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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 16, 1884 
Meetings of the Committees op the National Auricula 
AND op the National Carnation and Picotees Societies were 
held at South Kensington on Tuesday last. Mr. Shirley Hibberd 
occupied the chair. Present—Messrs. Charles Turner, H. J. Veitcb, 
John Laing, John Fraser, G. F. Wilson, H. Cannell, James Douglas, 
Dr. Masters and Dr. Hogg. The object of these meetings was to elect 
office-bearers for the ensuing year, and to constitute these Societies by 
the formation of a code of rules by which they will in future be 
governed. It was considered advisable that the management of the 
Societies should in future be in the hands of one Secretary only instead 
of two, and Mr. James Douglas was unanimously elected the Secretary of 
both Societies. A sub-committee, consisting of Mr. Hibberd, Mr. Charles 
Turner, and the Secretary, was appointed to draw up a set of rules for the 
government of the Societies, to be submitted to a meeting to be held at 
South Kensingston on the 11th of November next. 
- Analysis op Roses. —It may possibly be of interest to intending 
planters to know that an important analysis of the Roses that have been 
most frequently exhibited during recent years is being prepared by Mr. 
Edward Mawley, one of the Secretaries of the National Rose Society, 
and as soon as completed will be published in our columns. The work, 
which has involved the tabulating of between 9000 and 10,000 Roses, is 
in an advanced state, and will appear in an early issue—possibly next 
week. 
- Public Exhibitions op Chrysanthemums. — The annual 
display of Chrysanthemums at Finsbury Park promises to be unusually 
good this season, the plants being in fine condition and bearing large 
substantial buds, some of which are fast expanding. The Exhibition 
will be opened to the public on Saturday, the 18th inst. The Middle 
Temple Exhibition was opened on Monday last, and has already been 
visited by a large number of persons. The Inner Temple display will 
be opened on the 20th inst. 
- Tuberous Begonias. —Mr. Robert Owen, of Yewden, Henley- 
on-Thames, who is establishing a florist’s business at Maidenhead) 
has sent us blooms of Tuberous Begonias of great excellence. They are 
nearly or quite circular, with stout overlapping petals, and embrace 
every hue of colour we have seen in these extremely diversified and 
beautiful flowers. A semi-double scarlet-crimson variety is particularly 
effective. 
- “ Forestry.” —The current number of this monthly magazine 
completes the ninth volume, and the proprietorship of the work passes 
from Messrs. William Ryder & Son to Mr. Charles Anderson, jun., the 
proprietor of the “ North British Agriculturist,” and in future the 
magazine will he published in Edinburgh. With the change of proprie¬ 
torship Mr. Francis George Heath retires from the editorship of the 
journal in question. 
- The Weather.—D uring the past few days there has been a 
great change in the weather in the south of England, and it appears to 
have extended throughout the country generally. Snow has fallen 
rather heavily in several districts, and, accompanied by a keen north-east 
wind, has rendered the sudden transition from the heat of the summer 
very trying to vegetation. There has, however, been but little frost in 
the neighbourhood of London at present, and Dahlias in many gardens 
are still flowering abundantly. 
- Catalogue op Chrysanthemums.—I t was announced some 
time ago that the Committee of the National Chrysanthemum Society 
had undertaken the preparation of a catalogue of the varieties in cultiva¬ 
tion, which should be of an official and standard character. The result 
of their efforts is the catalogue now issued, which in nineteen pages 
gives brief descriptions of G28 varieties arranged in the groups—Incurved, 
Japanese, Reflexed, Large and Pompon Anemones, Pompons, Summer 
and Early Flowering. A number of synonyms are given, and the 
Committee recommend that in future no varieties shall be exhibited in 
the same stand as their synonyms. The names are generally accurate. 
but a few instances of faulty orthography are notable, as Beverlry for 
Beverley, Fanny Boucharlt for Fanny Boucharlat, Fulgare for Fulgore, 
■ Aglaa for Aglaia, Hendersonu for Hendersoni, while in a number of 
cases the wrong termination is given to Latin names, as lutea striata, 
rosea superba, rubra striata, striata perfects, carminata alba, and lacinata 
alba, in each of which the final syllable should be “um.” The list is, 
however, a useful one, and it is probable that the demand for a second 
edition will soon give the Committee an opportunity of correcting these 
trifling inaccuracies. 
- Ac^nA microphylla. —A curious, interesting, and beautiful 
little plant, as the synonym implies, from New Zealand. It is peculiarly 
adapted for carpeting the rock, its pinnate leaves, which are deeply cut, 
generally assuming a brownish tint. This, with its curiously beautiful 
somewhat globular heads of minute flowers, protected, as it were, with 
long crimson spikelets, give to it an attractive and almost unique 
appearance. So dense is its habit, and so closely does it cling to the 
surface of the soil, that its full height is about 2 inches. It grows freely 
in almost any soil of a sandy nature, rooting freely all along its under 
surface, but prefers a moist situation. It may be used, however, as a 
carpet beneath which spring-flowering bulbs are planted with very good 
effect. It is also useful for edgings, and indeed all places where dwarf- 
habited plants may be advantageously utilised.—J. 
- Lungs op Great Cities. — Including Fontainebleau and 
Chantilly, Paris has 172,000 acres in parks, or one acre to every 13 in¬ 
habitants ; in Vienna the proportion is one acre to 100 persons ; in 
Chicago one to 200 ; in Philadelphia one to 300; in Brooklyn one to 
639 ; in New York one to 1363, but New York proposes to buy 3808 acres 
for additional parks at an estimated cost of £100 per acre, or in the 
aggregate at the cost of £1,523,200. The aggregate area @f public parks in 
the metropolitan district, with squares and gardens, is about 1-1,000 acres. 
- A Cheap Method op Heating—Forcing Plants with 
Hot Water. —An experiment has lately been made at Acqui, Italy, by 
the proprietor of some baths there. This gentleman has at his disposal 
an inexhaustible supply of hot water from a natural spring, the tem¬ 
perature being 167° Fahrenheit. The surplus not required for the baths 
has been diverted so as to flow through pipes to a garden on the out¬ 
skirts of the town. Here the warm liquid flows beneath a number of 
forcing frames containing Melons, Tomatoes, Asparagus, and other garden 
produce. The result is that a supply of these delicacies is ready for 
market at a very early period of the year, when, therefore, they realise 
high prices. 
A HEAVY CROP OF MELONS. 
We have every reason to he satisfied with the whole of our Melon 
crops this season, hut the particulars I am furnishing of our success with 
one sort must be admitted to be rather out of the common. The variety 
in question was received from Mr. Barker, gardener at Hindlip Hall, 
Worcester, a very successful fruit-grower, under the name of William 
Tillery, hut it evidently contains some of the blood of Eastnor Castle. 
The seed was sown on May 5th, and the selected plant in company with 
plants of several other sorts was planted in a house on June 21st. The 
first fruit was cut September 3rd, and between that date and September 
29th twelve more fruits were cut. The heaviest fruit weighed nearly 
10 lbs., and the aggregate weight of the thirteen fruits was 64 lbs., this 
giving an average of nearly 5 lbs. The roof space covered by the plant 
was 8 feet by 6 feet. It was in fuU vigour when cut out, and would have 
perfected a late crop had we not wanted the house for other purposes. I 
ought perhaps to add that it was rooting in a square mound of loam about 
3 feet wide and 2 feet deep, and the fertilisers used were farm liquid 
manure and an occasional surfacing of Beeson’s manure.—W. Iggulden. 
[We have seen and tasted one of the fruits referred to, which was large 
and of excellent quality so late in the season. It is not William Tillery.] 
THE CHATEAU HE FERRIERES. 
THE seat of baron A. DE ROTHSCHILD. 
Some years ago I had the pleasure of making the aquaintance, as a 
member of the Horticultural Club, of Mr. Ernest Bergman, the son of the 
well-known jardinier cn chrfoi this renowned place, and have often had 
courteous and pressing invitations to spend a day with him at Ferri6res, 
more especially when we met five years ago at the Brie Comte Robert 
Rose Show. I was, howmver, unable to do so ; but this year the advice of 
a physician and the kindness of a most valued friend enabled me to pay a 
short visit to France last month, and amongst the pleasurable days which 
I enjoyed I have to mark with the whitest of white chalk that which I 
spent at Ferrihres, of which I shall endeavour to give such notes as, 
however feeble, may give the readers of this Journal some idea of its 
treasures. 
