Retrospective Criticism. 573 



I sowed the seeds about the middle of March ; and potted the plants singly, 

 in sixty-pots, shifting them from one sized pot to another till the 1st of May; 

 when they were turned out in the open ground, on a south border, with a 

 hand-light over them ; and kept close till they began to grow, and nearly filled 

 the light, when a little air was admitted to harden the plants. This was all 

 the protection they received ; and, about the month of June or July, the 

 lights were removed entirely, and the plants were suffered to take their own 

 course. The second week in August, I cut one fruit which weighed 16§ lbs., 

 and which was the only one that I suffered to remain on that plant. About 

 ten or twelve days after, I cut from another plant three melons, weighing from 

 10 lbs. to 12 lbs. each; one of which I cut up in the presence of Mr. Blair 

 and a few more of my neighbours, and which was well flavoured : in fact, it 

 was much better than any of us expected. I have cut several since that time, 

 which have not been quite so good ; which I attribute to the cold frosty 

 nights, and the lateness of the season. — James Strachan. Markfield, Stam- 

 ford Hill, Sept. 27. 1834. 



Effects of the prolonged Summer — A second crop of whortleberries (Fac- 

 cinium Myrtillus) has ripened at Edgworth Moor in Lancashire. Fine ripe 

 figs were grown in the open air against a wall in Aberdeen. Pear trees, in the 

 gardens of Sir T. G. Cullum at Hardwicke House, in Suffolk, have produced 

 fruit on the young spring shoots of the present year, which flowered at Mi- 

 chaelmas : the pears are of the Passe-Colmar and Marie Louise kinds. A 

 fig tree on the same property has its second crop perfectly ripe.. At Elms- 

 well, in the same county, one tree, which has already produeed two crops of 

 apples, is in bloom for the third. In York, white currants, fully ripe, were 

 gathered in a garden opposite the Pavement ; and at Scarborough Parade, 

 large strawberries have fully ripened, notwithstanding the exposure of the 

 situation to the sea breeze. The gardens and fields near Sheffield present all 

 the appearance of spring ; flowers and plants having blown and borne fruit a 

 second time. The Inverness woods have yet scarcely lost a leaf; and are only 

 here and there beginning to assume their autumnal livery. A pear tree in a 

 garden near Huddersfield, which had lost nearly all its leaves, has budded forth 

 again in freshness and full blossom. At Coleridge, in Devonshire, the apple 

 trees have ripe fruit and full flower blossoms at the same time, (ikfor??. Chron. 

 Oct. 17. 1834.) About London the weather was so fine during the last fort- 

 night of September and the first fortnight of October, that the six and some- 

 times eight artists whom we had employed, during the whole of that period, in 

 the Horticultural Society's garden, Messrs. Loddiges' arboretum, and in 

 various nurseries, making drawings of trees and shrubs for our Arboretum 

 Britannicum, did not meet with a single day's interruption till the 15th of 

 October, when portraits of all the deciduous trees and shrubs were completed. 

 The evergreens will probably occupy them a month or two longer, as the 

 weather can hardly be expected to continue such as to allow of drawing every 

 day in the open air. 



Passijiora [? Cockburni]. — Stem quadrangular; leaves ovate,.large, and bright 

 green ; petioles with two glands, seldom four ; stipules lanceolate, pointed, 

 subserrate; involucrum large, three-leaved, serrated; calyx lanceolate, slightly 

 keeled and spined on the back. Colour of the flower : inside, dark maroon 

 on the edges of the petals and calyx, shaded to light in the centre; outside, 

 purple on the edges of the petals, shaded to very light in the centre ; calyx 

 green ; rays with dark brown ribs gradually terminating with light lilac, and 

 curling inwards. Seed from South America. Blossoms here, in a green-house, 

 in September; increased freely by cuttings. — James Cockburn. Guernsey y 

 Oct. 2. 1834. 



Art. VI. Retrospective Criticism. 



PRIZES for Specimens of Flower-Painting done by Ladies (p. 451.).— The 

 Devon and Exeter Floricultural Society is reported to have introduced a very 

 Vol. X.— No. 56. ss 



