490 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
{ December 26, 1878. 
me in December onwards, andis a fine species from the Bythi- 
nian Olympus. 
H. odovus is, as its name implies, sweet-scented, the flower 
stems rising 12 to 15 inches high, forked near the top, having 
large solitary greenish white flowers. The sepalsovate, oblong, 
and permanent. It is a native of Hungary, and flowers about 
the same time as the preceding, being much finer assisted with 
protection. 
There are many other species of Hellebores, but they do not 
ower until later in the winter, and do not come under the 
head of Christmas Roses, though they are fine forthe herbaceous 
border, being alike :nteresting and beautiful.—G. ABBEY. 
ORANGES. 
ORANGES are pre-eminent amongst Christmas fruits, and tke 
following notes abridged from the Standard will be read with 
interest at this season:—The importation of Oranges has recently 
commenced. Our supply comes chiefly from St. Michael's, one 
of the Azores Islands ; from Terceira and Fayal, also belonging 
to that group: from Valencia, and several other Spanish ports ; 
from Lisbon, Villa Real, Aviero, and Oporto, and from Palermo, 
Malta, and other ports in the Mediterranean. The earliest 
arrivals are from Spain, Portugal. and Sicily, the famous St. 
Michael’s Oranges being a little later. The St. Michael im- 
portation does not last much beyond the end of May, and this 
class of Orange is at its perfection about Christmas, and then 
it is the best Orange that can be got, though complaints are 
now heard in the trade that the St. Michael growers k ave of 
late rather grown for quantity than quality. 
The St. Michael’s are now brought to this country exclusively 
in steamships, each carrying about 10,000 boxes; but a new 
vessel will be in the trade this season which will bring from 
20,000 to 24,000. The boxesin this branch of the trade contain 
about 350 Oranges in each, though they are not counted, as 
are the numbers sent in the boxes from Palermo and Valencia, 
the latter containing 420 or 490, and the former 200 of large 
and 360 of small fruit. Probably there are more Oranges im- 
ported from Valencia than from all other ports together. The 
St. Michael’s are packed in the dried leaves of Indian corn, but 
all other Oranges in paper. 
The “ Blood” Oranges, as they are called, come mostly from 
Valencia, but a few from Malta, from which latter place we 
also get the egg-shaped fruit. Both of these command much 
higher prices than ordinary consignments. The aromatic and 
delicious “ Tancierines” hail from St. Michael’s, and also from 
Lisbon, varying very considerably in price according to the 
supply. Seville Oranges come from the place of that name, 
and, as eyeryone knows, are used exclusively for making 
marmalade and orange wine. For both these purposes, how- 
ever, the Palermo “bitters” are really better adapted ; and it 
may not be generally known that the best marmalade of all is 
produced from the Shaddock—a sort of cross between an 
Orange and a Lemon, and named after a Captain Shaddock. 
who brought it from China, or as some say, from Guinea, and 
planted it in the West Indies, whence we now derive our limited 
supply. It is the bitter element in the Seville and Palermo 
Oranges which fit them for marmalade, asit preserves the skins 
while they dry. 
The great bulk of St. Michael’s and other Oranges are landed 
at Fresh Wharf, Thames Street, but those from Lisbon gene- 
rally in the London Docks. The fruit is shipped to London 
merchants, who advance large sums of money to the foreign 
growers, and then it passes at once into the hands of the brokers, 
who sell it by auction, holding sales from three to five times a 
week, according to the season. Pudding Lane, Thames Street, 
is their head-quarters, and, if not quite an Orange grove, is busy 
enough with the Orange trade; long strings of white-stockinged 
“fellowship” porters carrying the boxes almost all day long 
without intermission during the busy season from the riverside 
to the warehouses. A large quantity of the fruit sold finds its 
way to Duke’s Place, a quarter of the Hebrew region of 
Houndsditch, where it is resold to shopkeepers and coster- 
mongers. This locality is redolent of Oranges, and it is no ex- 
aggeration to say that you may often walk for yards there ankle- 
deep in decayed Orange pulp and peel. As it is a somewhat 
delicate subject to touch, it may be as well not to say anything 
about the price of Oranges as realised at the brokers’ sales ; 
but a few statistics of the quantity imported may be interest- 
ing. Twenty years ago it was thought rather a wonderful 
thing that the metropolis should be supplied with one hundred 
millions of Oranges yearly. There are now sold in Pudding 
Lane and its vicinity something like three or four times that 
quantity, of which by far the greater portion is consumed in 
the metropolitan district. 
The increase in the trade is due ina great measure to the 
abolition of the duty. Formerly 2s. 6d. per box was the impost ; 
in 1853 it was reduced to 8d. ; and altogether abolished in 1861. 
Last year 732,000 packages came to London. <A steamer with 
10,000 to 12,000 packages brings somewhat over one Orange 
each to the three and a half million inhabitants of the metro- 
polis. Glancing at importations to other ports, we find that 
last year Liverpool received 715,000 packages (a large portion 
of which were transhipped to America) ; Hull received 227,000, 
and Bristol 110,000. If we add to these the packages received 
at minor ports, we shall have in round numbers nearly two 
million packages; and these again would represent something 
like a consumption in the United Kingdom of seven hundred 
million Oranges annually. Every year is more than likely to 
see a large increase on these figures. Last year, according to 
a calculation made by the Board of Trade, there were imported 
of Oranges and Lemons together 3,533,781 bushels, represent- 
ing a money value of £1,549,765, first hand. 
GARDEN FENCING. 
I THANK all those contributors for their practical suggestions 
communicated to the Journal respecting fencing for the Expe- 
rimental Garden. As the site of the gardenis at Sandy in the 
centre of the Bedfordshire market-garden district there is little 
need for especial protection from cattle: but as experiments 
will be carried on it is necessary that a reasonable protection 
should at once be afforded against all intruders, and as yet I 
cannot discover anything so well adapted to meet all require- 
ments as a wooden wall and a paled post and rail fence, and 
in the economical construction of which so much depends 
upon the local materials available. But here timber of all the 
usual kinds is reasonably cheap. Stretched wire netting can 
be quickly fixed at a moderate price, takes up but little space, 
and as a temporary fence is tolerably secure against two-legged 
marauders; for a south side where little shade is required I 
think it may be used advantageously, and seems preferable to 
flat bar fencing. 
Quick Thorn, Holly, Privet, Spruce, or other green fence, 
except for the purpose of shelter or to act asa breakwind, is 
undesirable, as, in addition to the period which must elapse 
before a secure fence can be formed, the roots travel far in 
search of nourishment, and when the hedge becomes established 
it exhausts the ground for a distance of at least 6 feet on each 
side; and allowing 4 feet for the width of the fence, a space 
of upwards of 5 yards of valuable ground is almost monopo- 
lised, and this continued round a three-acre piece would 
amount toa serious diminution. The neighbouring market 
gardeners here are so fully alive to this that they shelter their 
Cucumbers and other tender crops with rows of Rye or staked 
Peas. Holly fences do remarkably well on the greensand in this 
locality, and in the fayoured parish of Aspley Guise near Wo- 
burn, now much resorted to by patients suffering from pulmo- 
nary complaints, there is a hedge of Holly by the roadside 
from 20 to 25 feet high, nearly a mile in length, and almost 
without a break ; and in the pretty village of Old Warden near 
here there are well-kept hedges of many kinds of variegated 
and other Hollies intermingled, which are charmingly luxu- 
riant and healthy. 
In the Bedford allotment gardens on a cold drift clay isa 
perfect hedge of Sweetbriar, 5 feet high and nearly 300 yards 
in length, extending round three sides of one of the allotments, 
and forming one of the most perfect and secure fences I have 
ever seen. And to show how much may be done by using the 
right materials for a live fence in a particular locality, I have 
seen in the Atlantic-washed coasts and saline atmosphere of 
the counties of Galway and Mayo good sound hedges formed 
of Fuchsia Riccartoni 12 feet high, and with others as thick as 
a man’s arm, and where scarcely anything else but Hlder 
will grow. The beautiful Escallonia macrantha in the more 
favoured spots in that locality is also used for dwarfer garden 
fences. ; 
Some years ago I tried in Lincolnshire various strong-grow- 
ing Roses for divisional garden fences, and I found nothing 
equal to the hardy and vigorous H.B. Charles Lawson; it 
is a free and rapid grower, and when well cut-in at first 
makes a dense and secure hedge, and I intend again using it 
in the formation of the Rose garden in the Experimental. I 
have a suspicion that in most localities good old Gloire de 
