September 1, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



157 









WEEKLY 



CALENDAR. 















Day 



of 



Month 



Day 



of 



Week. 



SEPTEMBER 1—7, 1870. 



Average Tempera- 

 ture near London. 



Rain in 



last 

 13 years. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 

 Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 after 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 



1 

 2 

 3 

 4 

 5 

 6 

 7 



Th 



F 



S 



Ens 



M 



To 



W 



Kidderminster Horticultural Show. 



12 Sunday aftee Tetnity. 



Crystal Palace Florists' Flower Show opens. 



Royal Horticultural Society, Fruit, Eioral, 



[and General Meeting. 



Day. 

 71.1 

 71.0 

 718 

 71.0 

 70.4 

 70.2 

 70.3 



Night. 

 47.5 

 47.6 

 47.7 

 46.7 

 47.1 

 46.8 

 47.5 



Mean. 

 59.3 

 C9.3 

 59.2 

 68.9 

 58.8 

 68.5 

 58.9 



Days. 

 21 

 19 

 19 

 19 

 18 

 20 

 19 



m. h. 

 lSsfo 



15 5 



16 5 

 18 5 



20 5 



21 5 

 23 5 



m. h. 

 46 af 6 

 44 6 

 42 6 

 40 6 

 37 6 

 85 6 

 32 6 



m. h. 



after. 

 32 1 

 46 2 

 50 8 

 45 4 

 27 5 



6 



m. h. 



42 af 9 



18 10 



1 11 



54 11. 

 morn. 



55 

 3 2 



Days. 



6 

 5 



8 



9 

 10 

 11 

 12 



m. s. 

 6 

 25 



44 



1 4 

 1 28 



1 43 



2 4 



244 

 245 

 246 

 247 

 248 

 249 

 250 



From observations taken near London during the last forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 70.S J , and its night 

 temperature 47.3°. The greatest heat was 91-, on the 7th, 1863; and the lowest cold 28°, on the 7th, 1856. The greatest fall of rain was 

 1.50 inch. 



THE GENUS SAMBUCUS, OR ELDER. 



" VERYONE is acquainted with the common 

 Elder, Elder berry, or Boortree. Although 

 a native of this country, it is but little valued, 

 but some cultivate it in gardens or shrubbe- 

 ries for ornament, as well for its flowers 

 and berries. The former yield by distilla- 

 tion Elder-flower water, and from the ber- 

 ries Elder wine is made. The flowers are 

 white and yellow, in very large heads, and 

 agreeably fragrant ; and they are succeeded 

 by purple or black berries in autumn. The foliage is 

 little different from that of the Ash, but wanting its light 

 shining green, otherwise the tree might be taken for a low- 

 growing bold-foliaged Ash. It grosvs anywhere. From old 

 associations, or some such cause, it is allowed a place near 

 almost every homestead, particularly those with any pre- 

 tension to age, but it is seldom planted, or if so only to a 

 very limited extent. 



To the gardener, however, the Elder, though common, is 

 one of the most valuable of trees ; I regret its valuable 

 properties are not more appreciated. In the first place, it 

 acts as a preventive and destroyer of insects. If a quantity 

 of the leaves be put into as much water as will cover them, 

 and boiled until it becomes quite black, the liquor, after 

 having been strained and cooled, may be applied, through 

 a fine-rosed watering pot to trees or bushes infested with 

 caterpillars. Poured over the nests of ants it will drive 

 them away ; and the fresh leaves put in the runs of moles 

 will soon cause them to disappear. The Elder is also 

 valuable on account of its succeeding where few other trees 

 will grow. In the smoky atmosphere of towns it thrives 

 admirably ; it succeeds as well in a confined as in an open 

 space ; and near the sea, in places where there are no 

 trees, it attains in a short time a degree of vigour which is 

 quite surprising. 



In towns and near the sea, great difficulty is experienced 

 in getting anything to grow to afford shelter for more tender 

 subjects. I was much struck with the screens of Elder 

 which I recently saw near Sunderland. The points most 

 exposed were sheltered by hedges or screens of Elder, and 

 it was remarkable what growths they had made, and what 

 a fine shelter they formed to the plants they enclosed. 

 Rough-looking though these hedges were, yet where the 

 growth of more trim hedge plants is very slow, and in 

 many cases impracticable without some protection, the 

 value of the Elder is considerable; for, besides growing 

 better than anything else, it effects in two or three years 

 all we look for from a hedge. Some fine screens 5 and 

 6 feet high had been formed in three years from the cut- 

 tings. The cuttings are put in after the leaves fall in 

 autumn, the ripened wood of one or more years' growth 

 being cut into lengths of about a foot, and inserted to within 

 an inch or two of the top, the .uppermost joint only being 

 left above ground. From 9 inches to a foot is the distance 

 they are put in at, and all the attention they require is 

 to be kept clear of weeds. If watered a few times in 

 summer with sewage, the growth the first year is wonder- 

 No. 4M,— Vol. SIX, Nbtt Sum. 



fill. In fact, three years only are required for a screen of 

 Elder 6 feet high and as much through, where the Thorn 

 and Privet in that time can hardly make headway, and 

 do not grow more inches than the Elder does feet. 



Useful as the Elder is in smoky town gardens and posi- 

 tions near the sea, it is as useful in shrubberies in more 

 favourable situations, being one of the few low trees or 

 shrubs that succeed under the shade and drip of large 

 trees, so that it ought to be in every pleasure ground. 

 There are varieties of it which cannot fail to please, and 

 which are deserving of more extended cultivation. The 

 most beautiful variety is, I think, the cut or Parsley-leaved 

 Elder (Sambucus nigra laciniata), the foliage being finely 

 divided, and the plant not so strong as the common Elder. 

 It has a very elegant appearance ; it is also of very free 

 growth. There is a sub-variety of this with yellow- striped 

 leaves, which is far more ornamental than many vaunted 

 novelties. It is, however, more tender than the preceding, 

 and does not do well in exposed positions. The white- 

 variegated form of the species (S. nigra foliis-argenteis) is 

 a good distinct variegated shrub, not so vigorous as the 

 parent, nor so capable of enduring exposure, and the same 

 remarks apply to the yellow- variegated kind, which, though 

 very ornamental, has the disadvantage of not succeeding 

 in cold situations, though the Elders thrive in all but very 

 bleak positions. 



Ornamental as all the preceding are by their foliage, 

 flowers, and fruit, none of them can compare with the 

 red-berried Elder, which I think is Sambucus racemosa, 

 though I am not sure of the proper name of this species, 

 but it is one of the finest of all flowering deciduous shrubs. 

 In May it is one sheet of white, every shoot bearing large 

 heads of bloom, at a distance not unlike those of the Snow- 

 ball (Viburnum Opulus), but which, if more closely exa- 

 mined, are found to be of a greenish yellow, and they 

 continue long in beauty. The flowers, however, constitute 

 but a small part of the plant's attractions, for the berries are 

 of the finest coral red, rendering the plant so conspicuous 

 at a distance as to be quite a feature. So bright are the 

 berries in colour that those of the Mountain Ash are dull 

 beside them. The berries are produced in clusters or heads, 

 like the flowers, and are of the brightest red or scarlet of 

 any berry I know. Their full colour is attained about the 

 middle of July, but at the beginning of August they are 

 highly ornamental, and they continue so until late in the 

 year. In the beauty of its berries it eclipses every shruh 

 that I know, and here it is growing in a variety of posi- 

 tions — beside the rich purple of the Berberis, both sheltered 

 and exposed, and under the shade of large Sycamore trees 

 — in all of which it shows advantageously. To see it in 

 perfection it should be grown in a mass in an open situa- 

 tion, but protected from northerly and easterly winds ; but 

 even where exposed to these winds it maintains its ground, 

 where Cupressus Lawsoniana, Portugal Laurels, and Rho- 

 dodendrons are severely injured, and it survives under 

 trees where the Yew, the common Laurel, and the Portugal 

 Laurel have failed. - Hi 



In appearance it much resembles the common Elder, 

 but is more shrubby and compact. In smoky towns and 

 No. 114J,— Vol. XLIV., Oid Sebtes. 



