September 2, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 218 
The calyx is furnished with spines each of an inch or more in 
length, and it is to the rich colour of these that the plant owes its 
chief attractions. The species is admirably adapted for a low 
position on a rockery, succeeding well in a compost of peat and 
loam, and is quite hardy. It is seen in some collections under 
the name of A. novse-zealandiae, a term that is by no means dis¬ 
tinctive, as several species are also found in New Zealand, so that 
the name by which it is designated in Sir Joseph Hooker’s “ Flora 
of New Zealand,”—viz., A. microphylla, is much more appropriate. 
- Mb. W. Roberts writes as follows on the weather and 
the crops in Cornwall —“ We are having beautiful weather 
here at present, and things are looking well. Apples and Pears 
are short, but some other fruits are looking as well or better than 
they have for a long time past. Of Wheat, Oats, and Barley 
there is an abundant crop. Peaches are quite a failure.” 
- We are requested to state that the employes —Nurseries 
v. Seed Stores—of Messrs. James Carter & Co. met in a cricket 
match at Forest Hill on Saturday last, the result of the contest 
being to the advantage of the former. A very agreeable evening 
was afterwards spent in the neighbourhood by a hundred or more 
of Messrs. Carters’ assistants. 
- We have received from Messrs. Edward Webb & Sons, 
Wordsley, Stourbridge, some blooms of Orange African Mari¬ 
golds grown in their trial grounds at the Kinver Seed Farms. 
The blooms are not large, but of excellent form, very compact, 
and rich in colour. They represent a good strain. 
- A very fine hardy aquatic plant is Sagittaria SAGIT- 
tifolia flore-pleno, which bears its large double pure white 
flowers in whorls on a scape 2 or more feet in height. The plant 
succeeds very well in a loamy soil, either in a pot plunged 
beneath the surface of the water in a shallow tank or planted 
out in a similar position. The variety is much more attractive 
than the well-known wild form, the flowers being very regular 
in outline and rather more than an inch in diameter. 
- We recently noticed in a small suburban garden a very 
tasteful combination of Trop^eolum peregrinum and Sweet 
Peas. These were trained to a number of stakes at intervals of 
about a yard, so as to form a series of compact floral pillars ; the 
bright yellow flowers of the Tropseolum, and the purple, crimson, 
and white blooms of the Latbyrus intermingled, producing t a 
charming effect. 
- A correspondent obligingly sent us a report, which 
arrived too late for insertion last week, of the Wiiickham Floral 
Society’s Show. The Exhibition was held in the rectory grounds 
at that town, by the permission of the Rev. H. B. Carr. Plants, 
flowers, fruit, and vegetables were well shown by Messrs. E. 
Adams, Swalwell; T. Battensby, Axwell Park ; J. Lawson, Whick- 
ham ; T. Lambert, W. Spoor; R. Gardner, Dunston ; G. Smith, 
J. G. Ismay, W. Mowbray, J. Caulthorn, and T. Harrison. A 
variety of amusements was provided, and the Exhibition was well 
attended by visitors, the receipts covering all expenses and leaving 
a balance to the credit of the Society. All the arrangements 
appear to have been satisfactory and creditable to the Secretaries, 
Messrs. R. Burns and Thomas Lambert. 
- A correspondent of a daily contemporary writes :— 
“ During my entire journey from Teheran, Persia, to Shah- 
rood I have not seen a single Orange, Olive, or Palm tree. The 
Pomegranate and Fig and black and white Mulberry flourish 
luxuriantly. In all reason it is certainly hot enough for Olives ; 
and one would imagine that a people so fond of putting greasy 
matter into their pilaff as the Persians would have made some 
effort to secure a supply of oil. The absence of the Orange, too, 
astonishes me. One sees it growing and ripening thoroughly in 
far more northerly latitudes. As for the Palm, as a proof that it 
would grow here, there is one at present in the gardens of a 
deserted palace on the Caspian shore, which is said to date from 
the time of Shah Abbas the Great. There is a tradition, too, that 
the ground between Asterabad and the Atterek was once one 
immense Palm grove. Yet this tree of the East par excellence, 
and which plays so important a part in the existence of many 
oriental nations, is here nowhere to be seen. The figure of the 
camel with his stalking gait and outstretched swaying neck seems 
out of place without a Palm tree in the background.” 
- Messrs. Jones & Son state that the prizes for Phloxes 
were not awarded exactly as represented in our report of the 
Shrewsbury Show, but that they received the premier prize for 
those flowers. 
RED SPIDER IN VINERIES. 
Some remarks have been published relative to this pest, and 
modes of prevention. One writer neither finds it necessary to 
syringe his Vines nor damp the vineries; another finds it 
requisite to employ more or less moisture in the houses. The 
differences can only be reconciled by locality. I have lived in 
the west of England and rarely saw red spider, but I am now in 
a “red spider district.” In the former locality I could, so far as 
relates to atmospheric moisture, safely leave that question pretty 
well to Nature, but I cannot do so now. 
I have now a rather striking proof of the value of damping the 
paths and walls of vineries occasionally with guano water, in 
keeping the pest at bay. The late dry and hot weather has caused 
red spider to increase rapidly outdoors. Kidney Beans are covered 
with it, and Vines on walls are attacked. Under glass I have not 
seen one insect, but through a broken square near the top of the 
roof of a vinery a lateral has found it3 way, and the young foliage 
of this lateral is furnishing food for numbers of the insect. This 
appears to me tolerably conclusive proof that, in my case at least, 
the moisture employed in the house has been beneficial, and the 
circumstance may be worth mentioning in the Journal, to which 
so many gardeners and amateurs turn for plain practical informa¬ 
tion.— Mid-Surrey. 
AUSTRALIAN FOREST TREES. 
A towering giant indeed is the Wellingtonia of California. 
But the Gum Tree of Australia—mounting over 400 feet, able if 
placed beside St. Paul’s Cathedral to throw a shadow oyer it, and 
having timber enough to construct a big ship out of a single stem 
—is the vegetable monarch of earth. Few things more strike the 
young Gum-sucker on a visit to the land of his forefathers as the 
diminutive size of our forest trees. He smiles when he hears 
praises of mighty Oaks. The wonder of the Kangaroo country is 
not confined to the size of its timber, but extends to the variety of 
species and the economical uses to which they could be devoted. 
The first tree brought into requisition by the early Sydney 
settlers was a species of Palm, the stem of which was easily used in 
building. The curled top served for Cabbage, giving the plant 
the name of Cabbage Palm, while the fibre made the celebrated 
Cabbage tree hats of Bushmen. In Adelaide the Reed beds 
supplied the first colonists with framework for dwellings. In 
Melbourne the Stringybark gave a coveriug for roofs and slabs for 
hut sides. As progress went on Pine forests and Cedar belts were 
invaded for more convenient and valuable woods. The furniture 
makers, not content with these, sought more rare and beautiful 
material in Australian shades. Coopers and veneerers, wheel¬ 
wrights and gunmakers, carpenters and shipwrights, tanners and 
dyers, with other tradesmen looked for special timbers. Ihe 
chemist had his objects of search, and the druggist added precious 
medicines from colonial forests. 
Queensland is favoured even in favoured Australia with a variety 
of valuable woods. In a work on the “ Resources of Queensland ” 
it is said that “The most useful trees for building purposes are 
the Stringybark, the Gums, Cedars, Pines, Cypress Pine, Kauri 
Pine, Red Mahogany, Yellow-wood, Citron-scented Gum, Ash, 
Beech, Brigalow, Ironbark, Box, Blackbutt, Bloodred, &c. Ihose 
for veneering are Forest Oak or Beef wood, Red Cedar, Sweet 
Plum, Satinwood, Sandalwood, and Ebony. For staves, Silky Oak, 
Tulipwood, Stavewood, and Boyum-boyum are used ; for flooring, 
Stringybark and White Pine ; for wheelwright’s work, Sour Plum, 
Blue G urn, and Apple tree ; for turnery, Scrub Rosewood; for 
gunstocks, a species of Acacia ; for dyeing, Cockspur Thorn ; for 
shipbuilding, Gums and White Mangrove ; for bark-tanning, 
several kinds of Wattle, Ironwood, and Mangrove ; for hoops, 
