November 5. 1898. 



GARDENERS' 



MAGAZINE. 



713 



food of the gods, wno, whcu uicy icu inemselves to be growing teeble and 

 ofinn. resorted to this fruit for renewing their powers of mind and body. Also, 



giving a profit under cultivation, and the experiments in progress to put the 



he acids of the apple are of great use for men of sedentary habits, whose livers 

 i I sluggish in action, these acids serving to eliminate from the body noxious 

 matters which, if retained, would make the brain heavy and dull, or bring about 

 • undice or skin eruptions and other allied troubles. Some such experience must 

 have led to our custom of taking apple sauce with roast pork, rich goose, and like 

 dishes. The malic acid of ripe apples, either raw or cooked, will neutralise any 

 excess of chalky matter engendered by eating too much meat. It is also the fact 

 ►hat such fresh fruit as the apple, the pear, and the plum, when taken ripe and 

 ivithout sugar, diminish acidity in the stomach, rather than provoke it. Their 

 vegetable salts and juices are converted into alkaline carbonates, which tend to 

 counteract acidity. A ripe, raw apple is one of the easiest vegetable substances 

 for the stomach to deal with, the whole process of its digestion being completed 

 in eighty-five minutes. Gerard found that the u pulpe of roasted apples mixed in 

 ffine quart of faire water, and labored together until it comes to be as apples 

 and ale— which we call lambeswool — never faileth in certain diseases of the 

 raines, which myself hath often proved, and gained thereby both crownes and 

 credit." 11 The paring of an apple, cut somewhat thick, and the inside whereof is 

 laid to hot, burning, or running eyes at night, when the party goes to bed, and 

 is tied or bound to the same, doth help the trouble very speedily and contrary to 

 expectation— an excellent secret." 



Food Value of the Coco-nut. — With respect to its life-supporting qualities, 

 an Indian contemporary states that the coco-nut is quite equal to the best of other 

 vegetable products that have been ranked above it, and although these nutritive 

 qualities are admitted, the amount of nutrition derived is much greater than is 

 generally supposed. As an example, we may refer to the account that has been 

 published of a vessel which left San Francisco with four hundred passengers for 

 Sydney. Running short of stores, they were obliged to put in at a port where a 

 large quantity of coco-nuts was obtained. The remainder of the passage was 

 attended with heavy weather, and the vessel became water- logged, only reaching 

 Sydney after a perilous voyage of eighty days. Owing to the extreme length of 

 the voyage, their provisions ran out, and men, women, and children were reduced 



can 



Californian 



known as " canaigre," is largely imported for the valuable tannic acid it contains. 

 Specimens were sent to the Colonial College, Hollesley Bay, where, after several 

 varieties had been tested, it was found that the roots were the source of the valu- 

 able glucoside. Twenty-one per .cent, was the yield from the Suffolk dock, as 

 compared with thirty-six per cent, from the Californian canaigre, and twelve to 

 thirteen per cent, from oak-bark. As canaigre fetches from £10 to £20 per ton, 

 and as an acre of land will yield ten tons, it will be readily seen that the English 

 dock, which requires little labour in cultivation, may prove a source of revenue to 

 the farmer, instead of the nuisance he has hitherto regarded it ; but whether it 



will do so can only be determined by experiments conducted on a rather large 

 scale. r s 



Fruits of Diospyros Kaki have been perfected in the garden of Canon 

 Ellacorabe, on a tree growing against a south wall. The specimen has never been 

 protected, and has been in its present position at least a dozen years. 



Cold Storage of Hops.— The utilization of cold for the preservation of 

 hops, though an innovation of very recent date, is securing rapid adoption. First 

 attempted in the United States eight or nine years ago, the system was introduced 

 into this country about three years ago. Our largest brewers are erecting, or 

 have erected, cold stores of their own ; hop merchants are providing stores for the 

 requirements of their more moderate-sized customers ; and there can be very little 

 doubt that in a few years hence practically all the hops stored for, or stored by, whole- 

 sale brewers of any size or importance will be stored in the cold. Several authori- 

 ties incline to the belief that the most valuable constituent of the hop is its soft 

 resin ; this resin undergoes in ordinary storage a process of deterioration which 

 can be arrested or postponed by storing in the cold. In one largely-adopted 

 method the temperature is kept below freezing point during summer and winter. 

 It is not necessary that air should be excluded from the cold rooms in which the 

 hops are stored, for any moisture which the air may introduce when the stores are 

 opened for the purpose of withdrawing or depositing pockets is frozen, and thus 

 rendered inoperative for mischief. The plan answers well, although it involves a 

 an exclusive diet of coco-nut, and, owing to the scarcity of these, the quantity considerable outlay in capital and working expenses. In a modification of this 

 ipportioned was in the proportion of one coco-nut to each adult. Notwithstanding plan chloride of calcium is employed as an absorbent of moisture, and a tempera 



lis diet, wholly unrelieved by any change, not a life was lost, not a single case 

 of illness occurred, all the passengers landing in a healthy and well-nourished 

 condition. This is speaking well for the trade in shredded coco-nut, which, with 

 the improvement in manufacturing the last few years, has almost entirely replaced 

 the fresh coco-nut. This is because of its keeping qualities, and when prepared 

 in a careful manner it is much healthier, and certainly more economical, for it 

 will not turn rancid. 



ture of 33 degrees to 40 degrees is then found to be sufficiently low for the preser- 

 vation of hops. At the outset it was feared that, having regard to the dampness 

 of our climate, hops withdrawn from cold storage would condense upon their 

 surface sufficient moisture to damage them during the time elapsing between 

 emergence from the store and arrival at the brewery, or during brief storage in the 

 brewery just prior to use. It was further thought that they might have to go 

 through some process of # defrosting on their withdrawal to preserve them against 

 this risk of injury. It has been found, however, that this risk is non-existent, and 



Dahlias as Garden Plants are of such immense value that the paper on no p rocess of defrosting is called for. The scientific study of hops continues to 

 the subject to be read by Mr. T. W. Girdlestone, at the conversazione of the make steady progress. Amongst other recent investigations is that of the tannin 



Horticultural Club on Tuesday, should be of much interest and evoke a brisk 

 and instructive discussion. 



Fruit Trees on Grass Land. — In a letter received from Mr. S. Pragnell, 



Broomfield Lodge Gardens, Chelmsford, he informs us that the apple crop was 

 under the average, though better than in 1897. The point we wish to emphasize, 

 however, is that at Broomfield almost all trees growing on cultivated ground 

 have carried fair crops of good fruit, while the crops on fruit trees growing on 

 grass land were almost an entire failure, the fruit dropping wholesale, and that 

 remaining being very small ; on these trees American blight has also been 

 unusually prevalent. These remarks speak for themselves. 



of hops, and there are grounds for assuming that the quantity of hop-tannin may 



serve as a valuable index to the other important constituents. Methods are now 

 in use for the estimation of the hard and soft resins in hop samples. 



Commemoration Trees. — One reason why we should plant trees in com- 

 memoration of important events is, observes a daily contemporary, because we, at 

 a nation, have ever loved memorial trees. "They are found even in our simplest 

 ballad literature, Since Tristan was buried beside Yseu It, and out of one tomb 

 grew a birch and out of the other a brier, the ballad- makers have given these 

 memorial trees to a great many of the love-stricken lads and lassies who die, at 

 the end of their verses. In many old English families it has been the custom for 



Sexuality of Fungi.— Considerable advance has been made during recent centuries to plant a tree in honour of some great event, and no one has followed 

 years in the discovery of sexual organs in several groups of fungi, and these dis- it more enthusiastically than the Queen, who probably has planted more trees than 



any other Sovereign, unless it were Mary Queen of Scots. Unfortunately, in 

 regard to the latter there is only tradition to go on, and probably it has added con- 

 siderably to the box trees, hawthorns, and yews that she planted in various places 

 of sojourn. Our own Queen has lived at a time when more exact records are 

 kept, and the foresters of the future may be able to set at rest several controverted 

 questions by watching the growth of such memorial trees as the fine oak she planted 

 at Chatsworth in 1832, when on a visit with the Duchess of Kent, who planted a 

 Spanish chestnut close by, while some years later Prince Albert added a sycamore 

 to the group. It would be tedious to enumerate all the trees her Majesty has 

 planted since at Windsor, Osborne, and Balmoral, to say nothing of those at Tay- 

 mouth, Blair Athole, Drummond Castle, and elsewhere where she has adopted 

 this means of commemoration. At Balmoral alone the Queen has but to look at 

 ceatain trees to recall the stages of her career — one for the Prince Consort, one for 

 her fiftieth birthday, one for the fortieth year of her Accession, one for Jubilee -day, 

 1887, ond one for her seventieth birthday, and so. The Prince of Wales, too, 

 has planted a great number of memorial trees in his time, and could no doubt 

 recall by their aid many great events of the last thirty years. From the records of 

 private families innumerable examples of commemoration trees might be given ; but 



venes are briefly set out by Mons. L. Mangin in the Revue Gin^rale des Sciences. 

 he close and patient researches of Messrs. Harper and Dangeard among Asco- 

 aycetes, of Sappin-TroufTy with Uredinese, and of Thaxter on the Laboulbeni- 

 ce* are especially referred to by Mons, L. Mangin. 



Insect Infestation • — Cabbages recently planted for the purpose of giving 

 applies in late spring and early summer have the promise of giving good results 

 lould cold weather arrive in time to check insect activity, for which the season 



maintaining its notoriety to the end. A considerable attack of Snowy Fly 

 -ixyrodes proletella), sometimes called the Cabbage Powdered-wing, is now in 

 'ogress. It is a small four -winged fly, allied to the aphides and scale insects ; 

 nen disturbed in its hiding-place on the under sides of the cabbage leaves it rises 

 1 hun< heds and then falls like miniature snowflakes. Celery growers are having 

 icir 0I " trouble, for this plant, which should now be coming into profit, is 

 mch lnfes ted with the Celery Fl y :( Tephritis onorpordinis), a true two-winged fly, 

 le ^ arva or ma ggot of which, a leaf-miner, devours the substance between the 

 Pl*r and lower sides of the leaf, rendering the latter brown and shrivelled and 

 icapable of making starch, so that the whole plant suffers from defective 



atmion. 



Temperature of Trees.— Herr F. Schlechert has been making some 



esting observations in the sphere of vegetable physiology. He has discovered 

 highest temperature in the stem of a tree, at about 4^ inches (12 cm.) 

 om the surface, occurs about midnight, and the lowest between noon and 

 f a tr^ ^^ile ^ e chief factor which governs the temperature of the interior 

 ho aff C ^ ^ e tem P erature of the surrounding air about twelve hours earlier, it is 

 t the d° te ^ ^ the tem P era ture of the soil, by that of the ascending moisture, and 

 ^ee to which the twigs are exposed to direct sunlight. 



none 



garden 



nuisance both bv fan 



and not without justification, for when allowed to become established 

 ln gly difficult to eradicate. There is, however, a possibility of the weed 



would be found more interesting than the long and magnificent avenue of 

 Spanish chestnuts near Lord Egremont's ruined castle at Midhurst. The avenue 

 was fomred to commemorate a visit of Queen Elizabeth, and for two centunes 

 children have gathered chestnuts from the trees. 



Failures in Hybridisation.— The Rev. Professor G. Henslow writes that 

 he will be greatly obliged to any raisers of hybrids or varieties by crossing (not 

 spontaneous seedlings) who will tell him of any species which failed to take the 

 pollen of any other species, or of any variety of a species wluch could not be 

 fertilised by crossing it with some other variety or species. He would like also to 

 record any plants which could not be fertilised by their own pollen, or with pollen 

 of other plants of the same species." 



