386 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ October 26, 1882. 
Rivers, I picked twenty fruit, the heaviest of which weighed 
1 lh. C ozs. There was little difference in the rest, but the first six 
selected as apparently heaviest we found of the weight stated. 
The fruit is now ripe and of excellent quality for dessert.” 
-A correspondent^ informs us that “the tenth Durham 
Floral and Industrial Exhibition was held in the Town 
Hall and New Market, Durham, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 
17th and 18th of October. The greater part of the Show is 
devoted to industrial exhibits. The plants and cut flowers were 
generally inferior to previous 'years, but the vegetables in all 
classes were as good as they generally are in the north. The Hon. 
Sec., Mr. Graham Forster, and his assistant, Mr. Hutchinson, were 
indefatigable in their exertions in making the Show a success.” 
- An experienced Fern-grower states that he has just suc¬ 
ceeded in raising some young plants from spores of Trichomanes 
RAdicans, which he believes to be the first time this has been 
accomplished in cultivation. Prothallia have been previously 
obtained, and some of these lived for five years, then dying with¬ 
out producing fronds. The present batch is six years old, and the 
prothallia have only recently produced the characteristic fronds 
of the species, which are at present very small. 
- We learn from an American contemporary that the Georgia 
Horticultural Society condemns the practice of “ ringing ” Vines 
as “ not legitimate Grape culture,” and will decline to take official 
notice of show bunches at their exhibition made unnaturally large 
by this process “ to the injury of the Vine,” and with the effect of 
“ deceiving the public.” The practice thus condemned seems to 
be very general in that State, but British gardeners contrive to 
produce excellent Grapes without resorting to such proceedings. 
- A correspondent writes that “ at a meeting of the Sale 
Botanical Society, held recently under the presidency of Mr. 
F. J, Broome, some time'was spent in discussing the uses of bees 
in the fructification of plants and changing of colours in flowers, 
a number of specimens of plants or flowers being shown. It was 
incidentally mentioned that the single white Dahlia called the 
Queen, now so much in favour amongst florists, was grown in 
Bowdon forty years ago.” 
- Glass’’ structures in gardens are often profitably em¬ 
ployed for mixed crops, but the practice of rearing Peaches 
and salmon in the same house, as adopted at Culzean Castle 
and described in another column, is new to us. We have seen 
Grapes and early chickens grown in the same house and both 
profitably, but have not^. before heard of the method of rearing 
salmon, in a Peach |house. The practice described is worthy of 
record, and the system of trial in districts adapted for the increase 
of salmon in the rivers. 
- We have received few records of full crops of Apples 
this year, but the following extract from a letter from Lincoln¬ 
shire shows that all orchards are not destitute of fruit:—“ Sturmer 
Pippin has been the only failure this year, trees of almost all other 
sorts bearing great crops. Norfolk Bearer, King of the Pippins 
and some others we have had to prop to prevent the branches 
from breaking with their load of fruit. The trees, which are old, 
have each had about G5 gallons of liquid manure from a tank 
poured over their roots three or four times a year, and this, with 
thinning out the weak and dying wood, has greatly increased the 
quantity of fruit and improved the quality. The soil is strong 
and shallow, resting on limestone, and the position is dry.” 
- Botanists will learn with satisfaction that the Cavaliere 
d’Amico has succeeded, not without considerable difficulty, in 
acclimatising a number of foreign plants in Sicily. They are 
being exhibited at the present time at the Agricultural Exhi¬ 
bition of Messina, and excite a great deal of interest among the 
spectators. Amongst them are the Tea plant, Persea gratissima, 
Cinchona succirubra, Indigofera tinctoria, and Myrica cerifera. 
Cav. d’Amico intends to establish a Tea plantation of some extent 
not far from Messina, and it is hoped that Sicilian tea may in a 
few years become an important article of commerce.— (Nature.) 
- Flower beds and lobster salad are not linked to¬ 
gether in the ordinary style of describing the London parks, but 
there are writers in London equal to all emergencies. One of 
them remarks in a daily paper :— 
“Few improvements have more completely justified their name 
than Battersea Park. With a lake of its own and the broad river 
flowing in its front, with picturesque Chelsea opposite, it is, now that 
the trees have grown, one of the prettiest places in London. More¬ 
over, it has the precious adjunct of a subtropical garden full of 
forms strange and pleasing to the eye, hardy Palms and Aloes, and 
queer-looking plants not unlike a trophy of green bayonets, and 
suggesting anything but the idea of repose. Very little space is lost 
in the ornamental and subtropical garden. Persons whose taste 
tends in that direction cannot fail to admit e the curious shapes and 
combinations of colour to which the bedding-out plants lend them¬ 
selves. Varieties of Stonecrop and Houseleek make pretty enough 
designs in the opinion of many. They have at least the merit of 
being appetising, if one may judge by the remarks of a thoughtful 
gastronome, who compares some of the said beds to lobster salad and 
others to the rich combination of colour and symmetry found only in 
a dressed crab.’ 
- A plant of Barbacenia purpurea is now flowering in 
the Begonia house at Kew, and its beauty well merits all that 
was said in its praise by our correspondent “D.” in the issue of 
this Journal, March 16th of the present year, page 219, when also 
figures were given of B. purpurea and B. Rogieri. It was then 
remarked that the former species is not in cultivation at the pre¬ 
sent time; it will, therefore, be satisfactory to “D.” to know 
that it is included in the Kew collection, where so many beautiful 
old plants have been preserved. The flowers are of moderate 
size and of the richest velvety violet purple colour imaginable, 
the leaves being narrow, long, and drooping, something in the 
way of Pandanus graminifolius. The woodcut mentioned above 
well pourtrays the principal characters. 
- A successful cultivator and exhibitor of Grapes has con¬ 
veyed to us his impressions of the Vines at Longleat. “ I have 
seen,” he says, “ the best Grapes that have been exhibited in and 
near London for several years, but never saw Muscats with such 
large berries and so well finished as those in the vinery in question, 
but I have seen larger bunches ; the crop, however, is splendid— 
so regular and so fine. Mrs. Pince’s Muscat far exceeds anything 
that has ever come under my notice, and I doubt if such bunches 
have ever been produced. They range from 3 lbs. to 5 lbs. in 
weight, full and symmetrical, while the berries are coloured quite 
through the bunches as well as it is possible for Grapes to be. The 
Alicantes are superbly finished, but the Black Hamburgh were all 
cut. The effects of the manure which Mr. Taylor has recommended 
are most marked, and he is fully justified in what he has stated 
relative to its superiority, the Grapes where the border was dressed 
with it being decidedly finer than those produced with the aid of 
a different fertiliser. I shall hope to visit Longleat again next 
year, and if the journey were a hundred miles further than it is 
I should not consider it a long one to see such a remarkable 
example of Grape culture, apart from the excellent practice that 
is visible in other departments of the gardens.” 
-A meeting of the Royal Caledonian Horticultural 
Society was held last Friday in Edinburgh, for the purpose of 
hearing a financial report by Mr. P. Neill Fraser, the Treasurer, 
in regard to the recent International Show held under the auspices 
of the Society. Mr. Syme presided. It appeared from the state¬ 
ment in question that the amount drawn at the gates during the 
two days of the Show was £1106 11s., a sum which represented 
26,250 persons who passed the gates. This number, however, did 
not include ticket-holders, who, it was estimated, would make up 
