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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ April 14, 1863. 



GISHTJEST COMPOUND. 

 Max! suggest to your correspondent " S. P." that instead of 

 condemning Gishurst altogether he should, next winter, try, 

 instead of the eight-ounce solution he used, one of half the 

 strength ? This I tried on some of the more susceptible sorts of 

 trees this season in January after the buds had swelled much, 

 with the result of their neither browning nor falling. I think, 

 after the paragraph giving the Van Mons Society's experience, 

 which immediately followed "S. P.'s" note, that the medicine 

 may Btill be considered valuable, though the dose may have 

 proved too strong in the cases of particular patients. I use 

 8 ozs. because I find my trees the better for it ; but after find- 

 ing, even in exceptional cases, that the eight-ounce solution had 

 been too strong, I recommended half this strength. — Geobge 

 Wilson. 



THE EOYAL BOTANIC SOCIETY'S SECOND 

 SPRING SHOW. 



This took place on Saturday last, and the display, especially 

 of Azaleas, was excellent. 



Those from Mr. Turner, of Slough, were admirable examples 

 of cultivation, being regularly-grown pyramids, and covered with 

 a profusion of bloom. They consisted of Rosy Circle, Prince 

 Jerome, Admiration, Criterion, Iveryana, and Holfordi. He had 

 besides in the class for new sorts, Perfection, a bright rose spotted 

 with crimson ; President, rosy salmon ; and Duke of Saxony. 



Messrs. Ivery & Son, of Dorking, had also a nice <colleclion, 

 consisting of Criterion, Baron de Vriere, Iveryana, Louise Mar- 

 gottin, and Adelaide de Nassau. 



Mr. Cross, gardener to Sir F. Goldsmid, Bart., and Mr. Tod- 

 man, gardener to R. Hudson, Esq., Clapham Common, had 

 excellent specimens in the Amateur's Class. 



Hyacinths did not afford a great display. Those from Messrs. 

 Cutbush, of Highgate, and Mr. Carr of the same place, were by 

 far the best ; and among them were some very good spikes of Van 

 Speyk, Macaulay, Von Schiller, and other kinds which have been 

 frequently noticed in these columnB during the present spring. 



Cut Roses were again shown in great perfection by Mr. W. 

 Paul, of Waltham Cross, and Messrs. Paul & Son, of Cheshunt. 

 In Mr. W. Paul's collection, which consisted of eight boxes, 

 were some beautiful blooms :— Teas, L»uise de Savoie, Eliza 

 Sauvage, Niphetos, Vicomtesse de Cazes, Devoniensis, and Gloire 

 de Dijon ; and of Hybrid Perpetuale, Beauty of Waltham, Pauline 

 Lanzezeur, Louise Peyronny, Olivier Delhomme (of a glowing 

 purplish-red), and three lovely blooms of Victor Verdier, two 

 of which were just opening. In Messrs. Paul & Son's seven 

 boxes, among the most striking were Narcisse, Eliza Sauvage, 

 Madame de St. Joseph, Louise de Savoie, and Madame Willermoz; 

 and H.P.'s John Hopper, Victor Verdier, Maurice Bernardin, 

 Jules Margottin ; and H.B. Charles Lawson, the last a lovely 

 bright colour and very large and full. 



Of Pot Roses the only exhibition came from Mr. W. Paul, 

 who had Senateur Vaisse, with its beautiful bright red flowers ; 

 Victor Verdier, large and fine ; Catherine Guillot, very fine ; and 

 among dark colours Cardinal Patrizzi and Triomphe de Lyon. 



Of Begonias there were several collections shown, the ex- 

 hibitors being Mr. Cross, Mr. Pox (gardener to R. Gibbs, Esq., 

 of Highgate), and Mr. Webb (gardener to J. L. Latham, Esq., of 

 Highgate). The whole of the plants were well grown, but among 

 the kinds shown there was nothing remarkable for its novelty. 



Several collections of foliage and flowering plants were shown. 

 Messrs. Lee, of Hammersmith, had in their's Hedaroma tulipi- 

 ferum and Cyathea Smithii, the handsome lively green fronds of 

 which were seen to great advantage between the more sombre 

 foliage of a fine Alocasia metallica and a handsome speoimen 

 Epacris grandiflora rubra. 



Mr. Williams, of Holloway, also exhibited an excellent col- 

 lection, iu which was a lovely plant of Cattleya Skinneri in full 

 bloom, and handsome plants of Cordyline indivisa, and Gleiche- 

 nia dicarpa, and Cyathea exeelsa. He had besides Azalea 

 Empress Eugenie, which, though a handsomely-shaped plant, and 

 well covered with bloom, had lost many of its flowers, probably 

 from rough carriage. 



Good collections were likewise exhibited by Mr. Bull, Messrs. 

 Henderson & Co., F. & A. Smith, and Mr. Cross. 



Of other objects exhibited, collections of Amaryllids came 

 irom Messrs. Cutbush and Mr. Parker, of Tooting; British 

 Fem3 from Messrs. Ivery and Miss Clarkson ; and from Messrs. 



Perkin3 and Sons, of Coventry, Verbena Lord Leigh, with large 

 trusses of crimson scarlet flowers with a white eye, and which 

 are well represented in the Florist and Pomologist for March. 

 The same firm had likewise a pretty Cineraria called Rev. 9. 

 Widdrington. Stands of cut Camellias were shown by Messrs. 

 A. Henderson & Co. and MessrB. Lee ; and of Pansies, among 

 which were some pretty dark selfs, by Mr. Bragg, of Slough. 

 A batch of variegated Geraniums, as Sunset, Mrs. Pollock, and 

 Countess, were shown by Messrs. E. G. Henderson & Son ; 

 also Coleu3 nigricans, with blackish-purple foliage ; Genista 

 prostrata, a handsome trailer, with yellow flowers ; and Cupressus 

 Lindleyana, with white variegations. Mr. Williams also exhi- 

 bited Phalsenopsis Schilleriana and amabilis, Dendrobium aggre- 

 gatum majus, Tradescantia odorata, with dark red leaves, some- 

 what resembling those of Draeama ferrea ; a species of Aralia, 

 with long, narrow spiny leaves of a blackish-green, and blotched 

 at the spines with paler green ; the variegated Aralia Sieboldi, 

 Gleichenia dicarpa, and some other plants. Lastly, Mr. Bull, 

 of Chelsea, had a large batch of seedling Zonale Geraniums, 

 among which were several pretty unnamed varieties, of the 

 merits of which we shall doubtless hear in due time, and several 

 new Petunias, likewise unnamed ; whilst Mr. Paul had Magnolia 

 Linne, with large flowers, rose tinged with violet on the outside. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETING. 



The March Meeting of the Entomological Society was held 

 on the 2nd inst., F. Smith, Esq., the President, being in the 

 chair. The Secretary announced a considerable list of donations 

 to the Society's library, from the Royal Society, the Entomo- 

 logical Societies of France, Stettin, and Vienna, the Society of 

 Arts, the Rojal Society of Nassau, &c, including an extensive 

 series of the "Annales" cf the French Entomological Society. 



A number of minute species of British Rove Beetles (Staphy- 

 linidse), belonging to the genera Mycetoporas, Bryophorus, and 

 Homalota, were exhibited by Mr. G. R. Waterhouse, with 

 relative notes and descriptions. 



Professor Westwood read descriptions of two new Australian 

 species of Lucanidae, one in the collection of the British Museum, 

 and the other in that of Dr. Howitt, who had forwarded a very 

 beautiful drawing of it for description. 



Mr. F. Bond exhibited a species of the true Polyommatua 

 Dorylas, one of the small blue Butterflies which, although long 

 ago figured by Lewin as a British species, had for many years 

 past been rejected from the Brii ish lists as a doubtful native. 

 Mr. Bond had received it as a variety of P. Adonis, taken with 

 other insects in the west of England. The name of P. Dorylas 

 had also been misapplied by Leach to the common blue Butterfly, 

 P. Alexis. 



The President read a memoir on the various species of Honey 

 Bees exhibited, together with their nests and honey, in the 

 Brazilian Court of the International Exhibition of 1862. Al- 

 though the European Honey Bee, Apis mellifica, had been in- 

 troduced and become naturalised in North America, no other 

 species of Apis was indigenous in the New World ; but in South 

 America their place was taken by stingless Bees, composing the 

 genera Trigona and Melipona, to which another genus had been 

 added by Saint Eargeau under the name of Tetragona, but this 

 genus was not considered by Mr. Smith to be tenable. All these 

 South American Bees are stinglesB. They vary very consider- 

 ably with reference to the quality of the honey which they 

 make ; and Mr. Smith, by an examination of the organs of their 

 mouths (four only of the species having toothed mandibles), 

 showed that the different species must necessarily be appropriated 

 to very different classes of flowers. No fewer than 120 Bpeciea 

 of these American Bees had been described ; and in the col- 

 lection exhibited in the Brazilian Court, eleven out of the fourteen 

 species of Trigona were new to science, as well as both the 

 species of Melipona. It had also long been affirmed that several 

 species of Wasps of the genus Polybia, including the Licheguana 

 Wasp were honey-makers, and several species of this genus were 

 contained in the collection ; but Mr. Smith, from an examina- 

 tion of their nests, appeared to doubt whether they were really 

 collectors of honey, but thought they were rather robbers, which 

 had stolen it from the nests of Meliferai. 



D. Moobe, Esq., Ph.D., M.R.I.A., &c. — It is with very 

 sincere pleasure we learned that Mr. (uow Dr.) Moore, the very 



