142 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICtJLTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



[ February 23, 1871. 



dark side of poor liaman nature. Jadt^ing merely from what we liave 

 seen and known, we are not surprised that the managers of the best 

 benefit clubs are careful that the money to be received in illuess should 

 be considerably less than what the members would receive as weekly 

 wages; nor, again, have we been surprised that such managers have 

 complained that some members when ill, and who from working to 

 kind employers received a good part or the whole of their wages, as 

 well as the allowance from the club^ never seemed to be in a hurry to 

 grow well. Alas I that there should be so much truth in this as to lead 

 some benevolent employers to restrict their generosity in such cases, so 

 that what they give and the allowance from the club may not exceed, 

 or exceed but little, the usual weekly wages. True, '■when a man is 

 ill he needs more, " but the scheming and the sponging often injure 

 the truly deserving. In conclusion, then, every separate case should 

 be judged on its own merits. "NVe do not think you would act at all 

 unkindly or meanly in adding so much to the club allowance, and pay- 

 ing for the necessary labour ; but, as we said at first, we feel convinced 

 your own heart will be your best adviser. — K. F." 



LEICESTER SQUARE FOR A FLOWER MARKET. 



TO THE C03OIISSI0^'EE3 OF THE 2IETK0P0LITA>- BOAPJ) OF WORKS. 



GE^"TLL:3IE^•, — Having seen in one of the papers that you contem- 

 plate takiug under your direction and management what may justly 

 be considered one of the metropolitan nuisances (I allude to Leicester 

 Square), I, from my long and practical experience as a nurseryman 

 and wholesale grower of tiorists' flowers, beg to submit for your con- 

 sideration the appropriating of so eligible a situation to what is so 

 much required and really wanted — namely, a metropolitan flower 

 market . 



I have attended Covent Garden as a florist regularly since the year 

 18;-30, during which time I have always considered that we were very 

 much in want of a flower market, similar to those of our neighbours 

 on the Continent, where nurserymen and florists might send for ex- 

 hibition and sale their horticultural and floricultural ^productions ; 

 where ladies also would visit to select and purchase plants to decorate 

 their balconies, flon*er boxes, and other modes for ornamenting their 

 windows, S:c. When consideiing the subject for more than twenty- 

 tive years past, it has been a matter of great sur;'^rise to me, and a 

 very singular circumstance, that a spot so well suited for that purpose 

 as Leicester Square, from its central position, should not have been 

 appropriated to that purpose years ago ; and I doubt not, gentlemen, but 

 you will agree with me in considering the situation admii-ably adapted 

 for that purpose. 



Moreover, during my leisure hours of the long winter evenings, fully 

 fifteen years ago, I amused myself by preparing a rough sketch of 

 what I considered suitable, which represented a glass dome, in the 

 centre, not more than do or 4.0 feet high. This I intended to be used 

 as an aviary, a bazaar, ^vinter garden, or promenade ; and once or 

 twice during the London season and summer to have a Eose or general 

 flower show. By this arrangement I dispose of the surface or upper 

 part of the space occupied by the dome, under which I would remove 

 the whole of the soil to the depth of 9 or 10 feet, which space might 

 be nsed for cellai's, or used, as the French people do the caverns round 

 Paris, for the culture of Mushrooms ; and, if so used, I am confident 

 it would soon be rented to advantage. 



Having disposed of the centre, my arrangement for the disposal of 

 the outside frontage of the square, according to my rough plan, would 

 be as follows: — To appropriate the whole to a series of ornamental 

 shops similar to those in the Grand Eow, Covent Garden Market. 

 Over each I would have one or two sleeping rooms, with a good kitchen 

 in the basement ; and in front of the shop alluded to I would have a 

 space covered by a glass roof of from loU to iOU or more superficial feet ; 

 this should bs heated by hot water, or some other mode, and connected 

 with the shop, to be used as a place to exhibit floral subjects for sale. 

 It would not be necessary to have these glass erections more than 1'2 or 

 15 feet high, but they should extend to the very outside boundary, and 

 completely encircle the market, and if tastefully designed would be 

 interesting objects to look upon from the adjoining houses Burrounding 

 the square. 



These glass erections I intended to be nsed not only by the florists 

 andnuiserymen in the vicinity of London, but by those residing \\iL-jiu 

 a circle of 20 or 30 miles of London, who, I doubt not, if these erec- 

 tions were let at a moderate rent, would gladly avail themselves of this 

 depot for the exhibition and sale of their arboricultural, horticultural, 

 :iud floricnltural productions; as it has been, and is, in my opinion, 

 a great and serious loss to all country nurserymen and florists living 

 at a great distance from London, who might be the introducers of new 

 species or varieties of horticultural and floricultural subjects, that 

 they have not a place in or near London where they may perpe- 

 tually exhibit their valuable novelties, and where the botanist, florist, 

 naturalist, and amateur may see and admire the wonderful works of 

 the great Creator manifested in the vegetable kingdom. — J. "V\'. 

 Thomson, F.K.H.S., Florist, Pciuje. 



WEATHER PREDICTIONS. 



I TKUsi your correspondent, Mr. Itobsou, will pardon me if I point 

 oat that he has made several important mistakes in his letter on 

 page 101. If he had not made the'se mistakes he would have found 



that the Linton Park observations were not ''all at variance" with 

 the theory I " promulgated."' 



1. Your con-espondent has not taken the Linton Park or the " Green- 

 wich mean temperature of August to October" into due consideration. 



'2. He has omitted to notice that there is an important difference 

 between the mean rainfall of Linton Park and that of Greenwich 

 daring the first seven months of the year. This difference renders it 

 necessai"y to raise the limit from 10 inches to about 104^ inches when 

 applying my law to past years at the former station. 



3. If your correspondent had carefully read the letter of '' AiUTEm," 

 at page 85. or my letter in the valuable " Meteorological Magazine " 

 referred to, he would have seen that I explained what I meant by the 

 expression, '■ a remarkabh" severe winter.'" I said, '" That is, the mean 

 temperature must be very considerably below the average." In this 

 respect the winter of 186(5-7. as well as that of 1S60-(31, was not very 

 severe. In the winter of Ib6*5-T the mean temperature of December 

 t^ February inclusive at Greenwich was more than 2p above the 

 average of ninety-nine years, and Januarj' to March inclusive 0'.4 

 above the average. Mr. Kobson must therefore allow me to say that 

 he is remarkably inaccurate in speaking of that winter in connection 

 with my law, as " exceedingly severe." 



4. Mr. Eobson's assertion that I used the word '' probably " in con- 

 nection with my prediction of the winter of 1370-71 is incorrect. I 

 spoke with certainty. I said that '* it must be remarkably severe." 

 A law which has never failed in a hundred years at Greenwich justifies 

 this positive form of prediction. For many years past I have, with 

 the aid of appai'ently infallible laws, been able to predict the summer 

 as well as the -winter seasons. In a paper read before the Meteoro- 

 logical Society in April last I stated a law, according to which the 

 summer of 1S70 should be warm, and on the 13th of May last I pre- 

 dicted in a local paper that the " coming season must be a good one." 

 I also stated that the summer would certainly be fine. I commenced 

 predicting summer and winter seasons in lSl3-i, and since that lime 

 have not had one failure with regard to them. These facts show that 

 " line of investigation " referred to by your correspondent, " AjiATEcr.," 

 Jias been followed up for seven years, and they prove {in opposition to 

 the statement of Mr. Eobsoni that, as far as summer and %vinter 

 seasons are concerned, there is no uncertainty in my weather predic- 

 tions. — George D. BKtniHAir, Barnsl/ury. 



FAILURE OF VERBENA CUTTINGS. 



I HAVE Ireeii much interested in the correspondence in the late 

 numbers of your Journal about Verbena cuttings, and I -wisli to 

 endorse the opinion of your correspondent that there has been 

 some unusual disease prevalent amongst them this season. 



I am generally successful with Verbenas. 1 ast summer mine 

 were the admiration of all beholders, but I fear I shall have no 

 show at all this year. The cuttings rooted, and T potted thtm 

 off as usnal, but one after another they blacken and die. I have 

 now put all the survivors into a nice fresh hotbed, suijposing the 

 failu e to be owing to the unusually low temperature for the last 

 three months. They do not seem to be much the better of 

 the change at present. The healthy ones (chiefly Lord Ifaglau 

 and the commonest kinds) are growing, of course, hut the sick 

 ones gefc worse and worse, and will evidently die. 



In this mild climate (Pembrokeshii-i^) Verbenas have lived 

 with us in the open air all the winter, year after year; hut, 

 alas: --these happv seasons for om- half-hardy favourites seem 

 now like grandmothers' tales of .the good old times that used to 

 be " once on a time " long ago. — C. J. S. 



[I hope before this reaches " C. J. S." that a change for the 

 better will have taken place in the Verbena plants, which may 

 still he reviving ; and, as there is a good deal of time yet for prc- 

 pasation, that she will be able to make up her stock to the 

 quantity wanted. If it be any consolation for her to know_ it, 

 I mav say there seems to be a very general complaint of Ver- 

 benas" having kept badly thii winter, and inquiiits for cuttings 

 are made in all directions. The cause is, no doubt, what 

 *'C. J. S." justly assigns — viz., the low temperature, and, in 

 addition, the want of sunshine; for during the greater part of 

 both December and Jan-jary, and of February up to the present 

 time, the sky has been almost entirely sunless ; even the sharp 

 frosty davs were mostly dull, and forcing has only been accom- 

 pUshed at a great expense of fuel. Jn keeping Verbenas through 

 this dark period I have, however, never been more successful 

 than during the present season, only wc do not gi'ow these 

 former favourites of the flower garden so e.x.teusively as some 

 do, and have not so many kmds, chiefly confining our growth 

 to three or fourvaiieties. "Nevertheless, I have others, and they 

 have all kept well, only they have had a better position tliau 

 they have sometimes had in former years, for this season I had 

 un opportunity of si™io ^^^ ^ iMg.Q close to the glass on two 

 shelves at the back of a vineiy, which was kept a little warmer 

 than an ordinary gi'eenhousc, and this elevated position, where 



