November 28, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
409 
el 
flower resembling Garnet ; good. Nuit d’Automne, rosy crim- 
son, reverse of petals pearly white ; form of flower resembling 
Fulgore; distinct. Rosa Bonheur, very deep rose suffused 
with magenta; flower large, with round drooping petals. Pere 
Delaux, colour bright chestnut ; petals quilled at base ; flower 
small, but very bright. These are promising varieties of a 
rapidly increasing section of Chrysanthemums. 
—— Mr. Movtr of Ravensworth Castle recommends th 
Tea Rose DucHESS OF EDINBURGH as a valuable variety for 
affording late bloom, which it continues producing for a long 
time if kept dry. It is found a good companion for Mrs. 
Bosanquet and Souvenir de la Malmaison. The two latter Mr. 
Moult considers excellent autumn Roses, and their blooms asso- 
ciate well with Chrysanthemums for dinner table decoration. 
— THE Hon. and Rev. J. T. Boscawen writes that he is 
glad “WyL~p SAvaGEe” had called the attention of the 
authorities of the NATIONAL ROSE Society to their duty in 
the matter of the fixtures of the local Rose shows, and suggests 
that the secretaries of the country Rose shows write as soon as 
possible to the Seeretaries of the National Rose Society, naming 
the proposed date of their exhibitions, when no doubt some 
eonvenient arrangements will be made to suit all parties 
concerned. 
—— A Goop gardener writes—“ Mr. Campbell, Superinten- 
dent of the SouUTHPORT WINTER GARDENS, may be congratu- 
lated on the quality of the productions of the first Chrysan- 
themum and fruit Show which was held there on the 21st and 
22nd inst., as both flowers and fruit were of very high quality. 
Amongst other flowering plants Epiphyllum truncatum Rus- 
sellianum was extremely pretty and well flowered ; also some 
pyramid plants of zonal Geraniums from the Botanical Gardens, 
which being so well flowered, they looked as if it might only 
have been the month of June instead of November.’ 
CONSIDERING how useful the brilliant old SALVIA 
SPLENDENS is for autumn and winter decoration, it is sur- 
prising that it is not grown in all gardens that have conveni- 
ences for autumn and winter flowers. No plant than this is 
better adapted for associating with Chrysanthemums, Palms, 
and ornamental-foliaged plants generally. A great advantage 
possessed by this Salvia is that it will flower equally well in 
a large or small state. A plant exhibited at the Putney Show 
last week by Mr. Pithers was about 4 feet high and through, 
and was a mass of brilliant scarlet. It was one amongst 
others that, we believe, had been planted out during the 
summer and potted in the autumn—a simple mode of culture 
that should insure for the plant a place in all gardens and 
conservatories. It is valuable also for affording a supply of 
cut flowers for vase decoration. 
—— WE recently admired a table of ZONAL PELARGONIUMS 
at Duneevan. This round table when furnished contains 180 
small glasses, each containing a truss of flowers, the whole 
being arranged with great taste by Mr. McIntosh. During the 
winter this table is constantly rendered brilliant. The varie- 
ties grown include all the best raised by Dr. Denny, Mr. Pear- 
son, and other raisers, and the effect produced by the various 
colours is extremely imposing. The brilliant group is also 
rendered instructive, for the names are attached to many of 
the varieties for the benefit of visitors who are not so well 
acquainted with them as is their patron—the President of the 
Pelargonium Society, who grows a very complete collection 
of these eminently useful plants. 
— Mr. M. TEMPLE writes in the “Gardener” as follows 
on LOBELIA CARDINALIS :—This old plant, now seldom seen 
in quantity, has a splendid effect when grown in groups or 
lines in the herbaceous border. At an old place on the west 
coast of Wales I observed a number of plants mixed with 
Pentstemons, having a splendid effect. The Lobelia’s colour 
is unique, and when used as a back line nothing in its way 
¢an surpass its brilliancy. When returning on my homeward 
journey I called at the gardens of Powis Castle, where I saw 
L. cardinalis in perfection. In the long herbaceous borders 
(which have such careful attention from Mr. Lee, the intel- 
ligent head gardener), this plant is growing in circular groups, 
at equal distances, of about ten or a dozen plants in each 
group. The effect is excellent—Pentstemons, Phloxes, and 
other contemporary flowering plants are in harmony with the 
L. cardinalis. Circular specimens of Clematis Jackmani, at 
equal distances in this border, were also very telling. The 
arrangement of these hardy plants on the terraces of this grand 
old place makes a most favourable contrast with the ordinary 
bedding plants, and is much in character with the ancient 
buildings. 
THE yield of the CALIFORNIAN VINEYARDS for 1875 
was about 8,000,000 gallons. That State has, says a transatlantic 
contemporary, land enough adapted to Grape culture to make 
as much wine as France, Germany, Hungary, and Spain com- 
bined could produce, and there is no doubt among those who 
have given the subject the closest study that California will in 
some future time outrank every other wine-growing region in 
the world. The foot hills of that State, which are held at one- 
tenth the price of land in France, have a vast productive 
capacity, and seldom fail to produce a good crop. 
FISH IN A GARDEN AQUARIUM. 
iy a former communication on aquatics I did not enter at 
all into the pleasure which possessors of even a small garden 
may derive from combining the use of the tank, or artificial 
pond, for their display with the culture of fish as objects of 
ornamentation or as pets. Both are compatible, while the 
daily interest of marking the progress and gradually expand- 
ing beauties of the plants and flowers will be greatly enhanced 
by the additional pleasure of noting the habits and history of 
their living associates. The former subserve the useful pur- 
poses of oxygenating the water and forming a pabulum for 
the aquatic molluscs and insect forms which are food for the 
latter, and which thus are prevented acquiring an injurious 
preponderance. 
A few dozen of Paludina vivipara, a large dark periwinkle-like 
shell, ornamented with darker spiral bands ; of the various species 
of Planorbis, popularly known by the name of ‘l'rumpet-shells, 
but which can be likened more exactly, so far as external form 
goes, to the extinct Ammonites, so common as fossils in the 
countries formed by the secondary formations; of Lymnez, 
such as Lymnza peregru, L. auricularis ; of Luccinia putris 
(or the amber snail), and of the liliputian freshwater cockle 
(Cyclas corneus) will be sufficient if introduced in the spring 
time, and a little before the fish, to start a stock which the 
latter will never entirely eradicate. 
These may all be readily procured in most of the ditches 
haying access to the Thames, or in small natural ponds in the 
vicinity of London. They will of themselves afford consider- 
able amusement in watching their development and habits, 
propagating freely during many months of the year by spawn 
deposited in gelatinous: bands (some of extreme beauty) on 
the under side and stems of plants, growing rapidly, and 
dotting prettily in groups of all sizes the sides and bottom of 
the tank, or clambering about among the submerged leaves ; 
some eyen, like the Lymnza stagnalis, a large and very com- 
mon species, which from its yoracity is doubtfully worthy of 
introduction, skating or gliding body downwards along the 
underneath part of the surface of the water. Numerous insect 
forms will inevitably introduce themselves, either transported 
in the supply of water or entangled in the roots and attached. 
mud of the plants which may have been procured from the 
neighbouring streams and ponds. 
Various species of the Hphemeridz, &c., will be noted as 
having their successive and limited period of rising during 
the spring time; the burnished and sprightly Libellula will 
emerge and hoyer over in a beauty strangely contrasting with 
the hideousness of their larval condition. Water beetles of 
all sorts and sizes, both in their perfect state and in their 
transitional larval state ; the so-called divers, swimmers, boat- 
men, and scorpion—all these will be noticed alternately bask- 
ing and hunting through the water for prey with restless 
activity. The Gyrinus natator will be seen passing its exist- 
ence im an endless mazy dance upon the surface with its 
fellows, while the Hydrometra, or Water-measurer, skips, skates, 
and slides over it by the aid of a special provision of floating 
foot supports with which it is provided. Aninfinity of O. Nixt 
or water woodlice of various species, Entomostrace, minute 
bivalved crustacea, and of other minute and almost micro- 
scopic forms of aquatic animal life, will rapidly furnish addi- 
tional sources of food supply to the fish, which are the subject 
for our next consideration. 
The most suitable are the gold and silver carp, the English 
carp, the crucian carp, the tench, the perch, the gudgeon, and 
the minnow. The first are so well known that nothing need 
be said in respect to them; of the others all are easily fed, 
become tolerably tame, are hardy, will increase in size, and 
breed in ponds of even small dimensions. 
The comparative shyness and tameness of fish are affected 
