166 
JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 28, lSS5. 
soil, and attended to during the summer. They must be carefully 
potted, and should not be overwatered, or the lower leaves will damp.— 
G. Merritt. 
Flowers by Parcel Post. —The Postmaster-General has issued 
the following notice:—“The season is now approaching when, 
according to a very general custom, Primroses, Violets, and wild flowers 
of all kinds are entrusted to the Post for transmission between places 
within the United Kingdom. As the Parcel Post may be extensively 
u=ed for this purpose, the attention of the public is drawn to the expe¬ 
diency of properly securing the parcels so sent. The box in which 
flowers may, in each case, be contained should be of a material so much 
stronger than cardboard as to bear pressure and friction in transit. 
Cardboard boxes are frequently reduced to pulp by moisture from 
freshly cut flowers or wet moss soaking through them, and are, therefore, 
not suitable.” 
- In addition to the sums received during the week" for Mrs. 
Honeyman, and acknowledged by post, Mr. Wright has great pleasure 
in recording the receipt of £2 17.?. Qd. as the result of a subscription 
amongst the young men in the Royal Gardens, Kew. The subscription 
list numbers thirty-four names, and was, with the sum named, forwarded 
by Mr. W. Harrow. The thoughtful action of the Kew students is much 
appreciated. “ W. B., Rothbury ,” has also sent a further subscription 
of 18y. from a “ few friends.” Will he please state the name in which 
the Post-office Order is taken ? Mr. Wright has now received the 
amount he hoped for, and although any further sums that may arrive 
will be thankfully accepted, no further appeal is made to the kindness 
of readers of this Journal. 
- Quite a concourse of Orchid growers assembled at Messrs, 
Protheroe & Morris’s rooms, Cheapside, on Tuesday last, to witness or 
participate in the monthly sale of Orchids in flower. About 
four hundred lots were offered, including large numbers of Cattleyas, 
some very handsome plants; Dendrobiums, Odontoglossums, Angrte- 
cums, and miscellaneous species, which afforded a grand display of 
flowers. An exhibition such as this is rarely seen in a sale-room, and it 
is not surprising that it attracted so large a number of visitors. The 
prices realised were generally good, a beautiful example of Cattleya 
Warscewiczii delicata with thirty pseudo-bulbs and a dozen expanded 
flowers being sold for nine guineas, and other fine varieties at propor¬ 
tionate prices. 
- Relative to cleansing Vine rods, “ A. M.” writes “ At 
page 90, in the issue for Jan. 31st, ' Ipswich,’ in reply to Mr. Iggulden, 
states that he applies his wash to the Vine rods in the same way as a 
groom applies water to the spokes of a carriage wheel. That would be 
with a spoke-brush ; but as I cannot think he uses a spoke-brush to his 
Vines, with what does he apply it ? and how does he keep it at the 
required temperature ?” 
- We have still more about Chou de Burghley. From a 
child it has become a parent. We had better, however, publish a 
characteristic note pertaining thereto. 
“Don’t look at me and my Chou with a frown. My only object is to 
put down prejudice. I therefore send you, so that you may for yourself 
see, that every other green in our garden is run to seed and useless, while 
Chou de Burghley and my new Savoy are the only things we have for use 
until the spring Cabbage comes in, and that won’t be until April. Another 
thing I may tell you is they never crack, while others do badly. The new 
Savoy, Gilbert’s Universal, the result of a cross between Chou de Burghley 
and an ordinary Savoy, is perfectly selected and a ‘ topper.’—R. Gilbert.” 
- The specimens referred to— Savoys, Brussels Sprouts, Colewort, 
and Scotch Kale—are producing flower stems. “ Chou ” and the new 
Savoy show not the slightest signs of moving in that direction. The 
latter is round, about the size of a cricket ball, the heart being of the 
same pale green colour as Chou de Burghley, the outer leaves resembling 
those of Brussels Sprouts more than Savoys. The example before us 
is quite distinct from anything we have seen, and its lateness in com¬ 
parison with the others referred to undoubted. 
- Mu. Gilbert also sends a charming bouquet of delightfully 
perfumed and very large, double, white, fringed Primulas, with hand¬ 
some trusses of the large, single, creamy-white Polyanthus or Bunch 
Primrose Harbinger, similar examples of which would adorn any 
greenhouse or conservatory in the land. The variety is, we are aware, 
quite hardy, but we cannot imagine that such flowers as those before 
us could be produced without the shelter of glass. 
- “ T.” writes:—“In my remarks upon Galanthus ElWESII, 
page 148, by some mishap the segments of the perianth are described as 
‘ brown ’ instead of ‘ broad,’ as I need hardly say no Snowdrop has yet 
reached us with brown perianth divisions.” 
- The Carlisle and Border Counties Horticultural 
Society have issued their schedule of classes and prizes, which gives the 
dale of the Summer Show, to be held in Major Binning’s field, Chatsworth 
Square, Carlisle, as July 17th and 18th. The prizes are mostly of small 
amount, but the classes are numerous, ninety-nine being enumerated for 
all kinds of garden produce. 
-- Orchid Sales were numerous last week, no less than four 
having been held, two each at Mr. J. C. Stevens’ rooms, King Street, 
Co vent Garden, and Messrs. Protheroe & Morris’s rooms, Cheapside. 
These were nearly all imported Orchids, and the frequent large consign¬ 
ments of Orchids now sent to this country prove that the demand con¬ 
tinues unabated. The sales are well attended by the trade representa¬ 
tives and amateur Orchid growers, the competition for any desirable 
novelty being often very keen, resulting in corresponding high prices 
for the vendors. Improved varieties in flower of such Orchids as Odon- 
toglossum Alexandra and others of a similar character realise, however, 
the highest prices, and often there is sufficient incredulousness respecting 
imported novelties, of which the flowers have not been seen in tbj 8 
country, to keep the prices rather low. This was seen in the case of 
Aerides Rohaneana, of which some of the largest pieces were unsold, and 
the highest bids obtained for others were twelve or fourteen guineas. 
- Mr. F. W. Burbidge, Trinity College Botanic Garden, Dublin, 
sends the following note on plants in flower :—“The little Pingui- 
cula hirtifiora from Italy is now flowering here, also P. caudata from 
Mexico, and the Sulphur Hooped Petticoat Narcissus (Bulbocodium 
citrinum) is lovely with seven or eight flowers ; N. Horsfieldii, N. prin- 
ceps, N. obvallaris, and others are also now most beautiful in pots, as 
also is the old King’s Signet or Solomon’s Seal forced in a little heat, 
each long arching stem of soft green leaves now being strung with soft 
pearly blossoms. Primula obconica in a cool greenhouse, and Impa- 
tiens Sultani in a stove, have never ceased flowering for the past fifteen 
months. The Balsam cuttings even keep on flowering as they are root¬ 
ing in the propagating pit, and we think it prettier in a small state.” 
- A paper on the average rainfall of the last ten years IN THE 
Atlantic portion of the United States has appeared from the 
Signal Service Department at Washington, which gives the following 
interesting particulars :—“ Our rains come from the vapour which rises 
under the warm suns over the Gulf of Mexico. The ice of the north 
prepares a cold heavy current, which, rolling down towards the lighter 
column of the Gulf, draws the lighter northward to fill the vacuum. As 
the colder meets the warmer rain is precipitated, and this would be 
exactly the same if there were not a tree on the whole Atlantic coast. 
These show that notwithstanding the awful destruction of the forests of 
which the newspapers and some magazines tell us, the rainfall of the 
past ten years is just the same as that of the ten years previous. It is 
the diminution of the ice towards the pole that we have to fear, rather 
than the diminution of the forests, when we calculate on our country 
becoming an ‘arid treeless waste.’” 
- Parts 41 and 42 of Paxton’s Flower Garden (Cassell and 
Co.) contain coloured plates of the following plants :—Billbergia 
Moreliana, a handsome Bromeliad, with long striped leaves and a large 
drooping panicle of blue and red flowers ; Gesnera purpurea, with long 
tubular flowers borne in a loose panicle, purplish red dotted with scarlet ; 
Cymbidium Mastersii, a species from the East Indies, with narrow white 
petals and a lip faintly tinged with pink ; and Billbergia thyrsoidea, a 
very distinct and noble species, with a massive dense conical or thyrse- 
like head of rosy crimson flowers and bracts. In the gleanings and 
memoranda woodcuts of Begonia Martiana, Acacia cochlearis, Nicotiana 
alata, a species very nearly resembling N. affinis, Coreopsis filifolia, 
Chtenostoma linifolium, Grindelia grandiflora, Calceolaria stricta, and 
Nymphasa scutifolia. 
