July 18, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
49 
the other was, observed the lecturer, brought about by the aid 
of the winds, migratory birds, and the currents of streams. 
Botanists would ultimately be able to distinguish the character- 
istic of plants which had existed in ages long gone by in the 
same manner as physiologists discovered the shape and nature 
of antediluvian animals. Owing to the varied and irregular 
conformation of the earth and to other causes, which made cer- 
tain plants spread over portions of ground previously occupied 
‘by others, no broad areas of uniform vegetation were to be 
found on the globe, while geological disturbances had isolated 
at different periods groups of plants from their fellows. The 
plantsnow existing were, to an enormous extent, the descendants 
of plants of the most remote antiquity, and it was likely that 
in their case, as in that of animals, the great primal divisions 
of earth would be found to have been to a great extent main- 
tained to the present day. The lecturer next alluded to the 
herbarium at Kew. Several valuable additions to the her- 
barium have been made by various travellers, among them 
Col. Grant, Dr. Kirk of Zanzibar, and others. Mr. New had 
brought from the top of Kilmanjaro some plants which on ex- 
amination proved to be of the same species as those found by 
Commander Cameron on the other side of Africa, A tree 
brought from the Isle of Amsterdam by Commodore Good- 
enough in 1873 was discovered to be of the same species as 
certain trees in the small island of Tristan D’Acuna, five 
thousand miles away. That botanical knowledge was of value 
economically was showntin the discovery of an indigenous Tea 
plant in Assam ; from the want of it the Dutch had imported 
into Cinchona a spurious and yalueless plant, which they had 
supposed to betea, Again, the opinion had obtained for a long 
time that the Latakia and Cuba Tobaccos were different from 
the more ordinary kinds of the weed, whereas on the seeds 
being examined they were found to be perfectly similar. It 
was now known that all commercial Tobaccos belonged to the 
same class. In the case of some grass brought from Jamaica 
the botanists were able to show, on discovering its efloresence 
and seeds, that it was suitable for paper-making. There could 
‘be no more important or interesting task than to unravel the 
botanical mysteries of Africa, which were still to the student of 
nature a tera incognita, and in this he hoped to obtain the 
co-operation of the Society. 
Mr. WILLS of South Kensington decorated the Charing 
Cross Railway Station for the RECEPTION OF THE HARL OF 
BEACONSFIELD on his return from the Congress of Berlin on 
Tuesday. Over ten thousand plants were used, many of them 
20 feet high, and part of the decoration consisted of three 
thousand Roses. 
— THE annual summer Exhibition of the CRoypon Hor- 
TICULTURAL SOCIETY was held in the Fairfield, Croydon, on 
the 10th inst., and is acknowledged to haye been the best 
summer Show ever held by the Society. The productions 
were above the average, and amongst the principal exhibitors 
and prizetakers are the familiar names of Mr. T. N. Penfold, 
gardener to the Rey. Canon Bridges, Beddington House ; Mr. 
Chaff, gardener to C. H. Goshen, Esq., The Ballards, Shirley ; 
Mr. Orchard, gardener to F. W. Harris, Esq., Coombe ; Mr. 
King, gardener to 8. Clarke, Esq., Croydon Lodge ; Mr. Fewell, 
gardener to J. C. Lanyon, Esq.; Mr. Glassock, gardener to 
F, Banbury, Esq., Shirley Park ; and Messrs. Roffey, Hamblin, 
Brice, and Charman were prominent. Both stove and green- 
house plants and fine-foliage were very extensively and ad- 
mirably exhibited; in fact, the same remarks will apply to 
almost every class in the schedule, for it was difficult to find 
an inferior collection. We congratulate this Society on their 
success. The Exhibition has clearly shown that there are 
some good gardens and gardeners in the neighbourhood of 
Croydon. 
— ALARGE proportion of the area of the Bahama Islands 
is devoted to the cultivation of FRUIT, of which Oranges and 
Pine Apples are the principal, and at the present time the 
fields in the estates on which the Pine Apples are growing 
form a peculiar feature in the landscape. The appearance of 
the broad expanse of young fruit, with its clusters of delicately 
tinted but sharp and serrated leaves, rising only a short distance 
from the ground, and covering the undulating fields, produces 
@ very remarkable effect. In no other branch of agriculture 
can so curious a picture be produced as in the growth of these 
vast numbers of Pines. As many as a million and a half of 
the fruit have been collected from a single acre at one crop. 
The appearance of these Pine Apple estates has as little in 
common with sugar plantations or paddy fields of the tropics 
‘as with the corn fields or vineries of Europe. In a few weeks 
these Pine Apples will be making their appearance in the 
English markets. They are shipped in an unripe state and 
mature during the voyage, and hence are not so excellent in 
quality as the English hothouse fruit, or as if they were pro- 
perly ripened in the ground. The Pine Apples of New Provi- 
dence, however, are superior to any other variety, and often 
attain an enormous size. One, grown in Pembrokeshire, 
weighing 104 tbs., and measuring 103 inches in height, exclu- 
sive of the stalk and crown, and 22 inches in circumference, 
was served up at the Coronation banquet of George IV., and 
since then the improved modes of cultivation have greatly in- 
creased the size and quality of the fruit. There is an enormous 
demand for the Bahama Pine Apples both in Europe and 
America.—(Lhe Colonies and India.) 
PORTRAITS OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS. 
H@&MANTHUS MANNII. Wat. ord., Amaryllidacee. Linn, 
Hexandria Monogynia. Flowers crimson.—‘ The leaves, as in 
H. multiflorus, grow upon a special stem, which is produced 
after the scape, and do not arrive at maturity until after the 
flowers are faded. It was gathered in April, 1861, by Mann, 
on the banks of the Bagroo river, but was not introduced into 
cultivation until last year, when it was sent to Mr. Bull from 
Liberia by his collector Mr. Carder. It flowered at Kew this 
present spring.’—( Bot, Maq., t. 6364.) 
FRITILLARIA ARMENA. Vat. ord., Liliaceze. Linn., Hex- 
andria Monogynia.—‘ The drawing was made from a living 
specimen received at the end of March from Mr. George Maw, 
who procured the bulbs from Jas. Zohrab, Esq., the British 
Consul at Erzeroum. We have dried examples in the Kew 
herbarium from the same gentleman and from two other col- 
lectors, Aucher Eloy (from whose specimens Boissier’s diag- 
nosis was made), and Huet du Pavillon. The latter localises 
it on the Tech-dagh above Erzeroum at an elevation above sea 
level of from 7000 to 8000 feet.”—(Zdid., t. 6365.) 
LEUCOPOGON VERTICILLATUS. Vat. ord., Epacridese.—“ The 
great beauty of L. verticillatus is due to the tender rose colour 
of the young leaves, which appear in drooping masses sur- 
rounded at the base with rigid sheathing scales. The flowers 
are very minute. Sir J. D. Hooker was indebted to Isaac Andrew 
Henry, Esq., for a living specimen of this remarkable plant, 
which flowered in autumn of last year. It was raised from 
seed sent from Western Australia, where the species inhabits 
the country from King George’s Sound to Swan River.’— 
(ibid., t. 6366.) 
GRIFFINIA ORNATA, Vat. ord., Amaryllidacee. Linn., 
Hexandria Monogynia.—‘ This new Griffinia, for horticultural 
purposes, surpasses all the other known species with the ex- 
ception of the very rare G. dryades. It is a typical Griffinia, 
most like the old well-known G. hyacinthina, but ismuch more 
robust in habit, with more numerous larger leaves with closer 
cross-veining, and larger flowers mounted on long pedicels. 
Like all the other species, it is only adapted for stove cul- 
tivation. It was first imported by Mr. Bull in 1875 from the 
neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro. In the Kew collection it 
flowered in February, 1878.”—(Jdid., t. 6367.) 
MASDEVALLIA POLYSTICTA. JVat. ord., Orchidacer. Linn, 
Gynandria Monandria.—“ M. polysticta was introduced from 
northern Peru by M. Roezl in 1874, along with M. melanopus 
and a hitherto unfigured species, M. caloptera, Reichbd. f. It 
has flowered in Mr. Williams’ nursery and at Kew and else- 
where in the winter months.” —(Jdid., t. 6368.) 
CLEMATIS GREWIMFLORA. JVat.ord.,Ranunculacex. Linn, 
Polyandria Polygynia.x—‘ The Himalaya Mountains are the 
head-quarters of the genus Clematis in respect of number and. 
variety of forms, and many of the species are of great beauty. 
Witness the C. montana, C. graveolens, C. smilacifolia, C. bar- 
bellata, and others not hitherto introduced, though none of 
them attain the size or have the beauty of colour of the Japa- 
nese species of the Florida and Fortunei set. Most of the 
above are perfectly hardy ; this is not the case with C. Grewiz- 
flora, which requires a cool greenhouse, when it forms an im- 
mense rambling climber, which at Kew ascended in a few years 
to the gallery of the Temperate house, along the rail of which 
it ran for many feet, flowering profusely in early spring. The 
species is very nearly allied to C. Buchananiana, also a Hima- 
layan species, under which name it was received from the 
Calcutta Botanic Gardens about twelve yearsago. It, however, 
differs from that plant in its much more dense clothing of 
villous fulvous hairs, as also in the shape of the leaflets. It 
has a very wide Himalayan range, being common towards the 
