pECEMBER 10, 1898. 



THE 



GA RDENERS* MA GAZINE 



797 



The Broughton-in-Furness Chrysanthemum Society is to be 



ratulated upon the success of its fifth annual exhibition. Not only was a 

 fine^efchibition provided, but in the afternoon of the show day a lecture was given 

 Mr. J- Thompson upon 11 The Cultivation of the Japanese Chrysanthemum 

 for Exhibition.' 1 An exhibition and a lecture would have satisfied most people, 

 but the good folk of Broughton-in-Furness had yet another item on the programme 

 _a dance, this being held in the evening at the Town Hall. 



Lepidodendron Wunschianum. — At a recent meeting of the Cambridge 



Philosophical Society a description was given of the anatomy of an unusually well- 

 reserved stem of Lepidodendron Wunschianum recently found in a railway 

 cutting at Dalmeny in Linlithgowshire. The stem measures nearly forty c. m. in 

 diameter, the outer bark is well preserved, but the more delicate middle cortex 

 was destroyed before petrification ; the innermost cortex and the central cylinder 



P 



speaking, the reason for the very existence of true flowers. The pine tree casts 

 its myriad spores to the wind and has no need of petals to its cones, and in the 

 same way the wind-fertilised angiosperms bear small and inconspicuous flowers 

 without a coloured perianth. Fertilisation by this method is uncertain, and an 

 immense amount of pollen has to be produced. With the greater certainty attain- 

 able through the agency of insects there is greater economy, but the plant must 

 make its flowers attractive, and often form those curious devices and traps to make 

 the insect do its work, the study of which forms so fascinating a chapter in bio* 

 logical study. In our mountain lily the plant's assistant seems to be usually a 

 day- flying moth, Macroglossastellatarum, known in Switzerland as the "Tauben- 

 schwanz M or " pigeon-tail." There are nectaries or honey-glands at the base of 

 the perianth, and a long fold or half-closed tube leads to them along the middle 

 of the petals. The moth, hovering below the flower, has to pass its long tongue 



low remarkably perfect structure. One of the important characters noticed in down this tube f its efforts to get at the honey, and in doing so becomes dusted 



the stem was the structure of the leaf-trace bundles ; these consist of a small 

 strand of xylem more or less completely surrounded by radially disposed rows of 



over by the shaking anthers above with the pollen, which it afterwards carries to 

 another flower. After a careful study of pollen grains, anther sacs, and other 



secondary elements. The presence of numerous secretory canals in the outer ® inute r details of the ,a * flower ' Mr - Jennings finds that we can prove the presence 



the *e of parts corresponding to those observed in the higher flowerless plants. We 



cortex or phelloderm was also referred to as a feature of some interest 



find that even in the highest plants we can trace the relics of that "alternation of 



The Value of Deep Tillage has been proved over and over again, and generations " which is so characteristic of the life-history of the moss and the fern, 



perhaps no one has so persistently advocated its adoption by agriculturists as the Though, from the moss upward, through the series of types studied, the Sporo* 



venerable General Sir Arthur Cotton, who is now almost in his ninety-eighth phyte stage has become ever more and more predominant, and the Oophyte stage 



year. With three-foot tillage Sir Arthur obtained a crop of wheat this year that ever less and less, the microscope shows it to be still there, though hidden away 



is more than double the average yield per acre for England, and this in spite of a among the secrets of the ovule and the pollen grain. Mr. Jennings tells no new 



severe visitation of blight. Last winter Sir A. Cotton took the temperature of tale, but his "studies "are pleasant reading as well as being accurate. 



the soil at the bottom of his three-foot tillage, and here the thermometer registered 

 47 degrees Fahr., while the surface of the soil was frozen. 



Atropa Belladonna and Birds.— A correspondent of Nature states that 



for eight years he has had a large plant of Atropa growing in his garden amongst 



The Currants that form, with raisins, the chief attraction of the grocers' currants and gooseberries ; close by is a mountain-ash, and at a short distance a 



shops at this season of the year, come, as most are aware, from Greece, and, lar g e cherry-tree. Birds, including the blackbird, build in the garden ; but 



curiously enough, are not currants at all, but grapes. A peculiar point about although the cherries, currants, gooseberries, and raspberries are annually stripped, 



these currants is that they do not vary materially in price. This is the the Belladonna berries are never touched. The birds are encouraged, and the f rut 



result of an action taken some years ago by the Greek Government to prevent can be spared. The Belladonna berries are conspicuous objects from July to 



the depression of prices that necessarily followed too large a supply. By an Act of November ; there are hundreds on the plant every year, long after other fruits 



1895 the growers are compelled to deposit with the Government currants equal to have vanished-black, lustrous, luscious- looking-but no bird ever touches them. 



15 per cent, of the amount exported. This keeps down the supply and keeps up 



The Beautiful Scenery Around Richmond, the popular Surrey river 



prices. The currants stored by the Government are sold for wine-making and side resort, is once again brought before public notice owing to the settlement of 



distilling. 



The Yang-tsze Basin, about which much has been heard of late, is 



undoubtedly one of the most fertile regions of China. According to Mr. 



the dispute between the Thames Conservancy and the trustees of the Dysari 

 Estates. The result of this settlement, as stated by Mr. Alderman Burt at a 

 dinner given a few evenings ago by the Mayor of Richmond, is, that while the 



Arrh JKo u t *<• i ™™ V 7 i 7 w u c Dvsart trustees claim a large part of the riverside lands, these lands would hence- 



^ L, f ^ authority upon the subject, m a recent lecture before he Society and for all time remain unenclose d, apart from existing fences. By this agree. 



* Arts, the Yang-tsze basin comprises a watershed of from 600,000 to 700,000 ^ & extend i n g f r0 m River Lane, at the foot of Richmond Terrace 



^uare miles, an area twelve times as large as the area of England and Scotland. ( ^ {q d Teddington LocU> several milcs in ]ength> will ^ securcd fnr 



It is one of the richest, if not the richest sub-tropical region on the world's sur- 

 we, and inhabited by a people as hard-working in their way as that of the United 

 States of America, with which country it had so many points of analogy. The 

 whole region, except the high pastoral plateau of the Tibetan portion of the 

 catchment area, was cultivated like a garden ; the mountains of Szu-chuan were 

 terraced to their summits, and a ceaseless rotation of crops was forced rom a 



the use of the public. 



Stephanotis floribunda.— Where large quantities of cut stephanotis 

 flowers are required the tropical treatment recommended by D. T. F. f on page 

 772 of the Gardeners' Magazine for November 26, is no doubt the best, at 

 least for the greater part of the year, and especially if the plant can have a houre 



Mr. B«»wman, 



willing soil by the repeated applications of manure carefully garnered from the to itself. Its ffWt enemy, mealy byfott then easily kepfrtt bay 

 cesspools of the countless towns and villages which abounded throughout that 



hickly.populated country. The vast mineral resources had hitherto been prac- 



late of Hylands Park, Chelmsford, flowered stephanotis well, trained thinly on the 

 roof of a fruiting pine stove, and I can recall, writes S. P., many other instances 



For late exhibition purposes, &c, 



tical, y undeveloped, but foreign methods and foreign capital would ere long do of successful hot treatment in bygone years, 

 forthem what Chinese hand labour had done for the surface soil, namely, develop the cool treatment, too, 

 them by mining. 



Bournemouth Terrace Gardens. — For some time past the Bournemouth 



Council has been pushing forward a scheme for the alteration of the lower 



for some years grown stephanotis for embellishing the conservatory in summer, 

 and here its sweet fragrance is prized after Rhyncospermum jasminoides is over ; 

 for this purpose our methods differ somewhat from those mentioned by your 

 correspondents, and embrace both hot and cool treatment, even including a spell 

 out of doors for resting and ripening purposes. Two plants are grown on balloon 



Public gardens at an expense of j£r,ooo. It was intended to form lakes, grottoes, 



•od artistic bridges. The inhabitants appear to object to this expenditure, and trellises, one, the Elvaston variety (mentioned by D. T. F. ), is somewhat the 



% prepared a memorial against the scheme ; this was read at a recent Council wea ker in growth, but flowers the more abundantly. One specimen is introduced 



**Wg, with the result that by a majority of fifteen to eight it was decided not to t0 the stove February, the other in April ; the young shoots of the latter are 



Pfcceed with the scheme of alterations at present. 



Comparison Between Qymnosperms and Angiosperms.— In a most 



^resting botanical study contributed to Knowledge by Mr. A. Vaughan Jennings, 

 £ Com paring the cryptogams (selaginella), with phanerogams (Abies excelsa), 

 author compares the gymnosperm (Abies) with an angiosperm, choosing for 

 . 1 ^stration of the latter class the Mountain or Martagon Lily [LiUum 

 ar * a 2° n )> collected in July at an elevation of 6,coo to 7,000 feet on the Eastern 

 ^ G noted > he states, that the pine belonged to the gymnosperms or 

 of ill Seedecl P lants > because the ovules and seeds are carried on the free surface 

 es » and not enclosed in a special case. The lily, on the other hand, belongs 



to the conser 



Alps. 



to the 



of an angl0S P erm s, because the ovules and seeds are contained within the walls 

 ' n enclosing « ovary." It is, however, the possession of a "flower" which 

 bas ^ aturalI y regards as the distinctive feature of the angiosperms, and we have 

 Una** ° nce what is a dower, and what pirts of it (if any) correspond with the 

 Uis J rCS . seen m the pine or selaginella. We may regard a flower as a shortened 

 1^ . n 2 whorls (or spirals) of leaves, the upper of which are modified in con- 



: Tnici^ esseruial OfgjmM of reproduction, and the lower specialised for 



Accessory to the process. If we imagine a pine cone shortened, its 

 Wren Dear ing ovules, those below pollen-sacs 



tp^j' ^ x P a *ded, soft, and green or coloured, we should have (details 

 1 Z reUtion ship betw 



trained under the glass to strings, and about the end of April a slight shading of 

 summer cloud is given. Before the flowers begin to open the strings are carefully 

 cut the young shoots trained to the trellis, and the plants removed to a late 

 vinery Under the shade of the vii.es the flowers open slowly before being taken 



vatory where, under canvas shading, they last a long time. After 

 flowering the plants are stood out of doors, in partial shade the first week after- 

 nowen g, t ' September 20 the plants are both housed m the 



laie viiic y, f weather the thermometer sometimes drops 



ZZlZf ^" h - in ,hc pipfs - ,,cre ,hcy , Kmain unli l lh " 



new vear when they are sometin.es put into • vinery just started prev,ou» to being 

 new year, w ^ housing and starting times a syringing with 



Return is givt using a wineg.ass to the gallon of water, and keeping this well 



stirred daring -iht tted if necemry , generally one is petted each 



and the plants Jj*^^ tfae plantf Mver fa ;i to yield a good supply of flowers, 

 year. Under tM^ trea , fficnt they weIC exhibited a few yean ago at June and 



Before putting into the stove the growths are thinned 



and the lowest become 



and with very 



July shows. ■ 



*» Cultivation in Oregon. 



c - in the market by those who have hitherto had the 



Pru 



The State of Oregon has now to be 



considered as a competitor 



A their own hands. There are now some 40,000 acres of prunes in 

 structural plan of a flower. It would be impossible to P' une ^"half this area is of trees in bearing. All the plantations, thanks to the 

 i lower leaves should become so altered if we knew nothing Oregon, ,an a^ ^ Agr jculture, are in fine condition, clear of insects and 

 «er,, . • — r -~^een -lowers and insects. Though almost everyone has now effortsot the . the l897 crop was a heavy one, that of 1898 has been 

 fej?* 1 of the important part played by insects in securing the cross- fungoid pests. ' - — = :^ _ , = 



aI idea of the important part played by insects in securing the cross- i^goid pe^ wbcrc thinning is systematically carried out. 

 10n of P la nts, yet few recognise that the attraction of insects is, biologically equa y go 



