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February 17,1881.1 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 133 
pany are setting a good example in offering to let the waste land 
on the slopes of their line for cultivation, and it is hoped that other 
railway companies will do the same. By this means thousands 
of acres now unornamental and unprofitable .will be turned to 
good account. In some places they might be made available for 
garden fruits, and under any circumstances might be utilised 
for the production of Potatoes and other garden or agricultural 
produce. It is already done on a very small scale in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of various stations ; and there can be little doubt that 
small farmers, gardeners, and minor railway officials would only 
be too glad of the opportunity of cultivating these waste lands on 
favourable terms and to the benefit of all.” 
- We have received the schedule of prizes offered by the 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society for the year 1881, 
from which we learn that the following amounts will be appro¬ 
priated as prizes in the department named. For plants and 
flowers 1500 dols., fruit 950 dols., vegetables 500 dols., gardens 
and greenhouses 100 dols., or a total of 3050 dols. Seventeen 
prizes varying in value from 30 to GO dols. will also be offered 
for new and meritorious seedling plants, fruits and vegetables. 
Seven exhibitions will be held during the year—namely, Azaleas 
and Roses, March the 17th ; Pelargoniums, May the 7th ; Rhodo¬ 
dendrons, June the 4th ; Roses and Strawberries, June the 23rd. 
Autumn Shows, September the 13th to 16th, and October the 1st; 
Chrysanthemums and Fruit, November the 9th. 
- Mr. H. C. Stewart, Treasurer to the North Street, 
Marylebone, Flower Show Committee, sends us a copy of his 
“Handy Book on Window Gardening” (Barrett & Son), a 
pamphlet of thirty-one pages, containing plain and fairly accurate 
directions for the management of such plants as cottagers usually 
grow. It is in three parts, the first being devoted to a consider¬ 
ation of the different soils employed in potting ; the second deals 
with the chief operations—such as propagation, supply of water, 
and potting ; and the third contains brief descriptions of plants 
suitable for windows. 
- The Annual General Meeting of the Farningham Rose 
and Horticultural Society was held at the Lion Hotel, 
Farningham, on February 7th, when the report for 1880, showing 
a balance of £36 4 s. 5 d., was unanimously adopted, and the 
officers for the present year elected. The date of the next Exhi¬ 
bition is fixed for June 29th. 
- Mr. W. Roberts writing respecting Daphne indica 
in Cornwall observes—“The climate of this county seems 
especially adapted for these lovely winter-flowering plants, so 
well do they flower and thrive. In the gardens of Sir John St. 
Aubyn, Bart., M.P., at Trevethoe, Lelant, near Hayle, I recently 
saw a very good specimen of Daphne indica rubra flowering out 
of doors, and the gardener, Mr. Courtice, informs me that he has 
gathered flowers from it during the present winter.” 
- Mr. Daniel Hill, Honorary Secretary of the Harrow 
Horticultural Society, informs us that at a recent meeting 
of the Committee of this Society the Summer Exhibition was fixed 
for Tuesday, July 5tb, and the Autumn Exhibition for Tuesday, 
September 20th. 
- Nature states that the Hamburgh firm of C. Woermann 
has sent Mr. Hermann Soyaux to the French colony of Gaboon in 
order to try to cultivate the Liberian Coffee Tree at that 
place. Soyaux has now been at Gaboon for two years, and has 
there established the Scibomge farm, which is situated about a 
day’s march inland from the Gaboon River, on the Awandu 
River, which flows in a north-easterly direction into the Bay of 
Corisco. He now employs some one hundred negroes. Many thou¬ 
sand Coffee trees have been imported from Liberia, and have been 
planted, and experiments have also been made with sowing the 
beans, so that at the beginning of 1882 the first Coffee harvest is 
confidently expected. The Hamburgh firm supports the under¬ 
taking in a most efficient manner by sending engines, implements, 
&c., and experiments are also pending to introduce and acclimatise 
horses and mules. Mr. Soyaux makes meteorological observa¬ 
tions for the Leipsic Observatory, and natural history collections 
for the Hamburg Museum. 
- A correspondent states that in a hurried visit to the 
gardens at Ashburne House, Sunderland, he noticed that 
Chamsedorea graminifolia was in bloom. The Orchids were exceed¬ 
ingly healthy. The fine conservatory was very bright with bloom ; 
and fine plants of Azaleas Countess Eugene de Kerchove, Madame 
Van Houtte (splendid), and the mollis section were flowering. 
The above Mr. Cramont, the able gardener in charge, strongly 
recommends for forcing. Rhododendron praecox was also fine, 
and seems an excellent plant for midwinter flowering. Erica 
melanthera in 8-inch pots had growths over 18 inches long. But 
the best feature of all were a grand display of Cyclamens in 
5-inch pots, seedlings of 1880, with over fifty flowers each. They 
had received most simple culture—grown in a Cucumber pit near 
to the glass, well shaded during summer, fully exposed during 
autumn to the sun’s rajs, and then placed in a comparatively 
cool pit. 
- A beautiful example of Dendrobium Hilli is now 
flowering in the Orchid House at Kew. It has three racemes 
12 to 15 inches in length, and crowded with the delicate creamy 
yellow flowers. The plant was sent to Kew by Mr. Walter Hill of 
the Morton Bay Botanic Gardens. 
- Potato Culture.—A list of Potatoes representing about 
six hundred sorts in all, but melted down to about half that 
number by a process of severe selection, forms a dry but perhaps 
useful feature of the current number of the “Gardener’s Magazine.” 
It suggests the question, Who can want so many ? It seems, how¬ 
ever, that “ Potato fanciers ” make an amusement of growing all 
the sorts they can get hold of. Of these painstaking souls Mr. 
Shirley Hibberd is a guiding star, and the list he has presented 
in his paper reflects his light in every possible shade of colour. It 
is surely time we had some good Potatoes. 
THE HOLLYHOCK. 
Wherever hardy flowers are grown florists’ flowers ought to 
occupy a foremost place. In truth, as hardy flowers become better 
known there will be a great number of species discarded which 
are of no real value to the gardener ; so that, as with stove and 
greenhouse plants, merely the finest will as a rule be grown, and 
foremost in these selections will always be those plants known 
as florists’ flowers. The decorative value of these plants is also 
noteworthy. To the amateur florist, who, perhaps, grows only 
two or three species, that is not of much importance, but to the 
gardener who has to be a utilitarian it is quite the opposite. 
There is a point of importance as to the time when these notes 
are published, which will be always kept in view, and that is to 
study the time when the culture of a particular plant may be 
described to the greatest advantage of the readers. It will not be 
practicable to publish the notes on every flower just at the best 
time, but as nearly as possible that will be adhered to. For the 
above reason the Hollyhock has been chosen as the subject, as at 
this time it can be propagated perhaps as efficiently as at any 
other season, where there is at least a small stock. 
At the commencement I must confess the Hollyhock has failed 
with me. I will explain why I had succeeded well enough with 
it, having a few hundreds of flowering plants and a large stock 
of summer-struck plants from eyes, when one September day I 
became aware of the unpleasant fact that the Puccinia malvacearum 
had attacked the whole of our stock, and in a very short time 
every plant was dead. I have not succeeded in forming a stock 
since. A short note appeared last summer in the Journal stating 
how I was trying to destroy this fungus, but I failed in obtaining 
a cutting or an eye without the disease, and had to cut the plants 
down twice to save them from destruction. The last time the 
