Decembeb 22', 1SS8.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



739 



this property of ripening, after it is picked and 

 transported hundreds or thousands of miles, is the 

 point in a good market fruit when combined with 

 the other sterling excellencies of this standard Pear. 

 No other Pear is so largely grown and sold in our 

 markets, and it is with some considerable pride that 

 we claim it as a representative fruit of English 

 origin. F. W. Burbidge. 



Scotland. 



EDINBURGH BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 

 December 13. — The Society held its second winter 

 meeting in 5, St. Andrew Square, Dr. Craig, Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. 



Amongst other interesting papers were " Ob- 

 servations on the Wood of Certain Resin-pro- 

 ducing Trees," by Mr. Galletly, Curator of the 

 Museum of Science and Art. Professor Balfour 

 communicated a paper by Dr. J. E. T. Aitchison on 

 the " Source of the Budsha, or Royal Salep of 

 Southern Afghanistan," which was shown to consist 

 mainly of Alliums, chiefly of Allium Macleanii. Pro- 

 fessor Balfonr referred to the Salep mentioned inElia's 

 Essays, and desiderated information on the subject. 

 Dr. Cleghorn exhibited a choice collection of native 

 drawings of Indian plants which had been presented 

 to the Library by the late William Gorrie, Esq., and 

 at the same time laid on the table a classiiicatory 

 catalogue of the series. Mr. George Bird gave his 

 botanical experiences of the Dovrefeld, Norway, in 

 July, 1888 ; while Mr. Sewell gave similar observa- 

 tions made during the voyage of the Labrador to the 

 Kara Sea, this summer. The bright glowing carpet 

 of the Tundras was not visible in September last in 

 Spitzbergen ; though travellers may be right enough 

 regarding this in latitudes some 500 miles south of 

 this northerly point. 



Mr. Lindsay, curator, gave in his report for No- 

 vember on temperature and vegetation at the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens. 



" The past month of November has been remark- 

 able for the extreme mildness of weather which 

 prevailed ; very seldom has there been so little frost 

 to record during November. As a set-off, storms of 

 wind and rain have been unusually frequent, which 

 proved much more harmful than any seasonable 

 amount of frost could have done. The severe gale 

 on the 16th fortunately passed over without doing 

 any very serious damage to the garden, further than 

 the loss of one or two common trees. Broken 

 branches were scattered about in all directions, until 

 it became rather alarming. 



" The thermometer was at or below the freezing- 

 point on nine mornings, indicating collectively 20° 

 of frost as against 40° for the corresponding month 

 last year. The lowest readings occurred on the 1st, 

 30° ; 16th, 20° ; 21st, 29° ; 27th, 25° ; 29th, 30°. 

 The lowest day temperature was 36° on the 20th, 

 and the highest, 57° on the 25th. Rain fell on 

 seventeen days. 



" Owing to the abnormal mildness, early spring- 

 flowering bulbous plants, such as Scillas, Narcissus, 

 Iris, and the like are already far advanced in growth ; 

 buds are also starting into growth on Ribes, Syringa 

 Pyrus and other shrubs. At the close of the month 

 fairly good summer Roses were in flower in conjunc- 

 tion with Christmas Roses and Primroses. The 

 Holly is the most conspicuous plant in fruit out-of- 

 doors, the berries being abundant and well coloured. 

 On the rock garden a good many plants are still 

 iu flower, but eight species only began to flower 

 during November, viz., Gynerium argenteum, Schizo- 

 stylis coccinea, Parochaetus communis, Tricyrtis 

 hirta, Gypsophila Rokojecka, Kniphofia Saundersi, 

 and Aster species." 



Mr. Bullen gave in a Report on Temperature and 

 Vegetation for the same month, in the Botanic 

 Garden, Glasgow. 



The fine dry weather of the previous two months 

 was continued for the first twelve days of this 

 month. On the night of the 12th rain began to fall, 



and the weather became gradually worse until the 

 night of the 15th, when we experienced a violent 

 storm, which continued with more or less severity 

 the following day, doing much damage to property, 

 and uprooting trees in great numbers in many places, 

 particularly where exposed to the south-west. Pro- 

 fessor Grant, of the Glasgow Observatory, records 

 that the wind was blowing with a velocity of 68 

 miles an hour. The maximum pressure registered 

 by Oster's anemometer amounted to 291bs. on the 

 square foot. Since the above date the rainfall has 

 been very heavy, and gales of considerable severity 

 have been frequent : the mean temperature has been 

 high. The lowest temperature registered was 29°. 

 The thermometer was at or below the freezing 

 point six times only, with a total of 10° as against 

 51° for November last year. 



Mr. Lindsay exhibited and made some remarks on 

 Veronica Hectori, V. Lloganioides, V. pinguifolia 

 var., Olearia nummularifolia, and Tmesipteris For- 

 sterii. These plants formed part of a collection 

 received lately from New Zealand by Mr. M. Dunn, 

 Dalkeith Palace Gardens. They were in a healthy, 

 thriving condition after their long journey, and being 

 of great botanical interest, Mr. Dunn had kindly 

 presented them to the Royal Botanic Garden. 



Living plants were also exhibited of Diapensia 

 lapponica, Cassiope hypnoides, and TofieUHa borealis 

 collected on the Dovrefeld, Norway, by Mr. G. Bird, 

 and a number of interesting Alpine plants collected 

 by Mr. P. Sewell on the desolate tundra regions to 

 the extreme north of the Urals, during the expedition 

 of the Labrador, amongst which were Eritrichium 

 nanum, Diapensia lapponica, Papaver nudicaule, 

 Artemisia borealis var., Wormskioldii, Polemonium 

 ccernlenm var., Pedicularis sp., &c. 



The Honey Harvest ix the North. 

 Like the cereal harvest, the production of honey 

 in 1888, in the North of Scotland, has proved the 

 season to be one of the most unpropitious experienced 

 in the memory of the present generation. Indeed, 

 beekeepers have found apiculture disappointing in 

 every respect. The cold, damp, and ungenial summer 

 gave no encouragement for swarming, which was 

 consequently very limited ; and such as did take 

 place was of a broken and unsatisfactory nature. The 

 autumn was equally backward, with the result that 

 both the Clover and Heather periods were totally 

 unproductive, unless in very rare cases ; and tha 

 harvest is, therefore, little short of an absolute 

 failure. Extracted honey sells at lOd. per pound, 

 and comb honey at Is. per pound. Feeding by arti- 

 ficial means will have to be resorted to during the 

 whole winter, and unless it be carefully attended to, 

 the loss will seriously affect the brooding and 

 honey production of not a few ensuing years, even 

 though bee-culture should be favoured by more 

 auspicious circumstances. W. K. 



Nursery Notes. 



CYPRIPEDIUMS AT MESSRS. HUGH 

 LOW & CO.'S. 

 At the Clapton nurseries great provision has been 

 of late years made for these favourite plants, a block 

 of six commodious houses being devoted to them 

 alone, in addition to those they used to occupy. At 

 present a very interesting series of Cypripedium 

 insigne varieties are in flower on imported plants, 

 most of them having the C. villosum shaped pouch 

 known in the admitted hybrid, C. nitens, and 

 equally noticeable in that highest example of the C. 

 Maulei type, C. insigne punctatum violaceum, a spe- 

 cimen of which is also now in flower at Clapton. 

 The new importations take after this strain, but their 

 dorsal sepals are variously marked, and have different 

 proportions of white on them. Some have no 

 purple spots on the dorsal sepal, others have small 

 purple dots ; some have but two large purple blotches, 

 and some have coloured markings large and small. 

 Some novelties may be expected out of them. In 



the other Cypripedium-houses large quantities of 

 C. Spicerianum, C. Lawrenceanum, C. Ilaynaldianum, 

 C. callosum, C. niveum, C. Sedeni, C. Argus, O. 

 ciliolare, C. javanicum, C. Sanderianum, and others 

 are in flower and bud, and in the other houses a 

 great display of spikes of most of the Angrrecums 

 (especially A. citratum and A. sesquipedale), Pha- 

 ltenopsis, Dendrobes make now some show, and 

 promise a great display in the New Year. A large 

 batch of the pretty Ladia peduncularis is in bloom, 

 a white variety being among them ; with other 

 Odontoglossums the rare O. tentaculatum is in 

 flower ; the beautiful new Yanda Amesiana is in 

 great vigour, and a noble lot of V. Parishii and V. P. 

 Marriottiana are sending up spikes. It appears that 

 the greater the stock at Clapton gets the better the 

 plants are managed, and the more orderly the houses 

 are kept. The quantity of plants, such as Phalao- 

 nopsis, Angrrccums, Cattleyas, Odontoglossums, and 

 other things which are now cultivated there is sur- 

 prising. 



Home Correspondence. 



EFFECTS OF FOG ON FLOWERS.— It would be 

 interesting, and probably productive of good, if those 

 who have observed the damage done to flowers and 

 plants by heavy fogs in winter would send notes of 

 their experience to the Gardeners' Chronicle. Appa- 

 rently no one has ever tried to find out what it is in 

 the fog of London which destroys flowers, especially 

 white ones, and makes the leaves of many plants 

 drop off'. The way the plants are affected is curious. 

 Thus — Impatiens Hookeri lost every bud, but retained 

 its expanded flowers. Begonia socotrana was not 

 affected, whilst the hybrids from it and the tuberous 

 kinds raised by Messrs. Veitch lost every flower. 

 Dipladenia boliviensis lost all its leaves, Ipomcca 

 Briggsii many leaves but no flowers, white-flowered 

 Calanthes have shrivelled as if blasted, whilst the 

 pink-flowered kinds are much less affected. Randia 

 macrantha has held its buds, but they have changed 

 to a yellowish colonr, and appear to be unable to 

 expand. Chrysanthemums, especially white-flowered 

 kinds, look as if they had been in the fire. These 

 disasters have been noted at Kew as the result of the 

 foggy weather experienced up to Sunday last. W. 



SHELL DUST. — What is the chemical difference 

 between shells and bones ? The latter are at least 

 classed as amongst our most valuable of manures, and 

 probably give phosphates in as great proportion as 

 any material available for manure production. There 

 is considerable similarity between shells and bones, 

 but the chief point so far as their respective manurial 

 properties, is what identity is there between them 

 in such relation ? I ask this question because I 

 I note in your report of the recent meeting of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society's committee, that you 

 consider calcined shells or shell-dust so produced to 

 be little better than lime. My estimate of the 

 manurial properties of this substance is based upon the 

 experience of others who, in employing it for ordinary 

 garden crops, but especially for Asparagus, Seakale, 

 Potatos, &c, have found it to be vahiable. The 

 material, if but lime, is certainly far heavier relatively, 

 probably three times as heavy, thus showing that it 

 contains matter other than ordinary lime. The shell- 

 dust was not sent me for sale or in any trading 

 aspect, but solel) to show what sort of stuff it was, 

 especially as it enjoyed the reputation of being such 

 excellent artificial manure. I appended a price 

 solely because the sender, in reply to a query put by 

 me, stated that such figure was about the cost of pro- 

 duction. The shells have to be gathered from 

 the seashore, and are calcined in a kiln constructed by 

 the manufacturer, who is a sea pilot, and conducts this 

 manufacture for his own and neighbours' purposes, 

 when his vocation admits of his being ashore. He 

 is also an enthusiastic gardener. A desirable course 

 would be obtaining a chemical test of the value of the 

 dust as manure, especially when compared with bone- 

 dust. A. Dean. 



PRESERVING FORCED FRENCH BEANS.— Where 

 forcing is carried on, regularity in supply must be 

 the main object ; and this is sometimes unattainable, 

 owing to one lot of plants not turning out so profit- 

 able as another ; and it is therefore an advantage to 

 preserve some when there is plenty to be used in 

 times of scarcity. The largest Beans should be cut 



