152 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



Aagust 23, 1864. 



tourist, in addition to the aids we have mentioned, can 

 secure rooms in that hostelry where cleanliness, kindness, 

 and economy preside — Thomas's Snowdon Valley Hotel, but 

 which deserves to be called "The Tourist's Home" — he 

 may be sure of a combination of " traveller's joys " rarely 

 attainable. 



One gentleman, suffering from acidity temporarily, not 

 constitutionally, I hope for his own sake, told me that, 

 " mounting up Snowdon was going a long way with nothing 

 to see when you got there ! " This is not the place to dwell 

 on views having for their outlines the mountains of Ireland, 

 Isle of Man, Westmoreland, and Cheshire, with foregrounds 

 such as Salvator Eosa and Poussin loved to draw, but the 

 botanist will agree with me that on and about Snowdon 

 there is something " to see when you get there," if he will 

 read this list of its rare plants. 



Alisma natans (Floating Water Plan- 

 tain). 



Antiericnm serotinum (Spiderwort). 



Arabia hispida (Alpine Rock Cress) . 



Arenaria verna (Spring Sandwort, 

 and two varieties). 



Aspidium lonehitis (Rough Alpine 

 Shield-Fern). 



Asplenium viride (Green Maiden-hair 

 Spleenwort). 



Campanula rotnndifolia (Round- 

 leaved Bell-Flower — one-flow- 

 ered variety). 



Cares atrata ( Black Sedge) . 

 curta (White Sedge), 

 rigida (Rigid Sedge). 



Cerastium alpinum (Alpine Ifouse- 

 eared Chickweed). 

 latifolium (Broad-leaved Mouse- 

 ear Chickweed). 



Cnicus heterophyilus (Melancholy 

 Thistle). 



Cistopteris alpina (Laciniated Blad- 

 der-Fern). 



Cochlearia grcenlandica (Greenland 

 Scurvy Grass), 

 officinalis (Common Scurvy Grass). 



Drabaincana (Twisted-podded Whit- 

 low Grass). 



Errpatrum r.igram (Crowberry). 



Festnca vivipara (Viviparous Fescue 

 Grass). 



Galium boreale (Cross-leaved Lady's 

 Bedstraw). 



Habenaria albida (White Satyrian). 



Hymenophyllumtnnbridgense (Tun- 

 bridge Filmy Fern). 



Isoetes lacustris (Lake Quillwort). 



Littorella lacustris (Plantain Shore 

 Weed). 



Lobelia Dortmanna (Water Lobelia). 



Lycopodinm alpinum (Savin-leaved 

 Club Moss), 

 annotinum (Inteirupted Club 



Moss), 

 selaginoides (Prickly Club Mossl. 

 Oxalis reniformis (Kidney-leaved 



Mountain Sorrel). 

 Papaver cambricum (Welsh Poppy). 

 Parnassia palustris (Grass of Par- 

 nassus). 

 Poa alpina (Alpine Meadow Grass), 

 glauca (Glaucous Meadow Grass). 

 Polygonum viviparum (Alpine Bis- 

 tort). 

 Polypodium arvonicum (Hairy 

 Alpine Polypody), 

 phegopteris (Pale Mountain Poly- 

 pody). 

 Pteris crispa (Curled Brake). 

 Ranunculus acris (Upright Meadow 



Crowfoot). 

 Rhodiola rosea (Rosewort). 

 Salix herbacea (Least Willow), 

 reticulata (Wrinkled-leaved Wil- 

 low). 

 Saxifraga ajngaefolia (Ajuga-leaved 

 Saxifrage), 

 hypnoides (Moss Saxifrage), 

 oppositifolia (Pnrple Alpine Saxi- 

 frage), 

 rivalis (Clustered Alpine Saxi- 

 frage), 

 steilaris (Starry Alpine Saxifrage). 

 Serratula alpina (Alpine Sawworl). 

 Silene acaulis (Moss Campion). 

 Subularia aquatica (Water Awl wort i . 

 Thalictrum alpinum (Alpine Meadow 

 Rue), 

 minus (Small Mf adow Rue). 

 Vacciniom vitis-idtea (Cowberry). 

 Woodsia alpina (Bolton's Woodsia). 



The employment of guide to the dwelling-places of these 

 plants is one of danger, for many of them are found on the 

 ledges of some of the most precipitous rocks. In walking 

 through the Pass of Llanberis, I turned aside into the burial 

 ground of its very plain little church, and one of the first 

 epitaphs I could read, for the majority are in Welsh, records 

 the death of William Williams, " for more than twenty- 

 five years botanical guide at the Victoria Hotel, who was 

 killed by a fall from Clogwyn y Gownedd, June 13th, 1861, 

 whilst pursuing his favourite vocation." 



Not many yards from this epitaph is another, preserving 

 the remembrance of an even^ which caused a general painful 

 sensation at the time of its occurrence. I need add nothing 

 to these its details. 



" Sacred to the memory of the Rev. Henry Wellington 

 Starr, B.A., Curate of All Saints, Northampton, who per- 

 ished on Snowdon while on a tour through North Wales, 

 September 15th, 1846, aged thirty-two years, and whose re- 

 mains, discovered June 1st, 1847, were interred beneath this 

 stone. An only son, and a faithful minister, he was uni- 

 versally regretted, and he left a mother and two sisters to 

 mourn for life their irreparable loss." 



The monument bearing this inscription is beneath a very 

 ancient Tew, from which the large lateral branches have 

 been barbarously lopped ; but a younger evergreen has been 

 planted by the tomb, and, as is the prevalent custom, Box 

 and other evergreens are arranged upon and around neigh- 

 bouring graves. Even on the ill-cared-for resting place of 

 the deceased cottage children mentioned in Wordsworth's 

 touching lyric, " We are seven," I found flowers were planted, 

 though I wish the grave was better kept of these who, "in 

 Conway churchyard lie." — G. 



NEW PEACHES. 



Exquisite. — Through the kindness of the Eev. T. Collin gs 

 Brehaut, of Guernsey, we have been favoured with a speci- 

 men of this remarkable Peach. Last year we were equally 

 indebted to this gentleman for a similar favour, but the 

 specimen which we received this year far surpasses that 

 sent us last. 



The fruit is of immense size, being 104 inches in circum- 

 ference, and weighing 94 ozs. It is roundish oval in shape, 

 marked with a distinct suture, and terminated at the apex 

 by a sharp nipple. The skin is yellow as that of an 

 Apricot, with a dark crimson mottled cheek on the side next 

 the sun. Flesh deep yellow, veined and stained with deep 

 blood red at the stone, tender, melting, juicy, rich and 

 vinous. This is a noble Peach, and one of delicious flavour. 



Mr. Brehaut says — " I had it from Mr. Eivers in 1860. It 

 fruited in 1862, on the 25th of August ; again in 1863, on 

 the 21st ; and now it will be ripe about that time as you 

 see. The tree itself has very yellow leaves and wood, and 

 grows fairly, but I do not consider it prolific." 



Eaelt Albert. — This we received from Mr. Eivers, of 

 Sawbridgeworth, whose seedling it is. The fruit is above 

 medium size, roundish, frequently with one side of the 

 suture higher than the other, and pitted at the apex. Skin 

 greenish yellow, covered with crimson points on the shaded 

 side, and deep crimson becoming sometimes almost black 

 when grown against the wall, and fully exposed. Flesh 

 white, with a faint brick-red tinge next the stone, from 

 which it separates freely, very tender and melting, and 

 with an abundant sugary and vinous juice, which is very 

 richly flavoured. A delicious early Peach, ripe about the- 

 middle of August. 



CULTIVATION OF THE MELON. 



(Continued from page 133.) 

 Since hot water circulating in iron pipes has been em- 

 ployed for heating horticultural structures, the old-fashioned 

 system of growing Melons on beds of fermenting materials 

 has been to a great extent superseded. It is decidedly a 

 less troublesome, and a more certain method of applying 

 artificial heat, and has given an impetus to horticulture, 

 especially to that branch of it relating to the cultivation of 

 plants from warmer climates ; and I will now proceed to 

 treat of the application of hot water in iron pipes, and of 

 hot air by smoke-flues, to the cultivation of the Melon, 

 whether in pits without trellises for the shoots to run upon, 

 or in larger and loftier houses. 



Fig. 7. 



Fig. 7 shows an ordinary pit heated by two hot-water 

 pipes, a a, for bottom heat, which are surrounded by rubble, 

 such as half bricks, &c, from 6 to 9 inches of the same being 

 placed above them ; the rougher parts of the compost are 

 then put on, or a layer of charred turves an inch thick, so as 

 to prevent the finer soil from passing into the rubble, and 

 on that from 10 inches to a foot of soil, b, in which the 

 Melons are planted in the centre of the bed. They are 

 trained over the soil in the same manner as those in dung 

 frames. There are two four-inch hot-water pipes in front, at 

 o, to maintain the proper degree of atmospheric heat, the 

 soil being kept from them by a slate on edge, d. e e is the 



