JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
314 
of a large Apple ; when ripe the skin is black, and the inside of 
a deep red, with three or four large seeds in it. This fruit is of a 
soft nature something like the Plum, and stains anything it comes 
in contact with yellow. The taste is the same as a Lemon, and 
from it, so pulpy is the fruit, a bucket of jam could be got in a 
few hours. It eats very nicely with sugar. We used a great deal 
of it, as we had no beef.” What with an immense area of rich 
pastoral land, a coast rapidly being taken up for sugar and spices ; 
mountains bearing gold, silver, and tin ; seas with pearls and 
b&che de mer; and forests of edible fruit, North Queensland is 
determined to be noticed. 
TALL versus DWARF KIDNEY BEANS. 
As many of your readers will now be thinking of sowing their 
Kidney Bean seed, the present will be a good time to call at¬ 
tention to the merits of tall and dwarf varieties. As a rule 
tall or runner Beans are the greatest favourites, and they are 
the most grown ; but I will not say they are the most useful in 
all cases, or indeed in the majority of instances, as I think 
many attempt to grow tall Beans when dwarf varieties would 
answer their purposes much better in every way. This would be 
particularly the case in small gardens, or in all gardens near towns 
where stakes are difficult to procure, and where from the frequent 
absence of these the runner Bean crop is not so satisfactory as 
it otherwise would be. Tall Beans are not such a sure crop as the 
dwarfs. In 1S78-9 we almost failed to obtain as much from them 
as would pay for the seed, and certainly they did not pay for 
other labour. Their growth was rampant, but the pods were small 
and few ; yet the dwarfs produced a full crop as usual. This was 
satisfactory, and argued well for their extended use, and there are 
other matters connected with them that will do the same. 
Supposing a sowing of each kind were made on the same day, the 
dwarf Beans would be ready for use many days or perhaps weeks 
before the tall ones. Then, again, tall Beans occupy much space. 
Only one row can be had in a space from 4 to 6 feet wide, and for 
about as much as this on each side no useful crop can be raised 
under the shade of the Beans. According to this one row of tall 
Beans may be said to occupy a strip of nearly 12 feet wide, in 
which space six good rows of dwarfs might easily be grown, 
and would probably give more produce than one row of tall 
Beans. It must be remembered that dwarf Beans are not like 
dwarf Peas. The latter come all into bearing together, and 
little more than one good picking can be bad from them ; but 
dwarf Beans give a long succession, and blooms open and form 
pods long after the first have been gathered. Dwarf Beans 
require no stakes, and from their habit they are not half so 
liable to be injured by either frost or wind as the Runners. 
Osborns’ Forcing is our favourite for first crop, Canadian Wonder 
is the next, Osborns’ is the best early and the best late, and Cana¬ 
dian is good in midseason. 
The first sowing may be made in a warm part of the garden 
and on the driest piece of soil from the middle to the end of April. 
From this sowings may be made every three weeks or so on 
until the first week in August. Rich soil suits them best, and 
the seed should not be more than 2 inches below the surface. 
Never allow the pods to become too old for use at the outset, as 
this will check after-production.— Practitioner. 
The number of people registered as entering the Royal Hor¬ 
ticultural Society’s Gardens at South Kensington on 
Monday last (Bank Holiday) was 12,246—an increase of two 
thousand on the number admitted on the corresponding day of 
last year. The entrance fee was 2d. each person. 
- “ G. O. S.” writes—“ Have any of your readers ever 
noticed that the thorns op some Rose trees are more 
poisonous than others ? I think that it is so, and that of all 
Marechal Niel is the most poisonous. My gardener says that it 
has worse claws than a cat! and for myself I can say that when 
I have had one of its thorns in my finger the stinging pain has 
[ April 21, 1881. 
lasted longer than from any other Rose thorn ; indeed I now 
write suffering from a puncture, and not a deep one, from a 
Marechal Niel thorn under my first finger nail five days ago.” 
- The second portion of Mr. Day’s Orchids was sold by 
Mr. J. C. Stevens at his auction-rooms, Covent Garden, on the 
12th and 13th inst., the total amount realised being £1803 7s. Gd. 
The following were the prices obtained for the principal speci¬ 
mens—A fine plant and beautiful variety of Cattleya exoniensis, 
forty-eight guineas ; an autumn-flowering variety of Cattleya 
labiata, twenty-two ; a large specimen of Cattleya Skinneri with 
twenty-two growths, twenty ; Saccolabium praemorsum, ten; 
Laelia anceps rosea, twenty-two guineas. A good specimen and 
fine variety of Aerides affine, twenty-seven guineas ; Angrsecum 
Chailluanum, fifteen guineas ; Phalacnopsis intermedia, sixty-two 
guineas; and a smaller plant, forty-four guineas. Saccolabium 
guttatum, very fine plant, twenty-two guineas ; Masdevallia ignea 
aurantiaca, twenty guineas ; Laelia elegans var. Wolstenholmte, 
eighteen guineas ; Dendrobium Schroderi, thirty-eight guineas ; 
Lafiia purpurata, thirty guineas ; and Cypripedium Spicerianum, 
twenty-five guineas. 
- Under the significant but by no means elegant title of 
“ Dish Rag,” a correspondent of the “ American Floral Cabinet ” 
refers to the Egyptian Loofah, or Luffa ^egyptiaca, a member 
of the Cucumber family. The internal portion of the fruit is 
very fibrous, and when the pulp is removed a sponge-like sub¬ 
stance remains, which is employed in America for bathing pur¬ 
poses. Specimens suitably dried and prepared may be seen in 
many London hairdressers’ shops under the name of Egyptian 
Loofahs. 
- Mr. W. Taylor writes—“ On the 31st March I cut 860 
blooms averaging 3 inches across of Belle Rose Carnation for 
decoration for a dinner party. A week before three hundred trusses 
of Pelargonium Guillon Mangilli were employed for the same pur¬ 
pose ; the last-named were cut from plants in a small house in 
which Melons are growing. Let me remind your readers once 
more that this Pelargonium is of no use in a cool greenhouse for 
winter flowering, and that I do not recommend it for outdoors. 
It likes heat, and then it will produce three times as many flowers 
as any other Pelargonium I know. On some of the trusses there 
are three dozen fully expanded pips, which are very large. Single 
Pelargoniums, however pretty they may be, are comparatively 
valueless for cutting because they fall so quickly; double or semi¬ 
double ones never fall.” 
- With reference to the article and figure of the fine Ever¬ 
lasting Astelma eximium a short time since, I am glad to say 
that the plant was cultivated by the Messrs. Yeitch a few years 
ago. It is to be hoped they still have it.—L. 
- The same writer remarks—“ I know of no plant that pro¬ 
duces a more brilliant display of flowers in winter than TROP.EO- 
lum Ball of Fire, recently noted in this Journal. It has 
bloomed continuously in the Cambridge Botanic Garden for the 
last nine months. During summer a few plants were grown in 
pots against a south wall, and when frost was expected were 
removed to a greenhouse. If trained on strings they are easily 
moved and placed in any required position.” 
- Writing respecting Valeriana Phu var. aurea 
“R. J. L.” observes—“Notice is now being taken of this plant, 
and I am surprised from the brilliancy of its effect that it has not 
become almost universal. It is a perfectly hardy herbaceous 
plant, and one of the earliest to unfold its leaves. It grows so 
far in almost any soil, and is easily increased by division. It is 
far brighter than Golden Feather, but its best effect is for spring 
gardening, as later on it becomes dull.” 
