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JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 9, 1871. 



near Hartley, the rare Night-flowering Catchfly, Silene noeti- 

 flora, as well as Ranunenlns arvensis. Between Sunderland 

 and Marsden, on the roadside, is found the rather nneommon 

 Sinm nodiflorum and Inula dysenterica, the Fleabane, said to 

 be a cnre for dysentery. North from Tynemonth, and ap- 

 parently indigenon?, is the common Parsley, and the rare 

 Bashy Bed Mint, Mentha gentilis, at Monkseaton. Other rare 

 native wild fiowers which may be found at South Shields are 

 Pyrethrum maritimum, SeaFeverfew, and Senebiera Goronopus, 

 the common Wart-Cress. The district is rich in botanical 

 specimens, and by visiting it at different seasons no doubt 

 many more could be gathered. 



Tlje above notes and description are, perhaps, very uninterest- 

 ing to many practical readers of this Journal. Young gardeners, 

 in the majority of instances, do not study our native wild 

 Sowers ; many of them think it beneath their notice, and of no 

 practical benefit to do so. On the other hand, I think much 

 good is to be derived from the study of botany, as exemplified in 

 the collecting and naming of our native wild flowers. I have 

 traversed hundreds of miles in search of specimens in my 

 spare hours, mostly after six o'clock at night, and I can look 

 back as I examine my dried specimens to many long and joy- 

 ous rambles over hill and dale both in England and Scotland. 

 Young gardeners would add very much to their useful stock of 

 knowledge and improve their intellectual faculties if, instead of 

 wasting their time in playing cards and dominoes, or in other 

 and perhaps more questionable amusements, they would invest 

 in Hooker's " Botany," or Withering's " British Plants," by 

 Maeglllivray, and begin to study the habits of the native wild 

 flowers, which are " wasting their sweetness " in wild and 

 luxuriant profusion around them. I could have spent my 

 holiday at North Shields and Tynemouth, and gone home 

 satisfied. I left reluctantly and went on to Kelso, about ninety 

 miles further north, where I found the corn crops quite ten 

 days in advance. I was very sorry both to see and hear of the 

 alarming and wide-spread attack of the Potato crop, the disease 

 in some cases being fatal to as much as 75 per cent, of the 

 crop. There are some well- managed gardens in the neighbour- 

 hood of Kelso, and also the nurseries of Messrs. Stuart and 

 Mein, where the best spikes of Gladioli that have ever been 

 seen in Scotland are produced. At the time of my visit the 

 stand which was awarded first prize at Edinburgh on the 

 following day was being arranged. — J. Douglas. 



PROTECTING THE BLOSSOMS OF FfiUIT 

 TREES. 



DuEixG the severe frost last winter, I found considerable diffi- 

 culty to fix upon some plan that would effectually serve for the 

 above purpose. I had previously seen the efficacy of various 

 kinds of covering ; but of all those known to me, the best 

 seemed to be one similar to that which I now mean to give a 

 description of, and which may be designated the hay net. 



I mentioned what I wanted to one of the most intelligent 

 men employed in the garden, and he then told me that the 

 wall trees here years ago used to be protected by a similar 

 covering ; and on inquiry I found that he knew how to proceed 

 in the matter. Without any delay we made preparations for 

 getting a lot of nets made, and the first thing that we required 

 was a frame in which to make them. This we soon procured, 

 which I can compare to an old-fashioned wooden bedstead 

 •without the cross-beams in the area. In addition it bad a few 

 wooden pins round it for holding the nets, as will be seen after- 

 wards. The size of the frame was 11 feet long by 5 feet broad, 

 and about 3 feet high, which was thought the most convenient. 

 "When the frame was procured, hay-ropes were male, fcr tbat 

 material was ready at hand, and fixed upon it. We soon got 

 a lot of nets made in one of the garden sheds, where the men 

 were not exposed to the severe weather. 



In getting the ropes laid upon the frame for making our nets, 

 the first one was laid round the edge outside the pins for a 

 margin ; the next was placed diagonally, from one corner to the 

 other; then others were laid in the same direction as the latter, 

 at about 5 inches apart, till the space on both sides wts filled 

 up. Then, again, from the opposite angle was laid another 

 diagonal, taken in and out between the others already fixed, 

 after the fashion of wicker-work. A corresponding number of 

 ropes were worked in on each side of the latter till the net was 

 framed out. All the ends of these ropes were fixed to the mar- 

 gin in due course, and when a tie with tar cord was given at 

 each crossing of the ropes, the net was ready for use. 



We made as many nets in this way as protected about 



150 yards of wall ; and the rate we made them at was about 

 one net per day for each man. 



As the season advancsd, and as soon as the first blossom 

 began to expand, we put on our first set of nets. That was of 

 course upon the Apricots; and in order to get them protected, 

 the first part of our work was to place a lot of poles, and fix 

 them, one every 5 feet, at an angle of about 65° to the wall; 

 these were to answer the width of the nets, as will be under- 

 stood, to keep them properly off the wall; behiad, the poles 

 were fixed ; then we got on our nets, which we tied breadthwise 

 to the topmost wire of the trellis, just under the coping. All 

 that was now required was a wooden pin, put in to keep the two 

 lower corners of the nets together, which were not kept in posi- 

 tion by the poles, and the covering was complete. 



We had all our Peaches and Apricots covered in this way, 

 excepting one wall of the latter, and that we had protected by a 

 double ply of herring nets and another of hexagon netting to- 

 gether. 'This we tried for comparison with the hay nets. What 

 of the results of these two modes of covering ? From the trees 

 that were protected by the herring nets we have scarcely had a 

 crop ; whereas from those that were covered by the hay nets 

 we have gathered an abundant crop ; and we thinned as many 

 fruit off them as would have made six good crops. These 

 results speak for themselves, and show the superiority of the 

 one mode of covering over the other. 



On all favourable occasions, when we thought that we could 

 render any assistance to the blossoms to insure their fertility, 

 we lifted the nets up and doubled them back upon the top of 

 the wall ; and at all times when there might be some danger 

 from frost they were let down again and pinned as before. 

 These nets will be found to husband warmth considerably — at 

 least they break the cold winds in a great degree — and they 

 admit much more light than a person would at first imagine. 



To conclude these notes, I can only say that I know of no 

 better covering for wall trees — excepting glass — than the hay net ; 

 and I should advise all those who require to put up a temporary 

 protection, and who have not already proved its efficacy, to give 

 the plan a trial. — Robert Mackellak (in The Gardener). 



MR. "WILLIAM BAXTER. 



Oy November Ist Mr. William Baxter, for upwards of thirty 

 years Curator of the Botanic Garden, Oxford, died in the 

 eighty-fourth year of his age. From the length of his years 

 and his long retirement from active life, he was almost unknown 

 to the present generation of horticulturists, but he was one 

 who did good service in his day both to gardening and British 

 botany. On the latter subject he published a large and useful 

 work. He was appointed Curator of the Oxford Botanic Gar- 

 den in 1813, from which office he retired twenty years ago in 

 favour of his son, a worthy successor. During his curatorsbip, 

 in conjunction with Dr Daubeny many improvements were ef- 

 fected by him in the arrangement of the garden, and these have 

 been added to by the present holder of the office. Indeed, the 

 Baxters, father and son, are closely bound up with the history 

 of the Oxford garden, the oldest botanic garden in the kingdom. 

 (For a history of this see vol. xis., page 12 1 ) It was in Crypto- 

 gamic botany that Mr. Baxter more particularly delighted, and 

 his knowledge of Mosses and Fungi was very extensive. He 

 was elected an Associate of the Linnean Society as long ago as 

 1817. Of his private character we need say notbing, for we 

 wrote to Mr. Weaver, gardener to the Warden of Winchester 

 College, and no better eulogium on Mr. Baxter wUl be recorded 

 than is in this extract from Mr. Weaver's letter — 



'■ I was with Mr. Baxter seven years. He was one of the most 

 even-tempered of men, and ever ready to give information to anyone 

 with great pleasure. He was the most modest and the most unas- 

 suming of men, and ever the same man. He was also one of the most 

 abstemious of men. His garden assistants used to say that he never 

 drank a gallon of stimulant liqnor from one year's end to another, and 

 was never known to go out into company, hut was always at his books, 

 specimens, and other duties of the garden. Ton could not ask him 

 anything! about the name of a Moss. Lichen, or anything in the way 

 of vegetation but what he was ready and pleased to give the required 

 information ; indeed there was nothing that came amiss to him in the 

 way of natural history generally. He was never known to take an idle 

 walk, but was always on duty wherever he went in search of knowledge, 

 whether to the fields, the woods, or to the different libraries. I wish 

 I were able to give you a good history of my once good, kind master." 



EoYii, HoKTicuLTUEAi. SOCIETY. — The following additional 

 privilege ia to be accorded in 1672, to the Fellows of this 

 Society— viz.. To receive gratis two non-transferable season 



