April 13, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



273 



a colour for distant eSeot, but in all other respects it is the 

 equal of Vesuvius. 



Pelargonium Grand DuJcc— This well deserves its name ag a 

 pot plant, in which condition only have we yet proved it ; but 

 we have its character from a reliable friend in the midland 

 counties of England as one of the most eiieetive of bedders. It 

 belongs to the Nosegay section, and has immense trusses of 

 orange-scarlet blooms on very stout footstalks. Habit compact. 



Pelargonium Fire-King.— Bright, scarlet. Immense truss ; 

 free and fine bedder. 



Pelargonium Lucius.— Very bright rose ; very large trusses in 

 great profusion. We have not proved this variety on an exten- 

 sive scale, but from what we saw of it last season, and heard of 

 it at Kew and in the midland counties, it must prove to be the 

 finest of all our rose-coloured bedders, and in a pot it is splendid. 



Pelargonium Jean Sisley.— This is a fine zonal variety, its 

 form and substance being much like Lord Derby, with a richer 

 colour. Much is expected of this variety. 



Pelargoniums Bayard, William Thomson, Douglas Pearson, 

 and Dr. Murat. — These are crimson varieties, of which we think 

 very highly as bedders, more especially the two first-named, 

 which are both excellent in habit, having immense trusses pro- 

 duced very abundantly. Bayard's character is well established, 

 and William Thonlson, though we had only two plants of it 

 planted out this year, we think quite equal to it. 



Pelargonium Blue BcZi.— Bluiah-lilao ; very pleasing colour ; 

 large truss ; moderately-profuse bloomer ; well worth growing 

 in beds on account of its lively colour. Should be plunged in 

 6-inch pots, when it flowers more freely. Fine pot variety and 

 late winter bloomer. 



Pelargonium Maid of Kent.— We have not proved this variety, 

 but from reliable authority learn that it has been superior to 

 Christine— to which class it belongs— in England these last dry 

 summers. It has not run so much to seed as Christine ; but 

 for wet seasons and northern districts we suspect Christine is 

 not easily conquered. 



From among numerous varieties we have selected several 

 other sorts, of which we prefer not to speak confidently at 

 Bresent. 



Growers who do not possess Glow and Violet Hill, the former 

 a scarlet, the latter a dwarf rose-colour, should add them to 

 their collections. Glow is a very fine bedder, and Violet Hiil 

 the best dwarf rose we have ever seen.— D. T.—(The Gardener.) 



A LARGE GRAPE HOUSE. 



Mast years ago, when on a visit to Liverpool, I went through 

 the far-famed Grape houses of Mr. Meredith, of Garston, and 

 I was astonished at the size of two span-roofed vineries each 

 144 feet long by 32 wide, but a subsequent visit has revealed 

 the fact that even these large houses have been eclipsed by still 

 larger ones erected near them. We now and then hear of 

 orchard houses of unusual size being put up, but not many 

 days ago I accidentally discovered a glass house intended for a 

 vinery of which the dimensions exceeded those of all that I 

 had previously seen, although I cannot affirm there may not 

 be larger. It is 385 feet long by 16 feet wide, and has recently 

 been erected by an enterprising gentleman in the suburbs of 

 Maidstone on a piece of ground which apparently had been 

 quarried, and was lying waste. This large glass house, for 

 until it is planted it cannot properly receive a specific name, 

 is a lean-to with a north light, and a low front light also. The 

 main rafter of the lean-to is of great length, owing to the steep 

 descent of the ground where the house is built ; a row of posts 

 •or pillars inside, at intervals of about 8 feet, support the ridge, 

 and the main front roof is fixed. The north lights and front 

 upright ones are moveable for ventilation. 



Tire structure of the house presents nothing peculiar beyond 

 the size and the steepness of the ground on which it is built, 

 the site shelving rapidly to the south. This circumstance, how- 

 ever, tends to increase the size of the house, for the floor, I 

 believe, descends about 3 feet, necessarily increasing the length 

 of Vine-rafter nearly 5 feet, for the roof was of a steep pitch — 

 possibly 50° — giving ample space for the longest stretch of Vine 

 rod that could be desired. The back light is about 4 feet, 

 the front upright light about 2 feet, and both open to admit 

 air. There is nothing peculiar in the glazing; perhaps the 

 squares were larger than some would have recommended, but 

 this is a mere matter of taste. The only drawback to the house 

 presenting a noble appearance was its not being in a straight 

 line, a slight angle of 3° or 4° occurring at about one-third of 

 its length, one portion appearing to be about 250 feet and the 



other 130 feet, or thereabouts. This deviation from the con- 

 tinuous straight line was, I believe, rendered necessary by the 

 nature of the ground. Another feature in the house was the 

 cheap construction of the back and front walls ; the front wall, 

 of course, was on arches, but both were of concrete, formed 

 of the debris of the quarry on the site of the house, along with 

 cement, or rather stone lime. The ground having all been 

 quarried, probably rendered it difficult to make a foundation 

 for a brick or stone structure, but it is not ixnlikely that the 

 same cause may be beneficial to the Vines eventually, and if it 

 ever should happen that one plant did duty for the whole of this 

 house, the advocates of the one Vine system might have 

 something to point to. As it is, the house presents a noble 

 example of the enterprise of its builder, a Mr. Goodwin, who, 

 I believe, is about building behind it another house of similar 

 dimensions, the rising ground allowing of this without any 

 danger of the border being in the shade. A crop of Cucumbers 

 occupied in the past season the house already built, and I was 

 told the number cut was enormous. Some wires stretched 

 against the back walls were occupied with Cacumbers, as well 

 as the floor of the house, but Vines were about to be planted, 

 and I hope to report favourably on them some day. A vinery 

 128 yards long without a division is a sight not met with every 

 day. — J. EoESON. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 

 De. Hookee has just started on a botanical expedition of 

 eight or ten weeks into the interior of Morocco, a hitherto al- 

 most untried field. He is accompanied by Mr. B. Ball and 

 one of the gardeners from Kew to assist in collecting plants. — 

 (Nature.) 



The report of the Manchester Field NatueaijISts' 



Society for 1870 has, according to the secretary, " little to say 

 except that the year's proceedings have been marked by smooth- 

 ness and success, with no particular incidents to give it distinc- 

 tion above preceding years, and certainly without any of an' 

 infelicitous kind." The meetings have been well attended ; 

 there has been a considerable entry of new members ; and 

 the treasurer's report is satisfactory. The report is taken up 

 with brief resumes of the proceedings at each meeting, and a 

 summary is given of a useful paper by Mr. E. B. Smart " On 

 the Variation of Species " in the vegetable kingdom. We much 

 regret that, from a society numbering its members by hundreds, 

 we cannot obtain a proportionate amount of work; indeed many 

 of the smaller bodies put the field clubs of our large towns to 

 shame in this respect. Mr. Grindon's " Flora of Manchester" 

 is not only out of date, but also out of print ; and a complete 

 fauna and flora of the district would be both useful to natural- 

 ists and creditable to the society. Surely among so many 

 members some may be found both able and willing to under- 

 take such a work. We observe that the secretary, in the pre- 

 sent report, speaks of plants by their English names, some of 

 which are of his own invention. As their scientific equivalents 

 are omitted we are left in the dark as to some of them; 

 "Dimplewort" is, we believe. Cotyledon umbilicus, but "Blush" 

 wort " baffles our ingenuity. The president for 1871 is Mrr 

 Thomas Turner, F.L.S., and Mr. Grindon continues to act as 

 secretary. — [Nature.) 



■ The Tedwoeth Conseevatoey. — The late Mr. Assheton 



Smith was told by medical authorities that his wife must go to 

 Montpellier ; he replied, " No, I will bring Montpellier to her." 

 To enable her to have daily exercise in a genial temperature 

 he built the vast conservatory at Tedworth. The cost was very 

 large, and it was stocked with trees and plants that were ever 

 verdant and refreshing ; but the current consequent expense 

 was large, so, not being needed by the present possessor, it was 

 put up to public competition by Mr. F. Ellen on Wednesday 

 last, and purchased by Mr. W. Gue, Mayor of Andover, for the 

 sum of 265 guineas. 



The following are from the American " Gardener's 



Monthly :"— 



HoETicnruEE in Berlin. — It is proposed to hold a gi'and exUbi- 

 tion at the end of Jnne, in Berlin, open to all the world, similar to 

 those held at Hamburgh and St. Peteraburgh a few years ago. 



Horticulture in Portugal. — At a ineeting held under the auspices 

 of the Koyal Portuguese Agi-icultural Society, at Lisbon, last autumn, 

 Jose Martino Pereira de Lucena Nortrona a Faro, the leading nursery- 

 man of Lisbon, exhibited one hundred and fifty species and varieties of 

 Begonia. This beats Philadelphia collections of this interesting plant. 



Hardy Palms. — M. Naudin, at Montpellier, in France, has found 

 Phosnix recUnata withstands the severe weather which sometimes 



