JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 8, 1883. ] 
197 
Society in twenty-seven classes for bulbs, miscellaneous plants, 
flowers, and fruits, which include a four-guinea silver cup for the 
best collection of plants in bloom, and the Royal Horticultural 
Society’s bronze Knightian medal for a group. In addition to 
these special prizes are offered in twenty classes by gentlemen 
and ladies residing in the neighbourhood of Bristol, and a Royal 
Horticultural Society’s silver Knightian medal is offered for the 
best twelve Hyacinths in any class. 
- Mg. E. R. Cutler writes :—“ I have had an interview 
with Mr. Alderman Cotton, M.P. for the City of London, and he 
has most kindly consented to preside at the fortieth anniversary 
dinner of the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution 
in aid of the funds of this institution, and has named Wednesday, 
the 4th July, for that purpose. The Alderman stated that he 
will do all in his power to promote the interests of the Society ; 
he will be very disappointed if he does not receive assistance 
from the trade generally.” 
- A pamphlet of fifteen pages on the culture and 
EXHIBITION OP THE Chrysanthemum has been published by 
Mr. W. Jupp, gardener to G. Boulton, Esq., Torfield, Eastbourne. 
Ten pages only are devoted to the history and culture, which are, 
therefore, treated very briefly, the remaining five pages giving 
lists of varieties. It is fairly accurate, but does not treat the 
subject so fully as is desirable. 
- Relating to Pears on the Continent, Dr. Mackenzie 
writes to us :—“ Looking over my journal in Lombardy in 1859, 
I see frequent mention of ‘ fine large Pears nearly as good as 
Peaches at Florence, Bologna, Mantua, Milan, and Turin in March 
and April at 1 d. each,’ such as Is. each would not obtain from 
Covent Garden at that time of year. They were in quantities on 
street barrows and shops—a plain, light brown, ordinary large 
pear-shaped fruit, needing caution if bitten, lest ‘ fileing ains 
claes.’ What is that Pear’s name ?” It is the Winter Bon 
Chr&tien, but will not succeed anything like so well in this country, 
- Planting Forest Trees in Ireland.—D r. Lyons, M.P., 
having suggested that employment might be found for consider¬ 
able numbers of the Irish people who are in distress if the old 
forests could be restored to the country, liberal gifts of young 
trees have been offered for the purpose. Messrs. Little and 
Ballantyne of Carlisle offer twenty thousand trees ; Messrs* 
Dixon & Son of Cheltenham follow this with a promise of fifty 
thousand ; Messrs. Hogg & Robertson of Dublin and Scotland, 
forty thousand. Several thousands are also promised by Messrs. 
Bell & Sons of Hexham, and Mr. O. H. Higgins of Clonmel. 
- Relative to the importation of vegetables, “Land” 
says :—“ By the opening of the St. Gothard Railway this country 
seems to be benefiting hardly less than those more immediately 
affected. Early fruit and vegetables are now conveyed without 
transhipment from all parts of Italy to Ostend, Antwerp, and 
Rotterdam, whence they are brought by fast steamers to London 
and other British ports. We understand that the Great Eastern 
Railway alone has within a few months brought over six thousand 
tons of such produce.” 
- Mr. William Taylor, Longleat Gardens, Warminster 
writes :—“ I send a sample of what I consider a perfect substi¬ 
tute for Maidenhair Fern. What is your opinion 1 It con¬ 
sists of selected growths from a vigorous plant of the common 
Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana). The small piece with matting 
tied on it is a sample of unsuitable growth from the same kind of 
tree. It will keep fresh a long time out of water.” We consider 
it admirable for the purpose, and have frequently seen it employed 
in a similar manner, the only objection to it being that the green is 
rather dark and dull, not so fresh and bright as Maidenhair Fern 
fronds. Readers will understand that the growths employed are 
those with very diminutive scale-like leaves which are pressed 
closely to the slender branchlets ; the unsuitable portion is that 
which produces normal leaves. There are some species of Frenela 
or Callitris which produce even more graceful and slender shoots 
than the Juniperms; but they are comparatively scarce, and as 
the other is so readily obtained it might often be employed when 
Fern fronds are scarce, or to increase the diversity of foliage in 
stands. 
-A daily paper says—“ The exportation op maize from 
the United States will receive a severe check now that a com¬ 
mencement has been made with the manufacture of glucose sugar; 
for, unless many more acres of Indian corn are cultivated, there 
will be little maize to spare. A factory is nearly completed in 
Chicago which will consume about twelve thousand bushels of 
maize daily, and produce about thirty thousand tons of sugar 
yearly. Maple sugar and sorghum are unequal to the demand, 
but besides mere sugar there is the manufacture of alcohol, a 
liquid which enters into so many of the arts of the present day, 
and which in the United States can be produced as cheaply from 
maize as from any other starch-containing substance. In the 
far west maize has been a “ drug ” for years, so much so that it 
was actually cheaper to burn it for fuel than to buy wood or coal; 
but as the Chicago factory is only the forerunner of others, there 
is smaller chance of cheap maize coming to this country.” 
- A correspondent sends the following note in reference 
to A land of Peaches. — “In the neighbourhood of Sydney* 
Australia, such fruits as the Peach, Nectarine, Apricot, Plum, 
Fig, Grape, Cherry, and Orange are as plentiful as Black¬ 
berries. The orangeries and orchards of New South Wales are 
among its sights; and in the neighbourhood of Sydney and round 
Port Jackson there are beautiful groves of Orange trees, which 
extend in some places down to the water’s edge. Individual 
settlers have groves which yield as many as thirty thousand 
dozen Oranges per annum. One may there literally ‘sit under 
his own Vine and Fig tree.’ If a Peach stone is thrown down 
in almost any part of Australia where there is a little moisture a 
tree will spring up, which in a few years will yield handsomely. 
A well-known botanist used formerly to carry with him, during 
extensive travels, a small bag of Peach stones to plant in suitable 
places, and many a wandering settler has blessed him since. Pigs 
were formerly fed on Peaches, as was done in California, a country 
much resembling Southern Australia ; it is only of late years they 
have been utilised in both places by drying or otherwise pre¬ 
serving. A basketload may be obtained in the Sydney markets 
for a few pence. The summer heat of Sydney is about that of 
Naples, while its winter corresponds with that of Sicily.” 
- The American Gardeners' Monthly gives the following on 
Wet Weather and the Growth op Trees :—“ It is said that 
some scientific society has instituted a series of experiments to 
find out in the far away past which were the wet and which were 
the dry seasons, by having examined the thickness of annual 
growths of wood in old trunks. It is surprising that any intelli¬ 
gent body in these days should not know better than this. Wood 
is not plastered over the old series, as a painter would put one 
coat on the coat which had gone before, but is an act of vital 
power proceeding from the cells of wood of the preceding year 
or season’s growth. The amount of wood deposited depends very 
much on the food to be had in the vicinity of the little cells which 
have to make the new mass. If, say, at 10 feet from the ground 
there be a little branch with leaves having a chance to make food, 
the annual ring of wood will be thicker just below than at 
2 or 3 feet lower down. In fact if we cut a trunk across 
at half a dozen places, and take any one side of the trunk for 
examination, we shall find the ‘annual ring’ of any one year 
varying in thickness. One section would tell us it rained that 
