396 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[June 15, 1912. 





R.H.S. Gardens Club. — The annual gathering 

 of past and present members of the Royal Hor- 

 ticultural Society's gardens and office staff took 

 place at Wisley Gardens on the 8th inst. Old 

 members assembled at Byfleet, where lunch was 

 provided. The programme included a botanical 

 ramble under the guidance of Mr. John Frasek, 

 F.L.S., along the banks of the canal and 

 across fields to the R.H.S. gardens through 

 delightful scenery. A tour of inspection 

 was made through the gardens, including 

 the new rockery, wild garden arid glasshouses. 

 The annual meeting was afterwards held in the 

 lecture room under the presidency of Mr. 

 Fraser. The business included little beyond 

 the election of officers for the ensuing year. 

 Mr. John Fraser was appointed president, and 

 Messrs. S. T. Wright and F. Chittenden 

 vice-presidents. Mr. Wright was re-appointed 

 treasurer ; Mr. R. J. Wallis secretary ; Mr. 

 John Fraser Editor, and Messrs. Spooner and 

 Frank Reader auditors. The committee was 

 also appointed. Several of the members spoke 

 of the pleasure of reviving old associations, 

 and urged the present students and staS to 

 foster the spirit of comradeship. 



Awards at Chelsea.— In our list of awards 



Yorkshire Gala.— This annual flower show 

 and fete will be held in Bootham Park, York, 

 on the 19th, 20th and 21st inst. The sum of 

 £800 is offered in prizes, and four gold medals 

 will be awarded to trade exhibits. 



Forestry at Cambridge. 



tions of B. calf actor, which revels in a hi^h 

 temperature. By the fermentive activity of this 

 heat-loving microbe, the temperature of the stack 

 may be raised to 167° F. (75° 0.), after which 

 temperature the cause of further heating is purely 

 chemical. The drier the hay and the smaller the 



The General stack the less is the liability of conflagration. 



Board of Studies, Cambridge University, have re- 

 appointed Mr. A. Henry, M.A., of Gonville and Lemon Curing. — The bright yellow colour 

 Caius College, as Reader in Forestry until Sep- of the commercial Lemon and its production on a 



sound financial basis are the subject of Bulletin 

 No. 232, Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S.A. 

 Since the Lemons which command the highest 

 prices are of medium size, the grower finds him- 

 self obliged to pick the fruit before it has 

 attained full size or ripeness. The coats of the 



tember 30, 1917, and the re-appointment has been 

 confirmed by the Special Board for Biology and 

 Geology. The Forestry Committee is prepared 

 to appoint an Adviser in Forestry, whose duties 

 will commence on October 1, 1912. The appoint- 

 ment will be for three years. The chief duty of 

 the Adviser will be to supply to landowners and Lemons thus gathered are green, and the fruit 

 others, in the group of counties in the east of has, therefore, to be subjected to a ripening or 

 England, advice on the management of their curing process, during which the colour of the 

 woods and plantations. He will also be required coa t changes from green to " lemon yellow. " The 

 to study in detail local conditions in all matters curing may be allowed to effect itself in a lei- 



pertaining to forestry. 





Medinilla maqnifica, — Lady Harlech, 

 Brogyntyn, Oswestry, has kindly sent a photo- 

 graph of a fine example of Medinilla magnifica 

 grown by her gardener, Mr. T. Lambert. As 

 this handsome stove flowering plant was the sub- 



of an illustration in the Gardeners' 



made to non-competitive exhibits at the Royal ^ hronide so recentl „ A a 15 of last 



InternatKmal Horticultural Exhibition, printed we do not repro<luce " the photograph . i t depicts „.„,• w ™>« 



kst week we omitted to state that the two well . balanc P ed plantj with fin ° leaves and long and described m BulletmNo. 232 it appears 



surely fashion, or the process may be speeded up 

 by artificial means. In either case, the change 

 of colour is supposed to be accelerated by a 

 fairly high temperature, and a high degree of 

 saturation of the atmosphere of the room in 

 which the fruit is placed. The former condi- 

 tion is secured under the forcing system by the 

 use of oil stoves. From the investigations carried 



out by Messrs. A. F. Sievers and R. H. True, 



" Veitch Memorial " Cups offered in the Scien- 

 tific Section were awarded to M. Georges 

 Truffaut, Versailles, and to Professor Keeble, 

 University College, Reading, respectively. Prof. 

 Keeble's exhibit illustrated the history and 

 origin of certain varieties of Primula sinensis, 

 and M. Truffaut' s exhibit consisted of speci- 

 mens of injurious insects. A Silver Medal was 

 awarded Mr. C. A. Christiansen, Norwood 

 Green, Southall, for an exhibit of boilers, etc. 

 Mr. Christiansen's name was given incorrectly 

 in the official list of awards supplied to us. 



Royal Meteorological Society. — A meet- 

 ing of this society will be held at 70, Victoria 

 Street, Westminster, on Wednesday, the 19th 

 inst., when the following papers will be read 

 1, M The Adoption of a Climatological Day," 

 by Walter W. Bryant, B.A. ; 2, "A Three- Year 

 Period in Rainfall," by Arthur Pearse Jenkin. 



Hardy Plant Show.— The first exhibition of 

 the National Hardy Plant Society will be held 

 on the 19th inst., in the R.H.S. Hall, Vincent 

 Square, Westminster. Particulars may be ob- 

 tained from Mr. A. J. MacSelf, 52, Beechfield 

 Road. Finsburv Park. 



racemes of flowers, growing in a relatively small 

 pot. In the average garden space cannot be 

 afforded to grow large specimens of this beautiful 

 tropical shrub, but, if well grown, small plants 

 in 6 or 7-inch pots will produce several inflores- 

 cences and furnish valuable plants for filling vases 

 in the house. 



When to Cut Hay. — The annually recurring 

 problem concerning the best time to cut hay is 

 the subject of a paper by Messrs. Crow t ther and 

 Ruston in the current number of the Jour- 

 nal of Agricultural Science. Their investi- 

 gations, based on the crops of 1909 and 

 1910, at the Manor Farm, Garforth, Yorkshire, 

 indicate that the chemical composition of hay 



steadily throughout the hay-making 



The influence of season is, of course, 



but as the 



that the yellowing under these conditions is due 

 primarily to the pungent products of combustion 

 given off by the oil stoves used to supply heat in 

 the "sweating rooms," and that the heat and 

 moisture commonly supposed to be responsible 

 for the change of colour only supply the condi- 

 tions under which this ripening action proceeds 

 most rapidly. 



« 



changes 

 season. 



great, 



crop grows there is a 



whilst 



fibre, 



M Fream " Medal.— The Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries have awarded a Fream Memorial 

 Prize, of the value of £7 Is. 9d., to Mr. John 

 Malcolm, of Dunmore Farm, Larbert, Stirling- 



very 



steady production of protein and 

 mineral matters are taken up from the soil. At 

 the same time, the digestibility of the hay dimi- 

 nishes, and this in the end more than equals 

 the increase in weight of the crop. It is 



growth to continue 

 long : the best results were obtained in 

 both seasons by cutting about the beginning of 



A week or 10 days of latitude may be 



increase in weight 

 thus inadvisable to allow 

 too 



July. 



allowed in the time of cutting, but hay cut after 

 the middle of July showed appreciable de- 

 terioration. 



shire 



a student of the West of Scotland Agri- 



cultural College, Glasgow, who obtained the 

 highest marks in the recent examination for the 

 National Diploma in Agriculture. 



New Species of Douglas Fir. 



Dr. Dode 



The Temperature of Hay Stacks. — The 



causes of the excessive rise in temperature of 

 haystacks and their occasional spontaneous com- 

 bustion have been investigated by Dr. Hugo 

 Miehe, of Leipzig, an account of whose work is 

 given in the Journal of the Board of Agricul- 



OSTROWSKIA MAGNIFICA. 



The Ostrowskia at its best and in robust health 

 is, without doubt, the most splendid of all our 

 hardy perennials. It is one of the few plants that 

 merit a flattering specific title, for it is indeed 

 magnificent. It was introduced into this coun- 

 try from Bokhara in 1887, but, although it has 

 been cultivated in England for more than 20 

 years, it can scarcely be considered to have been 

 a success in the majority of gardens, though 

 in some it grows with astonishing vigour 

 without the slightest attention. In North- 

 amptonshire and Yorkshire it grows superbly, 

 plants often exceeding 7 feet in height, 

 and if it could invariably be grown in such 

 stately form it would, when in flower, be the 

 cynosure of every garden that possessed it. Un- 

 fortunately, however, it is but in few instances 

 that such remarkable success is attained. As a 

 rule, in the south, it does not exhibit the 

 vigorous health that it evidences in Northamp- 

 tonshire and Yorkshire, and numbers of plants 

 do not exceed 3 feet or 4 feet in height, while 

 some are considerably smaller. The plant ap- 

 pears to appreciate a heavy soil, impregnated 

 with lime, and dislikes a hot, dry soil, even when 

 this has been well mixed with old mortar rubble 



has just described* a new species of Douglas Fir ^ Febril ^; i 912 T The"- accomplices before m making a bed for the Ostrowskia the soil 

 ^Jfii 8 ! f . eel ?. 0U f g 1 * ^ 111 ^ on limestone rocks the fact - of ince ndiarism are proved to be bio- should be fully 3 feet deep, as its roots 



descend a PTpat distance. Heavy soil 



mortar rubble should be 



at 8,000 feet altitude in the province of Yunnan, 

 in China. 



This Chinese species is closely allied 

 to Pseudotsuga japonica Beissner, a native of 

 Japan and Formosa, agreeing in the leaves, being 

 emarginate at the apex, but differing in having 

 larger cones, with more numerous scales and 



The species is named Pseudotsuga 

 sinensis Dode, and if it is correct that it grows 

 on limestone soil, it may prove a noteworthy 

 addition to our cultivated forest trees. Seeds 

 have been sent to Dr. Dode by Pere Ducloux. 



logical in nature, although the ultimate confla- 



larger seeds. 



.* In Bull. Soc. Dend. y France, 1912, p. 58. 



gration appears to be due to purely chemical 

 causes. Of the bacteria which constitute the 

 microflora of grass, those mainly responsible for 

 raising the temperature inside haystacks are 

 Bacillus coli and B. calfactor, though they have 

 other bacterial aiders and abetters. B. coli sets 

 up decompositions which are accompanied by 

 the evolution of enough heat to raise the tem- 

 perature to 104° F. (40° C). When this 

 temperature is reached it retires from the scene 

 of its activity and leaves the hay to the atten- 



a great 

 mixed with old mortar ru 

 used, and copious waterings should be given 

 during the season of growth. The roots are 

 exceedingly brittle, so much so that it is almost 

 impossible to lift a large plant from the open 

 ground, even with the greatest care, without 

 a breakage, a circumstance which renders its 

 transplantation a most difficult proceeding. 

 In tiie south-west, plants often die off 

 unaccountably, even when apparently p er " 

 manently established. This is all the more 



