August 29, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



169 



since Mr. Loddiges cultivated this plant, and named it Cala- 

 dium zamiEcfolium. It is a native of east tropical Africa. Dr. 

 Hooker says — " The genus Zamioeulcas is confined to eastern 

 tropical Africa. Z. Loddigesii was introduced into the Horti- 

 cultural Gardens before 1828, probably by Forbes, and figured 

 with a most imperfect description by Loddiges, who supposed 

 it to be a native of Brazil. Nothing more was known of it till 

 it was introduced from Zanzibar into the Jardin des Plantes 

 at Paris, where it flowered in 1869, and was subsequently de- 

 scribed and published by M. Decaisne, together with another, 

 also Zanzibar, species, Z. Boivinii, which exists in the Paris 

 Herbarium and has bipinnate leaves. Our plants were received 

 from that indefatigable naturalist Dr. Kirk, F.L.S., now H.B.M. 

 Vice-Consul at Zanzibar in 1870, and flowered in June, 1872." 

 —(Ibid., t. 5985.) 



Teecclia afkicana (African Treculia). Nat. ord., Artocarp- 

 aceas. Linn., Moncecia Monandria. — Dr. Hooker says it is " a 

 very singular West African tree, closely allied to Artocarpus 

 (which includes the Bread Fruit and Jack Fruit of tropical Asia) . 

 Treculia appears to inhabit the whole western coast of tropical 



Africa, from Senegambia, where it was discovered by Heudelot, 

 to Angola, whence it was brought by Dr. Welwitsch, who states 

 in his ' Synopse Explicativa ' that the fruit is called ' Amendoas 

 de Disanha ' by the Portuguese, and ' Isa ' in the island of St. 

 Thomas. Specimens have also been sent by Dr. Kirk from 

 the west shore of Lake Nyassa, gathered during Livingstone's 

 expedition in 1861. The fruit is a foot or more in diameter, 

 globose, and full of small elliptical nuts, with an eatable 

 embryo, which are collected by the negroes and ground into 

 meal."— (Ibid., t. 5986.) 



Gladiolus John Standish. — " This very fine variety of 

 Gladiolus was raised by Mr. Douglas, the talented gardener at 

 Loxford Hall, Ilford, and was exhibited in September, 1870, 

 when it gained a first-class certificate. As shown, it was a 

 flower of large size and fine form, and one of thee in which 

 the two opposite sepaline segments are uppermost, the two 

 opposite petahne segments below; the flowers were also remark- 

 ably stout in substance. The colour was a pale flesh-like hue 

 of remarkable delicacy, the lower segments being flaked with 

 purple." — (Florist and Pomologist, 3 s. v. 169.) 



SCHMIDT'S BIGARREAU. 



This noble Cherry was introduced to this country by Mr. 

 Rivers under the name of Bigarreau Noir de Schmidt. We 

 have not been able to trace its history beyond the SocK-te Van 



Mons, of Belgium, from which Mr. Rivers received it. It is by 

 far the largest of all the Black Bigarreau Cherries. 

 As will be seen from our engraving, the fruit is produced in 



Schmidt's Bigarreau. 



clusters, and is of a large size, round, and somewhat oblate. 

 The skin is of a deep black colour, and there is a large style 

 mark on the apex. The stalk is stout, 2 inches long, and 



rather deeply inserted; flesh dark, tender, and very juicy, 

 with a fine flavour. The stone is very small for the size of 

 the fruit. 



NOTES OP A WANDERER.— No. 2— Basle to Chamonix. 

 If I have little doubt that my idea that the Germans are not 

 much given to a love of flowers be correct, I can have less 

 doubt on the condition of the Swiss in that respect; in no 

 place that I have been have I observed the least indication of 

 such a love. I inquired in vain for nurserymen, and on my 

 return home, on looking at my friend Dr. Hogg's " Horticul- 



tural Directory," I did not see a single nurseryman's name 

 given in Switzerland. Why is this? Is it that the natural flora 

 is so full that the Swiss care for nothing more ? or that then' 

 scenery is so absorbing that they cannot give themselves to the 

 minor things of gardening ? I know not, but so it is. Here 

 at Basle I saw no flowers ; the fruiterers' shops contained no 



