72 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 26, 1877. 



proves to be free in growth and floriferous it will produce a 

 fine efiect on walls and pillars. 



At no time of the year, writes a correspondent, do 



Roses strike more readily from cuttings than during the months 

 of July and August. If wood that iB partially ripened is made 

 into cuttings — shoots that have bloomed — and inserted in a 

 partially Bhaded border, nearly all of them will strike. The 

 cuttings should be divested of all but the two upper pairs of 

 leaves, and be inserted deeply and firmly. Water should be 

 given and Bhade supplied in order to keep the foliage fresh 

 and healthy, and roots will form the more quickly. 



Messes. Bbadley & Sons of the Southwell Nurseries, 



Notts, have sent us specimens of labels which they have pre- 

 pared for sale. ThoBe made of horn are transparent and 

 unique, and are far superior in appearance to those made of 

 wood. 



We regret to learn that the Potato disease has shown 



itself at Chiswiok, not merely that form of it known as the 

 " curl," but the murrain, which has frequently proved so 

 disastrous of late years. Should showery weather continue 

 and a high temperature also prevail, the Potato crops cannot 

 be otherwise than jeopardised, and it is advisable that crops 

 in gardens which are approaching maturity should be taken 

 up and the tubers be thinly stored, and much loss may be 

 thereby averted ; or if the haulm is pulled up, not cut off, 

 when an outbreak of the murrain is threatened, yet before it 

 occurs, the tubers if left in the ground will be safe. 



Me. H. S. James, The Gardens, Westfield House, near 



Gloucester, informs us that he has a large plant of Philo- 

 dendeon pertusum which flowered in June, 1876, of which he 

 has gathered three ripe fruit, and will soon gather the fourth. 

 The plant is also in flower again, having had one flower open 

 and another just expanding. 



An American writer and admirer of succulent plants, 



after alluding to the unique collections at Kew Gardens and 

 at Hammersmith (Mr. Peacock's), states that "a well-filled 

 succulent house would not be costly to keep or care for. 

 Neither would such an astounding plant melange have any 

 resemblance to an ' old curiosity Bhop ' crammed with inert 

 trash and musty rubbish. Where there is life there are hopes 

 of happiness present and to come. Although they are the 

 oddest of all odd things, and the most ' wonderful wonders ' 

 in the vegetable kingdom, they are as intensely interesting as 

 extremely curious. To us it really seems as if the Author of 

 all good had some strange device in view when fashioning 

 their fantastic forms, many of which are ultra-grotesque, while 

 others are unrivalled in beauty. I have often noticed, both 

 with amateurs and professionals, a strong desire to linger 

 around them longer than with many other things more 

 gaudy and gay, bloomed they never so grandly." The plants 

 referred to are real amateur's plants, requiring neither close at- 

 tention nor skilled cultivation, and a large and varied collec- 

 tion of them can be accommodated in a very small space. 



It is noteworthy how well even some of the most com- 

 mon of hardy plants are turned to account by the London 

 florists. One of the most common and one of the most 

 beautiful for the decoration of window boxes and window sills 

 is the Creeping Jenny, Moneywort, or Loosestrife — Lysimachia 

 Nummularia. Hundreds of this common ditch-side plant are 

 grown in 5-inch pots, and cheer and brighten the dark courts 

 of London. When the pots are placed in saucers of water and 

 the plants are grown in the full sun their elegant pendulous 

 growths become laden with golden flowers and produce an 

 enlivening effect. The Creeping Jenny is a town plant of the 

 first order of merit, and is capable of being turned to account 

 in country districts as well as in townB. Neither is it wholly 

 a plebeian plant, for Mr. Wills uses it largely and effectively for 

 for min g bright green fringes to the artistic groups of exotic 

 plants with which he adorns the saloons of the aristocracy and 

 the halls of public companies at their festivals. We would say 

 a good word therefore for this common homely plant, because 

 it is capable of cheering many an otherwise cheerless place, and 

 growing and flowering where plants are rarely seen looking 

 happy and healthy. 



It is reported, on good authority, that those who 



suffer from bheumatism are cured in a few days by eating 

 Aspaeagus, while even chronic cases are muoh relieved, espe- 

 cially if they avoid all acids, whether in food or drink. The 

 Jerusalem Artichoke is reported to have a similar effect in 

 relieving rheumatism. Most plants which grow naturally near 



the sea-coast contain more or less iodine, and in all rheumatic 

 complaints iodine has long been a favourite remedy. Some 

 physicians also recommend the free use of the Tomato. It is 

 said to act very favourably upon the liver (in place of calomel), 

 and its efficiency in relieving dyspepsia is remarkable. Raw 

 or cooked it is considered to be equally wholesome. 



The first annual Show of the newly established Not- 

 tingham Hoeticultueal Society, which was held on the 19th, 

 20th, and 21et in the grounds of the Arboretum was, we are 

 informed, a very good and successful one. The premier prize 

 of £10 in the plant classes was won by Mr. Gadd, Woollaton 

 Hall. Roses were numerous and excellent. The prizes went 

 as follows: — For twenty-four cut blooms (open), firBt, R6V. 

 Canon Hole; second, Mr. Frettingham ; third, Messrs. Crane- 

 ton & Co., Hereford. Twelve cut Roses (open), first, Messrs. 

 Cranston & Co.; second, H. Merryweather, Southwell; third, 

 Rev. Canon Hole. Eighteen cut Roses, six varieties, three of 

 each (open), first, H. Frettingham; second, Messrs. Cranston 

 and Co. 



The aquatic house in the gardens of the Royal Botanic 



Society, Regent's Park, is just now highly worthy of a visit. 

 The Victokia begia is in splendid condition, and is flowering 

 freely. The first flower opened on the 20th inst., and was a 

 foot in diameter. Each flower lasts for two days. It opens 

 towards evening pure white, continuing open throughout the 

 night, closing the following morning and expanding again to- 

 wards the evening, but this time of a pink colour. It ripens 

 seeds freely — in fact, the huge plant, with eight leaves averag- 

 ing 6 feet in diameter, which is now flowering, has been raised 

 from a seed which was ripened in the house last year, the seed 

 being about the size of a Sweet Pea. The growth made in 

 such a short time from such a small beginning is quite mar- 

 vellous. Other aquatics now flowering are Nymphsas — cyanea, 

 blue ; devoniensis, rose ; and dentata, white ; also Nelumbium 

 speciosum, the Sacred Bean of India, which has leaves nearly 

 3 feet in diameter, and Synocharis Humboldti. On the roof 

 of the house Aristolochia ornithocephala has a profusion of 

 its grotesque flowers, and Allamandas nobilis and Wardleyana 

 are in extremely fine condition. The plants in this house, 

 and indeed in the gardens generally, reflect much credit on Mr. 

 Coomber, the Superintendent, by their health and cleanliness. 



Me. L. Fitt, in alluding in "The Journal of Forestry'" 



to the age and size oe Tews, observes that the Ankerwyke 

 Yew was a tree of considerable size in 1215, at the signing of 

 Magna Charta. At Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, there is one 

 reckoned at 1200 years of age ; St. Pierre in 1772 saw one in 

 Lower Normandy which was planted in 1066 ; near Warbling- 

 ton, Hants, is one 27 feet in circumference ; CrowhurBt, Surrey, 

 has one 30 feet 6 inches ; at Leeds is one 31 feet round ; Inch- 

 brakie, near Crieff, Perthshire, has the second largest Yew in 

 Scotland, which during a season of peril sheltered the great 

 Montrose in its dense branches on one oocasion. Of all these, 

 Fortingall, Glen Lyon, Perthshire, bears the bell. In 1772 

 it measured 57 feet in circumference. Considering the Blow 

 nature of its growth Pennant's tree at Fortingall must have 

 been a wonderful sapling at the beginning of the Christian 

 era ! Evelyn saw the hills of Surrey olad with Yews. The 

 Darley Yew, Derbyshire, is reported to be the largest in the 

 world. Besides being a charm for driving away the devil, a 

 doctrine inculcated by monkish superstition, the tree was 

 venerated in the early ages. 



The agricultural department of Cornell University has 



received a valuable present from Dr. P. M. Hexamar of New- 

 castle, N.Y., consisting of five hundred varieties of Potatoes. 

 This collection took a prize at the Centennial Exhibition last 

 year, and is considered, says the American Cultivator, to be 

 the largest and most complete in the world. The Potatoes 

 are to be planted in the University garden. 



In the newly-formed State Board of Agriculture for 



Pennsylvania Me. Thomas Meehan has been elected pro- 

 fessor of botany, and Mr. Josiah Hoopes professor of horti- 

 culture. Mr. Meehan is the accomplished editor of the 

 American " Gardeners' Monthly and Horticulturist," a most 

 valuable publication, and which states that Mr. Hoopes has 

 been one of the most vigorous Presidents of the State Pomo- 

 logioal Society, which practically takes under its protection all 

 the more solid branches of horticulture, and is well known in 

 connection with valuable horticultural services. 



We are very glad to record the continued well-doing of 



the South Australian Botanic Gaeden at Adelaide under the 



