762 



THE GA&DENEfiS' CHTlOtilCLE. 



[DECEMBER 29, 1888. 



tonbury Thorn, throws off the details of weekly- 

 routine, and diverges into numerous byepaths. The 

 holiday-keeping reader will delight to have a " run 

 round " Shakespeare's gardens. Some may find 

 leisure to overhaul and re-arrange their bookshelves, 

 and will find useful hints. In fact, the reader must 

 be very teratological indeed if he cannot find some- 

 thing to amuse and interest him. 



ALMANACS FOR 1889. — Foremost among these 

 for general use stands Whitaker's (12,, Warwick 

 Lane, Paternoster Row, London), of which we hare 

 received a copy. The latest edition is larger than 

 that of 1888 by about 60 pages and contains as usual a 

 fund of statistical information on a variety of 

 subjects, political and otherwise, making it a handy 

 reference book for both office and home. There is a 

 review of the science of the year, music, &c, and a 

 table of marks on porcelain is introduced. The Live 

 Stock Journal Almanac (Vinton & Co., 9, New Bridge 

 Street, Ludgate Circus, London), contains numerous 

 articles of use to the stock-farmer, contributed 

 by some of the leading writers on the subjects, 

 such as Sir J. B. Lawes, and Professor Wright- 

 son. Horses, cattle, poultry, are all mentioned. 

 Calvert's Mechanics' Almanac, a book of about sixty 

 pages, contains articles which recommend themselves 

 to builders and other artisans. There are short 

 paragraphs on various topics of interest, a notice on 

 the patent law amendment, and tables for purposes 

 of various calculations. Messrs. Foster & Pearson 

 (horticultural builders, &c, Beeston, Notts) issue 

 an almanac with one month on a sheet ; and a daily 

 calendar, comes from Messrs. T. Fletcher & Co. 

 (Gas Stoves, &c), London and Warrington. Messrs. 

 J. Weeks & Co. (Horticultural Buiders), Chelsea, 

 London, issue a handy pocket and note-book for the ■ 

 year. The Lion Fire Insurance Company has also 

 forwarded a Card Calendar for 1889. 



" WALKS IN HOLLAND"— Many of our readers, 

 interested in Dutch bulbs, Crocuses, &c, will like 

 to know that an illustrated Handbook to some of 

 the less frequented parts of Holland, including Fries- 

 land, Groningen, and Guelderland, edited by Mr. 

 Percy Lindley, is in preparation. 



SCIADIUM ARBUSCULA — At a well attended 

 meeting of the Natural History Society of Aberdeen 

 on Tuesday, the 18th inst. Mr. John Roy, President 

 of the Society, communicated the occurrence of the 

 Sciadium arbuscula (Braun), discovered for the first 

 time in the British Isles, in the month of November 

 last, by Mr. Roy. The finding of the plant is some- 

 what interesting. Mrs. Farquharson, of Haughton, 

 forwarded to Mr. Roy a specimen, with other plants 

 she had found growing amongst leaves in a pool 

 near Haughton, Aberdeenshire, and that gentleman 

 was enabled, from descriptions given by Dr. Beaun, 

 to make the plant out to be the Sciadium arbuscula, 

 which is found in Germany and other parts of the 

 Continent. In his communication on the plant to 

 the Society Mr. Roy described its growth in its 

 various stages, and illustrated his remarks by drawings 

 executed by Dr. Braun. 



CHINESE FLORA.— The enumeration of the 

 plants known to inhabit the Chinese Empire, and 

 w hich is being prepared by Messrs. F. B. Forbes 

 and W. B. Hemsley, has now reached the end of 

 Compositsc. The enumeration forms a volume of 

 the Journal of the Linnean Society, but may be had 

 separately. Descriptions are given of new species, 

 while, for those which have been previously de- 

 scribed, bibliographical references are supplied. 

 The work will form a necessary companion to the 

 Flora of British India, and other Colonial Floras. 



COCOA-NUT REFUSE. — An interesting possible 

 utilization of Cocoa-nut refuse is referred to in a 

 report of the Government Botanist of the Botanic 

 Gardens in the Nilghiris for the year 1S87-8. It 

 has been found that if the refuse be subjected to 

 pressure while yet moist, the natural viscidity causes 

 it to cohere to form a mass resembling millboard. 



This substance is so hygroscopic that if a puncture 

 be made in it while in contact with water the 

 adjacent parts immediately absorb so much water 

 that the orifice is closed by the consequent expan- 

 sion. It has been found that in this way the orifice 

 caused by the firing of a bullet nearly an inch in 

 diameter through a f-inch plate of the refuse, sus- 

 taining a head of 1 foot of water, was stopped so 

 quickly, that although a large jet at first spirted 

 through, this decreased in volume in a few seconds, 

 and in less than a minute had ceased entirely. It is 

 suggested that this property might render the 

 material valuable as a backing to the armour of 

 ships. 



Stock-taking : November. — The imports 

 from British possessions and foreign countries at 

 this season of the year are of somewhat greater 

 interest to both vendor and purchaser than, perhaps, 

 they are at any other time— medicaljgentlemen may 

 also be expected to be taken into consultation 

 in this connection. That will be seen later on. 

 The summary for the month of November, now before 

 us, records as follows : — 





1887. 



1888. 



Difference. 



Total value of imports 



£. 

 32,850,321 



£. 

 35,223,935 



£. 



+2,373,614 



§11.— (A.) Articles of 

 food aud drink — 

 dutyfree 



10,114,928 



11,253,883 



+1,138,460 



(B.) — do., dutiable 



2,639,453 



2,537,472 



—101,981 



§VI. — Eaw materials 

 for textile manufac- 

 tures (including 

 Flax, Hemp, and 

 Jute) 



8,630,406 



8,468,482 



—161,924 



$VII. — Raw materials 

 for sundry industries 

 and manufactures 

 (including wood and 

 timber, hewn, sawn, 

 split, dressed ; vege- 

 table materials, for 

 paper-making, &c.) 



2,831,606 



3,428,423 



+596,817 



§IX. — Miscellaneous 

 articles (including 

 Clover, Grass, Flax, 

 Rape, Linseed) 



1,272,667 



1,508,562 



+235,895 



From the expanded list of imports the few appended 

 extracts are of interest — the " summary " is other- 

 wise sufficiently explicit : — 



§ II. Fruit :— 

 Apples, raw 





1887. 



1888. 



Difference 



... bush. 



389,054 



942,466 



+553,412 



Unenumerated, r. 



w ... „ 



206,513 



182,410 



—24,103 



Onions 



... ,, 



527,931 



339,216 



—198,715 



Potatos 



... cwt. 



178,143 



63,800 



—114,313 



Vegetables, raw, 

 ated 



unenumer- 

 ... Value 



£34,987 



£42,365 



+£7,378 



The " difference " columns in both tables will be 

 found of interest to a large section of our readers ; 

 for whom, however, the figures for the twelvemonths 

 will naturally be more valuable ; and this will be 

 laid before them in good time. 



Birmingham and Midland Counties Chry- 

 santhemum and Horticultural Society.— 



The annual dinner of the above Society was held 

 on Tuesday evening, December 18, at the Bell Hotel, 

 upwards of fifty members, leading nurserymen and 

 seedsmen and principal gardeners of the district, 

 being present, besides several invited guests, and 

 amongst the latter were Mr. Outram, Mr. Petch, 

 and Mr. Parker, Impney Hall, the successful Chry- 

 santhemum grower. The chair was taken by Mr. 

 Latham, Curator of the Botanical Garden, and after 

 the usual loyal toasts had been given and duly re- 

 sponded to, Mr. Outram proposed the toast, "The 

 Society," and alluded to the good work the Society 

 was doing, the excellent manner in which everything 

 was arranged, and to the quality of the exhibits. 

 Mr. Hughes, the Secretary, announced that it was 

 intended to offer a substantial prize for cut flowers 

 of Chrysanthemums next season, it being the cen- 

 tenary of the introduction of the plant. A subscrip- 

 tion list was at once opened and a good sum collected 

 in the room. It is the wish of the Society to draw 



together the leading growers of the North and the 

 South to compete for this prize, and they intend to 

 make it worthy of their object. 



Primula Veitch's Chelsea Blue— a batch 



of this handsome blue Primula is just now in bloom 

 in the fine gardens of H. H. Gibbs, Esq., Aldenham, 

 Elstree, and is spoken very highly of by Mr. E. 

 Beckett as a variety whose colour is very useful and 

 telling in floral arrangements. The Chrysanthe- 

 mums have been very fine at Aldenham this year, 

 and the successions of Primulas, Bouvardias, Poin- 

 settias, &c, with good foliage plants, and a sprinkling 

 of Orchids ensure no lack of bloom at this season. 



EUCHARIS AMAZONICA. — Almost filling the 

 space in the Banana-house not occupied by the 

 Musas now fruiting at Aldenham in the gardens of 

 H. H. Gibbs, Esq., is a grand lot of specimens of 

 this fine white bulbous plant, many in flower and in 

 great promise of bloom to succeed for a considerable 

 time. These plants are noteworthy, especially as 

 many of them were suffering from Eucharis-mite 

 when they came into Mr. Beckett's care. Mr. 

 Beckett's opinion is that bad condition, either from 

 bad culture or accident, favours the increase of the 

 Eucharis-mite, and good cultur esoon stamps it out ; 

 once good root-action being secured, the mite soon 

 departs to more congenial localities. This is the 

 opinion of many good growers now. 



FRUIT FARMING.— Mr. P. Conway, late of the 

 Gardens, Muntham Court, Worthing, is now engaged 

 in planting a fruit farm on an extensive scale at 

 Outwell, Wisbech, Cambs., for J. W. Martin, Esq. 

 The farm will embrace both indoor and outdoor fruits. 



Societies. 



LINNEAN. 



December 20. — Mr. W. Carruthers, F.R.S., Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. The Rev. G. E. Post, M.A., 

 M.D., was elected a Fellow of the Society. The 

 following recently elected Fellows were formally 

 admitted :— Mr. R. W. Hullett, M.A. ; Dr. D. T. 

 Playfair, Mr. Clement Reid. 



Professor R. J. Anderson exhibited a photograph 

 of an apparatus for the microscope which he had 

 designed, consisting of a revolving disc with clips, 

 by means of which a number of slides may be suc- 

 cessively brought opposite the microscope, which is 

 fixed in a horizontal position in front of it. 



Mr. Clement Reid exhibited fruit of the Hornbeam 

 from the preglacial forest bed at Pakefield, near 

 Norwich, and not previously recorded as occurring 

 in any British deposit. 



Mr. T. Christy exhibited a collection received 

 from Java of hairs from the base of various Ferns, 

 notably Cibotium Cummingii, and a species, as sup- 

 posed, of Dicksonia, used as a styptic, for staunch- 

 ing blood. Professor Stuart, in pointing out that 

 the use of similar material for a like purpose in 

 China was well known to surgeons, took occasion to 

 explain the nature of the so-called " lamb of Tartary," 

 on which an instructive little volume had been pub- 

 lished by the late Mr. Henry Lee, F.L.S. Mr. D. 

 Morris remarked that the use of Fern-hairs was also 

 known as a styptic in South America, whence speci- 

 mens had been forwarded to the museum at Kew. 



A paper was then read by Mr. D. Morris on the 

 characteristics of plants, included under Erythroxylon 

 coca, Lamarck, with a description of a new variety, 

 which he proposed to name, from its origin, E. novo- 

 granatense. He pointed out that the well-known 

 coca plant had been noticed by botanists and travel- 

 lers for the last 300 years, and that although Clusius 

 was generally regarded as the earliest writer on it, 

 he had been anticipated by Nicholas Monardes in 

 his Historia Medicinal, published at Seville in 1580, 

 and translated by Clusius, who printed it in a con- 

 densed form in his Exoticum libri decern, in 1605. The 

 plant was first described as a species by Lamarck, in 

 the Encyclopedic Mcthodiquc, in 1786, from specimens 

 brought by De Jussieu from Peru. Until lately the 

 leaves had been used merely as a nervous stimulant, 

 like opium in China, and betel in the East 

 Indies ; but had latterly come into prominence 

 as the source of cocaine, a valuable alkaloid pos- 

 sessing anaesthetic properties when brought in 

 contact with the mucous membrane. There 

 were several climatic forms more or less dis- 

 tinct, and after describing the typical plant, Mr, 



