Oetober 21, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 327 



plant; together with Masdevallia Chimfflra, Odoutoglossum 

 vexillariuni, and other new Orchids. 



DOUBLE GLAZING. 



At the request of the Editors I beg to inform them that my 

 experience with regard to the cultivation of plants under 

 double glass has been rather limited ; however, as far as it 

 goes the results of this method have been entirely in its 

 favour. 



As the house I have constructed has many new features, it 

 would occupy too much space to enter into details at present. 

 I will only add that it has thoroughly realised my expectations, 

 and that I have no occasion to deviate in any way from rny 

 first design. Every facility would be given to anyone wishing 

 to take a plan of my double-glazed house. The builder and 



gardener of P m Castle, Exeter, took advantage of this 



often last summer ; at the same time they took a plan of the 

 Peach avenue, an illustration of which appeared in this 

 Journal about two years since. During the last six months of 

 my experience of double glass I have found that there is no 

 dew on the under glass, no drip, scald, or scorching ; the house 

 is cooler during sunlight, and when shut up early retains its 

 heat many hours beyond those of single glass. The develop- 

 ment of leaf and fruit is greater, especially the fruit, when 

 ■the crop has not been too great, though a Rivers's Orange 

 Nectarine in a large tub ripened seven dozen of excellent 

 fruit this summer, and the tree is now covered with bloom- 

 irads of full size. I have now sixty of these plants in tubs, 

 which contain a large quantity of earth, and require but little 

 watering. These tubs, when soaked for two hours in boiling 

 •creosote, seern to last for an indefinite period. They can be 

 moved about by two men by means of a chain and band of 

 iron passed round them, and two poles inserted in the chain. 

 I have found two top-dressings during the season sufficient to 

 ■carry the crop through. I think this gradual decay of leaf 

 mould, black dung, and a small amount of wood ash better 

 than flushing the plants with liquid manure ; it is more natural, 

 and the plants, by watering, get their food daily. The fruit 

 ripens about a fortnight to three weeks earlier in this house. — 

 •Observer. 



WOOLHOPE NATUBALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



The concluding meeting for the season of the Woolhope Na- 

 turalists' Field Club was held on the 10th inst. The party pro- 

 ceeded to Whitfield, on their annual " foray among the 

 Funguses." They were very hospitably received by Mr. and 

 Mrs. Archer Clive. 



The result of the "foray" was pleasantly evident at the 

 ■Green Dragon Hotel, where a series of large tables were, covered 

 with a collection of specimens of Fungi, arranged very carefully 

 by Mr. Worthington Smith, of London. All the various families 

 and species were distinguished by labels, and it was quite easy 

 for a student, beginning with the white-spored specimens on 

 the left hand, to make a circumambulation of the fungoid world 

 by simply passing along the line of tables. Some of the speci- 

 mens were intensely interesting on account of their habitat. The 

 phosphorescent Fungi which grew on the Oak beams far down in 

 the coal pits, 1,200 feet beneath the cheerful day, were repre- 

 sented equally with the beautiful little Agaric which has its 

 liorne amid the needle-like leaves of the Fir on the breezy hilltop. 

 Here, too, were specimens of the deadly Fungus which kills 

 .almost at once, and the Lactarius deliciosus, truly worthy of its 

 name, which differs very little from it. Then, too, there were 

 several exceedingly rare Fungi, some of which have been noticed 

 and described this year for the first time ; and above all the 

 wonder was, that with a summer and autumn so unfavourable, 

 "there should be any Fungi at all. The members and their friends, 

 •coming from widely distant localities, had all the same story 

 to tiil of the almost total absence of Fungi from field, lane, 

 and road. 



The exhibition of Funguses was, indeed, most interesting, 

 and contained a very large variety of plants considering the 

 great scarcity of the tribe during the present year. It was ex- 

 cellently arranged ; every Fungus was in its own place in the 

 family to which it belonged, and had its name attached, so that 

 it afforded the most favourable opportunity to students of my- 

 cology to become scientifically acquainted with them. We have 

 not space at this time to enter into a general review, or give the 

 names of the several Funguses exhibited. We can only say that 

 the rare Thelephora multizonata and the Thelephora Sowerbei, 

 which created so much interest at the Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety, in London, were there. The Polyporus intybaceus, 

 which is an edible species, is said to have been very useful 

 in Alsace and Lorraine during the recent famine produced by 



war. Several specimens new to Britain were exhibited — one 

 found at this meeting, Gomphidius maculatus, by Mrs. Cooper 

 Key, of Stretton; another, one of the most brilliant Funguses 

 recently found, Cortinarius cinnabarinus, was found by Mr. 

 Renny, at Downton, and for its brilliant metallic tint of carmine 

 and go id it is really the most interesting of the year. One other 

 interesting feature of the exhibition we must find time to notice, 

 and it shall be the last. Mr. Cruttwell sent a most interesting 

 box of Funguses and their mycelium, collected 1,200 feet below 

 the surface of the ground in the Glyncorrwg Colliery, near 

 Briton Ferry. They were growing on the pit wood supporting 

 the roof of the main heading of the No. 2 Rhondda seam. The 

 principal Fungus was the Polyporus annosus. It is very in- 

 teresting, because it is often phosphorescent in the dark galleries 

 of the mine, and sometimes has been the cause of much terror 

 to the miners. 



At the dinner, E. T. Steele, Esq., presided. A great number 

 of sketches of rare Fungi, coloured to nature, and very cleverly 

 executed by Dr. Dull, were explained by him and were handed 

 round. 



A discussion followed on various phenomena of fungology, 

 upon the appearance and disappearance of certain species ; upon 

 the position occupied by the Fungus in regard to decaying matter, 

 several speakers holding that the Fungus was the effect and not 

 the cause of decay ; and upon the position occupied by the Fungus 

 in the system of nature, whether it is really the scavenger, 

 whose mission is to absorb decaying matter, and thus remove 

 that which might be injurious to higher orders of existences. 



On the same day a show of Fungi was to have taken place in 

 the rooms of the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland, at the 

 Rotundo, Dublin, but we regretted to observe that the prizes 

 offered by Dr. Wright for collections of Fungi did not evoke any 

 competition whatever ; but this defect was to no small extent 

 remedied by the splendid collection of drawings of edible and 

 poisonous Fungi kindly forwarded by the distinguished fun- 

 gologist and artist, Worthington G. Smith, Esq., of London. 

 These drawings were seventy in number, no less than twelve 

 being devoted to illustrating the different varieties of the com- 

 mon Mushroom. All were from Mr. Smith's own pencil, and 

 were faithfully and artistically executed. For this valuable and 

 interesting collection Mr. Smith was awarded the Society's 

 silver gilt medal. 



A NEW FOBM OP BABBOW. 

 The new form of barrow shown in the accompanying illus- 

 tration has been recently registered. The inventor claims for 



it that while it can be made quite as cheaply as any of the 

 ordinary designs, its durability is tenfold. It cannot easily be 

 broken, for, as will be seen, the legs are bolted through the 

 frame, and secured by a couple of screws at the ends resting 

 on the ground, a construction which renders them far less 

 liable to break-off. Iron stays or cleats are dispensed with 

 as unnecessary ; and the body may be constructed of the re- 

 quisite shape to suit any special requirements. — (English Me- 

 chanic and World of Science.) 



POTATOES DISEASED AND UNDISEASED. 

 It is very sad to read the accounts from nearly all parts of 

 Great Britain of the ravages of the Potato disease. It is still 

 a question whether one variety is more susceptible to the 

 disease than another. It seems all to depend upon the state 

 of the weather when the Potato is in a certain stage of growth. 

 Heavy thunder-showers, with a continued electrical state of 

 the atmosphere just before the crop is fully ripe, will cause it ; 

 and if this state of the weather does not exist at that time 

 the crop will escape. This year the earliest varieties are en- 

 tirely free from disease. I grew Veitch's Perfection, round, 

 and Myatt's Prolific, kidney, and did not find a single diseased 

 tuber in either of these sorts. The American E arly Rose was 

 grown in the fields, but it is an utter failure, not from disease, 

 but because there was no crop ; it was free from disease, as 



