114 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ February 8, isss. 
- Mr. E. P. Brotherston sends a good flower of Chrys¬ 
anthemum Fair Maid of Guernsey, which he states is the 
first produced by some plants upon which he has been experi¬ 
menting with the view to obtaining late flowers. Though rather 
loose the bloom was attractive, and such flowers would prove use¬ 
ful at this season. Perhaps he will relate his mode of treatment. 
- We have received from the Science and Art Department, 
South Kensington, a notification respecting the St. Petersburgh 
International Horticultural Exhibition and Botanical 
Congress that is to be held this year, and to which we have 
previously referred. 
- “ There is nothing,” writes a correspondent in reference 
to CHOICE FLOWER SEEDS, “ which causes so much disappoint¬ 
ment to the amateur as, after spending 5#. upon a small packet of 
choicest seed, to find the plants produced bear blooms which are 
worthless. This has just happened to me with a large batch of 
Cinerarias. Had I known what the seed was I would not have 
accepted it as a gift. It is very trying to find one's money, time, 
and trouble all wasted and the house cumbered with plants fit 
only for the refuse heap as soon as the blooms expand.” 
- In Covent Garden Market Orchid flowers now form an 
important portion of the florist’s stock at nearly all seasons of the 
year. At the present time the useful Dendrobium nobile is 
strongly represented, many cutting the entire growths instead of 
sending the flowers singly. Some richly coloured varieties of 
this Orchid are frequently seen, and they are difficult to surpass ; 
but some of the bouquetists have a curious method of arranging 
Dendrobium flowers with the lip uppermost, which has an 
unnatural appearance, though the colour in the lip can be seen 
better. Odontoglossum Alexandra and 0. Pescatorei are evidently 
indispensable, while Laelias, Cattleyas, and many others in their 
season are largely represented. 
- A correspondent writes :—“ In an essay by Dr. H. P. 
Walcott upon Chrysanthemums and their culture, which 
was read before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society early in 
the present year, and reprinted in the American Cultivator, occurs 
a statement which will somewhat astonish those who are familiar 
with English exhibitions. After commending the system of cul¬ 
ture adopted here, the essayist states that ‘ only incurved blooms 
are shown at the great London shows.’ It would be difficult to 
understand’whence the doctor obtained this piece of information, 
and he certainly cannot read the English horticultural periodicals 
very carefully, or he would not have committed so strange a 
blunder.” 
- Mr. Foster informs [us that he has placed the entire 
stock of his Foster’s Seedling^ Potato in the hands of Messrs. 
Pennell & Sons, nurserymen, Lincoln. This variety, it may be 
remembered, was, after being tried at Chiswick, awarded a first- 
class certificate by the Boyal Horticultural Society in 1881. 
- An excellent cultivator and competent judge of Orchids 
sends us the following note on Dendrobium Leechianum 
(D. nobile X heterocarpum) :—“ Mr. Swan has sent fresh flowers 
of three of the best forms of this charming hybrid Dendrobe, all 
distinct in size'[and colouring, but characteristically alike in 
structure and parentage. Mr. Swan has bloomed eighteen plants 
of this fine hybrid this season, some of the varieties closely ap¬ 
proaching D. Ainsworthii (which is of the same parentage), while 
others are as fine, if not even finer, than D. splendidissimum. All 
are beautiful, and Mr. Swan and his worthy employer may well 
feel proudly gratified at having reared such a free-blooming and 
useful hybrid to their collection, wherein, we believe, D. Leechi¬ 
anum is unique.’ 
- We learn from the Essex Times that a presentation to 
Mr. James Douglas was recently made by the scholars and 
teachers of the Congregational Sunday School, Barking, where he 
has been teacher and superintendent for the past nineteen years ; 
and as he is about to leave Loxford Hall Gardens for Mr. Whit- 
bourn’s new estate, Great Gearies, it was thought a fitting oppor¬ 
tunity to accord him some recognition of their esteem. The pre¬ 
sentation took the form of a handsome marble timepiece and a 
pair of tazzas to match. 
- “ J. J.” writes :—“ A short time ago a note appeared in 
the Journal from the Irish larmers' Gazette in which it was 
stated that it 1 had been demonstrated that dwarf plants of 
Luculia gratissima with fine heads of flower can be grown in 
6-inch pots.’ If any of your correspondents can give instructions 
for doing this I should be much obliged. I have had partial 
success, but I have never been able to maintain a plant in good 
health. The plants sent out from nurseries are generally poor 
specimens struggling for life ; and when visiting some of the best 
nurseries to choose one with a determination of making one more 
attempt to grow it, I have never succeeded in finding anything 
worth having. Why is this ? It is a beautiful plant, and as 
sweet as beautiful. Can no one solve the problem of its easy 
culture ? ” 
- Very attractive in the Orchid House at Kew just now are 
several plants of L^elia albida, which is one of the prettiest of 
winter-flowering Orchids. The flowers are pleasingly fragrant, of 
moderate size, and are borne five or six near the end of a raceme 
18 inches to 2 feet long. The sepals and petals are narrow, pure 
white, the lip being white, streaked with purple at the base and 
having a yellow ridge in the centre. A variety termed bella is 
also grown, and is easily distinguished from the species by the 
sepals and petals being tipped with purple, affording a charming 
contrast to the pure white blooms of the ordinary type. Both 
succeed well on blocks in a warm house. Lmlia furfuracea is 
flowering freely on a block, the pale mauve sepals and petals being 
tipped with purple, the lip of a similar colour, with the wings 
white. In the same house Ornithidium Sophronitis, a diminutive 
Orchid, is also noteworthy for its numerous small orange-scarlet 
flowers ; and in a small pot suspended from the roof it both grows 
and flowers freely. The fragrant Dendrobium aureum perfumes 
the East Indian house most agreeably. One fine specimen is 
flowering abundantly, its long-noded growths having in some 
cases twenty or more flowers borne in pairs and triplets. The 
sepals and petals are yellow, the lip orange or brownish. It is 
grown in a basket, the stems being somewhat pendulous. 
- The official returns of the wine harvest in Algeria 
for the past year show rapid progress in the cultivation of the 
Vine in the French dependency, although in France itself, owing 
to the ravages of the phylloxera and the bad weather, the very 
reverse has been the case. The total area of land now devoted to 
viniculture in the provinces of Algiers, Constantine, and Oran is 
23,724 hectares (about 59,000 acres), of which 19,700 hectares 
produce the black, and 4,024 the white Grape. In 1878 the total 
area was only 17,614 hectares. The yield of wine during last 
year was 400,197 hectolitres (about 9,500,000 gallons), showing a 
considerable increase as compared with the returns for the 
preceding year. 
- Toronto in Canada, following the example of Chicago, is 
engaged in laying out A boulevard which is to encircle the 
whole city, and is to consist of a road 100 yards wide, adorned 
occasionally with flower beds. A “ Rotten Row ” or riding alley 
is also to be provided, and the whole is to be preserved and kept 
in order at the public expense. The similar boulevards at Chicago 
are a great success, and are much appreciated by the citizens of 
that densely peopled city. 
- In Signor Berti’s project for replanting forests in 
