November 24, 1888.] 



THE GARDENERS* CHRONICLE. 



605 



raination of which the author had been assisted by 

 Mr. 0. Thomas and Mr. R. B. Sharpe. The next 

 meeting of the Society will be held on December 6. 



Horticultural Club.— The second monthly 



meeting and dinner of the session was held at the 

 Hotel Windsor, Victoria Street, Westminster, on 

 Tuesday evening, 20th inst., when there was a very 

 large attendance of the members, Mr. Harry J. Veitch 

 occupying the chair. There were present the Revs. 

 W. W"ilks, F. H. Gale, and F. R. Burnside, Messrs. A. 

 Moss, T. W. Girdlestone, E.R. West, Bunyard, H. J. 

 Pearson. A.Pearson, J. Walker, W. B. May, A. F. 

 Barron, R, B. Cater, W. F. Cooling, P. Crowley, W. J. 

 Jefleries, the Hon. Secretary, and after dinner a paper 



seconded by Mr. G. Wheeler, and resolved, that the 

 best thanks of the meeting be given to Messrs. 

 Williams, Laing, Cannell, Lowe, and Chard, 

 for plants and cut flowers ; to Mr. Thompson, of 

 Clovenfords, for fruit, and to other friends for kindly 

 assistance. 



Chambre Syndicale of Ghent.— At a meet- 

 ing held on the 12th inst., the following awards were 

 made : — ■ 



First-class Certificates. — To Odontoglossum grande, 

 from M. Maurice Metdepenningen ; to Cattleya Bow- 

 ringiana, Odontoglossum Alexandra; var. extra, 

 Cypripedium Haynaldianum, and to Oncidium Caven- 

 dishianum, from M, J. Bray; toCojlogyne speciosaand 



— the white, the dull green, and the dark brown. Re- 

 specting Ramie fibre, the Assistant Director reports 

 the result of recent trials made in Paris of machinery 

 adapted to clean the fibre and free it from gummy 

 matter. Unfortunately the results were not satisfac- 

 tory, and "the exploitation of Ramie (Boehmeria 

 nivea), in spite of years of labour and the expendi- 

 ture of large sums of money upon it, cannot be said 

 to have yet emerged from the experimental stage." 



Botany at the Universities.— The reader- 

 ship in botany in Cambridge University has been 

 conferred on Mr. Francis Darwin, who now fills tie 

 office vacated by Dr. Vines. The latter gentleman 

 is now Sherardian Professor of Botany at Oxford. 



Fig, 8o.— pints pixea in the eotal gardens, kew. (see p. 602.) 



was read by Mr. G. Bunyard, on " November and De- 

 cember Pears," an interesting discussion, in which 

 Messrs. Veitch, Pearson, Barron, and others took 

 part, followed, and a vote of thanks was accorded to 

 Mr. Bunyard. The Secretary was requested on be- 

 half of the Club to write a letter to Mr. John Lee, 

 expressive of their sincere sympathy with him in his 

 serious illness, and expressing the hope that he might 

 soon again be amongst them. 



United Horticultural Benefit and Pro- 

 vident SOCIETY.— The usual monthly meeting of 

 the above Society was held at the Caledonian Hotel, 

 Adelphi Terrace, Stiand, on Monday evening, 

 November 12, Mr. J. Wheeler in the chair. Two 

 new members were elected. The committee are 

 glad to say that the annual dinner was a decided 

 success ; and it was proposed by Mr. J. Hudson, and 



Liulia autumnalis, from M. Louis Desmet-Duvivier ; 

 to Bouvardia President Cleveland, from M. Ed. 

 Pynaert-Van Geert and from M. F. Desbois ; to 

 Cypripedium regale, from M. Jules Hye-Leysen ; to 

 C. Madame G. Vincke, from M. G. Vincke-Dujardin, 

 of Bruges ; to Vriesia Delanghei, from M. Delanghe- 

 Vervaene. 



Cultural Commendation. — To Oncidium ornitho- 

 rhyncum from M. Alf. Van Imschoot. 



Commendation fur Kovelty. — To Cypripedium Mrs. 

 Canham, from M. James Bray. 



"Kew Bulletin.'' — The November number is 

 occupied with articles concerning Lagos rubber 

 (Ficus Vogelii), Liberian Coffee (Coft'ea liberica), 

 various food grains of India, including the huskless 

 Barley of North-west India. It appears that three 

 varieties of huskless Barley are cultivated in Thibet 



It is time that in our great universities there should 

 be, not one, but at least three Professors of Botany, 

 so impossible has it become for any one man to teach 

 effectively all departments of the science, much less 

 make independent researches — as to our thinking an 

 University Professor may be expected to do, and indeed 

 generally does. 



Pierre Thomas Ducouran.— The name of 



this naturalist will not be familiar to many, and, so 

 far as this country is concerned, it is to Mr. Peter 

 Barr that the rescue from oblivion of the name and 

 deeds of a remarkable man is due. Mr. Barr nar- 

 rated in our columns on March 10, 1888, his astonish- 

 ment at .the inspection of a series of drawings of 

 plants, insects, birds, &c, of the neighbourhood of 

 Bayonne, which he made in passing through Biarritz. 

 M. Ducouran was born at Biarritz in 1810, and at 





