September 13, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



207 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



of 

 Qlonth 



Day 

 of 



Week. 



SEPTEMBER 13—19, 187 . 



Average 



Temperature near 



London. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 



Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 



Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 









Day. 



Night. 



Mean. 



h. m. 



h m. 



h. m. 



fc. m. 



Days. 



m s. 





13 



Th 



Alexandra Palace International Fruit Show. 



684 



457 



57.0 



5 34 



6 18 



1 46 



8 28 



6 



4 15 



256 



14 



F 





67.0 



46.1 



56.5 





6 16 



2 50 



9 18 



5 



4 86 



257 



15 



S 





67.5 



459 



56.7 



5 37 



6 18 



8 88 



10 20 



8 



4 57 



258 



16 



Sun 





68 4 



46.8 



57.6 



5 38 



6 11 



4 13 



11 30 



9 



5 19 



259 



17 



M 





68.9 



44.9 



66.9 



5 40 



6 9 



4 33 



morn. 



10 



5 40 



260 



18 



To 





68.2 



46.5 



57.4 



5 42 



6 6 



4 55 



43 



11 



6 1 



261 



19 



W 



Twilight ends at 8.3 p.m. 



67 3 



44.3 



668 



6 43 



6 4 



5 9 



1 56 



12 



6 22 



262 



Fromobservationstaben near Londondaring forty-three years 



the average day temperature of the week is 67.9° ; and 



its night temperature 



45.6'. 













SUMMER-FLOWERING HARDY HEATHS. 



;N August the number of hardy plants in 

 flower is sensibly dimiQished ; those of 

 former months have no attraction, or in- 

 terest except for seed ; fewnew ones succeed. 

 True this is of herbaceous and hgneous plants, 

 ■wild or cultivated, indigenous or exotic. 

 The moors, however, are then in their chief 

 beauty from the different kinds of Heath- 

 blooms with which they are clothed— clad 

 in the choicest garb of purple hue. Match- 

 less, indeed, for softness of purple colouring is a wide 

 expanse of moor in August, the multitudinous blossoms 

 — tiny bells — chime a welcome that no one knows so well 

 how to appreciate as the wearers of " purple." I confess 

 to knowing no spot so fitted for a ramble in August as an 

 upland moor. The bright glow of the Heather, its aged 

 growths silvered by Lichen ; the monotony broken by 

 patches of Bracken, with here and there, stunted or 

 closely cropped by mountain sheep, grouped or isolated 

 Gorse in glaucous freshness ; Rowan tree gladdening with 

 its clustered coral-red fruit ; finding at your feet the golden 

 green of the Bilberry and its refreshing purple berry with 

 a bloom upon it that no black Grape may equal ; bathing 

 the feet in sphagnum to gain access to a patch of Sundew, 

 which seen between the eye and the sun at rising, mid- 

 day, or setting, its marvellous hairs and carnivorous teeth 

 of crimson velvet arrayed in hundreds of pretty little 

 pearly stars, the whole plant studded with dewdrops or 

 their likeness ; the mind not enraptured beholding in 

 amazement and lifted in adoration will see no grace in 

 the agile creeping of the adder, the perfection of ser- 

 pentine form in its swimming, and its inimitable colours 

 bright and gaudy as those of its foe the peacock, the two 

 not living in company any more than the lover of Nature 

 can see beauty in plants cut, clipped, and trained into form 

 anything but natural. 



Everyone may not be privileged to take moor air ; dis- 

 tance may be an object, and right to view if there a 

 deterrent ; but there is no reason in the world why there 

 should not be beds of Heather in every garden. Few 

 American grounds have clumps of Heath ; they have 

 place probably as a border or hedge, and occasionally 

 Heaths are employed as rock plants. In any form they 

 are desirable ; but there are few pleasure grounds in 

 which suitable positions could not be found for a mass 

 or masses of these highly decorative plants, for they 

 bloom at a time when most shrubs have passed flower- 

 ing, having nothing beyond the foliage of interest. The 

 foliage of the Heath is fittingly contrasting with bolder 

 foliage ; indeed nothing is so monotonous as an American 

 ground composed of Rhododendrons only, there being 

 little or no variety in form or tint of foliage, it being only 

 when in blossom that the monotony is varied by different 

 shades of colour ; but if we introduce Heaths, Ledums, 

 Gaultherias, and Andromeda we obtain variety in form 

 in time of flowering, and harmonising contrast both of 

 foliage and flower. 



No. 859 -Vol. XXXIH., New Semes 



Many are kept from growing Heathblooms from the 

 supposed necessity for peat soil. Naturally they are 

 found growing in peat, but it is by no means apparent 

 that peat soil is the cause of our moors being covered with 

 Heather, the evidence is ah the other way ; the sub- 

 stance known as heath-mould being the debris of suc- 

 cessive generations of the decayed plants. Either Heath- 

 blooms have the power of changing the soil in which 

 they have for any length of time been established into 

 peat by the decay of their fibres, a progressive addition 

 being made to the surface by the decay of the fallen 

 foliage, and an hypothesis supported by the fact that 

 where there is any depth of peat with a growth of 

 Heather the surface is devoid of silicious substances, 

 whilst only a little from the surface the soil contains often 

 considerable silicious particles — sand or flint, according to 

 the formation ; the upper stratum is a result of the debris 

 of the foliage or part above ground, and the under of that 

 of the decayed fibres. Or we must arrive at the con- 

 trary hypothesis, that the peaty formation is due to pre- 

 historic vegetation — debris of a vegetable character, which 

 may have been that resulting of a forest — an accumula- 

 tion of leaves converted into mould by decomposition, 

 which, however, do not contain much silicious matter, 

 and if lying high is brown in colour and mostly occupied 

 with Bracken — not being peat at all, but vegetable soil, 

 for which all the Heathblooms have a decided preference, 

 providing sand be liberally added, though some brown 

 peats are found supporting a good growth of Heath, and 

 the soil full of its decayed stems ; yet it is mostly associated 

 with a growth more or less of Bracken, as is testified 

 by its rhizomes in the soil. Decomposing vegetable 

 matter is incontestably the life of Heaths, either their 

 own or that of prior vegetation. I know an extensive 

 establishment in whose pleasure grounds the Rhododen- 

 dron could not be induced to grow in other than prepared 

 soil — peat had from a considerable distance, and they in 

 the course of a few years even in peat became very un- 

 healthy. The soil was light and sandy, and though trees 

 and shrubs succeeded, the Heathblooms did not, neither 

 there nor in adjacent grounds. Nevertheless in the same 

 formation of soil the vicarage garden had its healthy 

 groups of Rhododendron and upon the lawn a luxuriant 

 mass of Heather ; those very subjects in the grounds of 

 the squire, baronet, and lord were very bare of foliage, 

 unsightly objects. The success of the vicar was due to 

 peat. By no means, for the only peat used was that 

 brought with the Heather 2 or 3 inches thick from a moor 

 a dozen miles distant. The whole secret was in the 

 vicar having taken the debris from a wood of the squire, 

 and mixed with it about a sixth of sand. The leaf soil, 

 for it was nothing less or more, was put on about a foot 

 thick, and mixed with that depth of the soil of the grounds. 

 This raised the beds or groups considerably, adding im- 

 mensely to their appearance. The wood from which the 

 vicar had the soil that made his grounds resplendent with 

 Heathblooms was thirty years after planted with Rhodo^ 

 dendrons beneath Oaks of. judging from a felled tree, two 

 hundred or more years' growth, harbouring a great 



No. 1511.— Vol. LVIII.. Old Semes. 



