April 5, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
279 
where Messrs. J. Jones & Sons, hot-water engineers, have 
carried on business for upwards of forty years having expired, 
they have secured more central and convenient premises at 
42, Farringdon Street, E.C., this being the present address of 
the firm, and where their business will in future be conducted. 
- The Exhibition of the Aberdeen Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society for the present year will be held on July 19th 
and September 14th and 15th, over 170 classes being provided for 
each Show. The prizes are mostly of moderate amount, silver 
medals being, however, offered in addition. 
- Mr. P. H. Barber, writing in answer to a correspondent 
who sought information about MOSS litter, states there are 
several kinds—viz., those sold by the German Moss Litter Co., 
the Lightening Moss Litter Co., and Yersmann’s Moss Litter Co. 
The last he thinks perhaps is the best. Being a dark colour it 
does not show the dirt, but of course it is there just the same, 
and in consequence gets very foul; at the same time it is very 
cold and clammy in winter and hot in summer. Being mossy 
stuff it absorbs the moisture. The address of the Yersmann’s 
Moss Litter Co. is G3, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C. 
- The Nuneaton Floral and Horticultural Society 
will hold an Exhibition of plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables in 
the cricket field, Nuneaton, on Thursday, July 12th of the present 
year, when numerous prizes will be offered. 
- We regret to announce that Mr. George Smith of the 
Tollington Nursery, Hornsey Road, died on the 26th ult. 
at the age of seventy-one. He was a well-known florist, and has 
succeeded in raising many handsome varieties of popular plants, 
especially amongst Zonal Pelargoniums and Fuchsias. 
- The “ Lily of the Valley : All About It, and 
How to Grow It,” is the somewhat pretentious title of a very 
small pamphlet of thirty-two widely printed pages (W. Roberts, 
170, Strand). The matter on raising, sorting, and forcing single 
crowns is that which is usually practised ; but the writer has 
something to learn on the process of growing and forcing clumps, 
or he would not denounce it. The practice, he says, “ probably 
has one or two good points—certainly not more, as the clumps 
cause a waste of space, inasmuch as rarely 50 per cent, of 
them flower. Therefore, for all practical purposes forcing 
in ‘ clumps ’ is not to be recommended.” We wonder what 
one of our correspondents, who grows six dozen spikes from 
a clump in an 8-inch pot, thinks of this teaching ! It is true 
there are spikes and spikes, but some that our correspondent has 
sent us are equal to any we have seen from imported clumps, and 
similar to the fine examples grown by Messrs. Hawkins & Bennett 
of Twickenham. 
- At a meeting of the promoters of the grand National 
Dahlia Show, held on March 13th, it was determined to accept 
the liberal offer which had been made by the Crystal Palace 
Company in reference to the Show of 1883 ; and on the occasion 
of the Autumnal Fruit Show of the present year (August 31st and 
following day), to hold an exhibition of Dahlias at the Palace on 
a scale at least equal to that of 1882. The Crystal Palace Com¬ 
pany offers to provide, as before, a sum of £50 towards the prize 
fund if the growers and admirers of the Dahlia will subscribe a 
like sum for the same object; and as there are certain additional 
and unavoidable expenses it is imperative that the subscription 
list should exceed this amount. Subscriptions should be for¬ 
warded to Mr. Thomas Moore, Hon. Secretary and Treasurer, 
Botanic Garden, Chelsea, London, S.W., from whom, also, further 
particulars can be obtained. 
- A Parisian correspondent writes :—“ To the note of ‘ Et- 
Csetera ’ in your issue of March 15 th I might perhaps add that 
Broccolis differ from Cauliflowers not only by their 
‘ degree in hardiness ’ but even by their appearance—that is, the 
foliage is rather stiff and not so broad. It nearly resembles, so 
to speak, the paper foliage plants so well made in Paris, and has 
not the elegantly recurved and undulated lines of Cauliflowers, 
especially some broad-leaved strains. Besides, - there is also a 
question of taste, and Broccolis have on the continent the re¬ 
putation of being much less delicate in flavour than Cauliflowers. 
Broccoli is in its flesh somewhat granulated and strong-scented, 
Cauliflower is melting and creamy. But this is a matter of 
taste.” 
- The same correspondent observes :—“ In the same issue I 
see an answer to ‘ J. E. 0.’ about ornamental Grasses. I take this 
opportunity of highly recommending the Coix genus, and espe¬ 
cially Coix lachryma (Job’s Tears) and C. kxaltata. They are 
very elegant in a border or a conservatory when in pots, and very 
effective when cut to mix with flowers in vases. The plants have 
an average height of 12 to 18 inches, and the pearl-coloured fruits, 
pendulous and glittering, are very attractive. They are also much 
in request for chaplets and necklaces. They are most easily culti¬ 
vated, being hardy in your climate. Sow the seed in hotbeds or 
on a sunny position out of doors, and plant out at the beginning 
of May.” 
- Mr. Chas. Roberts, Highfield Hall Gardens, near Leek, 
Staffordshire, writes :—“ A few notes illustrative of the excep¬ 
tional severity of the weather during the past month as observed 
here may have some interest. The cold set in on the 3rd of 
March and continued until the 29th. During the whole of that 
period the temperature in the shade has never risen higher than 
43°, and but two nights in the month which the thermometer has 
not fallen below the freezing point. The lowest registered was 
22° on Saturday morning, March 10th, and eight nights in the 
week we have registered 10° and 12°, and on twelve days snow 
has fallen more or less. Almost everything in the way of green 
vegetables in the kitchen garden is completely destroyed.” 
- The charming little denizen of the Mexican hills, PlN- 
guicula CAUDATA, is (states the Irish Farmers' Gazette ) “now 
flowering in the College Botanic Garden. It is indeed a verit¬ 
able gem in its way. Fancy a compact and pretty Echeveria- 
like rosette of pale green leaves not larger than a florin, from the 
centre of which rises an elegant tapering scape some 6 or 7 inches 
high, curving slightly at top, and crowned with a flower as large 
and not unlike in form that of Viola pedata, and of a lovely 
magenta tint, and the reader will have a good idea of this lowly 
but truly lovely Butterwort.” 
- Mr. Alfred Langley, late foreman in The Gardens, 
Acacia, Rawdon, near Leeds, has been appointed head gardener 
at Bedstone Court, the Shropshire residence of the Dowager Lady 
Ripley. 
- It has been arranged that an Exhibition of spring 
flowers shall be held in the Yestry Hall, Turnham Green, on 
Thursday, April 19th, similar in character to the very successful 
Exhibition which took place in the Vestry Hall in 1880 in aid of 
the funds of the West London Hospital. A Committee has been 
formed for the purpose of carrying out this undertaking, and it is 
intended that any profits arising shall be devoted to the funds of 
the Chiswick, Turnham Green, and District Horticultural Society. 
It is not the intention of the Committee to offer any money prizes 
on this occasion, but honorary awards and certificates of merit 
will be given to objects specially deserving. Contributions for 
exhibition are solicited, and space will be allotted on application 
to the Secretary on or before Tuesday, April 17th. The Committee 
announce that the most liberal support is already promised from 
the gardens of the Baroness de Rothschild, C. Bown, Esq., 
