480 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
shown at the great Exhibition that it merits an additional note, 
as it cannot be too highly recommended for decorative pur¬ 
poses. The plants included in several groups were similar to 
those previously exhibited by Mr. W. Brown, having heads of 
white tubular flowers a foot in diameter, and emitting an agree¬ 
able fragrance that appears to be very lasting. The flowers, 
too, are durable ; the plant is easily grown, and altogether 
admirably suited for the conservatory, in which a few speci¬ 
mens are very striking and attractive. Like many of its allies 
this is a native of the Cape, but it has now been in this country 
considerably over half a century. It is of easy culture. 
HARDY CACTI. 
One of the most interesting collections of plants out of the 
competitive classes was the group of hardy Cactaceous plants 
exhibited bj r E. G. Loder, Esq., all of which had been collected 
by himself in the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of 10,000 
feet and more. A large number of specimens were contributed, 
many being in flower, and all in excellent health. The two 
most attractive were Echinocactus Fendleri with large bright 
rosy flowers, and E. gonacanthus with bright orange blooms ; 
but the others having chiefly pink flowers were also noteworthy. 
The species of Echinocactus were E. Simpsoni, E. phoeniceus, 
E. viridiflorus, E. viviparus, and E. paucispinus ; the Opun- 
tias represented being O. comanchica, 0. Whipplei, 0. Mis- 
souriensis, and 0. arborescens. For the rockery and similar 
positions these plants are well adapted ; and as they are from 
regions w T here the temperature at some periods of the year falls 
very low, they would no doubt prove hardy in any district of 
England, their chief enemy being excessive moisture. 
PHILADELPHUS MEXICANUS. 
To conclude these notes a brief description of the Mexican 
Svringa or Mock Orange, exhibited by Mr. Walker of Thame, 
may be admissible. This attractive half-hardy shrub was 
originally introduced forty years ago to the Royal Horticul- 
cultural Society’s Gardens by Mr. Hartweg, who found it in 
several districts of Mexico. In the neighbourhood of Jalapa 
it is said to be cultivated, and it also grows wild in the hedges. 
It is 2 to 3 feet in height, with ovate leaves and large white 
flowers of very symmetrical form, and possessing a powerful but 
pleasant fragrance. Mr. Walker's plant was growing in a pot, 
and was trained in a pyramidal form to a stake. In the southern 
counties and sheltered districts it would probably prove hardy, 
and under such conditions its beauty would be seen to much 
better advantage than under glass, though the flowers appear 
to last well. 
Such were a few of the specialities among the plants at 
Kensington, but there were many more that may perhaps 
receive attention another time.—L. C. 
A PLEA AND SUGGESTION FOR ENGLISH 
HORTICULTURE. 
It not unfrequently happens that wholesale growers of fruit 
and vegetables in this country are reproached for their want of 
skill and enterprise in allowing large importations of foreign 
fruits to undersell them in their own markets. Something may 
surely be said in their behalf. Englishmen are not generally 
wanting in energy, and in all callings there are to be found some 
persons possessing more than average intelligence, who are 
capable of looking all round a question and seizing on the points 
that are likely to tell in their favour. 
On conversing some few years ago with one such person, who 
had an apparently flourishing business as a grower and green¬ 
grocer in a large town, he told me that he would not do his son 
the injustice of bringing him up to so unremunerative a business 
as his own. I may add that he rented many acres of good fruit 
and vegetable land just outside his town, with an ample command 
of manure, and ready access to London and midland markets for 
his surplus produce. The gist of his argument was obvious. 
However good the land, and whatever the skill in cultivation, 
there is nothing but uncertainty as to the result. A season of 
frost, of drought, of deluge, of blight, or general unfruitfulness 
(and something of the sort occurs more or less for four years out 
of five) reduces the condition of many horticulturists to one of 
incessant doubt whether or not they will be able to pay their way. 
To an amateur this uncertainty is of comparatively little import¬ 
ance. He plants more fruit trees than he ought to require, and 
the same with vegetables ; and so, as well as by the aid of glass, 
he can generally have his table amply supplied. To the market 
grower, however, even if there may be some exaggeration of the 
hardship detailed in the case of the one to whom I have just 
referred, there is no doubt that the character of the season means 
anything between either poverty or a moderate competence. 
The result of fruit-growing in the southernmost portion of 
Surrey, to go no further back than the last three seasons, will 
illustrate what has been said. In 1879 tree fruits and many vege¬ 
tables were a complete failure. There was a sunless summer of 
incessant rain and of slugs. 1880 was a generally unfruitful year 
(except in the case of Strawberries and bush fruit), for the wood 
had not ripened in the previous year, and of such fruit as did 
promise to come to perfection the plague of wasps devoured or 
destroyed a large portion. What shall be said of 1881 ? Perhaps 
it is too early yet to prophesy. Those who quote the hackneyed, 
but often baseless, sayings in vogue exclaimed in spring, “We 
shall have a good fruit year, for the winter has been long and 
cold, the spring late, and the wood is well ripened.” Well, the 
beauty and profusion of blossom on all kinds of fruit trees this 
season have been such as can never be forgotten. It would go 
far to recompense an amateur grower to see his reward, not in 
the prospect of fruit, but in the rich display of floral beauty 
which what he may call his flowering shrubs have provided for 
him. We shall soon know how much fruit will follow this. On 
the night of April 21st there were many degrees of frost, and the 
blackened centres of the flowers of Pear trees told too surely 
that the hope of a full crop of Pears was at an end. Still, some 
of the later blossoms, especially on the more hardy sorts of trees, 
will secure, perhaps, a fair supply of fruit. But the season has 
been one of long and severe drought, and Plums and Apples, 
especially the former, have, after being well set, fallen in consider¬ 
able numbers, apparently from dryness of soil. This remark 
applies chiefly to bush and pyramid trees, for the large Apple 
trees in the fields and orchards seem still to be laden with fruit. 
Again, in this neighbourhood at least, the profusion of cater¬ 
pillars is as remarkable as the profusion of blossoms. They have 
invaded all trees alike. On the Gooseberry and Currant bushes 
we have dealt with them effectually by hand-picking; but on 
many of the larger trees, where they run riot, they have so riddled 
and consumed the leaves, that if the trees should recover it will 
show how extraordinary an amount of mutilation a fruit tree will 
endure and yet survive. Much of the fruit, too, is scarred and 
disfigured from the same cause. Even the Oak trees are similarly 
attacked ; half the foliage of some of them is gone. The ground 
beneath the trees is thickly covered with the black droppings of 
the little creatures, whilst the combined noises of their tiny jaws, 
I presume (a sound familiar to all who have kept silkworms), 
resembles that ©f a gentle fall of rain—gladdening the ear with 
the semblance, if not with the reality, of the showers for which 
we are all longing. 
If I have not wearied my readers with unwelcome tidings I 
would say one word on the prospect of wasps. The long dry 
spring is the prime condition for an ample visitation of these 
creatures. Numerous queens appeared early. A day has seldom 
passed on which we have not slain many such, and we have 
rewarded children with a shilling a dozen for all they have 
brought us, but they are still numerous. 
But is there not one remedy at least for much of the uncertainty 
attending the culture of the better kinds of fruit in this country ? 
The late Mr. Rivers especially, genial and enthusiastic as well as 
practical in all that he wrote, a man with a mind so open and 
unfettered that he would welcome a promising suggestion even 
from the youngest hand in his employ, was, as is well known, a 
persistent advocate of the protection afforded to fruit trees of the 
better kinds by orchard houses or glass sheds. Carnot such 
structures, unheated artificially, be erected so inexpensively as to 
be available for the purposes of those who cultivate fruit as a 
means of livelihood ? The trees in such a case, if not in all cases, 
being planted in the earth and not in pots, would save much 
trouble in incessant watering, top-dressing, and renewal of soil. 
My own experience, if I may venture to adduce that of an 
amateur, during several years has taught me that I can rely with 
confidence on a good crop within the orchard house, however 
unpromising the prospect may be without. As I was permitted 
to remark in this Journal on a former occasion, and in a bad 
season, a thin film of glass alone stood between fruitfulness on 
the one side and comparative barrenness on the other. Is not 
this subject worth ventilating in the columns of the Journal of 
Horticulture by the skilled professional horticulturists who 
habitually enrich its pages ?—A Surrey Physician. 
Vines Dying.—A singular misfortune has happened to three of 
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