September 22, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



225 



"top of this wall is taken up by the plate on which the roof 

 rests, thus leaving space enough inside for the 4-inch pipe 

 which runs along each side. The sashes or lights, which are on 

 hinges, do not meet at the apex of the roof, but a space wide 

 enough for thorough ventilation is left by attaching the sashes 

 on each side to a separate bar or plate. The opening along the 

 top of the roof is covered by a moveable wooden cap, which is 

 raised and lowered throughout its entire length by simply turn- 

 ing a wheel. To say that the lights are hung on hinges is not 

 strictly correct, for there are no hinges at all in the true sense 

 of the word, but two small hooks or angle irons are attached 

 to each light, one on each side at the top, and when the lights 

 are in their proper positions, the hooks tit into grooves or 

 little semicircular pieces of iron which are sunk in the top bar, 

 and so the lights can be raised or lowered with as much facility 

 as if they were hung on real hinges. Moreover, by this simple 

 contrivance each light can be lifted off at pleasure, and all 

 annoyance from stiff or broken hinges is avoided. The body 

 of the pit is filled with cocoa-nut fibre in which the pots are 

 plunged. I need hardly point to the numerous uses to which 

 these capital structures may be applied at all seasons of the 

 year ; from their lightness, simplicity, and great practical use- 

 fulness, they are certainly very superior to the old style of pit, 

 with its costly high-raised walls and heavy sliding sashes. 



The general nursery stock was in a healthy and flourishing 

 condition ; it consisted of the usual varieties of Conifera, fruit 

 and forest trees, and shrubs. The soil of the various quarters 

 of the nursery among the young stock is kept free from weeds, 

 by allotting the work to the men at a stated sum per acre, for 

 which the surface has to be kept thoroughly clean and well 

 stirred throughout the growing season. This plan not only 

 acts as an incentive to the labourers to earn all they can, but 

 it also develope3 their intelligence sufficiently to enable them 

 to see the wisdom of never trampling on a weed after it is 

 hoed-up. 



By the kindness of Mr. Pearson I was enabled to see some- 

 thing of the famous Chilwell orchards, of which I believe there 

 are seventy acres ; as most of the trees were laden with a heavy 

 crop of fruit, it was an extraordinary and interesting sight. I 

 noticed several handsome trees of the Bess Pool Apple, but the 

 most attractive and showy fruit that I saw was Duchess of 

 Oldenburgh Apple, a very handsome striped kitchen fruit, 

 which, ripening early, must command a much better sale than 

 such pale- skinned kinds as Keswick Codlin and Hawthornden. 

 It is a heavy cropper, and its fruit grows to a large Jsize. A 

 number of dwarf Plum trees had heavy crops of fruit ; they 

 consisted principally of those excellent hardy kinds, Denyer's 

 Victoria and Prince Englebert. Large numbers of trees of the 

 Shropshire Damson had a heavy crop of fruit. 



One other notable feature of these orchards is the numerous 

 huge Pear trees bearing a full crop of fine fruit. Most of these 

 trees some years ago had arrived at that tantalising state of 

 barrenness with which all fruit-growers are familiar ; but instead 

 of destroying them after the usual fashion, Mr. Pearson had 

 the whole of the branches cut off, not close to the stem, but a 

 long way from it. They were grafted with useful kinds which 

 have flourished so vigorously that without looking closely it is 

 difficult to see the'junction of stock and scion, and ever since 

 this operation the branches resulting from the grafts have been 

 most prolific. — Edward Luckhurst. 



INQUIRY. 



Having answered an advertisement which appeared in The 

 Journal op Horticulture of July 21st, by Wm. Dillistone, 

 Nurseries, Sible Hedingham, Essex, in which he offered twelve 

 double Pelargoniums for 6s., which sum I sent to the above 

 address in stamps on the 4th of August, I wrote again on the 

 13th nit., but still no reply. I wrote to the General Post-office, 

 and the reply is that my letters were duly delivered. The 

 Post-office authorities state that Mr. Dillistone left Sible Hed- 

 ingham on the 17th ult. Can you inform me of his where- 

 abouts ?— S. T. Foster, 13, Washington Road, Sheffield. 



Abundance op Mushrooms. — Have any of your readers 

 noticed the extraordinary crop of Mushrooms there has been 

 this year ? I have never witnessed anything like it ; for the 

 last three weeks the fields about here have been covered with 

 them. I gathered this evening six of the largest I have ever 

 seen or heard of ; one of them measured 8 inches in diameter ; 



the stalk was about 7 inches high. Is not this size rather 

 unusual? — An Old Subscriber, Co. Dublin. 



[We never saw such abundant natural crops of Mushrooms 

 as we have seen on the pastures this year in Northamptonshire, 

 Sussex, and other oounties. — Eds.] 



METROPOLITAN FLORAL SOCIETY. 



I have to thank " L. W." for his kindly and cheery words, 

 they are, I rejoice to say, but echoes of many others which I am 

 continually receiving ; and amidst the difficulties which have 

 attended the starting of a new Society, I have been greatly 

 helped by the words of those whom I have never seen, and 

 who know me only as a scribbler or brother " maniac." 



With regard to the future of our Society, we have considered 

 that it would be very unwise to risk everything in holding 

 independent exhibitions, which might prove failures and 

 cripple our exertions ; we, therefore, adhering to our original 

 programme, mean with the liberal assistance of the Crystal 

 Palace Company, to hold an annual autumn show there ; this 

 will take in three of the flowers named — the Dahlia, Gladiolus, 

 and Hollyhock. We have already made overtures to the Royal 

 Horticultural Society to offer special prizes in April for 

 Auriculas, and in July for Carnations and Picotees, the arrange- 

 ment of these prizes to be left to us, and to be regulated by 

 the amount of support we shall obtain. We have not yet de- 

 termined what course we shall adopt with regard to the Pansy, 

 Pink, Ranunonlus, and Tulip, but it will probably be to offer 

 prizes for them in the same manner at the Crystal Palace 

 exhibitions in May and June. I need not, I hope, say that in 

 all this we shall act entirely independently, and shall en- 

 deavour to do our best to advance the interests of our favourites, 

 having, so the Committee has decided, especial reference to 

 amateurs. We are preparing a report of our proceedings, 

 which I shall be happy to forward to " L. W." and any other 

 friends, and I am prepared now to receive the names of any- 

 one who may desire to join us. Our motto must be Amor omnia 

 vincit; love of our flowers, and brotherly love to one another. 

 — D., Deal. 



THE FLOWER SERMON. 



I am glad to observe that you have extracted, at page 208, a 

 short account of the flower sermon. I beg permission to make 

 a correction in it. The plant found by Mungo Park in Africa 

 was not a blue flower but a Moss, which bears no real flowers. 

 He brought it home with him, and it was ascertained by his 

 brother-in-law, James Dickson, of Covent Garden, the eminent 

 cryptogamist, to be the Dicranum bryoides. It is abundantly 

 produced in our hedgesides and by Bides of newly cut ditches in 

 spring. It is figured in plate xvi. of Hooker and Taylor's 

 " Muscologia Britannica," second edition, London, 1829. 



Dr. Whittemore was entirely ignorant of Pairchild's bequest 

 when he commenced his annual flower sermon. Whether such 

 sermons are still delivered in Shoreditch Church I know not. 

 Jones, of Nayland, delivered some of them, and I should be glad 

 to learn if either his or any of the others ;have been published! 

 as some of the Boyle lectures have been. All honour to Dr. 

 Whittemore, who began his interesting discourses propria motu. 

 — A Constant Reader. 



WATER CRESSES GROWN OUT OF WATER. 

 I wish to tell that one of your contemporaries is wrong in 

 saying that Water Cresses not grown in water are not fit to eat. 

 Six-pennyworth of seed having been sown at Stanmore Lodge, 

 Penge, last spring, in a few weeks we had plenty of Cresses, 

 and we have had enough for the family ever since. The value, 

 at the lowest, would be 2s. per week, and this off about 4 squara 

 yards of ground. So far from the plants standing in water, 

 they stand about 6 inches above the level of the ground. The 

 Cresses are excellent. — S. Hatching, Maple Road, Penge. 



Mistletoe on the Oak. — The extreme rarity of well-au- 

 thenticated examples of the parasitism of the Mistletoe on 

 the Oak has induced Dr. Bull, of Hereford, to collect the known 

 instances, which he finds to be eight in number — viz., three 

 in Herefordshire, and one each in Gloucestershire, Monmouth- 

 shire, Devonshire, Hants, and Surrey. In the most recently 

 discovered instance, in the Forest of Deerfold in Herefordshire, 



