Noyomber is, i88o. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 461 
size. The particulars of the dimensions have already appeared 
in the Builder , from which I have extracted them. Length 
1,100 feet, width 30 feet, superficial area of glass 42,000 feet. 
Length of 4-inch piping to be employed 10,000 feet. The glazing 
is to be done on a patent non-pnttying system. The house is 
intended for Vines to yield an early supply.” 
- The Annual General Meeting of National Auricula, 
Carnation, and Picotee Societies (Southern Section), will be 
held at the house of E. S. Dodwell, Esq., 11, Chatham Terrace, 
Larkhall Rise, Clapham, S.W., on November 23rd, at 3 p.m. 
Wandsworth Road is the nearest railway station. 
- Messrs. James Carter & Co., 237, High Holborn, 
London, have sent us some remarkably fine Magnum Bonum 
Potatoes, with a request that we test their quality when 
cooked. We have done so and found them excellent. They 
were white, sufficiently mealy, melting, and of an agreeable and 
delicate flavour. The Magnum Bonum appears to be one of the 
few Potatoes that combines size with good appearance, suitable 
for the exhibition table, great cropping and disease-resisting 
properties, and the quality, judged at least by all the samples we 
have tasted, fit for any table. The cooking properties are pro¬ 
bably not developed equally early in all cases, as soils exert a 
great influence in this respect; and we have proved by careful 
experiment that the large imposing tubers that would secure a 
first prize at a Potato exhibition are by no means equal in quality 
to the smaller or medium-sized samples that might by chance 
obtain a third prize, but, as is more probable, would be passed by 
the Judges. 
- Mr. H. Cannell, Swanley, Kent, recently sent us some 
spikes of the beautiful Salvia Pitcheri. Blue flowers are 
generally rather scarce, but in the middle of November they 
are especially welcome. The shade, too, possessed by this fine 
Salvia is one of the clearest and most pleasing represented in 
flowers. The spikes are 7 or 8 inches in length, cylindrical, very 
compact, and contain a large number of medium-size flowers. 
For growing in pots and employing in conservatory and green¬ 
house decoration this plant will be invaluable, constituting an 
important addition to our best of late autumn-flowering plants. 
- Those charming little Orchids, the Indian Crocuses or 
Pleiones, are general favourites, owing to their brightly-coloured 
and pretty flowers being produced at a season when the Orchid 
house is comparatively dull. During the past month we have 
seen several handsome displays of P. lagenaria and P. maculata, 
Messrs. Veitch and Williams having good collections remarkably 
well grown. Another pretty species has also been notable at 
Kew in company with the others—namely, P. Wallichiana, similar 
in habit and flowers to the better known forms. 
- One of the most elegant of the delicate Filmy Ferns is 
Hymenophyllum ciliatum, which has diminutive pellucid pale 
green fronds, slightly fringed with fine hairs, as the name implies. 
This species is not very difficult to manage, as it succeeds well on 
a portion of Tree Fern stem in a Wardian case. As with others of 
the genus, the chief requirements are abundant moisture in the 
air and around its delicate roots, but no approach to stagnation, 
and a very equable temperature. 
-Mr. Harrison Weir writes :—“ The weather in Kent 
is all against gardening—frost, snow, rain, mud, slush, mixed, and 
plenty of it! ” 
- The fact that the Rev. Canon Hole’s “Book about Roses” 
(Blackwood & Sons) has reached a seventh edition is sufficient 
evidence cf its popularity. Written in a style that is at once 
racy and readable, and containing instruction that is sound and 
reliable, it meets the tastes of a wide circle of readers. It only 
remains to add that the present volume is larger and more varied 
than the last, is admirably printed on superior paper, and forms 
an attractive and useful volume. 
- Mr. J. Muir of Margam sends us the two following notes— 
“In the autumn of 1877 Holly berries were most abundant 
on the trees here ; in 1878 they were very scarce. In 1879 they 
were again plentiful, and this year we have not a single berry. 
Is this scarcity general throughout the country, and may we attri¬ 
bute it to the same causes as our fruit tree failures ? The want of 
Holly berries is certainly much felt at Christmas time, and if a 
course could be pointed out which would insure their fruiting 
annually no doubt many would follow it.” 
- “ The Arbutus Unedo is one of the freest and finest 
winter berried trees we have. At the present time its rich- 
coloured Strawberry-like fruits are hanging in clusters, and con¬ 
trast well with the little bell-shaped cream-coloured blooms which 
expand all the year through. In severe winters blackbirds, 
thrushes, and others destroy many of the berries.” 
- “Rus” of Reading writes—“Let me recommend Bil- 
bergia morelliana to your readers. It is a superb plant. 
Nurserymen do not seem to like it. I had mine from a neighbour.” 
- The same correspondent states that Oleanders at 
Pernambuco are extremely handsome, growing most luxuriantly 
and flowering profusely, the red and white varieties being 
highly attractive. 
VEGETABLES AT CHISWICK. 
A meeting of the Fruit and Vegetable Committees of the Royal 
Horticultural Society was held at Chiswick on the 9th inst. 
(J. Lee, Esq., in the chair), when the following vegetables were 
examined:— 
The collection of Brussels Sprouts growing in the garden was 
inspected, in all thirty-three lots. A great proportion of these 
were found to be very much mixed, and also inferior. The follow- 
were considered by the Committee the most approved stocks—viz., 
Aigburth, from Messrs. Kerr; and Otterspool, from Mr. Hinds, 
which are identical; Dalkeith Improved, from Messrs. Downie 
and Laird ; Cragos Favourite, from Messrs. Cocker & Sons ; 
Scrymgeour’s Giant, from Messrs. Nutting ; and The Chelsea, from 
Messrs. Veitch. A new Beet from Messrs. Rutley & Silverlock 
was examined and highly approved. Some Shallots raised from 
seed, sent to the garden by Mr. E. Pond of Jersey, were examined. 
Examples of these when submitted to the Committee at the meet¬ 
ing on October 14th, 1879, were supposed to be Potato Onions, 
but as now grown in the garden have been found to be true 
Shallots, the silver-skinned variety being very distinct and pretty. 
Several new Potatoes grown in the garden were examined, the 
most promising of which were Carter’s New and Lye’s Wiltshire 
Snowflake. 
THE WEATHER, AND OUTDOOR GARDENING IN 
IRELAND. 
Ireland is in more respects than politically a land of contrasts. 
The late storm and persistent rains were by no means equally 
diffused. I learn from Mr. Burbidge of the Dublin University 
Botanic Gardens that it was only by strenuous exertions his staff 
maintained the fires in the houses where they were indispensable ; 
while the Chief Secretary has inaugurated a subscription for some 
of the poorer market gardeners and cotters on the banks of the 
Tolka, Dublin, that overflowed its banks. From Wednesday 
morning 27th ult. until the following Thursday same hour, 
2-736 inches of rain had fallen. For ten years nothing of the 
kind had been noted, and the greater part of the time a hurricane 
blew at Kingstown, eighty-five miles an hour being registered. 
The steady temperature of 46° was during this time maintained 
there. Turning to the west of Ireland, any of your readers who 
might contemplate changing to a milder climate warmed by the 
soft breezes of the Gulf Stream will be charmed with the following 
extract, by permission, from a letter just received from Mrs. 
Randel Peyton, Rose Hall House, Sligo, an enthusiastic floral 
patroness—“ The weather here has been so lovely—no storms, no 
rain : it is a water famine we are suffering from. No mists ; 
nothing but the clearest skies and the most brilliant sunshine. 
