August 14, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
143 
ave shown that the metal manganese exists in Wheat, Rice, and a great 
variety of vegetables. Wheat contains from l-5000th to 1-15,000 of its 
weight of the metal, which exists chiefly as a salt of an organic acid. It 
is also found in Potatoes, Beetroot, Carrots, Beans, Peas, Asparagus, 
Apples, Grapes, and so on. The leaves of the young Vine are very rich 
in it; so are the stones of Apricots. The proportion in Cacao is very 
great, as it is in Colfee, Tobacco, and especially in Tea. In the 50 grammes 
of ashes left by a kilogramme of Tea, there was found 5 grammes of 
metallic manganese. There are vegetables, however, in which no man¬ 
ganese can be found, as, for example. Oranges, Lemons, Onions, &c. 
Many medicinal plants contain it, as, for example. Cinchona, White 
Mustard, the Lichen (Roccella tinctoria). Tea, CoflEee, and other vege¬ 
tables require abundance of manganese in the soil for their proper 
cultivation, and the absence of it may account for the failure of many 
plantations. 
- An Indian Garden. —In the first annual report on the gardens 
of the Maharana of Oodeypore, the Superintendent, Mr. T. H. Storey, 
gives the following description of their situation, &c.—“ The gardens are 
situated in a valley bounded on the south by a large hill over which the 
city wall runs and dips into the lake on the west side. The hill is very 
grand, towering above the gardens, and clothed with thick jungle, which 
during the rains is very imposing. The only specimens worth noticing 
on it are Hemidesmus indicusor Indian Sarsaparilla, Adiantum Capillus- 
Veneris, and Actinopteris radiata. On the north, by one of the most 
beautiful lakes in the plains of India, which gives an endless supply of 
water to the garden, and is about 80 feet above its level, kept back by 
natural rocks. The palace lies to the north side also, and commands a 
fine view, not only of the gardens and city, but the lake, plains, and hills 
for miles around. The gardens round the palace are very beautiful; 
plants are growing in rustic baskets made of glass, marble, and china, 
and meet the eye on every side. In the centre of the lake, and about 
half a mile apart, are two island palaces which vie with each other in 
beauty. The one nearest the palace has a lovely garden containing a 
number of Orange trees of the finest description, and bearing fruit of the 
finest flavour. On the opposite side of the lake are acres of Lotus, 
Nelumbium speciosum, which flower during the hot season, some of the 
leaves appearing like miniature Victoria regias. The flowers are also 
much larger than any I have seen before, some of them measuring 1 foot 
in diameter. The only other aquatic plants found in the lake are Vallis- 
neria spiralis, Pistia stratiotes for Water Soldier), and Anacharis alsi- 
nastrum; and as the latter is supposed to be an American plant, it seems 
a mystery how it found its way to an inland lake without any connection 
or river.” 
-Meteorological OBSERVATIONS AT Hodsock Priory, Work¬ 
sop, Notts. —Mr. Joseph Mallender sends the following summary for 
July :—“Total duration of sunshine in the month, 147 2 hours, or 29 per 
cent, of the possible duration ; we had two sunless days. The sunshine 
was about the same as last year, but much less than the two previous 
ones. Total rainfall 4 20 inches. Rain fell on nineteen days. Maximum 
fall in twenty-four hours on the 9th, when 2-04 inches fell. This is the 
heaviest fall yet recorded here in twenty-four hours ; of the total, 
1-34 fell in twenty minutes, and as there were several lulls, the greater 
part fell in a much shorter time ; there was also a fall of 0-83 inch on 
the next day. Mean temperature of the month, GO 9° ; maximum on the 
4th, 84 4° ; minimum on the 20tb, 40 7°. Maximum in the sun on the 4th> 
136 .3° ; minimum on the grass on the 20th and 26th, 35 2°. Mean tem¬ 
perature of the air at 9 A.M., 63-4°; mean temperature of the soil at 
1 foot deep, 62 0°. The first few days were fine and warm, but after the 
heavy thunderstorms on the 9th a change set in, and the rest of the 
month was showery and rather cold. The rain was much wanted, but 
it came rather too heavily.” 
- Gardening Appointments. —Mr. J. Atkins, late gardener to 
Colonel Sir Robert Loyd Lindsay, Lockinge Park, has been appointed 
gardener to Lord Egerton of Tatton, Tatton Park, Knutsford ; Mr. Peter 
Cliffe, who has for many years been gardener at Tatton, retiring from 
active duty, we trust to enjoy a well-earned rest. Mr. G. Bethell, for 
some years gardener to Sir Richard Wallace, Bart., Sudbourne Hall, 
Wickham Market, Suffolk, has been appointed to succeed Mr. Austen 
as gardener to SirJ.H. G. Smyth, Bart., Ashton Court, Bristol. Mr. 
G. Trinder has vacated his situation as head gardener at Billingbear 
Park, Wokingham, Berks, and has been appointed gardener to Sir Henry 
St. John Mildmay, Bart., Dogmersfield Park, Vrinchfield, Hants. 
- Dr. Lyons, M.P., again calls attention in an article in the 
British Trade Journal to the subject of our FUTURE TIMBER SUPPLIES. 
The land really covered by timber in the United Kingdom amounts to 
two million acres—an area so small that we are entirely dependent upon 
other countries for our supply. So extensive, in fact, are our imports of 
timber, that corn, cotton, wool, and meat imports alone exceed them in 
value. Hitherto we have been comforted by the belief that the timber 
supply of North America was practically inexhaustible. We read 
of great tracts of unexplored country, hundreds of miles long, 
clothed with magnificent forests that were able to meet the timber 
demands of Europe for all time to come. This happy illusion has been 
dispelled by Dr. Lyons. Instead of the continent of timber we dreamed 
of, we learn that the forest area of North America is only 380,000,000 
acres, or little more than half the forest area of Europe. At the out¬ 
set the forests cannot have been so extensive as travellers reported, and 
the effects of those glowing reports have been disastrous, for the lumber¬ 
men were allowed to destroy the more accessible forests unchecked, and 
most of the forest lands that now remain are so remote and inaccessible 
that the timber trade is bound to become more difficult and costly. That 
is, if the States and Canadian Governments will allow the lumber trade 
to be so recklessly continued, for there are indications, afforded by the 
hasty and anxious re-afforesting of large tracts of America, that our supply 
from that country will be reduced. We would then have to turn to 
Europe. But Russia is also anxious about the clearing of her steppes, 
and planting on a large scale is there also being carried on. Dr. Lyons 
recommends that the five million acres of waste land in Ireland should 
be planted, and thinks five million acres in Scotland might also be 
available. 
- According to official statistical reports the average annual 
CROP OF Potatoes throughout the world is as follows :—Germany, 
235,000,000 metrical hundredweights; France, 113,000,000; Russia, 
110,000,000 ; Austria, 75,000,000 ; United States of America, 47,000,000 ; 
Ireland, 38,000,000 ; Great Britain, 26,000,000 ; Belgium, 20,000,000 ; 
Sweden, 16,000,000 ; Holland, 15,000,000 ; Hungary, 14,000,000 ; Italy, 
7,000,000 ; Norway, 6,000,000 ; Denmark, 5,000,000 ; the Australian 
colonies, 3,000,000 ; Portugal, 3,000,000 ; and Spain, 2,000,000 metrical 
hundredweights. Grand total, 730,000,000 of hundredweights. 
- In referring to the death of Mr. Augustus Fendler, which 
took place on the 27th of last November, but which has only lately 
become known, the “ American Gardeners’ Magazine ” gives the 
following particulars of his life and labours ;—“ He was born near 
Konigsburg in Eastern Prussia, came to America not far from 1840, and 
was employed by Drs. Gray and Engelmann to collect plants in northern 
New Mexico in 1846. For a number of years he remained in a measure 
secluded in a rural retreat near Allenton, Mo., and eventually was 
induced to accept the care of the Bernhardi Herbarium, after its purchase 
by Mr. Henry Shaw for the Missouri Botanical Garden. He soon after 
left the position, and, we believe, returned to his native land. In 1872, 
or thereabouts, he surprised the writer by a call, expressing a desire to 
settle in some little hermitage, where, by caring wholly for himself, he 
could, within his limited income, live only for his scientific pursuits. 
The facilities for scientific study in the vicinity of Philadelphia pleased 
him, but was found too expensive, and a place more consistent with his 
means was found near Wilmington, Del., to which he subsequently 
removed. But even here the vicissitudes of climate entailed expenses 
which would not be called for in a milder region, and he removed to 
Trinidad in the West Indies, where he continued till his death. This 
departure was, the writer believes, hastened by the expense attendant 
on the publication of a curious book, “ The Mechanism of the Universe,” 
in which he proposed to elucidate the cause of gravitation and other 
problems. He had hoped to find a publisher, and tried very hard to 
induce some Philadelphia house to undertake it—finally, rather than 
believe his work useless labour, issuing it at bis own cost. He was 
particularly sensitive to a reputation for strict accuracy. A remark he 
once made to the writer gives the key-note to his whole character : ‘ It is 
pleasant to think that my name may live in connection with some useful 
work long after my body shall be committed to the earth—but a thousand 
times would I prefer that my name should be utterly forgotten than that 
the truth should not prevail.’ 
- Royal Botanic Society.— The forty-fifth anniversary meeting 
of this Society was held at the Gardens, Regent’s Park, on Monday last. 
Mr J. P. Gassiot, Vice-president in the chair. The reports of the Council 
