456 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[June 23, 1863. 



flowers prove constant in their colour and markings, it will be 

 Very useful. Commended. - -.1*. 



Mr. Watson, St. Albans, snowed Calceolaria Bijou, a decided 

 acquisition among the dark bedding varieties ; dark ricb crimson 

 flowers, dwarf habit, and free-flowering. Second-class certi- 

 ficate. 



Mr. Bragg, Slough, had a collection of seedling Fancy Pansies. 

 Though late in the season for this flower, the three varieties — 

 Bob Ridley, Harlequin, and Dazzle^received a label of com- 

 mendation. 



Mr. Turner sent several seedling Pelargoniums. Achilles 

 (Hoyle), a very splendid and brilliant flower, back petals deep 

 maroon, margined with bright carmine, clear white centre, lower 

 petals painted with rosy crimson, first-claBS certificate ; Pelar- 

 gonium Aristides (Hoyle), dark back petals, white centre, lower 

 petals shaded with light rosy lines — though a small flower, 

 perfect in form and substance, second-class certificate; Pelar- 

 gonium Maid of Honour (Beck), an improvement on Tiola ; 

 rather too coarse, but distinct in shading of colour, commended. 



Among the plants submitted to the Sub-Committee we noticed 

 the following : — 



Mr. Standish, Ascot, Deutzia crenata rubra, from Japan, a 

 double variety of this beautiful class of very handsome shrubs, 

 said to be hardy, and which will, doubtless, be much sought after 

 — first-class certificate. 



Messrs. Veitch exhibited Rhyncospermum jasminoides varie- 

 gatum, commended ; Homceanthus viscosus, with double light 

 blue flowers resembling the Cape Aster, commended ; Lastrea 

 erythrosora, a very handsome Fern, second-class certificate ; 

 Woodwardia japonica, a Fern already exhibited by Mr. Standish, 

 but never in such good condition, second-class certificate ; 

 Andromeda species, California, a very conspicuous shrub with 

 erect spikes of white flowers showing themselves above the dark 



f-een box-like foliage, commended ; Pancratium species, from 

 hflippine Islands, with large heads of white flowers, a very 

 Bhowy plant, first-class certificate ; Lomaria species, from the 

 Philippine Islands, commended ; Alsophila Ttenitis denticulata, 

 a very handsome Fern, second-class certificate ; Selliguea pothi- 

 folia, a Fern from the Philippine Islands, second-clasB certificate; 

 Marattia Cooperi, first-class certificate; Pinanga, species nova, 

 Philippine Islands, commended. 



Messrs. Fisher, Holmes & Co., exhibited Abies species, 

 North America, which was commended ; and Taxus fastigiata, 

 with golden-coloured shoots, first-class certificate; Cypripedium 

 Stonei, from Mr. Williams, of Holloway, received a first-class 

 certificate. 



Mr. Bull had Cineraria argentea, which may prove useful as a 

 plant for edging, commended ; Trichomanes crispum rufum, a 

 very distinct variety with long, narrow fronds, second-class cer- 

 tificate. 



Feott Committee. — Two seedling Pines of considerable 

 merit came from Mr. Stevenson, gardener to the Earl of Durham 

 at Lambton Castle, but neither of them was superior to existing 

 varieties. Mr. Thomson, of Dalkeith, sent a splendid bunch of 

 bis seedling Grape Duchess of Buccleuch, which received a first- 

 class certificate. 



HAS THE CLIMATE OF ENGLAND CHANGED ? 



The opinion upon this question given by me a few years ago 

 in The Cotta&e Gabdenee entirely agrees with the remarks of 

 the Mark Lane Express, quoted in The Journal of Hoeti- 

 Crn/TOBE of June 9th ; and while endorsing all that is advanced 

 in that excellent agricultural adviser I will add a few additional 

 remarks deduced from experience, having kept a table of the 

 temperature since 1805. 



_ The vulgar error that the climate has undergone a great altera- 

 tion during this present century is owing to our severe winters 

 and very hot summers coming so few and far between. 



A middle-aged man recollects the severe winter of 1813-14, 

 when the snow lay on the ground in England for thirteen weeks, 

 and 1838 was equally severe ; the only difference was the fall 

 of Bnow. The most intense cold in the present century was 

 the winter of 1859-60, when the thermometer was 7° below 

 zero Beveral days, and yet the young people keep saying that our 

 winters are much milder and summers much colder. 



If these persons would take the trouble to examine the oldest 

 and beat chronologies and registers of the seasons contained in 

 Mr. White's « History of Selboume," Mr. WhistUscroft's writ- 



ings, and almanacs, it would be found that in a term of thirty- 

 years at any time during the last hundred years there is no 

 perceptible difference in our climate whatever ; we are now 

 going through a series of indifferent or medium seasons after a 

 series of much better seasons — such as 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857, 

 1858, 1859, the last three remarkable for the mildness of their 

 previous winters and the intense heat of their summers, particu- 

 larly the whole of July, 1859. 



Through our insular situation in England no regular theory 

 can be established ; and from long experience I find the best 

 guide, and that a very uncertain one, is the history of the sum- 

 mers gone by, as, in a cycle of forty years, the balances of cold 

 and hot summers, severe and open winters, wet and dry seasons, 

 become pretty nearly equalised in that period. 



I have noted during the present century that by far the 

 majority of the hottest summers are preceded by the mildest 

 winters ; and agree with that excellent naturalist, Mr. White, of 

 Selbourne, that the majority of severe winters are preceded by 

 wet summers. 



I have also noted that we seldom have two very severe winters 

 consecutively, nor two "ultra" hot summers; respecting wet 

 summers, often two wet ones come together, but rarely three so 

 wet as I860, 1861, and 1862 consecutively. 



I shall merely repeat my strong conviction that no change has 

 taken place in the climate of England during the present century, 

 save and except those variations arising from the peculiar insular 

 situation of the British Isles, which extraordinary variations 

 always have existed and will continue to the end of time. — 

 H. W. Netviian, Hillside, Cheltenham. 



ANNUAL EEPOTTING OF FEUIT TEEES. 



In No. 114 of Journal, your correspondent, " W. H.," gives the 

 practice of his gardener in the annual repotting of his fruit trees. 

 From longer experience than that of any other orchard-house 

 cultivator, I with confidence state that this troublesome practice 

 is quite unnecessary. To prove this I will in few words give my 

 practice. In 1S49 I potted the first orchard-house trees in 

 11-inch pots, they remained in those pots from four to five years, 

 the earth from the surface being annually taken out to the depth 

 of 4 or 5 inches, and replaced with a rich compost of loam and 

 manure. The trees flourished and bore fine crops of fruit. 



They were then repotted into 13-inch pots, in which they re- 

 mained from four to five years under the same treatment. The 

 most vigorous-growing trees were then potted into 15 and 

 lS-inch pots still under the same treatment — the latter size I 

 reckon the ultimatum, for I can plainly see that with annual 

 top-dressings and annual pinching and pruning, they will con- 

 tinue in health and fertility as long as human wishes can extend. 



Your correspondent's failure iu Apricot-culture may be traced 

 to the too great disturbance of their roots. Some years since I, 

 from forgetfulness and ignorance of the consequences, had my 

 Apricot trees, then iu full bearing, top-dressed in February, 

 taking out the surface soil and replacing it as I now do in 

 autumn. The trees blossomed beautifully, but to my great sur- 

 prise did not set a fruit. I was much chagrined, and for Borne 

 time could not account for it, till at last I reflected that the roots 

 being thus recently disturbed had not got into action ; the young 

 fruit required food and found none. I have ever since profited 

 by the lesson, and my Apricot trees are the first to be top- 

 dressed in October. 



Apricot trees in pots require the soil to be very firm. The 

 failures I have observed have been owing to the soil used being 

 too light and friable, and not rammed down firmly enough when 

 placed in the pots as top-dressing. The soil used here is a brown 

 tenacious loam inclining to clay, which, like all the loams and 

 even the sands in this district, abounds in comminuted chalk, the 

 washings or denudation of what once were, I presume, chalk 

 mountains to the north-west of this place. This loam settles down 

 so firmly in the pots that in the autumn it is as hard as a well- 

 trodden path. To show the favourable nature of a firm dry soil to 

 Apricot trees in pots, I must give a case. Last winter I observed 

 some forty or fifty standard and half-standard trees, which were 

 potted in March, 1862, to have small heads scarcely large enough 

 for sale, but every shoot full of blossom-buds. They had been 

 under glass all the summer. I had water withheld from them 

 till towards the end of February, when the blossom-buds were 

 beginning to swell, so that the earth, not having had any water 

 for nearly five months, was remarkably hard and dry as dust. 



