288 



JOTJKKAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ Apru 20, isn. 



the north is the meana of saving them. No doubt, it is a good 

 plan, especially for early kinds, but in my opinion trantplant- 

 ing alone is the chief cause of the operation saving the crop, 

 otherwise why do the late kinds give way long before the heads 

 appear? With me the largest and moEtlnsnriant snfiered most, 

 the smallest and poorest suffered least ; and the only con- 

 clusion I can draw is, that the prevalence of juices in the 

 former renders them more liable to injary ; but lift them, and 

 there is a timely arrest of sneoulence, and they become tough, 

 and as it were ripened — it is well known that ripened wood 

 always stands the frost beet — therefore, they escape injary ; but 

 if inclined to any point of the compass besides the north, I 

 believe the result would be the same. It is, however, another 

 question when they begin to form heads, then the north must 

 have the preference. I am so thoroughly convinced of the ad- 

 vantage of lifting, that I shall always do so in future. Al- 

 though it is generally but once or twice in a decade that there 

 is such an utter failure, we know not when it comes, and 

 when we know the remedy we should be wise to be prepared 

 for the worst. — A Toeeey. 



A LARGE CEDAR OF LEBANON. 



A FINE tree of this Cedar stands in the grounds of Barham 

 Court, the residence of E. Leigh, Esq., a few miles from Maid- 

 stone, situated on the banks of the iledway. There are also 

 some other noble specimens both of native and other trees. 

 Although the tree referred to is only in its infancy, yet it is 

 densely clothed from bottom to top with foliage of the deepest 

 green, and almost without a dead twig, there being none near 

 the outside, and yet it will bear comparison with most of its 

 kind that I have mat with. The circumference of its trutk at 

 the narrowest part between the root claws and the branches is 

 •23 ftet. The bole is short, scarcely 6 feet high, and it is the 

 smallest part of that which measures as above, and I may 

 further observe that there are no projections nor inequalities 

 that would give an increase to what is fair measurement ; on 

 the contrary, the bole is as circular and smooth as those of most 

 Cedars. The tree appears to have lost its leader at the height 

 of about 6 fee*, and to have pushed out a number of rival ones, 

 several having the proportion of good-sized trees, and being of 

 upright growth ; others have been thrust outside, and occupy 

 the position of branches, and some of these touch the ground. 

 The height of the tree I did not ascertain, but it must be con- 

 siderable, for the centre shot up like a blunt cone rather than 

 the semi-hemispheiical outline vitieh the tree often assumes. 

 I imagine that a hnndied years hence this tree will be a mag- 

 nificent object, for it seems to be still growing fast. 



As an example of how rapidly the Cedar of Lebanon grows 

 in suitable situations, there was pointed out to me another 

 specimen which one of the garden men had planted about 

 forty-five years ago. This, in its outline, resembled an elongated 

 beehive, the top being rounded; a single upright bole was 

 clothed with healthy branches to the very ground, so that it 

 was not without difficulty that we could put a string round the 

 trunk at about 3 feet from the giound ; we found it was there 

 8 feet 10 inches in circumference. As the tree ia very healthy 

 and thriving, it is likely at some future day to be a fine object. 

 It will be well for those who contemplate planting for future 

 effect to bear in mind that whatever may be the merits of 

 more recent introductions, the Cedar of Lebanon, from the fact 

 of its being to a certain extent established amongst -us, ought 

 to be planted in greater numbers than any other tree of a 

 similar description. 



As a further illustration of 4he quick growth of this Cedar, 

 I have been led to measure some of the trees planted in 1827 

 in the grounds at Linton Park, and I find there are some even 

 larger than the tree at Barham Court, for in a. group of eight 

 trees — aU that were planted at the time just mentioned — the 

 respective circumferences in the smoothest place at 3 feet from 

 the ground are 9 feet 3 inches, 8 feet 11 inches, 8 feet 8 inches, 

 8 feet, 7 feet 11 inches, 7 feet Cinches, 7 feet 5 inches, and 

 6 feet 6 inches. The spread of branches of the largest-stemmed 

 tree is 69 feet.— J. Eoeson. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



Payment by Postage Stamps. — We have corresponded with 

 the Postmaster-General, and rectived a reply similar to the 

 following which he sent to the Seed Trade Committte :— " To 

 diminish as far as possible any inconvenience that may arise 

 from the restricted use of postage stamps for the purpose of 



remitting small sums, the present system will be eontinned 

 until the 30th June next : but, as so much evil has resulted 

 from it, no postmaster will be permitted to purchase postage 

 stamps from the public after that date." 



The following Pbizes foe Coli-eciioxs of Ecosojnc 



Entomology, are offered by The Eoyai, HoEiicxHiiuEAii So- 

 ciety: — 



1. A Prize of £10 for tbe best Collection of British Insects in- 

 jorions to any one plant, as the Oalr, Pine, Cabbage, Wheat, itc. The 

 choice of the plant to be left to the competitor. The insects to be 

 shown as mncli as possible in their varions stages of development — 

 eggs, larva, chrysalis, and perfect insect. In judging, a preference 

 will be given to those collections which most snccessfally illnstrate the 

 life history of the insect, and exhibit the mischief done, whether 

 shown by specimens, drawings, models, or other means. (Examples 

 of the application of drawings, models, and specimens to this pnrpose 

 may be seen in the Society's Collection in the South Kensington 

 Mnsenm.) 



2. A Second Prize of £Z for the second best Collection. 



3. A Prize of ,£5 for the best Jtliscellaneons Collection of any branch 

 of British Economic Entomology, similarly illnstrated. 



-i. A Second Prize of £2 for the second best Collection. 



The Collections are to be sent to -James Richards, Esq., Assistant 

 Secretary, Eojal Horticultural Society, on or before the 1st of ilay, 

 1872, each collection bearing a motto, and a separate sealed envelope, 

 with the motto on the outside, and the name of the competitor inside. 

 The Society is to be entitled to take from any of the Collections sent 

 in, whether successful or not, whatever specimens or illustrations they 

 may choose, at a price to be fixed by the Judges. The Judges to have 

 power to refniiu from awarding the Prizes, should the Collections 

 seem not worthy. 



The following are extracted from Nature ; — 



The Malvees Nattealists' Fxeld Cuttb has issued in s neat 



volume its Transactions for 1853-70. It contains a large number of 

 papers mainly illustrative of the natural history of the district, in- 

 cluding catalogues of local birds, moUusca. lepidoptera, and fungi, 

 with sketches of the geology of the Malvern Hills, and observations on 

 the meteorology of ilalrem. There is also an interesting sketch of 

 the proceedings of the Society from its commencement in 1S53 to the 

 close of 1868, by the Eev. W". J. Symocds, F.G.S., President; and a 

 long paper on " The Forest and Chace of Malvern : its Ancient and 

 Present State ; with Notices of the most remarkable old Trees remain- 

 ing within its Confmes," by Mr. Edwin Lees. This is illustrated by 

 several weU-executed engravings of some of the trees referred to. 



There is a plant in New Granada which, if our ink-makers 



could only grow in sufficient quantity in this country, would be a 

 fortune to them. The plant in question, Coriaria thymifolla, ia 

 commonly known as the I^"K Pi.a>"T, and it is simply the juice that is 

 used without any preparation. Its properties seem, according to a 

 tradition in the country, to have been discovered during the Spanish 

 administration. A number of written doctunents destined for the 

 mother cotmtry were embarked in a vessel, and transmitted round the 

 Cape, the vovage was unusually tempestuous, and the documents got 

 wetted with salt water, those written with common ink became nearly 

 illegible, whereas those written with '" chancbi " (the name of the 

 juice) remained unaltered. A decree was therefore issued that all 

 government communications should in future be written with the ve- 

 getable juice. The ink is of a reddish colour when freshly written, 

 becoming perfectly black after a few hours, and it has the recommenda- 

 tion of not corroding a steel pen so readily as ordinary ink. 



A NEW Weluxgtonia gigantza, or " big tree." 40 feet 



i inches in diameter, has been discovered lately near Tisalia, in 

 Southern California. This is thicker by 7 feet than any other that 

 has yet been found. A section of one of the " big trees " is now ex- 

 hibited in Cincinnati, which is 76 feet in circumference, and 14 feet 

 high ; and, standing on the iloor of the hall, it gives one a perfectly 

 clear idea of the enormous size of the tree from which it was taken. 

 The section was cat last year in the Mariposa grove, about two 

 hundred and fifty miles south-east of San Francisco, and far up the 

 western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was divided and 

 hauled a hundred and forty miles to Stockton, on three waggons by 

 seventeen yoke of cattle. 



'ALPINE PLANTS.' 



We have received Part viii. of Mr. Wooeter's " Alpine Plants," 

 the previous numbers of which we noticed a few weeks ago. 

 It contains three plates representing seven subjects, all of 

 which are faithfully drawn. They consist of Crocus Boryanns, 

 Dryas ootopetala, Scutellaria alpina var. lupulina, Stenaotis 

 epeciosa, Andromeda hypnoides, Polygala pancifolia, and Cheir- 

 anthus alpinus. Well as the execution of the figures has been 

 carried out, we cannot but suggest to the artist that some other 

 mode of treating white flowers is desirable. In the figure of 

 Dryas cctopetala, for instance, the heavy shading gives an 

 impure character to the naturally fine white of the flower, and 

 'a heaviness and solidity which does not exist in 



