-1855.1 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



119 



be 



tageous 



majority of this genus, so numerous in its species and 

 varieties, is hardy ; but I should be glad if any one 

 would furnish me with a list of those which are not so. 

 I ask it in the negative, merely under the impression 

 A that the affirmative applies to the greater number. 



yist sometimes 



♦n confirm al 



Oo 



ktot Ud three different occasions in December I 

 Sfui opportunity of tasting the fruit, and on Christ- 

 mu day 1 ate one in evei T respect excellent, perfectly 



ipencd 



May 



hf no means so good as it would have been in a drier 

 ifoioaphere and under more direct light. The kind 

 I tm inclined to think is quite distinct and new, 

 lad I believe was brought from Italy by the late 

 J. H. Vivian, Esq. It is white, much smaller than 

 the Marseilles, and prolific as an Orleans Plum, every 

 joint of every branch of proper growth being studded 

 with a fruit. I suggested to Mr. Barron to call it the 

 •Singleton Perpetual," which name I think it is entitled 

 to bear until wfi find some prior claim to its introduction. 

 [Mr. Barron, in a letter just received, entirely confirms 

 this statement] With a score of plants of this Fig,I should 

 have no fear of producing a dish, every month in the year. 

 Mr. James, at Poutypool Park, speaks of having Straw- 

 berries "ten months in the twelve," but this Fig I have no 

 doflbt will beat his. Ripe Figs at Christmas are certainly 

 I noTclty— ripe Strawberries hot quite so unheard-of a 

 circumstance. I may, however, as well place a Laurel 

 tomch on the brow of another Welsh gardener, Mr. Floud, 

 ff.toR. Fothergill, Esq., at Abernant, near Aberdare. 

 1 there Baw in the middle of October one of the finest 

 houses of Melons I ever beheld at any season, the third 

 crop from the same plants, Mr. Floud, in sending me 

 nme seed of one of the kind, remarks: — "The green 

 floh is small, but excellent in flavour. Mr. Fothergill 

 told me that the fruit of it was delicious in December. 

 I lent my last Melon to table on Christmas day ! » 

 These Melons were growing in a recently erected house 

 (indeed the glass at Abernant is all new) in a bed heated 

 by hot water, and the plants and foliage were as clean, 

 free from insects, and full of health in October, as they 

 *re generally see n in April or May. W. P. 

 rmttkbury Lodge. 



Tk Weather.— Allow me to call attention to the tem- 

 perature of the night of Saturday, the 10th and 11th, 

 to coldest, I believe, for the last 20 years by 3°. 



u\2!.f T f T ollows: - W allingford, 0°; Croydon, 91°; 

 H^fied House, Notts, 11° 5'; Hyde Park, 16°: 



•too, 13°. T. P., Porthgwidden, Trwro, Feb. 17. 



m place is six miles from the sea, six miles 

 ™J the purlieus of Dartmoor, nearly equidistant 



2° u7^° U Abbofc and Totness, and forms the 

 ntmhed between the rivers Dart and Teign. Here 



il; e o?o° meterj duriD S a11 *« ~ld, has not been 



Z f 5 ? n , d onl y on one <%> Frida 7 the 16th, 

 5*8 it fallen below 30°. The snow, which fell thickly 



A yres. 



Berth. 



of 



m T~n7i « r nurserymen that all are not so par- . so great a lack of water, there is no lack of this fierce, 



Yt0&** ° t j ie gjQcks employed. The subject appears arid easterly wind, burning up everything, and over- 

 ****'*' we received all the elucidation it is likely to whelming us with dust. $. 



■•*_ to i fa discussion has not, I think, been an profit- Pentstemon. — A fine plant of Pentstemon azureum in 

 I tbink I am justified in drawing the conclusion a south wall border seems to be killed. I believe the 



- Ait _..„*«/i tlmt fllthniiph for certain rmrnoses 



tfth which l 



£rdon of cross-bred Rhododendrons is o :ly to be 

 CSS for from self-rooted plants. J. R. 



IffLur Figs at Singleton and Welsh Gardening 

 -JLiw* of several months prior to Christmas, a 



them killed. In all cases where the sorts of an orna- 

 mental genus vary in that respect, such lists as I have 

 asked for, furnished by general cultivators, would be 

 most desirable matter for many of your readers, always 

 giving the list (as above suggested) which is shortest. A.H. 

 The Winter of 1813-14.— The duration and severity 

 of the present winter having brought to my recollection 

 the long frost of 1313-14, I have looked up some notes I 

 made at the time, which may be interesting to your 

 readers. Thermometers to register the greatest cold 

 were not made at the time, or were very rare, so that I 

 can only give the degree of cold shown at 8.30 a.m., and 

 that not for every day; perhaps some correspondent can 

 supply this deficiency. "The long frost commenced on 

 the 26th December, 1813. The thermometer stood 

 between 12° and 22° for the first three weeks, taken in 

 the morning at half-past eight; during this period theie 

 were two inconsiderable falls of snow. The days were 

 generally sunny and serene, with moonlight nights, the 

 wind N. and E. At the beginning of the fourth week 

 there was a considerable fall of snow, with high winds, 

 which continued several days. The snow drifted to such 

 a degree that all communication was cut off with distant 

 places and with the villages near Cirencester, until a 

 passage was opened, the drifts being from 4 to 10 feet 

 deep ; the average depth of snow was 15 inches. An 

 invariably liar* frost, with occasional snow, completed 

 the fourth week. At the beginning of the fifth week, 

 the wind being steady to the N., the frost was very 

 severe; on the morning of the 25th January the ther- 

 mometer was 10°. In the course of that day the wind 

 changed to the S., and a thaw of short duration took 

 place during the day, freezing at night. Rain at first 

 accompanied the thaw, with variable winds, which com- 

 pleted the 5th week. The wind again went to the 

 N., producing clear frosty weather, the powerful 

 effect of the sun occasioning a partial thaw during 

 the day. On the night of the 3d February, two 

 dim concentric circles appeared round the moon ; 

 these were followed by a cloudy atmosphere, and on the 

 5th by a S. wind with snow, after which a rapid thaw 

 took place, and only the drifts of snow remained, but it 

 soon changed to frost with keen winds, which continued 

 to the end of February. A slight tendency to thaw 

 marked the beginning of March, followed by steady 

 frost for a week with N. wind, which, with a little snow, 

 continued to the 12th. The snow assumed very regular 

 crystalline forms at this time, sometimes falling 

 slowly, when no clouds were to be seen, the wind being 

 still. A week of E. wind with severe frost preceded an 

 appearance of mist, which rather increased until the 

 20th March, when the wind changed to the S., and 

 brought mild weather and rain, making altogether 12 

 weeks winter." Thos. C. Brown, Cirencester , Feb . 17. 



Black Barbarossa Grape. — A correspondent inquires 

 whether this Grape will force with the Black Ham- 

 burgh, and be equal to that variety as a cropper. I can 

 answer his inquiry in the affirmative, having some plants 

 in pots which have shown, set, and grown as freely as a 

 Muscadine or Miller's Burgundy. To its " non-shrivel- 

 ling" qualities under a summer's sun I cannot speak. 

 W. P. A yres, Whittlebury Lodge. 



Underground Manuring. — The system of tilling 

 Celery 5 with liquid manure by means of underground 

 drains was practised successfully at Carr House, near 

 Doncaster, upwards of 10 years ago, by James Stevens, 

 gardener. Those who sneer at this mode of manuring, 

 and say that it is folly to drain, if it is proved to 

 answer, should bear in mind that the liquid is not 

 intended| to remain stagnant in the drain, and that 

 Celery grows spontaneously in ditches and water- 

 courses. D. S., Gardener, Campsall Hall, near Lancas- 

 ter, Feb. 20. 



Gardening Neios from Amtralia. — The following 

 extract from a letter just received from a gardener now 

 residing in the neighbourhood of Adelaide may be 

 interesting to your readers. He says :— " I am very 

 comfortable here, at least as far as circumstances will 

 allow me, being apart from my family. I have been for 

 six weeks past grafting fruit trees, and have been getting 

 20s. per day, or 61. per week. The garden or nursery 

 contains 80 acres, all of which are planted with Plums, 

 Apples, Pears, Cherries,. Apricots, Peaches, Figs, 

 Oranges, Lemons, Grapes, and all kinds of Nuts and 

 other varieties of fruit trees. They tell me that the 

 trees bear exceedingly well—indeed I should say so 

 from the appearance of the blossom. The proprietor 

 during the past year made 421. from one Apple tree in 

 ready cash. They sell from Is. to Is. 6d. per lb. They 

 have very few of the best English fruits here. I am 

 collecting together all the native plants, and intend 



| Devonshire, and did not make so much from the whole 

 lot during the past year. The letter is dated Sept. 26, 

 1854, only six days after the Battle of the Alma, so 

 that your readers will have the latest gardening news 

 from our distant colony. William E. Rendle and Co. 

 I [Tin's corresponds with "the statement lately made con- 

 cerning Mr. Carton. But unless we are much mis- 

 informed, the cost of all articles of food and clothing is 

 so enormously high that, after all, 20*. a day in South 

 Australia are not much better than 3s. here.] 



Rhododendron glaucum. — The magnificence that we 

 are taught to expect, and which we shall doubtless find 

 in the flowers of some of the species of Sikkim Rhodo- 

 dendrons, will, I fear, induce many to overlook the 

 claims of other humbler, but nevertheless useful and 

 interesting kinds. Among the latter is glaucum, a 

 neat, compact plant, growing, Dr. Hooker tells us, on 

 its native ridges, about 2 feet high. Its leaves are small, 

 pale.green above, but beautifully glaucous beneath—so 

 much so, that they appear coated with a film of silver 

 leaf. The plant is very hardy in our climate, and blooms 

 freely in the open ground early in May. Its flowers 

 are rose-coloured. Ladies, if you would have a little 

 hardy plant, worthy of all the care and admiration you 

 so well know how to bestow on a favourite, and have a 

 square foot of a cool peat border to grow it in, lose no 

 time in ordering a plant of Rhododendron glaucum 



aw.z. 



a* 



octettes; 



three 



hud 



fierce 



donTfni T a ,° WS ' coveri ng everything, and have so 

 ^ for the last f^hf -i— W„ _:iu. ._ _i._-.i_ 



wee ana four weeks since between this and the sea, 

 ■«anea out, whilst clouds of dust, urged on bv the 

 Eri 8 y J Wind > are P assin g without intermission 



inter iq fl • ~~~m eight days ' The rills m which 

 Our <n!L 1Dg .' • iQ numl >er, are not frozen over. 

 «reat want is water ; and so it has been for many 



fed. \l , , have three men levelling a bank of 



TheViiW? ng ' about 2 wide > and 4 feet hi S h - 

 8 lo'7!« ? r ° Z , en 2 * inches in de P th 5 then follows 

 ■d»Jh • ? mod erately damp earth ; but all 



Win A. Z V te dr y- Your readers ma y remember 

 *»»2Lr T e !f 0f December 1853, all the king- 

 2 h" T ch fr0m a heavv storm of wind and 



of rain fell in i Q T Very violent > more than 3 inche s 

 ttaaderahl* u S ' and the dama g e d »ne was very 

 trt "« wash a ouses were flooded, ponds had their but- 

 fe«e waiio aWay ' "edges were overturned, and many 

 klweern!' overtnrow n by the waters, were washed 

 ** IW .l aWay Sorae distan ce from their found* 

 ^ worth 1^ ,** tlme > fully 60 wep K we have had no 

 •Wsnolf. eakmg of> In J a nuary, 1854, we had a 



l * e »thewal 0W f,', Whichdriedaway ; but no rain to 

 ***, 5 inphf V ,llowe d. In February, early in the 



*>*» „,._• es ot snow fell, and acain dried awav • »nd 



away ; and 



Hmfehth- „ ™ T n ™', wh ! ch has c 



was apparently 



4* 



?P enormou 



uJuL e ° P10Usly > the wind at south-west driving 



oua ; ma8S es of clouds, and everything portend- 



^y rain, the rain fell, the wind quickly 



west *L westward, y, and in a short time 



■*° <* threT a * Clear 8k y ; and g^erally in 

 k &o caw, u yS no vesti 8 e ° f rain remained. 



2^yonHimr^r r here in 1854 did * rai «» 



7** 20 to 9i ' J hours - 0ar annu al foU of rain is 

 Lilies. A*!!!?, if?". Laat y ear Jt harely amounted to 



Entomological, Feb. 5.— The president in the chair. 



The secretary read the minutes of the anniversary 

 meeting held on the 22d January, at which Mr. 

 Curtis was elected president in lieu of Mr. Newman, 

 whose period of office had expired, and Mr. Edwin 

 Shepherd was elected joint- secretary with Mr. Douglas, 

 in the place of the late Mr. W. Wing. After the list of 

 donations received since the last meeting had been read, 

 fie newly-elected president read an address, thanking 

 the society for his election as president, and nominating 

 the three vice-presidents for the following year, namely, 

 Messrs. Westwood, Newman, and Stainton; and which, 

 upon the motion of Mr. Spence, was requested to be 

 published in the proceedings. Mr. Newman presented a 

 drawing exhibiting the transformations of Saturnia 

 Spini, with specimens of the silk spun by its larva, in 

 the manner suggested by Herr Pretsch, of Vienna, and 

 described at the last meeting of the society. Brigadier 

 Hearsey^ communicated an extract from the "Bengal 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society," Vol. VI., 1837, relative 

 to the mode of spinning off, instead of reeling the thread 

 from the cocoons of the Em silk-worm in India, this 

 being the species now attempted to be raised, with every 

 prospect of success, in Malta and the South of Europe. 

 Mr. Stainton exhibited some of the galls of the Cynips 

 Quercus-petioli from Devonshire, Mr. Curtis having 

 doubted its occurrence in that county at a former 

 meeting. Mr. Stain ton's correspondent gave some 

 particulars relative to the habits of the species, which is 

 only found on the lower sprays of the Oak. Mr. S. 

 Stevens exhibited several splendid specimens of the 

 remarkable and rare Cheirotonus MacL^aii from India. 

 Mr. Newman read a note entitled a (( Plea for the cock- 

 roach or black beetle,' , stating that it had been observed 

 to feed upon the bed bug, and this habit on board ship 

 had been noticed in Webster's " Narrative of a Voyage 

 to St. Helena, 1 ? and in Foster's voyage. Brigadier 

 Hearsey stated that the cockroaches on board the 

 vessel in which he last returned from India were so 

 numerous that they gnawed the nails of some of the 

 passengers down to the quick whilst asleep. Mr. 

 Curtis communicated a notice by Dr. Asa Fitch on 

 species of scale insect which infests the fruit trees in 

 the State of New York, adding that the authorities of 

 that state had commissioned Dr. Fitch to draw up a 

 memoir on the insects injurious to fruit trees. He also 

 read a note from M. Candeze requesting the loan of 

 species of Elateridse for his monograph on that family. 

 Mr. Douglas read a note on Psyche helicinella, and Mr. 

 Westwood descriptions of a number of new exotic 

 Lucanidse. Brigadier Hearsey exhibited several cases of 

 beautiful insects from Sylhet, some of the greatest rarity. 



mr m i.iw 



Notices 



Books: 



r*Whort .^ . be ex P e cted, seeds vegetated badly; 



Le Chili; par B. Vicuna Mackenna (Paris, Bouchard- 

 Huzard), is a small 12mo. treatise upon the natural 

 resources of Chili. It is in reah ty an eulogium of the 

 inexhaustible wealth of that country, and is intended to 

 promote emigration thither. The information it conveys, 

 notwithstanding the author's grandiose manner, is 

 abundant ; but it must never be forgotten that the 

 statements are those of an" advocate. Mr. Mackenna's 

 accounts of mineral wealth are quite dazzling, and yet 

 English enterprise has not hitherto found it profitable 

 to work it In fact, the difficulties of Chili are under- 



*are 



and numerous Apple, 



In this 

 iwpl n *™ l y 15 ° acre* of watered meadow ; 



. Gra *» all 1! ( V hey ou S ht t0 have a f <x>t in depth 

 {J*" green -• m ' and be of a raost brilliant 



S^ unIverL Up; 8pringS in the fields have faded '; 

 ***** in F*k J?T: *** r ?*7 of water causes much com- 



But if there be 



dried „ y a F e bare > brown , and desolate. 

 uned up ; springs in the fi ' ' ' 



m scarcity of water ci 



ar y be it remembered. 





forming an herbarium ; some of them are very 

 beautiful, with brilliant colours and excellent form, and 

 are quite new in England." We should say that 20s. 

 per day is an excellent wage for graiting, and 421. is a 

 large sum to be made from one Apple tree. It must 

 have been most assuredly the true Golden Pippin. We 

 know that we have about 8 acres of Apple trees in 



stood to consist in the scarcity of good labour and the 

 dearness of provisions ; and till both become abundant 

 we fear that the treasures of the country must be 

 gathered by natives rather than by strangers. Making 

 allowance for matters Jike these the reader will gather a 

 good deal of information concerning the climate and 

 natural productions of the country. In what manner it 

 is conveyed the following short extract will show :— 



" Go where you will on this American soil, misunder- 

 stood and calumniated as it is, you will be received like 

 a brother. Go to Peru, La Plata, New Grenada— where 

 you will — one single family is found everywhere. No 



