent out trrts graf n stocks on which it "aa 



impose e for them t> succeed. Thus thee rcreen 

 Deoda lis* bee* graded on the Larch. It " .1. li." has 

 »ite<i fclveston, be wast have aeen Ired* of fine 



Deodar* are grafted on Oedars < 



Lebai i. Who oversaw the English Elm on its own 

 roots theowiuf ip thousands of sweker equal to tl 



same plant grafted on the Scotch Klin I Would " J. 1< 

 plant hi* walls with Peaches on tl vu roots I How 



many of our ft 



see refose to crow on tliair own 



roots but grow v roosly whan worked, whilst others 

 best wh»n oot watkad. It aly when the stock 



is unsi abla, or the gral 'ting clot v, that the effect is 

 had. How ate CamelMaa to be propagated | The fame 



'pjastiepiay be asked rasfaoting the Porpla Beecb (sorely 

 it is not injured by grafting), the varieti- t of the Ash, 

 Thorn, and numbers of other thing*. But to return to 



tl 



whi 



., 





given _ 



dittos being so much more than the price given in 

 ha pamphlet I know the arable lands of all the 

 eastern counties intimately, and with the excep- 

 tion of the blowing sands of Norfolk and Suffolk, 

 and the loose black soils of the fens, I fully believe 

 that no good corn land can be' stirred 20 inches 

 leep under la per rod, and no single digging under 

 $d, per rod, and much care is required in having 

 the latter done ; the four-pronged (Lyndon or Parkes 1 ) 

 fork is tin est tool, and this should be thrust into the 

 soil nearly perpendicularly ; a "loose hand" will make 

 it form a beautiful slope, and stir a very large surface 

 at a small c< , but to very lirtle purpose, as far as the 

 real interests of his employer go. I give my labourers 

 id, per r for single digging between rows of fruit trees 

 8 i t aj rt; this seems to approach very nearly to 

 Mr. Smith's practice in digging between his rows of 

 Wheat, requiring about the same care, but then it is 

 double his price. The Lois-Weedon system is so full of 

 interest, and appears so advantageous, that it is of con- 

 sequence to clear away all obstacles to its being carried 

 out, and the apparent difference in the price of labour 

 can most probably be exph iiined by some one who has 

 tried the system in a stiff* soil. T. R. 9 Herts. 



Il<no to h i Good Water in Clay Districts. — The dif- 



culty of procuring good water for domestic and farm 



purposes, so generally experienced in clay districts 



where the well water is frequently bad, may, I think, 



often be overcome by a plan which 1 bane lately adopted 



with success. The soil is a Has clay ♦, I collect in a 



cemented tank the rain that falls on an acre and a half 



of lawn wl li Is thorough drained with pipes 3 ft. 6 in. 



deep, and adjoins the house. The water is excellent, 



nearly soft enough to wash with, whereas the well water 



is not only very saline, but has a nauseous smell and 



taste. In the first instance the tank was merely 

 lined with dry briei work, when the water was 

 better than that from the wails, but not so good 

 as it is now. The bad qualities of the well water 

 being attributable to the soluble matters in the clay 

 with which it is in connection, the necessity of a water- 

 tight tank is evident. The f-rnall quantity of soluble 

 matter taken up by the rain water in its passage from 

 the surface of the land to the pipe-drains cannot be 

 avoided ; but 1 eyond this it may be kept pure, if the 

 tank is effectually separated from the clay. This plan 

 is very inexj naive, and capable of general adoption in 

 country places, where a suitable field to collect the 

 water is almost sure to be found near the house. I 

 think arable land will answer nearly as well as Grass 

 land ; and if already drained, the trouble of conveying 

 the water from it to the house, and forming a suitable 

 receptacle there, must be small. In many cases the exist- 

 ing well, if partially filled up so as to exclude the springs, 

 might be lined and bottomed with cement at an expense 

 of only 2/. or 3/., and made to answer the purpose. Of 

 course, the size of the tank must be. proportioned to the 

 quantity of water required, and there must be a waste 

 pipe from it. Richard Yardev, Seaford Grange, near 



Per shore. 



\\\ letMUrtm ; there are man ne varieties 

 h '* not be increased except by grafting, an 



there are many wbWi grow hotter and strong* r when 



grafted than • n their own roots. No one who lias seen 



he plants, trees I sbeul rather say, shown in London 

 by the Messrs. Waterer, could suppose that they had 

 been injured by j;ra nt. With regard to raising 

 varieties train seed and sea hem ont (unproved) with 



nun !■ *, I Know of n mars dishonest. Although 



■t 1* true that man eeedUags pro-dueed b\ roaring two 

 kinds, as ar! tm and caiawhUnse for instance, may 

 nsblo each other, is it r lit to fell thesa ae alta- 

 cleraost, whan some may pr* a inf. or to that va 

 and many in the same bed will doubt lean be worthless I 

 Than, attain, when one of the j -areola is a hybrid, perhaps 



two t the seedlings will be alike. " J. R.*' may rest 



mred thai if he ever peaseasee tine varieties he must 



have tl nsrraAaA /. R- Pearwmu 



Amkantia not — -Th fine stove tree is now in^ 



flower at Wynyard Park, th seat o the Marchioness the characters and merits of fruits. 



Dowager of 1 ndonden and I believe that it is the 



second plant of the kind which has blossomed in this 



conn try. I he plant under notice was imported in 



1 being then but inches in height, and now it is a 



tine heaki tree £ bet high, with five flower spikes on 



it. - e spike now in bloom measures 9 feet long, and 



has 18 flowers on it, all of w hieh are extremely bi ant in 



colour. Joan Atownr/, llynynrd Park, Jan. . 



Rainat Mtlbmr Home Gardens, Donetsk* .— 1852 : 

 November, 1 3 ,« aches ; December, 6 ^ inches. 

 IU$: NovemU inches; Ueeember, 1 inehas 



18.54: So\ f.#'r, 2 J& inches; December, 0^ itn S. 



*p+ KlM mOBt, 1 aprnhenu/be some 



error m terms in Mr. Smith's aeeountt t the expenses 

 of labour. Double digging, as un? retood by gardenean 

 And i era, is diggii t« spiel (about 80 inches) deej 

 and eitaor bringim* the bottom spit at once to the sui 

 face (usual in market-gnrdens and nurse s wham the 

 sod has been long under spade cultivation) or turning 

 it over and W \ t &t the bottom ; the latter is my 

 praetwe m bring!..* fresh land under spade cultivation, 

 Md not, as you i aaeoaae, bringing at once 10 inches of 

 clay to the surface. It l9 not till the sixth or eighth 

 year that the bottom spit i. gradually brought up, the 

 groom] io the meantime having been double du« tbreo 



d (a 



* , « eating on a subsoil of 



caWreous clay, at first stiff, but after being stirred 



Unmlh A 



or four times. 

 tender loam 



hs cost of doulk digging my Ian 



without stonea, resting on a subat 



Very 



) ta r the first 



afterwards U. per rod. Now-, this ia wh£ is aiwavs 

 understood as , ublc diggu,,, and of court wlien 

 practical men read that t i can be done ii uZ 

 Weedoo for 4^d. er rod they el that some erett 

 difference must exist either in the price of labour or i 



Beurri JSuperfi —In reply to the queries of M. de 



Jonghe, I may state in the outset that I have been all 



jmy life, now nearly 40 years, accustomed to observe 



I was born in a 

 nursery of fruit trees, I have lived a nurseryman of 

 fruit trees, and I now cultivate for my amusement a 

 collection of upwards of 1300 varieties. I therefore 

 leave II !e Jonghe to judge whether or not I am com- 

 pe nt to distinmiish the difference between two trees 

 or two fruits. I do not quite agree with ML de Jonghe 

 when he says that the question now, "is simply whether 

 the Beurr Supei fin has a different form, a different 

 flavour, aval period of maturity from that of the Cum- 

 berland, figured in the 'Album de Pomologie.' " What 

 M. de Jonghe has to show after what he said in his 

 first communication on this subject is, that the name 

 of Beurr. iperfin « was applied in 1846-47, at Angers 

 to a seedling raised by the late Van Mons, which fruited 

 for the first time m his nurseries in 1827 ;"and also 

 that the Pomological Society was in ignorance when it 

 did not know "how to distinguish this Pear among a 

 thousand, and restore to it the original name of Cumber- 

 land It is an easily ascertained fact that the original 

 seedhngtree of Beurre Superfin is stillexisting at Angers 

 and that the original tree of Cumberland is still at Cum- 

 berland, in Rhi e Island, where it has been since the 

 beginning of this century. Where is the original tree 

 of the Cumberland of Van Mons ? Robert Hogg. [We 



tlunk that the public has now had enough of this 

 discussion.] b 



Conifer ce . 

 which you 



their matured characters, and to prove themselves wq 

 of distinctive names 



menta malorim has - r — « — __. 6V upuu lmr ^ 

 gardeners and their lists, wherein many tempting ni 2 

 are found to swell the corresponding list of gu^ 

 Some very good papers have been published i n j£ 

 Horticultural Society's Journal, such as Hartweg'g^f 

 Dr. Lindley's, Mr. Gordon's, a paper on Himakwi 

 Conifers, and the translation of Endlicher's catalog 

 which last, by the bye, has put to confusion many a & 

 diously-labelled Pinetum. But there still remains a hittn 

 which none but those who live at the fountain-he*4 of 

 horticulture and botany can fill up. Plants are in^a, 

 duced — introducers take their treasures to be preeentaj 

 at court— there they receive their titles, make th* 

 bow, and are pushed on by the crowd which follow . 

 they leave their cards and addresses, but sometina 

 these frail and perishable memorials are lost (as see* 

 to be the case with the ancestors of Cupressus la* 

 bertiana) ; they slink away into the world of fash* 

 at Chiswick, and there, suffering from the vicissitudn 

 of garden stuff, lose their labels or get misplaced, «. 

 what is worse, are sent out to subscribers, who cut them 

 up for propagation, and when the time comes for their 

 being planted out into the world, their names are obt 

 terated, or replaced from the stores of the gardenert 

 imagination. There are many cultivators and colledm 

 whose object is one of a higher order than that i 

 merely adding names to their collections, or of surpan 

 ing some rival in entities of no value. I apprehend ths 

 gentlemen who apply their spare moments and spare 

 money to encourage the introduction of rare and 

 beautiful things into this couutry are in many wiji 

 public benefactors ; it is unnecessary to enumerate 

 the exotic plants of which the valuable qualitia 

 have led to their universal cultivation — plants, 

 I mean, which are now naturalised in our woods 

 and hedge-rows, which were once as rare ant 

 curious as the araucaria or taxodiura. There are macj 

 plants of great promise now in the country of which it 

 is extremely difficult to obtain information, A mm 

 curiosity is a poor treasure. A rusty musket ball would 

 have a value if it were picked up on some hero's grate 

 upon the sad but beautiful banks of the Alma ; — so itis 

 with plants. If ever there were a tribe of plants whicl 

 from its vast variety and combined qualifications of n* 

 and beauty surpasses any other, it certainly is that oi 

 the Conifene : their applicability to valuable uses, their 

 aptitude for purposes of shelter or of beauty is daily 

 more and more apparent. Governments introduce 

 them to replenish or replace old royal forests worn out 

 by centuries of unvarying Oak ; artists and gardeners 

 find no contrasts of form or colour without the whole- 

 sale introduction of the many-formed many-tinted 

 Conifers ; places bare and bleak, cold and ugly, areiwt 

 filled and furnished ; and some day soon, planters who 

 have high and dry light soil unfit for Oak, and ill-placed 

 for Turnips, will begin to substitute the happy family of 

 Pinus Laricio and Deodar for Oak and Ash ; and sfl 

 further draw from the same tribe the means of sheto 

 ing the residences, beautifying the neighbourhoods, lid 

 filling the pockets of their heirs : but it is upon tb 

 collector of the present time that all these good d 

 pleasant results depend. As one of these, I have 1(XD{ 

 wished to see the blanks and omissions of the catalogs 

 published in the Horticultural Society's Journal in 1851 

 tilled up. Many would join with me in cordial thanh 

 to you if you could prevail on the authorities of tfe 

 horticultural world to open their drawers, or turn bai 

 to former pages, and draw out the memorani 

 which they alone possess, of the introduction of roaoj 

 plants now lying neglected and ignored for want « 

 sponsors. For instance, to name a few, I have tried is 

 vain to discover when and by whom Pinus Bungeaa* 

 was introduced, certainly the most distinct plant in mj 

 collection, and hardy as an Oak ; the same too abocl 

 Pinus osteosperma, a very peculiar species, and the 

 graceful hardy Cupressus Corn ey ana (miscalled in tk 

 Hort.^ Soc. Journal "the female of the Juniper* 

 sinensis ") ; Pinus Fordi, very distinct ; and the harty 

 robust, and rapidly growing Abies Douglasi taxifA 

 a strongly marked variety ; so too about Pinus Pa& 

 fiana, and the beautiful Juniperus alba aud fragta^ 

 which are species and not varieties ; and Cuprerf 

 Knighti, which is totally unlike any other which grows; 

 not to omit some concerning which I have lately * 

 ceived inquiring letters, viz., Cupressus Schomburgki*^ 

 Ksempferi, Pinus Nsesa (Neoza) and P. pallo (palo) bl*Bj» 

 and others, with the names of which I will not swell tw 

 already too long letter. I trust your interest «* 

 authority will bring forth some of the information **J* 

 I, in common with many others, greatly desire ; *& 

 thank you for the room you have already allowed* 

 intercommunication on this subject. Pinus Gloucestrt** 





j 



Llvnean, Dec. 19. 





columns 



Collectors and Cultivators.- 

 have permitted tt> be introduced into your 



The subject 



remain 



l (Bee p. 806, 1854) *houid not be allowed to 

 withm the narrow limits in which it has alread 



y 



appeared- 1 tn.au the txxata qumio of the difference 

 between t »o L, presses. I believe them to be the 2 



SI Uat ,'• ,T w ,at l W8nt t« write about. The 8 ub' 



fc -*-- u*. « *. , „;... zks ass^^^t^s^E 



Prof. Bell, President, in the ch* 

 J. Newton Loomis, M.D., was elected a Fellow, gj 

 Gould exhibited a fine specimen of the Giant P u fi 7*j 

 (Lycoperdon giganteum), found by him in M^r* 

 Wood, near Somers Leyton, Suffolk. Read : ft ^^ 

 " on the food of certain gregarious fishes," by ' 

 Knox, communicated by W. Yarrell, Esq., V.F* 



this paj* 



were commenced about 1824, and related to theffe 5 



inquiries, of which the results were given in 



habits of certain fishes of whose history in th * ^ 



ticular little or nothing was at that 

 The researches were commenced with 



•a 



