■Qclebec la, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
335 
botanists would have no difficulty in regarding the outlyiDg forms as well- 
marked varieties, if not good species.” 
Referring further on to so-called waste of Nature's forces 
he remarks “ We discover nothing in the behaviour of plants to 
indicate that they are actuated by individual good further than 
may be necessary to enable them to fall in with Nature’s great 
nim of preparing for the future. Millions of seeds are produced for 
every one that grows ; millions grow for every one that lives long 
enough to flower; millions of flowers open for every one that yields 
seeds, and millions on millions of grains of pollen are produced for 
every one grain that is of service in fertilisation. But these surplus 
seeds, surplus plants, surplus pollen are useful, not to the parents which 
bore them, not in any way to themselves, but as sacrifices to posterity. 
I hey serve as food. They die that something else may live. They all 
work in with Nature’s grand aim of developing something for the future. 
At the present time the eyes of science are turned to the past. We com¬ 
pare the dim view with that which is about us, and we perceive that all 
things have worked together for the good of the whole. We see that 
nothing has lived in vain. We know that in the general economy of 
Nature there is no waste anywhere.” 
- We are informed that the usual display of Chrysanthemums 
in Finsbury Park was opened to the public on Sunday last the 
14th inst., and the flowers will be at their best from a fortnight to a 
month afterwards. 
- The Hertfordshire Natural History Society will hold 
t* Fungus Foray at Watford on the 27th inst., when several noted 
fungologists are expected to attend, amongst them being Dr. M. E. 
Cooke and Mr. W. G. Smith. 
- Mr. C. Honey, Stamford, writes :—“ I notice in the pages of 
your Journal an account of Chou de Burghley, and can bear testimony 
to all your, correspondent says, and I feel bound to add that after the 
Lead is cut it is the most prolific green I am acquainted with.” 
- Part Y. of “ Bulbs and Bulb Culture ” (170, Strand) 
contains descriptions and culture of Gloxinias, Pancratiums, Tuberose, 
Fritillaria, Alstrcemeria, Triteleia, Agapanthus, Muscari, Pseonia, 
Oxalis, and Amaryllis. Several of these will be scarcely recognised 
as bulbs, and the title should have been made to include tuberous 
plants. The cultural particulars are full and generally good, but the 
woodcuts are too diminutive, and in several cases unfaithful. The 
'names, too, especially as regards the terminations, seem to indicate 
rather erratic ideas respecting nomenclature. 
- Gardening Appointments. —Mr. Arthur Young, late of Holme 
Lacy, Hereford, has been appointed gardener to S. Barlow, Esq., the 
eminent Manchester florist, for his new estate Schimdda, at Llandudno. 
Mr. Noah Coppin, late gardener to F. Pine, Esq., West Tree, 
Maidstone, has been appointed gardener to C. C. Wyllie, Esq., Walden, 
■Chislehurst, Kent. 
- Part YI. of “ The Herefordshire Pomona ” is now issued, 
and contains faithfully coloured plates of forty-two culinary and dessert 
Apples, seven cider Apples, thirty-one Pears, of which nine are perry 
varieties. Sections and full descriptions of the varieties accompany 
each plate. The concluding part of the work, with introduction and 
index, will be published in the autumn of 1884, after the Congress and 
Exhibition of the Pomological Society of France to be held at Rouen in 
October. 
- Mr. Davis of Camberwell sends us three handsome blooms of 
the Japanese Chrysanthemums James Salter, Elaine, and 
Comte de Germany, which we have never seen so fine at such an 
early date. The blooms are large, clean, and the petals of good 
substance. James Salter in particular is very beautiful, the soft tint 
-distinguishing it being very clear. 
- Mr. J. Short, Darlington, writes—“In the Journal of October 
4th attention is called to an example of successful culture of Lilium 
auratum. Kindly allow me to add another under rather different cir¬ 
cumstances. In the gardens, Heslington Hall, York, a few weeks ago, 
.might have been seen growing in a Rhododendron bed amongst others 
one stem 9 feet high, having thirty-six flowers, all of them at that time 
perfectly formed. The bulbs in this bed had received no special 
treatment, but were planted, I understood, a year or two ago along with 
the Rhododendrons.” 
- The Norton, Malton, and District Chrysanthemum 
Society will hold the nineteenth annual Exhibition in the Bower 
Memorial Schools, Norton, on Tuesday, November 27th. Classes are 
also provided for fruits, vegetables, agricultural produce, and birds. 
- Mr. B. Cowan writes:—“Mr. Ford, gardener to Mrs. Pease, 
Pierremont Hall, has at present a magnificent specimen of LAPAGERIA 
rosea (Fisher Holmes variety) in bloom. It is planted in a span-roofed 
house on the north side, covers 40 feet by 8. It has flowered principally 
in clusters of seven and eight each. The flowers were very large, wide 
in the apex, a deep red or maroon in colour, and almost too numerous 
to count. This superb plant is in a tub 2 feet square, and is about six 
years old. It was well worth going a long journey to see, and Mr. Ford 
told us it was much finer a few weeks since.” 
- The “Journal des Roses” for October gives a coloured plate 
of Rose Etendard de Jeanne d’Arc, which is said to be a seedling 
from Gloire de Dijon raised by M. Gartjon at Rouen, and sold to 
M. Jules Margottin, Bourg-la-Reine, in 1878. The stock was nearly 
lost in 1879 owing to severe frost, but has now been increased suffi¬ 
ciently for distribution. It is of a very delicate pale creamy white, the 
flower large and full, and resembling its parent in general appearance. 
- The second volume of Messrs. Cassell & Co.’s re-issue of 
“ Paxton’s Flower Garden ” is now before us, handsomely but 
neatly bound, and bearing the character of general excellence dis¬ 
tinguishing the works of this firm. It contains forty-four coloured 
plates, the majority very well executed, though a few are a little de¬ 
fective in accuracy of tints. The frontispiece is a representation of 
the double Bouvardia Alfred Neuner, which is fairly faithful, but the 
flowers are scarcely so symmetrical as they usually are on the living 
plant. In the gleanings and original memoranda are many interest¬ 
ing notes respecting rare and curious plants, illustrated with good 
woodcuts. The book is printed on stout slightly toned paper, and 
would form a useful and handsome addition to any library. 
- The last issue of the “ Illustration Horticole ” contains 
valuable coloured plates of Pothos celatocaulis, a distinct Aroid that 
is fast becoming a great favourite for covering the walls of stoves ; 
Odontoglossum Londesboroughianum, a showy Orchid, with a large 
two-lobed bright yellow lip and red-barred sepals and petals; and 
Campylobotrys Ghiesbreghti variegata, a remarkably handsome-foliage 
plant, with large acutely elliptical leaves, dark green, with silvery 
creamy and pink spots and veining, the under surface of the leaves, 
with the young growths and stems, being of a rosy hue. 
PLANTING FRUIT TREES. 
It is time to make the requisite preparations for planting 
fruit trees by draining and trenching the site, adding, if possible, 
fresh loam. Unquestionably the best of all soils for fruit 
trees is the top spit of a pasture where the soil is of a calcareous 
medium-textured loam, and the fresher it is the better. Pre¬ 
paring loam by stacking for months or years may be very con¬ 
venient for plants' in pots, as the growth of the grass of the 
freshly cut turf is inconvenient, but the decay that takes place 
is so much loss to the plants. The grit in it would be an 
advantage rather than otherwise, in rendering the soil more 
friable, and prevent that grossness of growth which, in many 
instances, is fatal to the production of profitable crops. Turf 
bein'}- not obtainable, other means must lie employed to render 
the soil suitable. If very heavy, the surface only being loose 
and ameliorated, with a stiff clay beneath, it would be advisable 
to burn a quantity of the clay and mix it thoroughly with the 
surface and some part of the clayey subsoil, which will deepen 
the soil and be more suitable for fruit trees. 
Light and shallow soils would be improved by a good dressing 
of marly clay, and all soils not naturally calcareous are improved 
by an admixture of old mortar rubbish. Deep loams are un¬ 
questionably the best, yet if they are wet the trees only make 
indifferent returns, hence the necessity of draining them tho¬ 
roughly. Close-textured loams are improved by the addition of 
sand or road scrapings, and there is no doubt off the value of 
ashes, as well as sand and road scrapings, in improving the 
texture of clay soil. In the case of soils long subjected to a 
course of heavy manuring for the production of high-class 
vegetables, it is patent such will produce a tree quickly, with 
the certainty of its growths succumbing to gum or canker. An 
addition of lime, a bushel per rod, would be useful, and a good 
