78 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ January 25 , m 
prevent an aphis ever appearing. All who covet a grand display 
of these beautiful flowers can only have it by pursuing the system 
of culture briefly indicated. Seed for producing huge specimens 
should be sown early in July. 
After the spring and early summer flowers above alluded to are 
over come Tuberous Begonias and Gloxinias. These when in 
beauty produce a splendid effect under the high culture to which 
they are subjected. At present the corms are resting, and it may 
perhaps be useful to some readers to be informed of the method 
of storing that answers so well. They are assorted according to 
size and merit of the varieties, the bulk of which are not named, 
and placed in large flower pots in a mixture of dry sifted peat 
and pine sawdust, the latter being used to throw mice “ off the 
scent,” the turpentine of the sawdust not suggesting to them the 
choice morsels below. Thus the corms are quite safe, and keep 
perfectly sound and fresh. 
By growing the different plants indicated there is no difficulty 
Pig. 19. 
in having the thirteen or fourteen houses gay throughout the year, 
and this more easily and satisfactorily than could be done by 
growing mixed collections of plants. “ Attempt nothing that can¬ 
not be done well ” appears to be the governing principle, and that 
everything is done well at Pleading will be apparent even to the 
hypercritical observer, if he will honestly determine to point out 
the faults ; he will not find many, unless he is more acute than 
—A Yisitoe. 
LEVELLING GROUND. 
I have a piece of unlevel ground on which I am requested to 
make a tennis lawn of considerable size. Unfortunately, like 
many other young men, I have had no opportunities of assisting 
in work of this nature, and I am unwilling to admit my ignorance 
to the men, some of whom no doubt would be able to do the work. 
But I wish to understand it myself before commencing, and if 
you can give me a few very plain instructions you may possibly 
be doing a service to some others who, from no fault of their own, 
are as unprepared as myself in a n a'ter 
of this kind, and may not like to bring the 
fact to your notice. I shall be glad if you 
can in any way help— One in a Fix. 
[We willingly assist in this case and do 
not know that we can do so more usefully 
than by publishing the very plain instruc¬ 
tions that were communicated by Mr M. 
O’Donnell some years ago as follows :— 
“ If the ground presents an uneven sur¬ 
face, or is formed of a sloping bank, either 
inconveniently steep or presenting an irre¬ 
gular surface, it will be necessary to level 
it, which may be done in the following 
manner :—Take a stout peg and drive it into the ground, as 
a, fig. 19 ; take a level—either such as is used by bricklayers, as 
in fig. 19, or a parallel straight-edge containing a spirit tube, 
commonly known as a spirit level—drive in as many pegs 
as are required, as b , to the same level as the first peg a. The 
level line c, c, is the line required ; the ground line, d, is the un¬ 
even surface of the ground, which requires filling up to the level 
at peg b. As soon as the pegs are in, level the ground with a 
spade, keeping the earth full up to the top of the pegs, tread it 
firmly all over, rake it carefully, and roll it well. 
“ If the ground chosen should be sloping, as b, fig. 20, two depths 
must be determined upon, one at the highest and one at the 
lowest point. Place a borning-rod at each of these points, as at 
points 1 and 3, place another in any point between the two, as 
the intermediate borning-rod 2. By looking over the top of rod 1 
the person holding the intermediate rod can be directed to lower 
or raise it as occasion may require, until it is brought to the 
proper level, as rod 2. Rod 1 is supposed to be a little raised by 
placing some earth under it for the purpose of getting it to the 
proper level, a, a —that is, the level determined upon. Rod 2 is 
elevated until the top edge forms a direct line with rods 1 and 3. 
Rod 3 is placed on the natural ground. The cross piece of rod 3 
should be 1 inch broader and higher than the others—that is to 
say, if rods 1 and 2 are 4 feet high, rod 3 must be 4 feet 1 inch 
but a line must be drawn exactly at 4 feet, and the top inch 
painted black. On looking over rod 1 the black line on rod 3 can 
be seen more distinctly than the top edge of the rod vyouid be, 
and intermediate rod 2 can be placed more correctly in a line 
with the top of rod 3—that is, the under edge of the black, than 
by locking over the tops of the three rods. 
“ The borning-rod is composed of a thin piece of board about 
4 inches wide, half an inch thick, and about 4 feet in length. 
The head is a similar piece of board placed crossways, but only 
about 18 inches in length. The upper and under edge of the 
board must be perfectly straight and at right 
angles with the body.”] 
THE METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
The annual general meeting of this Society 
was held on Wednesday the 17th instant, at 
the Institution of Civil Engineers, Mr. J. K. 
Laughton, M.A., F.R.A.S., President, in the chair. 
The Secretary read the report of the Council, 
which showed that the total number of Fellows 
was 571, forty-seven new Fellows having been 
elected during the year. 
The President then delivered his address. He 
referred briefly to the great importance of the 
uniform series of observations now taken 
under the auspices of the Society, and proceeded to speak at gieater 
length of certain other points in which the Society might, by its 
concerted action, further the interests of meteorological science, ihe 
first of these was anemometry, which is at present in a condition tai 
from satisfactory*. We know nothing positively either as to t e 
pressure or the velocity of the wind : there is no exact standard 
instrument, and observations, whatever maybe their absolute value, 
are not comparable one with the other. He thought that the Society 
might properly interfere, so far as to regulate the wide diversity 
amongst the instruments now used, in order that when the pioper 
time came, and it was known what anemometer could be trusted, the 
older observations might be reduced. The movement of air in the 
upper regions of the atmosphere is not measurable by any existing 
method ; but experiments have been made, at the suggestion of the 
Meteorological Council, in which the drift of the smoke-cloud of a 
bursting shell may be observed and measured. The observations of 
the barometer taken at elevated stations in the United States seem to 
throw considerable doubt on the received formulae for the reduction 
of barometric readings to sea level, and for the calculation of heights. 
When the observations extend over a long period, and are regularly 
taken under all conditions of weather, then no doubt the height of a 
mountain can be calculated with a fair approach to accuracy ; but 
Fig. 20. 
isolated observations, subject to the fluctuations of the different 
readings, are extremely wild in their results. In the same way the 
reduction of the barometer to sea level is complicated by many dis¬ 
crepancies which arise between observations at the upper and lower 
stations, which have hitherto been ignored. It is impossible to say 
how far they affect the isobars on which our daily weather charts are 
based ; but it is at least probable that they are at least one additional 
source of error and of difficulty. It is much to be wished that 
systematic and continuous observations at high-level stations could 
be taken, not only on the top of Ben Nevis, but on the tops of 
some others of the highest peaks in different parts of the country. 
In this way alone can these difficulties of reduction be cleared 
away. 
The following gentlemen were elected the Officers and Council for 
the ensuing year :—President—John Knox Laughton, M.A., F.R.A.S., 
F.R.G.S. Vice-Presidents—Edmund Douglas Archibald, M.A.; Rogers 
Field, B.A., M.Inst.C.E. ; Baldwin Latham, M.Inst.C.E., F.G.S. ; 
William Marcet, M.D., F.R.8., F.C.S. Treasurer—Henry Perigal, 
F.R.A.S. Trustees—Hon. Francis Albert Rollo Russell, M.A. . 
* 
