PROCEEDINGS. 



xxi 



covered with flower-buds, and promised to be a valuable 

 acquisition. Mr. Frost, gardener to Lady Grenville, at 

 Dropmore, sent a purple Azalea, called Howardii. Mr. 

 Henderson, of St. John's Wood, had a small plant of the 

 violet purple Mirbelia floribunda, a very pretty spring 

 blooming species, but stated to be somewhat difficult to cul- 

 tivate ; two Begonias ; and Fimelia Verschafi'eltiana, a 

 glaucous-leaved, unattractive sort. Messrs. Backhouse, of 

 York, produced two rather shrivelled bunches of a dark- 

 coloured Seedling Grape ripe in June, and stated to keep 

 good till spring ; and Mr. Dunsford, of Chingford-green, 

 Essex, sent a punnet of Black Hamburgh, reported to have 

 been ripened on plants in pots. Mr. Kestell, of Dropmore, 

 showed variously painted specimens of Garden Labels, some 

 made of cast-iron, and others of zinc. They had oval heads, 

 with the front cast hollow, in which the name was painted 

 and then glazed over ; but as the glass, lying hollow, is 

 liable to be broken, and will permit water to condense 

 beneath it and deface the name, Mr. Kestell has tried 

 another plan with these labels, which is, to embed the glass 

 in an elastic cement, which not only prevents it from being 

 easily broken, but also more perfectly preserves the letters 

 from external influences. Mr. Frost, gardener to Lady 

 Grenville, at Dropmore, stated that he had used Mr. Kes- 

 tell's improved labels in the open ground for these last two 

 years, and had found them efficient, while those of his first 

 effort failed. Mr. Morrell again exhibited specimens of his 

 zinc-backed labels. 



Novelties from the Society's Garden. Spiranthes cerina, 

 a singular terrestrial Orchid, from Guatemala, having a dull 

 olive-brown aspect, and flowering without leaves ; and a plant 

 of the Winter Violet Grass (Inopsidium acaule, or Cochlearia 

 acaulis), a small Portuguese annual, whose value is now 

 beginning to be recognized. If sown on a dry American 

 border in autumn, it will produce in abundance diminutive 

 patches, in which its little cross-shaped, pale, but bright 

 violet blossoms lie in such profusion as to almost hide the 

 foliage. As long as the weather is cold, or cool, these 

 patches are to be seen everywhere ; and they only lose their 

 brilliancy when a hot sun and a drying wind have breathed 

 on them. A patch of the plant in winter may be scooped 

 out, transferred to a saucer, and placed in the drawing-room, 

 where, if furnished with water, it will thrive and flower for 

 many days. Even in summer it possesses a certain degree 

 of attractiveness if allowed to sow itself in the shade among 



