May 18, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICDLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



353 



over 9 inches, and were not quite fully grown. I thought they 

 would travel better than when fully ripe. It is a very valuable 

 Peach. Its season on a south wall, in my exposed garden, is 

 from the last week in September to October 11th. In more 

 genial situations, I suppose from the second week in September 

 to October Ist would be about its season. It is somewhat like, 

 but larger than, the Princess of Wales — a most beautiful late 

 Peach, of the same season. The flowers of both are amongst 

 the largest of all Peaches, and afford quite a floral sight. The 

 trees of both are most vigorous and prolific. Lord Palmerston 

 is finely shaped. The skin, when covered with leaves, as was 

 the case with the 10-inch teach sent, is rich cream, without 

 any marking. The two figured were exposed to the light. The 

 ■colour of the skin is creamy, with either pink suHusion, or 

 -mottled like the specimens figured. The flesh is firm, and 

 slightly adherent when not fully ripened ; but when the flesh is 

 fully matured it is melting, aud also rich for so late a season. 

 .Like the Princess of Wales, it is very red at the stone. It was 

 raised from the Princess of Wales Peach, which variety was 

 raised from Pavie de Pompone. The glands are round, or 

 nearly so. This description, like the portrait, is, I believe, 

 faithful.' 



" The fruit, at the end of September last, were fully 9 inches 

 in circumference. The skin was of a pale sulphur yellow, the 

 exposed parts being flushed with dull crimson, over which was 

 disposed in crowded blotches a deeper or purplish-red tint, the 

 whole of the highly-coloured part of the fruit thus acquiring a 

 marbled character. The flesh was firm, whitish in colour, 

 becoming red next the stone, and of rich and pleasant flavour, 

 ■ihougb, being prematurely gathered, it could not have been at 

 its best. The glands of the leaves were very small, roundish- 

 reniform. 



"Fruit-growers owe a special debt of gratitude to Mr. Elvers 

 "for the valuable additions which, through the aid of orchard- 

 house culture, he has been enabled to make during the last few 

 .years to our collections of Peaches and Nectarines especially. 

 The acquisitions amongst early and late varieties are particu- 

 larly valuable ; and of that which we now figure Dr. Hogg 

 remarks, ' This will prove one of the best, as it is one of the 

 Jargest late Peaches.' " — {Florist and Pomologist, 3 s., iv. 97 ) 



TENACITY OF LIFE IN SOME SEA ANEMONES. 



The following instance of the wonderful tenacity of life in a 

 Saa Anemone will, I think, interest you : — 



I had occasion to move my aquarium last Saturday (April 

 29ih), and in taking out the various zoophytes found that 

 several Anemones — traglodytes of a most determined character 

 - — had so securely fastened themselves into deep crevices that 

 it was impossible to get at them, and I was obliged to leave 

 ■them to their fate. The tank was then emptied, moved to its 

 ■new place, filled with cistern water, and thoroughly scrubbed 

 ■out with a brush. It was then emptied and refilled with fresh 

 water ssveral times, and finally remained, near a window, per- 

 'feotly dry, and exposed to the sun until Thursday evening, 

 when the sea water was put back. To my astonishment, next 

 morning two of the Anemones out of the five which had been 

 left in the tank were fully expanded and in perfect health, 

 iiaving thus survived between four and five hours' immersion 

 in dirty well water and five days' exposure to the sun and duet ! 

 They were, however, in dark corners. Of the other three, two 

 were turned by the sun into regular (marine) mummies, and 

 the third floated up from his seclusion when the water was put 

 in again in that creamy condition so distressing to aquarians. 

 Ho had been rather damaged in my previous efiorts to get him 

 ■out. The two survivors are both Sugartia traglodytes ; the one 

 that had been injured and died was of the same species, and 

 ithe other two were S. bellis. — Kenneth MoKeak. 



of Covent Garden is threatened seriously, there are rumuurs 

 current of intended improvements, the object being to stifle the 

 new movement and save a property which for years has betu a 

 disgrace to the metropolis, and a standing insult to the whole 

 fraternity who frequent it for purposes of trade in coiineciit.a 

 with their calling. Few of our readers, probably, are fully 

 cognisant of the nature of the case. It is not in midday bums 

 when the Central Avenue swarms with genteel visitors, and the 

 flowers aud the fruits shine in the full daylight, that Covent 

 Garden can be judged as to its market conveniences for the 

 trade for which it was established, and which has long since 

 overgrown its contracted capabilities. It must be visited soon 

 after midnight, and the visitor must roam about its precincts 

 until the hour when the great town awakes, to enable the im- 

 partial critic to form an estimate of what it is and whai it is 

 not. Honest men who have grown waggon-loads of Cauli- 

 flowers or Eoses should be at least accommodated with shelier 

 for the sale of them in the principal vegetable marktt of ihe 

 metropolis. But at Covent Garden there is no shelter for .-iiher 

 sellers or buyers. It is an open-air business, and the veimurs 

 pay a smart toll for the privilege of " pitching " their wares on 

 a sloppy pavement. — [City Press.) 



The example set by Clifton College in the formiiion 



of a Botanic Garden in connection with the Natural Hi-nry 

 Society is, we understand, about to be followed at Mablborough, 

 a plot of ground having been granted by the authoritict lor 

 that purpose. Such a garden will be a valuable adjunct to the 

 herbarium, if such plants are selected as are typical of ihe 

 principal natural orders, especially of those which are sparingly 

 represented in the British flora. 



The Seaweed or Wrack (Fucus vesiculosus), called in 



Brittany goemon, is there extensively collected along the coasts 

 for fertilising the lands, and also for fuel, which last is so 

 scarce that even cow dung (as it is in India) is colleciKt aud 

 dried against the walls for that use. The gathering of m eiuon 

 takes place in March and September, and employs th'' «hole 

 population of the district. On the appointed day for gathering 

 the crop, horses, oxen, cows, dogs, every animal and every 

 machine, are put into requisition. Women and children, all are 

 assembled in the bays, sometimes to the number of 10,000 ; 

 but to allow the poor to have the full advantage, the custoui is, 

 on the first day, to admit only the necessitous of the ■ aiifh. 

 It is called " The day of the poor." The fine sands of ibe sea- 

 shore are also carted and laid on the heavy soils to imprt^ve 

 their staple. Eoscofi is the great gardening district. The 

 whole country round is kitchen garden. They grow Onions, 

 Cabbages, Parsnips, Asparagus, Artichokes, Cauliflowcrtt, &c., 

 and the gardeners will carry their produce 100 miles to nia)liet. 

 2,000,000 lbs. of Onions are said to be sent by them to England 

 annually. ■ — (Palliser's Brittamj.) 



Mk. Wallace, the well-known naturalist, is goicg to try 



on a large scale experiments in naturalising plants, and is 

 very hopeful of success. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



Inquiries having been made for a somewhat fuller defini- 

 tion of the meaning of the phrase, " any branch of British 

 'fiooNOMic Entomology," used in the announcement of a prize 

 of £5, offered by the Eoyal Horticultural Society for " the best 

 miscellaneous collection of any branch of British Economic 

 Entomology," we are requested to state that it relates to such 

 departments of Economic Entomology as concern forests, fields, 

 or gardens ; as also to insects injurious to manufactured articles, 

 Ac, but that it is not intended to include useful insect products, 

 such as honey. 



Farrinqeon versus Covent Garden. — Now that the trade 



THE TEMPERATURE OF THE BRITISH 

 ISLANDS. 

 In the Journal of the Scottish Meteorological Society there ap- 

 pears a paper under the above title, by the Secretary of the Society 

 (Alexander Buchan, M.A,), which, on account of the instructive maps 

 accompanying it, is fall of interest. The paper contains the results 

 of tbermometrical observations made at seventy-six stations in Scot- 

 land, sixty-seven in England, twelve in Ireland, and fifteen in countries 

 adjoining, deduced from observations made, in many cases, during a 

 period of thirteen years (1S57 to 1869). For those places at which 

 the observations had not been made for so long a period, corrections 

 were obtained by comparison with observations made at places adjacent, 

 so as to reduce all to one uniform series. And from the resulting mean 

 values isothermal lines, or lines of equal temperature, have been con- 

 structed, not only for the average of the whole year, but also for each 

 separate month of the year. The comparison of the thirteen maps 

 thus obtained, one with another, is most interesting and instructive, 

 especially as showing the influence of the temperature of the Atlantic 

 ocean on the coasts washed by its waves. On the average of the whole 

 year, as would generally be supposed, the temperature declines as we 

 approach the north, whilst there is little variation between the tempe- 

 rature of places situated on an east and west Uno. But when we 

 come to examine the maps for the separate months we are met by un- 

 expected phenomena. During the summer monthsthe isothermal lines 

 run nearly east and west, without any very extravagant variation — 

 that is, it is warmer towards the south, and colder towards the north. 

 But in the winter months this is all changed, the lines running then 

 nearly north and south. Thus, in the months of July and August the 



