460 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 4, 1885. 
^5 For obtaining a supply of runners a single row of young plants should 
be set apart almost exclusively for this purpose, and should be the same 
length as the proposed bed and the same width, well worked. When the 
runners appear layer them carefully by hand, and when the first batch is 
ready take up and plant in the bed, layering the second batch. In 
ordinary weather each will be a fortnight or three weeks from layering to 
time of shifting. The last layered at the end of August may remain 
where layered, and will produce an excellent crop. The others will 
require very little attention except occasional weeding and the surface 
soil worked with the hoe. By this means a magnificent crop of fruit will 
be obtained much earlier and in far greater abundance, size, and quality 
than by the old row method. 
For the second year take three rows out and plant them elsewhere, 
leaving every fourth row only. These should be well mulched just 
previous to blooming with half-decayed stable manure, the food ingredients 
of which will be washed down to the roots by the rain, and the litter 
remaining will serve as a bed for the fruit, preventing the earth from 
soiling the berries. The first year’s beds do not require any litter except 
round the outside next the pathways, as the leaves and runners will keep 
the fruit perfectly clean. If left for a third year—which we do not advise, 
as the fruits are smaller and the beds more difficult to manage—care 
should be taken that the plants have sufficient room and are free from 
weeds and runners. It is necessary, to carry out this system fully, to 
plant a fresh bed every year ; but when once the result is seen there 
will be no inclination to neglect the planting annually.—J. Lovell, 
Driffield, 
Mr. Prinsep, The Gardens, Buxted Park, Uckfield, informs us 
that all the flowering growths of the Dendrobium Nobile, which we 
figured last week, were removed the day after the plant was returned 
from Kensington. 
—— Messrs. Carter & Co,, High Holborn, send us flowers of their 
Empress Poppy Anemones exceedingly handsome in size and colours — 
the finest, indeed, that we have seen. The tints are most varied—purple, 
crimson, scarlet, rose, pink, and blush to white, from the richest to the 
most delicate hues. Messrs. Carter have had these Anemones very fine 
in previous years, but this season they have surpassed their earlier 
productions. 
- Exhibition of Tulips in London.—I t is the intention of Mr. 
Samuel Barlow, J.P., the President of the Royal National Tulip Society 
to exhibit at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on June 9 th a 
selection of his finest Tulips from his famous beds in his garden at Stake- 
hill House, Castleton, near Manchester. So late are they in flowering 
this year—later indeed than they have been for many years—that Mr. 
Barlow could not show a single flower from Stakehill at the Royal 
National Tulip Society at the Botanical Gardens, Old Trafford, on“Saturday 
last, and his beds—three of which will comprise some 4000 blooms—will 
not be at their best for another ten days at least ; and it may be said of 
them that for years past they have not promised better. Mr. Barlow’s 
desire in sending Tulips to London, is to place before the London public 
illustrations of the very best types of this gorgeous flower, in order that 
it may perchance lead to a renewed interest being taken in them in the 
south of England. 
- Referring to our notice on the Tam o’Shanter Hones in our 
issue of the 14th inst., Mr. Montgomerie has desired us to mention that he 
and his predecessors have been the producers of the celebrated qualities 
of hone stone, esteemed in the market as Water of Ayr stone since 
1789, the date on which the quarry and name originated ; and that in 
consequence of a decision in court depriving him of the exclusive use of 
the name, and throwing it open to all and sundry, he resolved to change 
the name to that of Tam o’Shanter Hone in order to protect his interests 
and the character of the stone and the public from being imposed upon, 
as now all his inferior stone and those hitherto rejected at the quarry, 
and all hone stone, however inferior, found in the valley of the river 
Ayr can now be sold under that once famous name which he has 
abandoned. 
- Under the title of “ Walks in Epping Forest,” Mr. Percy 
Lindley has issued (123, Fleet Street, E.C.), an entertaining handbook 
to the principal features of the people’s favourite resort in the east of 
London. There are many beautiful portions of this Forest which are 
comparatively little known, and descriptions of these—together with 
much historical matter and particu’ars of the fauna and flora—are given in 
a very agreeable style, as can be judged from the short chapter on another 
page. The book is very liberally illustrated and extremely cheap. 
- “ G. C. E.” writes :—“ I propose going to California with the 
intention of buying land and going in for fruit and Vine-growing, and I 
should be very much obliged if you, or any of your readers, will give me 
any information on the subject, and refer me to any books published on 
the subject, and treating on budding, grafting, seeding, pruning, &c. I 
also want information as to planting timber trees and underwood likely 
to do in that climate, and how best cultivated ? ” 
- A statue of Darwin will be unveiled in the great hall of 
the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, on Tuesday, June 9th, at 
twelve o’clock, when Professor Huxley, President of the Royal Society, on 
behalf of the Memorial Committee, will formally transfer it to the care of 
the Masters of the Museum, who will be represented by His Royal 
Highness the Prince of Wales. Places will be reserved for the Committee 
and subscribers to the memorial, but the greater part of the hall will be 
open to the'public during the ceremony. The statue, which has been 
executed by Mr. Boehm, R.A., is of marble, and seated, rather larger 
than life-size; it is pronounced by those who have seen it to be an 
admirable likeness as well as a fine work of art. 
- The annual display of Calceolarias at Bedford Hill 
House, Balham, the residence of J. Brand, Esq., has gained for the 
gardener, Mr. Rapley, considerably more than local fame as a skilful 
grower of these handsome and varied plants. But this season he has 
surpassed his previous efforts, and has provided an exhibition of unusual 
beauty. The plants are vigorous but dwarf compact specimens, bearing 
dense heads of large flowers most varied in colours, from the softest shades 
of yellow or cream to the richest crimsons. Many are charmingly spotted 
or netted, and in others the colour is disposed in bold central blotches oa 
a pale ground. The flowers are substantial without being coarse, and in 
form a large majority would amply satisfy the most exacting florist. As 
decorative plants well-grown Calceolarias of a good strain cannot be 
surpassed, and Mr. Rapley deserves much praise for the patient perse¬ 
verance which has enabled him to render the Balham strain so celebrated. 
- A recent number of the Melbourne Review contained a very 
interesting article on the Climatic vicissitudes of Victoria, by Mr. G. S* 
Griffiths. Referring to the researches of Baron von Muller, the writer 
says that the learned botanist has discovered striking testimony to the 
occurrence of rapid climatic changes in Australia. First he found that 
during the older Pliocene period the Australian flora was lauraceous— 
plants of the warmth-loving Laurel family predominating. In the newer 
Pliocene deposits these Laurels have been swept away, and are replaced 
by a meliaceous flora and by plants of a still more tropical character. 
Once more an active vegetation disappears, and in its stead the Myrtle 
family, with its characteristic Eucalypts, overspreads the whole land, and 
still keeps possession. What great climatic vicissitudes (Mr. Griffiths 
asks) could rob a region of a whole suite of vegetation and repeat the act 
twice within a brief period ? He thinks this evidence to be strongly cor¬ 
roborative of the occurrence of interglacial periods.” 
- “ There are, however, other facts. The Pepper Plant (Drimys 
antarctica) is a native of the colder regions of the globe. When the 
Glacial epoch set in and a chilly temperature advanced to the equator 
itself, this plant marched forward with it in the same regions. When the 
interglacial warm period came on the cold temperature relaxed ; but 
wherever the Pepper Plant had access to lofty mountains it retreated to 
their cold peaks, and so secured itself permanently in its new home. 
Then it died out on the hot plains, and thus Mr. Griffiths explains its 
existence upon the lofty ranges of New Guinea and Borneo, but nowhere 
else until we get far down into the colder regions of the southern 
hemisphere—its natural habitat. In the same manner cold-loving 
European plants crossed the hot tropics, unknown ages since, but 
probably at the same epoch, and established themselves in Australia ; 
and so, when botanists in exploring the Australian mountains climbed to 
an altitude of 5000 feet, they met thirty-eight species of European plants, 
isolated from their fellows, and thousands of leagues from their home.” 
- A commission appointed by the French Government to inspect 
the FORESTS OF Tunis, and to make proposals with regard to afforesta¬ 
tion, has recently presented its report. In the districts south of the 
