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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 7, 1876. 



finest Cockscombs that have come under our notice for some 

 time. They are of two shades of colour, some being deep 

 crimson, others scarlet. They are grown in pots varying from 

 8 to 12 inches in diameter. These plants are splendid ex- 

 amples of culture, the combs ranging from 20 to 30 inches 

 across. They have taken first prize at the Reading Horticul- 

 tural Society's Show — in fact, they have secured first honours 

 wherever exhibited for the last sixteen or eighteen years by 

 the same successful cultivator. 



" J. P." writes as follows on the prevention of Celery 



fly : — " To Celery-growers it will no doubt be a boon to find a 

 preventive for that terrible pest the Celery fly. I saw some 

 Celery plants a short time ago in several stages of growth at 

 Mr. Reeves's, Walham Green, looking remarkably well, and 

 not an atom of thiB pest about any of the plants. Mr. Chap- 

 man, the manager, says it is accounted for by using brewers' 

 hops, whioh can be obtained at a trifling expense. As soon as 

 the seedlings are pricked out he carefully spreads a few of the 

 hops between them, and when removed to the trenches he 

 again places hops amongst the plants. The hops answer two 

 purposes — the fly will not come near the Celery, and moisture 

 is secured in the soil by the mulching." 



Two large pavilions used for the Bolton Flower Show 



were blown down during the seveee gale which prevailed on 

 the 31st nit., and much damage was done to the plants and 

 Bhrubs. 



A lady writing from Paris states that " in consequence 



of the exceBBive heat many trees have cast their foliage, and 

 since the late rains occurred have commenced growing again, 

 some Chestnuts on the Boulevards being now in flower, and 

 have quite a spring-like appearance." 



" A. W., Lincoln," writes : — The fickleness of our 



climate has seldom shown itself in such a marked manner as 

 during the latter half of the preceding month. The average 

 maximum temperature from the 7th to the 21st was 80°, the 

 average minimum during the Bame period being 51°. On the 

 22nd the temperature fell to 39° ; a week of raw boisterous 

 weather followed, the thermometer falling on two occasions to 

 35°. Tender plants, such as Poinsettias, were housed just 

 before the change, and not a moment too soon, or they would 

 have suffered irrecoverably. 



Poisoning from Lead in Vegetables. — Dr. D. De Loos 



of Leyden writes in the " Weekblad van her nederlandsoh 

 Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde " that he was consulted in 

 October last regarding certain symptoms of paralysis and 

 nervous disturbance which suggested the idea of lead-poison- 

 ing. The symptoms occurred in a family residing in the 

 neighbourhood of a place where a manufactory of white lead 

 had stood twelve years previously. They made use of vege- 

 tables growing on the spot. In order to make it certain that 

 the poisoning was produced, as he believed it to be, by the 

 vegetables, Dr. De Loos examined chemically some red Beet, 

 Endive, and Carrots, and ascertained the presence of lead in 

 all. In a Beet weighing 650 grammes he found the equivalent 

 of a centigramme of metallic lead ; in another of about the 

 same size 1J centigramme ; in six Carrots, weighing altogether 

 272 grammes, there were lj centigramme of metallic lead; and 

 the metal was also found in the Endive. The ashes of the 

 plants also contained traces of copper, which had probably 

 existed as an impurity of the lead.— (Britis/i Medical Journal.) 



Humphrey Repton, the writer on landscape gardening, 



was buried at Aylsham in Norfolk, and the following is his 

 epitaph inserted in the wall of the church close to the chancel 

 door : — 



" Not, like Egyptian tyrants, consecrate, 

 Unmixed with others, shall my dust remain; 

 But blending, mould'ring, sinking into earth, 

 Mine Bhall give form and colour to the Rose ; 

 And while its vivid blossoms cheer mankind. 

 Its fragrant odours shall ascend to heaven I" 



A small railed-in garden is in front of the tablet, and this 

 garden is always kept bright and orderly by cousins of Mr. 

 Repton, who live in Aylsham. 



The heat in India has this year been excessive. Long 



after sunset the thermometer registered over 100° Fahr. in 

 rooms in which the air was agitated by punkahs, and in some 

 of the hospitals it has stood at 100° for many days, scarcely 

 falling even at night. 



Popular impressions are often far from the truth, and 



in regard to the Arctic regions they are undoubtedly so. A 

 treeless land would be, in the opinion of most people, the 



idea which would suggest itself in regard to the regions in ques- 

 tion. Yet this, though true, is not all the truth. Within the 

 Arctic Circle are found trees often forming considerable though 

 stunted forests. In Eastern Siberia Pines and other trees 

 come down almost to the water's edge; while over all Western 

 Siberia, Arctic Russia, and Lapland the tree limit runs within 

 the Arctic Circle. Trees extend even to the North Cape. In 

 Greenland we find, even in the most southerly parts of it, no 

 herbage more worthy of the name of tree than the stunted 

 Birch, which in the more sheltered valleys of that country — 

 equally inappropriately named with Iceland — attain the pro- 

 portion of little shrubs ; and it is not until we come to the 

 milder latitudes of the Pacific that the tree line, which had 

 described a southerly curve in the cold regions of Central North 

 America, again rises to the north, and until we reach the 

 shores of Behring3 Strait we find nothing which we can dignify 

 by the name of trees. The wooded banks of the Yuken touch 

 the Arctic Circle, and foreBts of white Spruce are found on the 

 Noatak, a river which falls into Eschscholtz Bay, which in- 

 fringes on the Arctic Circle. In Lapland the Spruce ceases 

 at about the 68th parallel, and the Scotch Fir at the 69th ; 

 but in Norway, owing probably to the presence of the warm 

 Gulf Stream, which sweeps along the coast and into the Arctic 

 Sea — at least aa far east as Novai Zemlai — -we find forests of 

 Scotch Firs 60 feet in height as far north as Altenfjord, and 

 Birches about 45 feet high in an equally northern latitude. 

 In latitude 70° 28' the hardy Scotch Fir still maintains its 

 ground, though the Spruce fails a degree or so further south. 

 In the vicinity of Hammerfest, a well-known Lapland town, 

 in latitude 70|° N., there are dwarf Alders and Aspens, 

 Cherries, Rasps, and Currants. In the Scandinavian penin- 

 sula, probably also owing to the warmth which a sea unencum- 

 bered, and in addition laved by a current of a higher tempe- 

 rature, affords, Barley is cultivated as far north as the 70th 

 parallel, the latitude of Disco Island, on the Greenland ooast, 

 and Oats up to the 65th, " in sheltered valleys, where rocks 

 and cliffs refleot the sun's rays with much power." — (Dr. 

 Brown's The Countries of the World.) 



There are at the present moment in Ceylon 257,000 



acres of cultivated Coffee, divided into slightly more than 

 1200 estates, and giving employment to 1050 managers and 

 superintendents, nearly all of whom are Europeans. Some 

 50,000 acres of theBe estates are not in proper bearing through 

 being either too young or too old, and therefore 210,000 acres 

 may be taken as the extent of the plantations of the island, 

 which are accountable for the present year's crop (ending in 

 September), estimated at 630,000 cwts. Last year the yield, 

 with 8000 acres less in cultivation, was 873,000 cwts. The 

 value of the whole plantation interest is roughly estimated at 

 nine millions sterling of English money. — {Nature.) 



From many growers and judges at exhibitions we have 



heard that Melons have this summer been Bingularly destitutes 

 of flavour. We have tasted many fruits, and have been 

 struck with their remarkably low quality. In a season so 

 sunny we should have expected this fruit to have been un- 

 usually excellent. Is the general lack of flavour due to an 

 insufficiency of moisture ? or has the quality of the fruit been 

 appropriated by the red spider, which in many districts has 

 been unavoidably prevalent ? Let the cause have been what 

 it may, the fact remains, as so many have expressed it, that 

 " Melons have not been good this year." 



We are informed that the decoration of the magni- 

 ficent conservatory which has been recently erected by His 

 Majesty the King of the Belgians at Laeken has been entrusted 

 to Mr. John Wills of the Royal Exotic Nurseries, South Ken- 

 sington. This conservatory is quite different from the usual 

 structures which are ereoted for the cultivation and display of 

 plants. It is quite circular in form, is about 60 yards in dia- 

 meter and 60 feet high, and has already cost, we believe, 

 £S0,000. 



ABOUT DOVER. 

 The vicinity of Dover is the birthplace of English gardening. 

 The Romans and Augustine landed there, and they both in- 

 troduced horticulture. Gardens accompanied the erection of 

 their villaB and monasteries. Even the Roman strongholds 

 had cultivated enclosures beneath their walls, and I could 

 point out at Riohborough Castle boundary mounds that might 

 have been around such an enolosure. Of that Castle the ruins 

 of three aides remain clothed with Ivy, but where bare the 

 layers of Roman tiles are visible. None of the usual tenants 



