December so, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 595 
which have been sent to us by Mr. Cannell. The flowers are very 
small and admirably formed, with chaste reflexed florets form¬ 
ing two-thirds of a ball. The colour is very pleasing, and the 
variety will be valuable for bouquets and general decorative pur¬ 
poses. As evidence of the usefulness of Chrysanthemums for vase 
decoration we may observe that the flowers above referred to are 
still fresh, though they have been severed from the plant upwards 
of three weeks. 
- Like the issues of previous years, Mr. Shirley Hibberd’s 
old-established annual, the “ Garden Oracle ” for 1881, con¬ 
tains a great variety of matter, seasonable and useful. It includes 
articles on special subjects, new inventions, well-selected lists of 
fruit, flowers, and vegetables, and a concise calendar of gardening 
operations for the different months of the year. 
- “W. I.” sends the following note on Primulas at 
Reading :—“ Several of the houses in Messrs. Suttons’ nurseries 
are at the present time filled with some handsome Chinese Pri¬ 
mulas. The idea of maintaining a lengthened display of Primulas 
with the help of early, midseason, and late varieties is rather 
novel, but, as demonstrated at Reading, is perfectly practicable, as 
Messrs. Suttons have succeeded in perfecting strains which, if 
sown simultaneously and grown under precisely the same con¬ 
ditions, will flower at very different periods. Added to this the 
plants are sturdy in growth and produce strong whorls of large 
well-shaped blooms of various, and in some instances very novel, 
colours. Great improvements have also been effected in the Fern¬ 
leaved Primulas, which will probably bring them into favour 
again. The old strains were considered faulty owing to the 
extreme length of the leafstalks, but the new strains are sturdy 
and compact. The only variety yet named is Rosy Queen, and 
this is the earliest to bloom. A house now full of plants is very 
effective. The flowers are large, of good form and substance, the 
colour being a very pleasing rosy pink. A house is also filled 
with Ruby King' Primula, which will shortly be at its best, as 
hundreds of plants are fast expanding their richly coloured 
blooms. This is a very sturdy distinct variety, but requires a 
little heat to develope the flowers satisfactorily. Two other 
novelties to be distributed this season are Reading Pink and 
Pearl, which are varieties of great merit.” 
- Part V. of Paxton’s Flower Garden contains coloured 
plates of Nepenthes sanguinea and Clianthus Dampieri, the 
former rather startling in the colour, and the latter well indi¬ 
cating the form of the flowers, but much inferior in colour and 
size to the specimens exhibited by Mr. A. Harding at one of the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s meetings last year. The cultural 
instructions are clear, the “ Gleanings ” being also continued. 
- Writing upon the Distribution of Plants in Messrs. 
Cassell’s “ Science for All,” Dr. Robert Brown has the following 
remarks concerning the rapid increase of some plants when intro¬ 
duced into other countries. After referring to the spread of the 
well-known American Waterweed in this country since 1817, he 
continues : “ The common Sorrel (Rumex acetosella) has been 
introduced with grain into nearly every one of our colonies, and in 
New Zealand it is spreading with such activity that it would take 
possession of the fields did not the farmer find that in the struggle 
for existence it cannot bear up against the greater vigour of the 
white Clover, which soon kills it. Even the white Clover in one 
locality has its match in the Cat’s-ear (Hypochseris radicata), 
which in three years from its introduction into New Zealand has 
destroyed excellent pastures. The introduction of the Anacharis 
into Great Britain is paralleled by the introduction of the Vallis- 
neria into the Hudson River, where in the months of August and 
September it almost stops navigation in places ; or by the Water¬ 
cress, which threatens to choke up the New Zealand rivers in the 
district of Canterbury. A Grass (Stipa textilis) has invaded the 
southern Russian steppes, and is rapidly displacing almost every 
other plant; while the Cardcon (Cynara cardunculus), accident¬ 
ally introduced from Europe, now clothes almost to the exclusion 
of other plants whole leagues of the Pampas of the Argentine 
Republic and Uruguay.” 
- At the last meeting of the Royal Horticultural 
Society of Ireland —Edward Perceval Westby, Esq., D.L., 
in the chair—among other communications letters were read 
from Messrs. Moore and Burbidge, Directors of the Glasnevin and 
University Botanic Gardens, expressing their acknowledgments 
for their election as honorary members of the Society ; and also 
one from Mr. Roberts, head gardener to the Countess of Charle- 
ville,-'Charleville Forest, Tullamore, King’s County, thanking the 
Council for the special award of the Society’s large silver medal 
for the extraordinary, indeed marvellous, bunch of black Grapes 
(Gros Guillaume) exhibited by him at the Society’s Winter Show 
of fruits, held last month in the Exhibition Palace, and further 
giving a few interesting facts with regard to the Vine that pro¬ 
duced it, which appear worthy of being put on record. After 
giving, as requested, the exact weight of the bunch in question 
(26 lbs. 6 ozs.), Mr. Roberts proceeds to say—“ Last year two 
bunches cut from the same Vine and exhibited in London weighed 
over 3 stone, or 42 lbs., and for these I was awarded a medal by 
the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington. I may, too, 
mention the fact, merely with a view to show what the Vine that 
bore those and the bunch exhibited on the 25th ult. has done—in 
five seasons it has borne nine bunches, the total weight of which 
was 105 lbs .”—(Irish Farmers' Gazette.') 
- The Olive Harvest. —The Naples correspondent of the 
Daily Fetes writes :—“According to the last reports the Olives in 
the provinces of Puglia and Calabria are of unusually good quality. 
The temperature could not have been better than it was during 
the last six weeks—a period essential for the definitive ripening of 
the fruit, which in consequence is so firmly attached to the 
branches that none falls, and it can be plucked at leisure. In 
Calabria especially not an Olive has fallen, a thing that has not 
been noticed for many years, and if the weather continues so mild 
and without frost there is a certainty that the fruit will yield oil 
of exceptional quality and quantity. The markets at Gora and 
Galipoli are calm, with little business doing, and if no further 
reduction in price is verified it is only because the actual price of 
oil is already low enough for an abundant harvest, from which 
foreign countries have still to lay in their large stores. Reports 
from Spain, the Ionian Islands, Greece, and Tunis are also excel¬ 
lent ; the last place will yield a harvest three times more than the 
average quality.” 
FRAGRANT ROSES. 
Mr. Muir’s commendation of Niphetos as the best Tea Rose may 
be true of its indoor culture or of its condition at Margam, one of the 
most genial situations in the kingdom, within a few feet of sea 
level, and sheltered alike from north, east, and west winds. But 
change the situation. Take a site like this more than 800 feet above 
the sea and exposed, except so far as some plantations shield us from 
the west and north winds. What would then be the reputation of 
Niphetos ? I wish much that more attention were given to hardy 
Roses suited to open grounds, and which should also maintain the 
Rose’s chief charm—fragrance. There is, I am glad to say, an in¬ 
creasing disposition to discard delicate and scentless varieties. It 
will add greatly to the value of the proposed catalogue by the Rose 
Society, if in the description it he stated whether the variety is or is 
not fragrant. If this is to be one of the qualities particularised I 
shall be glad not only to take some copies but to subscribe towards 
the expenses of publication. 
We greatly want a work of the kind. One other point interests 
me—I w i s h that the absurd nomenclature could be revised. The 
Rose requires no dignities ; she is queen of the garden, and to duh 
her with a string of minor appellatives is ludicrous. I have in my 
garden nearly a thousand varieties; they appear in my private 
