October 18, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



307 



scarlet) which have been flowering— indeed, are flowering Btill 

 — in the nurseries of Messrs. Veitch at Chelsea. The effect of 

 the two rows of plants is very striking, the thousands of small 

 well-formed flowers imparting a distinct and attractive feature 

 to the plants. The plants are dwarf (about 3 feet high) and 

 bushy in habit ; the foliage, like the flowers, is small. For 

 beds or borders in pleasure grounds — for groups, such as large 

 bed or lines in publio parks — these single floriferons miniature 

 Dahlias are especially suitable, and would afford an agreeable 

 and attractive change from the double varieties — indeed, from 

 all autumn-flowering plants. When a white variety is forth- 

 coming a trio of great decorative value will be produced. The 

 flowers when cut are excellent for vase, church, and festival 

 decoration. 



The Ontario Farmers' Advocate recounts the following 



BENEFITS WHICH THE BIRDS ACCOMPLISH. The SWallOW, Swift, 



and night-hawk are the guardians of the atmosphere ; they 

 cheek the increase of insects that otherwise would overload 

 it. Woodpeckers, creepers, chickadees, &c, are tho guardians 

 of the trunks of trees. Warblers and flycatchers protect the 

 foliage. Blackbirds, thrushes, crows, and larks protect the 

 surface of the soil ; snipe and woodcock the soil under the 

 surface. Each tribe has its respective duties to perform 

 in the economy of nature ; and it is an undoubted fact that 

 if birds were all swept from the earth man could not live 

 upon it, vegetation would wither and die, insects would be- 

 come so numerous that no living thing could withstand the 

 attacks. The wholesale destruction occasioned by the grass- 

 hoppers which have lately devastated the West, is undoubtedly 

 caused by the thinning-out of the birds, such as grouse, prairie 

 hens, etc., which feed upon them. The great and inestimable 

 good done to the farmer, gardener, and florist by birds is only 

 becoming known by sad experience. Spare the birds and save 

 your fruit. The little corn and fruit taken by them is more 

 than compensated by the vast quantities of noxious insects 

 destroyed. The long-persecuted crow has been found by actual 

 experiment to do far more good by the vast quantity of grubs 

 and insects he devours than the little harm he does in the 

 few grains of corn he pulls up. He is one of the farmer's 

 best friends. 



An American contemporary says that J. R.Young, jun., 



of Virginia is probably the largest Stkawbeery geowee in the 

 world, he having picked this season 375,000 quarts from 

 185 acres of land, nine-tenths of which are of Wilson's Albany 

 variety ; 1700 pickers was the greatest number employed any 

 one day. His average product is a fraction over 2000 quarts 

 to the acre, yet the average crop of all the land cultivated in 

 the vicinity was 1400 quarts per acre. 



POETBAITS of PLANTS, FLOWERS, and FRUITS. 



Feitillaeia dasyphtlla and F. acmopetala. — " These are 

 two Fritillaries of which living plants have lately been brought 

 for the first time from Asia Minor by Mr. Elwes, and liberally 

 distributed. F. daeyphylla is a dwarf species, first gathered 

 by Professor Edward Forbes, which belongs to the section 

 with an entire style, and resembles in general habit F. tulipi- 

 folia of the Caucasus, figured "Bot. Mag.," tab. 6969. F. ac- 

 mopetala, on the contrary, is a tall-growing plant, closely allied 

 to F. pyrenaica, but with very different leaves. Both are 

 plants of the mountains and perfectly hardy. F. dasyphylla 

 was gathered by Mr. Elwes in light saudy soil between Moolah 

 and Aidin, at an elevation of 2000 feet above sea level, and 

 F. acmopetala in rocky woods in Caria." — (Bot. Mag., t. 6321.) 



Oncidium edxanthinum. — " A member of a small group of 

 chiefly Brazilian Oncidia, of which the first described species 

 ifl O. bifolium, a native of the Brazils, which differs in the 

 racemose flowers, much smaller broadly obovoid pseudobulbs, 

 and shorter leaves. It is even nearer the O. martianum var. 

 bicolor, Lindl. (O. bicolor, LindL in 'Bot. Reg.,' 1847, t. 66) 

 in the racemose flowers, but that species has a solitary broad 

 leaf, and very much narrower lateral lobes of the lip. Dr. 

 Reichenbach describes the flowers of the original specimen as 

 having greenish sepals and petals with brownish bars, but 

 those of my. specimens are of the same clear yellow as the lip, 

 and the spots on the latter are of a clear red hue. The warts, 

 &c, of the lip are not only variable in this genus, but most 

 difficult to describe ; in the present species they occupy a 

 narrow area on the diEk, and consist principally of a trans- 

 verse row of tubercles and a prominent but small conical 

 horn. 



" O. euxanthinum is a native of Brazil, whence it was im- 

 ported by Messrs. Veitch."— [Ibid., t. 6322.) 



Buddleia asiatica. — " A very common and graceful large 

 shrub or small tree of Continental India, Burma, th9 Malay 

 Peninsula, Cochin-China, and Java, advancing north-west- 

 wards to the Indus, ascending to 4000 feet in the Himalaya, 

 and to 6000 in the Nilgherri Hills, but curiously enough absent 

 from Caylon. Two forms of it are common, differing much in 

 the flowers, which are very variable in size and the leDgth of 

 the tube of the corolla ; one form has a salver-shaped corolla, 

 with orbicular spreading lobes ; the other has much smaller 

 flowers with short sub-erect corolla-lobes. The stamens in 

 both ara inserted near the mouth of the corolla-tube, not, as 

 stated by Roxburgh, near its base. 



"It is certainly remarkable that so very common, elegant, 

 and sweet-scented a plant as this, which flowers for three 

 months continuously in India, should not be in common cul- 

 tivation; but it does not appear in the ' Hortns Kewensie,' nor 

 is it figured in any work published in England. For the speci- 

 men here described we are indebted to Messrs. Downie, Laird, 

 and Co., who sent it in February, 1874."— (Ibid., t. 6323.) 



Aloe tricolor.—" Perhaps it may be, as Mr. N. E. Brown 

 ha3 suggested, the A. arabica of which the foliage alone i3 de- 

 scribed by Salmdyck (see Kunth, Enum. vol. iv. p. 525). Bat 

 it is clearly not the plant originally named arabica by Lamarck, 

 which is founded on the Arabian A. variegata of Forskahl. 

 Our present plant flowered for the first time in the Kew col- 

 lection this spring. We received it from the Oxford Botanic 

 Garden, and they had it, labelled as a Cape species, from Mr. 

 Justus Corderoy of Blewbury."— (Ibid., t. 6324.) 



Miceostylis josephiana. — "A very curious novelty, re- 

 sembling a good deal the African genus Lissochilus, differing 

 in size and habit from the majority of species of Microstylis, 

 which are for the most part weedy green-flowered plants of no 

 interest to the horticulturist. It is a native of the tropical 

 forests of the Sikkim Himalaya, where, however, it escaped the 

 notice of all observers previous to the late Dr. Anderson , F.LS. , 

 then Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden, who 

 discovered it in 1S63, and sent plants to the Calcutta Garden. 

 These flowered in April, 1867. It flowered at the Royal 

 Gardens of Kew, in May of the present year, from plants sent 

 by Mr. Gamnie, Superintendent of the Sikkim Cinchona 

 Plantations, to whom the Gardens are indebted for numerous 

 and vsry valuable contributions of Sikkim seeds and plants'. 

 It is named after the editor of this magazine in recognition 

 of his services to orchidology when exploring, for the first time 

 by any botanist, the primasval forests of the Sikkim Himalaya." 

 — (Ibid., t. 6325.) 



Arthroeodium neo caledonicum.— " This is a native of New 

 Caledonia, recently introduced into cultivation by Messrs. 

 Veitch. It is interesting geographically as extending to Ntw 

 Caledonia the range of another of the characteristic Australian 

 and New Zealand genera. Its nearest ally is A. candidum, 

 Raoul, of New Zealand, and the other five or six speeieB besides 

 these two are all confined to Australia and New Zealand. 

 Whether it will be hardy about London still remains to be 

 proved. The plant flowered with Messrs. Veitch in May, 1877." 

 —(Ibid., t. 6326.) 



A ROSS-SHIRE TRADITION. 



A tradition prevails in Ross-3hire that it was foretold by 

 the last preacher in a kirk at Loch Carron, now ruined, that 

 after his death an unknown tree should spring up where hia 

 pulpit was, and that when it reached above the wall there 

 should be a European war. A tree of which the like is not 

 known in the neighbourhood has grown on the spot. This 

 year for the first time the top is above the wall. I send you a 

 sprig and berries. Can you tell me what tree it is ? — J. Bbodib 

 Innes. 



[The tree is Sambucus racemosa, Red-berried Elder, in- 

 troduced by Gerarde in the year 1596. No genus has mora 

 supei-BtitionB connected with it than has the Sambucus. — Eds.] 



CARPET BEDDING. 



Embossed bedding, jewel bedding, tapeBtry bedding, mosaic 

 bedding, and artistic bedding are terms which have been 

 applied to the more advanced types of garden decoration 

 wherein low-growing plants remarkable for their striking 

 habits and attractive foliage have been exclusively employed. 

 There has, indeed been a general ransacking of the vocabu- 



