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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 28, 1872. 



emitted little flashes of light. Forewarned as he was by a 

 knowledge that such things had been observed by others, he 

 could not help believing that he was suffering from an optical 

 illusion. However, the flashes continued showing themselves 

 from time to time during three-quarters of an hour. M. Fries 

 was thus forced to believe that what he saw was real. The 

 next day, observing the same phenomenon to recur at about 

 the same hour, he conducted to the plaee a person entirely 

 ignorant that such a manifestation of light had ever been 

 witnessed in the vegetable world ; and without relating any- 

 thing concerning it, he brought his companion before the 

 group of Poppies. The latter observer was soon in raptures of 

 astonishment and admiration. Many other persons were then 

 led to the same spot, some of whom immediately remarked 

 that ' the flowers were throwing out flames.' " As will be 

 observed from the above instances, the emission of light from 

 flowers occurs chiefly in the months of June and July, and 

 during the twilight — between sunset and the time when full 

 darkness sets in. In some cases these sparks or flashes have 

 also been observed in the morning, just before sunrise. The 

 phenomenon is always most brilliant before a thunderstorm. 

 It is also said that some flowers always emit light at the 

 periods of floration and fecundation ; at which periods, as has 

 lately been found, the temperature of the petals rises above 

 the ordinary point. — (Belgravia.) 



FrjOHSiA Sunray (Milner). — Thinking it might be of service 

 to some of your readers to have such a beautiful plant as the 

 above recommended to their- favourable notice, I forward a 

 specimen of its shoots, and venture to ask you to endorse the 

 very favourable opinion I entertain of its merits as a decorative 

 plant. — Robert Hatherstone. 



[It is very beautiful ; petals, sepals, and leaves all crimson. 

 —Eds.] _________ 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 

 A large consignment of the handsome Lilium Washington- 

 ianum has reached this country, and we understand will be 

 sold at Stevens's rooms, Covent Garden, on the 5th of Decem- 

 ber. A quantity of other rare Lilies will also be brought to 

 the hammer on the same day. 



The communication we publish to-day relative to the 



power some stocks have to prevent the occurrence of American 

 blight on Apple trees is of great interest, and entitles the sani- 

 tary influence of the stock to more consideration than it has 

 hitherto received. In America some kinds of Grape Vines are 

 said not to be liable to be attacked by the Phylloxera. 



The following is the account of the way in which Dr. 



Welwitsch, to whose death we recently made a reference, 

 has bequeathed his collections : — He directs that his study 

 copy of African plants (except one set of Mosses which he 

 leaves to M. Duby, of Geneva) be offered to the British 

 Museum, at the price of £2 10s. per hundred species ; to the 

 Portuguese Government he bequeaths two sets of his African 

 plants, gratis ; and to Dr. Schweinfurth, Professor A. Decan- 

 dolle, the Academy at Lisbon, the Museum at Carinthia in 

 Austria, the Imperial Natural History Museum at Rio de Jane- 

 iro, the English Government for the use of Kew Gardens, and to 

 the botanical museums of Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Copenhagen 

 one set each, gratis. To the Zoological Museum at Lisbon he 

 bequeaths his study copy of his African entomological collection , 

 first choice of African mollusca, and all his books, instruments, 

 and zoological objects ; to Dr. Peters, of Berlin, and to the 

 Museum at Carinthia, he also bequeaths one set each of his 

 African coleoptera and mollusca ; his general herbarium and 

 his Portuguese herbarium he leaves to the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences at Lisbon. The testator expresses a desire that all 

 these gifts should be considered as being made by the Portu- 

 guese Government, through whose liberality and assistance he 

 was enabled to make such collections. 



PERMANENCY OF CONCRETE WORK. 

 In reference to an article by Mr. T. Record in your number 

 of November 14th on wiring (concrete) garden walls, in 

 which is expressed a doubt whether concrete walls will stand 

 the severe test of winter, I beg to say that if the cement and 

 gravel be good, properly compounded and used, they will stand 

 the weather as well as good brick walls or most hard building 

 stones, and better than a great many of the present day ; but 



there are two necessities — viz., good materials and workman- 

 ship, and I may add a third— the facing must be carefully 

 done, otherwise it will scale-off in time from imperfect adhe- 

 sion. I have for nearly forty years used the cement concrete, 

 though not for garden walls, but for wall copings and more- 

 difficult purposes, wholesale ever since Portland cement was 

 introduced, and with other cements before ; the coping being 

 the most exposed and likely to be injured first. To anyone- 

 wishing to see an example, as one of a hundred I mention the 

 front wall of the churchyard, Broxbourne, and the coping on. 

 the church itself, buttress tops, &o. 



A stronger test is its use for concrete around lakes or streams, 

 fountains, basins, &c, where, between air and water, only the 

 hardest of stone or bricks will stand; the cement concrete 

 remains quite perfect, and that as long as the cement has been 

 in use. I have known cracks through the joints in conse- 

 quence of the imperfect making-up of the banks and the 

 ground settling, but not through the cement itself giving way, 

 only when done in frosty weather, which it should not be. 

 But all this requires experience to be managed successfully. 

 Another severe test is to be found in open stableyards, terraces, 

 and garden steps, which have been done and can be seen. 

 Where stone is too expensive, I have used concrete for water- 

 work purposes, and in forming rocks artificially, which are, 

 of course, exposed to alternate wet, drought, and frost, and 

 this in hundreds of cases — for instance, the waterfalls anc8 

 other rocks in the beautiful park at Battersea, the earliest 

 portion of which may be seen covered with lichen and other- 

 vegetation ; and there also may be seen the bed of a stream 

 concreted with Portland cement. 



I may add that good has lime and gravel well executed, and 

 with a bold projecting coping faced properly with good Port- 

 land cement, will also answer well if done in favourable- 

 weather, but should be thicker than if done in cement. 



This communication may savour of self-praise, but anyone- 

 may see a proof of its accuracy, and I do not undertake 

 garden walls, having enough to do without such heavy work. — 

 James Pulham, Broxbourne. 



HISTORY OP COVENT GARDEN MARKET. 

 No. 1. 



The name of Thorney was in very early times applied to a. 

 marshy piece of ground, because overgrown with Briars, that 

 is now known as " Westminster," because the Abbey is west- 

 ward of London city. That Abbey was founded by one Sebert, 

 who, whether he was a royal nephew or a London magistrate 

 in the time of the Anglo-Saxon KingEthelbert, our authorities 

 do not agree. But what can that Abbey have to do with. 

 Covent Garden Market ? Much , as I will show if you will 

 allow me to tell my tale after my own humour. 



The earliest charters in the Abbey's archives are dated ia> 

 the tenth century, which is quite early enough for my pur- 

 pose; for though some are probably forgeries, there is one at 

 least which appears genuine. 



These charters and other documents reveal the numerous, 

 and very large estates possessed by the Abbey, and on one of 

 them, most convenient from its nearness, the monks estab- 

 lished a garden. Its situation and other particulars are re- 

 vealed to us when, in 1537, being the twenty-eighth year o£> 

 his reign, Henry VIII. obtained, in exchange for some lands 

 in Berkshire, from William Boston, Abbot of St. Peter's, West- 

 minster, " all that garden lying and being next Charing Cross, 

 called Covent Garden, and also seven acres of land lying with- 

 out the said garden, near and adjoining to the same, in the 

 parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, valued by the said Abbot 

 at the yearly value of £5. 6s. 8d." This garden and seven 

 acres remained among the Crown estates until the reign of 

 Edward VI., who bestowed it on his unworthy uncle the Pro- 

 tector Somerset, but reverting to the Crown on his attainder, 

 the same king granted it in 1552 to John Russell, Earl of Bed- 

 ford, who was then the keeper of the privy seal. In the deed 

 it is described as " the Covent or Convent Garden," and it is 

 stated that the seven acres were " called Long Acre," a name 

 still retained, and that the annual value was £6 6s. 8d. The 

 Earl soon after erected upon the land a house, principally of 

 wood, for his town residence. It was named Bedford House, 

 and was near the bottom of the present Southampton Street. 

 It had a large garden, enclosed by a brick wall, extending 

 nearly to the present market square. The remainder of the 

 ground, as shown by a map now before me, drawn in 1578, 



