132 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 12, 1885. 
ancient seat was oiiginally formed under the direction of the “ Great 
Earl of Stair,” whose military habits and exploits may account for the 
peculiarity of his taste in planting, and who in other respects followed 
the Dutch or Flemish plan of laying out his pleasure grounds. 
- The following Summary of Meteorological Observations 
at Hodsock Priory, Worksop, Notts, January, 1885, has been 
supplied by Mr. Joseph Mallender :—Mean temperature of month, 
30*1° ; minimum on the 22nd, 18 6° ; minimum on the grass on the 22nd, 
15'0°; maximum on the 29th, 53-8° ; maximum in sun on the 14th, 76 , 4°. 
Warmest day the 29th, mean temperature, 49 - C° ; coldest day, the 22od, 
mean temperature, 25 9°. Mean temperature of air at 9 A.M., 35 6°. 
Mean temperature of soil 1 foot deep, 37-0°. Nights below 32° in shade, 
nineteen ; on grass, twenty. Total duration of sunshine in the month, 
14'4 hours, or 6 per cent, of possible duration, the brightest the 14th. We 
had twenty-three sunless days. Total rainfall, 1-42 inch. Maximum fall in 
twenty-four hours on the 10th, when 0 22 inch fell. Rain fell on twenty- 
three days. Wind mostly from south to westerly points. Of sixty-two 
observations, thirteen were calms. The month has been chiefly marked 
by the number of alternations between frost and thaws ; the frost was 
never very severe nor of long duration. The mean temperature is lower 
than the last three years, and as much as 7° lower than last year. Sun¬ 
shine much less than in any of the previous four years. Rainfall less than 
the last three years. 
CALANTHE VEITCHII. 
The remarkably good illustration of C. Veitchii, Rangemore variety, 
on page 113, will perhaps have the effect of discovering plants of it in 
various parts of the country. At any rate, we have a stock of it, and 
fortunately have two spikes of bloom still left. One of these I send you. 
Our bulbs are scarcely so strong as those of the better known varieties of 
C. Veitchii, as they only range from 6 to 8 inches in length ; whereas the 
o hers are from 9 to 12 inches long. The spike, too, is shorter and more 
erect, the longest being 2 feet and others about 18 inches in length. From 
the first I have thought highly of it, and it is a favourite for making into 
bouquets for ladies to wear. I also send a spike each of C. Veitchii and 
C. Veitchii superba, principally to demonstrate the marked superiority of 
the latter. Besides being of a better colour the flowers are produced 
more freely, or rather much closer together.— W. Iggulden. 
[The variety sent by Mr. Iggulden is very similar to that from 
Rangemore, differing only in the deeper colour of the lip, though this may 
be merely owing to cultural differences. In the form of the flower and the 
compactness of the spike it is precisely the same as that figured last week. 
C. Veitchii superba, which accompanies this and the ordinary type, is 
much darker in colour than either of them, and forms a large handsome 
spike.] 
SCONE PALACE; 
As an old Scone man I read with much interest Mr. Castle’s notes 
at page 90 on this historical Scottish baronial residence and its gardens. 
These gardens, in a gardener’s point of view, are somewhat famous by 
reason of the brothers Fish (the late Robert and David) and Douglas of 
Conifer renown having commenced their gardening careers in them. 
An interesting feature is the remarkably fine specimen trees of the Merello 
Cherry which embellish the high walls enclosing the kitchen gardens 
there, especially those trained at the north side of the wall dividing the 
“ top ” kitchen garden from the pinetum. At the back of this is situate 
the famous curvilinear-roofed Reach house, consisting of iron and bent 
glass, which, I believe, was built from a “ walking-stick and ground walk 
sketch ” by the late gardener, Mr. John Halliday, for the Earl of Mans¬ 
field, as illustrating his description of the then proposed new Peach house. 
I have never before nor since seen such splendid results secured from 
Peach and Nectarine trees in 14-inch pots as from those in this house. 
About 250 were grown, and when they had shed their leaves every year 
they were turned out of the pots, the soil, with the assistance of pointed 
sticks, removed from the roots ; the latter shortened a little, and then 
repotted firmly in a compost consisting of rather more than three parts 
of fibry loam and nearly one of lime rubble and charcoal. The pots were 
a f terwards plunged below the rim, and then watered to settle the soil about 
the roots. The chief pruning of these trees was performed with the 
finger and thumb during the spring and summer months by following a judi¬ 
cious course of disbudding and pinching of the shoots. Before the trees 
flowered in the spring (the house is a cold one) the pot 3 were taken up, 
the holes half filled with soil, over which a couple of bricks were placed 
a couple of inches apart, so as to secure a free passage for the water 
through the well-drained pots, which were placed thereon and the soil 
afterwards levelled round them. Soon after the trees had set their fruits 
a couple of narrow strips of turves were placed round, and a couple of 
inches above the rim of the individual pots so as to form a sort of basin, 
which was partly filled with sheep droppings, the virtue of which each 
successive watering, which was frequent and copious, washed to the roots. 
Air is admitted simultaneously back and front by leverage fixed in the 
centre of the house, which in shape may be said to represent the fourth 
part of an ellipticil figure, and the pathway consists of an ornamental 
grating set in a wooden frame. After the fruit had stoned it was 
nothing new for the temperature of this house to rise to 120°, with 
abundance of atmospheric moisture at closing time on bright afternoons, 
Mr. Halliday being of opinion that so long as the trees were kept clean 
and vigorous no evil result need be apprehended from subjecting the trees 
to such a high temperature ; and that he had good grounds for giving 
such opinion the splendid crops which he secured from the trees in this 
house amply demonstrated. I know that the syringing of these trees 
every bright afcernoon, especially after the fruit had stoned, took a man 
the best part of an hour with a Paxton garden engine to thoroughly wash 
every leaf and branch. 
I may be allowed to say that one of the best bothies in the country is 
provided for the young gardeners at Scone. Would that a good many of 
the tumble-down ones in the country were replaced by such a model 
residence, which doe3 credit to the place and its noble owner.—H. W. W. 
NERTNE FOTHERGILLI MAJOR. 
The Guernsey Lilies are charming plants for a cool house, and they 
are far too seldom grown for decorative purposes in such structures. 
Some plant lovers have, however, discovered their value and appreciate 
them accordingly, for they can be employed with excellent effect amongst 
ordinary fine-foliage plant, Ferns, and plants with less brilliant flowers. 
An excellent example of what can be done with these plants for such purposes 
was afforded by Mr. J. Roberts of Gunnersbury Park Gardens at the Ealing 
Chrysanthemum Show last November, where he formed a bank of miscel¬ 
laneous white and light-flowered plants and Ferns with Nerine sarniensis 
and N. Fothergilli peeping from amongst them, and imparting a remark¬ 
able brilliancy of colour to the group. At that noted home for Orchids, 
The Dell, Egham, Baron Schroder has a number of fine specimens which 
are employed with excellent effect in the cool houses amongst Odonto- 
glossums and similar Orchids, and at the equally famed Orchid establish¬ 
ment in the north, Fernfield, Bridge of Allan, Dr. A. Paterson produces 
charming effects in his Odontoglossum houses by employing these plants 
freely. So much are they admired that he has considered them worthy 
of careful culture, and the result is that scapes of unusual size are fre¬ 
quently produced. One of these is faithfully depicted in the woodcut, 
fig. 23, and will convey some idea of what can be effected by liberal 
tx-eatment. An important point is to avoid frequent repottings, and it is 
preferable to allow plants to remain several years in a pot, supplying 
what mxtriment they need in the form of liquid manure, than to turn 
them out every season, for this generally leads to failure. A good turfy 
loam, not too heavy, with a fair proportion of sand and thorough drainage, 
are all the essentials in its cultivation ; the coolest position, where frost 
can be excluded, suiting it at all seasons, and one frequent cause of failure 
with this and other Nerines has been growing it in too high a temperature. 
The flowers are a brilliant scarlet, much superior to N. sarniensis and 
more like N. corusca, but surpassing that species in size, though this when 
well grown is a handsome plant. Another attractive species is N. rosea, 
with lai-ge bright rosy flowers, while as a delicate diminutive beauty the 
exquisite little N. filifolia should by all means be grown. 
UNITED HORTICULTURAL BENEFIT AND PROVIDENT 
SOCIETY. 
The nineteenth annual meeting of this very useful and prosperous 
Society was held on Monday evening last in a private room of the Cale¬ 
donian Hotel, Adelphi Terrace, London. Mr. Richard Dean, one of the 
Honorary members of the Society, presided with his usual ability, and the large 
numbers of members present evinced great interest in the proceedings. After 
the minutes of the last meeting were passed and duly signed by the Chairman, 
the Secretary, Mr. McElroy, was called upon to read the financial report of 
1884. It may, perhaps, be well to remind those who are interested in the 
affairs of the Society that there are three separate funds—the Benefit Fund, 
the Benevolent Fund, and the Management Fund. The contributions to the 
Benefit Fund are 2s. per month, to the Benevolent Fund 2s. a year, with 
2s. Gd. a year to the Management Fund. The amount of sick pay from the 
first-named fund is Is. 6d. per day, with the privilege of increasing the 
amount to 16s. per week on the payment of Is. a month extra. Contributions 
cease when members attain the age of seventy years, and they are then 
provided for out of the Benevolent Fund. The Committee are further 
empowered from time to time to make grants to sick members from this 
Fund in addition to the weekly amounts they receive from the Benefit Fund, 
such grants being determined by the necessities of each case—such as the 
pressure of heavy doctors’ bills, or to mitigate any calamity that may occur. 
No moneys from either of those funds can be applied to the management of 
the affairs of the Society, the special annual subscription of 2s. 6d. per 
member meeting all claims, and any little surplus that remains is handed 
to the Secretary as a small recognition of his valuable services. The surplus 
on the present occasion was £3 18s. 7d., and as the total fund was £2414s. 10d., 
it follows that the entire cost of management, including the printing of 500 
books of rules and as many balance-sheets, with rent, postage, stationery, ifcc., 
was only £20 10s. 3d. for a Society numbering 163 members ample evidence 
that the management is good. 
The Benefit Fund has increased from £1C99 7s. 7^d. to £1986 2s. 7Jd. 
