486 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 242. 



and foresters are to be allowed to share the advantages of 

 this scheme. There has been something of the same kind 

 in operation at Kew for a considerable period, but it is lim- 

 ited to the young men employed in the Royal Gardens. 

 They are expected to go through courses of lectures on 

 physics, chemistry, systematic botan)% geography, etc. In 

 the winter they form a mutual improvement society for the 

 purpose of reading and discussing essays upon horticul- 

 tural subjects. 



BouiLLiE BoRDELAiSE AND PoTATO DisEASE. — E.xperiments, 

 with a view to testing the value of Bordeaux mixture as a 

 fungicide, have been made this year by Mr. H. F. Moore, 

 for Messrs. Carter & Co., of High Holborn, and a report of 

 the results furnished by them for publication. Last year 

 similar experiments were made by Messrs. Sutton & Sons, 

 Reading, with results which, on the whole, were unfavor- 

 able to the Bouillie Bordelaise as a cure for potato disease. 



The following table gives the totals of the two duplicate ex- 

 periments : 



Dressed Undi-essed In favorof 



plots. plots. dressed plots. 



Cwt. qi-s. lbs. Cwt. qrs. lbs. Cvvt. qrs. lbs. 



Weight of sound tubers, 58 o o 39 2 10 18 i 18 



Weight of unsound tubers, — — II 6311 63 o 



Total yield, 58 on 46 2 4 112 7 



It will thus be seen that in whatever aspect the experiment 

 is looked at it is in favor of the dressing by the bouillie borde- 

 laise. So far as sound tubers are concerned, the yield is about 

 two tons per acre more than in the undressed portion (the two 

 plots being less than half an acre), while the quality of the 

 tubers is better. 



The last meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society pro- 

 duced few plants of interest. A specimen in flower of Mr. 

 Sturtevant's Aristolochia Gigas, grown in a six-inch pot, 

 was the chief attraction. It was awarded a first-class 

 certificate and the regret expressed that something better 



Fio;. 82. — Li\e Oak (Quercus Virginiana) in St. Augustine, Florida. — See page . 



The report of Mr. Moore, however, is exceptionally favor- 

 able. I quote the following from it : 



The experiment was made on a field of a little less than an 

 acre of potatoes, which were planted in ten long double rows 

 on April 8th, the drills being thirty-six inches apart. The 

 whole piece was divided into four equal parts, ot which the 

 first and third were dressed with the mixture, and the second 

 and fourth left undressed. The strength of the mixture was 

 as follows : 22 lbs. of sulphate of copper, 22 lbs. of unslaked 

 lime, and 100 gallons of water, this being the quantity neces- 

 sary for an acre of potatoes. For the purposes of the experi- 

 ment the first and third quarters were dressed with the mixture 

 on July nth and August 2d, and the second and fourth left un- 

 dressed. The mixture was applied by the Antipest, the new 

 knapsack distributer, invented by Mr. G. F. Strawson, which 

 did the work admirably.- On the second occasion, a German 

 machine was also tried, this also doing good work. The mix- 

 ture was applied thoroughly on both surfaces of the leaf. The 

 disease appeared early in September in the undressed portions, 

 and on Thursday and Friday, September 15th and i6th, a party of 

 leading agriculturists and horticulturists assembled to see the 

 final results of a trial which has created considerable interest. 



could not be done to mark the high opinion of the plant 

 formed by the committee. Two varieties of Cattleya, one 

 called C. Statteriana and the other C. aurea, var. Statter- 

 iana, both remarkable for the small amount of crimson on 

 the labellums, were shown by Mr. Staffer, and Messrs. 

 Veitch showed a new hybrid Cattleya named Minucia, 

 which they had raised from C. Loddigesii and C. labiata, 

 A'^ar. Messrs. Linden, of Brussels, sent two Cyrtopodiums, 

 one named C. macranthum, having yellow flowers very 

 similar to those of C. cardiochilum, the other named C. 

 Alicea?, with white flowers spotted with dull red. Pteris 

 nivalis, a seedling form of P. Victorise with broader pinnse 

 than the latter, received a certificate. Two large-pod- 

 ded Runner Beans, named respectively Hill's Prize and 

 Prize Winner, were awarded first-class certificates, as also , 

 were four Kidney Potatoes, namely, Reading Giant, Mary 

 Anderson, Quantity and Quality and the Canon. We have! 

 too many kinds of Potato. I grow two, which cannot he \ 

 beaten here, Early Rose and Magnum Bonum. 



London. W. Wa/SOfl. 



