450 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
with Buch a robust yet compact habit of growth as distinguishes 
the varieties in question. A cool lean-to house facing north is de¬ 
voted to them, and upon the front stage the majority are arranged, 
forming a beautiful, bright, and varied bank. Very striking are 
the numerous plants of Cloth of Gold, the pure yellow self which 
has been several times exhibited and honoured with certificates. 
This is a magnificent variety, the flowers being exceedingly large, 
frequently over 2J inches in diameter, full, and borne in large 
dense heads, Crimson, maroon, pink, and other seifs are numerous, 
as well as some most delicate, netted, spotted, and blotched forms ; 
and one that is almost white will, if it can be slightly purified and 
fixed, be a novelty of much promise. The general condition of 
the plants is most satisfactory, dwarf without being stunted, and 
vigorous without being coarse. 
- A slight mistake occurred in our report of the Implement 
Show at South Kensington. On page 434 it is stated that the 
silver medal was awarded to Messrs. C. P. Kinnell & Co., 31, 
Bankside, Southwark, for an open-coil Princess Louise boiler. 
The medal was awarded to Messrs. Kinnell for a boiler made for 
fitting in the end of a greenhouse, the face of the boiler, smoke - 
shaft, and feeding contrivance being outside the house. The fuel 
is placed in the furnace from the top, a moveable lid effectually 
closing the hopper and directing the smoke up the chimney. This 
appears to be a well-designed apparatus, and admirably adapted 
for the purpose it is intended to serve. It will be known, we 
believe, as the Silver Medal Horseshoe-shaped Boiler, as embody¬ 
ing its form and the honour it received at the Show in question. 
- Mr. C. Portsmouth, recently gardener to Viscount 
Massereene and Ferrard, Oriel Temple, Collon, Co. Louth, has 
been appointed gardener to the Hon. and Rev. F. R. Grey, The 
Rectory, Morpeth. 
- Part 52 of Messrs. Cassell A Co.’s “Familiar Garden 
Flowers” contains coloured plates of Pelargonium speciosum 
and the double Kerria, K. japonica fl.-pl., accompanied by in¬ 
teresting descriptive matter. From the same firm part 75 of 
“Familiar Garden Flowers” gives plates of the Sainfoin 
(Onobrychis sativa) and the Ragwort (Senecio Jacobma), with 
historical and popular descriptions. Part 34 of “ Paxton’s 
Flower Garden ” has a good plate of Platycodon chinense, 
a rich purple-flowered herbaceous plant closely allied to the 
Campanulas, and a rather dull-coloured representation of Aerides 
roseum, with a continuation of the gleanings and memoranda, in 
which are several woodcuts of rare plants. 
- Mr. G. Duffield, Winchmore Hill, sends the following 
query respecting gold fish dying —“ Can any of your very 
numerous correspondents kindly assist us with a little information 
regarding the following ? We have a small pond in the garden 
here containing, besides various water plants, some gold fish, but 
these fish we are gradually losing in a strange manner. We 
frequently find one or more dead ones floating, and on examina¬ 
tion almost invariably find a small hole, sometimes more than 
one, about an eighth of an inch in diameter, just behind the gills, 
frequently right through the fish, and occasionally one or both 
eyes apparently eaten out. We have lost dozens in this way, 
but have failed to discover the cause of the mischief.” 
-- Our correspondent “ D., Deal," refers in another column 
to the “ wonderful manner in which Mr. Whitwell has enlisted 
the aid of his neighbours” in support of the National Rose 
Society’s Show, to be held at Darlington on July 18th. The 
schedule is now before us, and it is gratifying to observe the 
substantial interest that is taken in the Show by the nobility and 
gentry of the district. Twenty-two prizes are provided in six¬ 
teen specified classes of the following amounts—namely, £8 by 
the Earl of Zetland, £10 by J. Sawrey-Cookson, Esq., and W. 
Stobart, Esq., £3 10s. by C. R. Robinson, Esq., £5 by Viscount 
Castlereagh, M.P., £5 by David Dale, Esq., £5 by Theodore Fry, 
Esq., M.P., £5 by Mr. H. Pease, £8 by the High Sheriff, £3 by 
Jonathan E. Backhouse, Esq., £4 by W. H. Wilson Todd, Esq., 
£4 by Edward Hutchinson, Esq., £5 by John Michell, Esq., £1G 
by Sir J. W. Pease, Bart., M.P., and A. Pease, Esq., M.P., £5 by Mrs. 
Gurney Pease, £10 by E. Backhouse, Esq., and J. E. Backhouse, 
Esq., £5 by H. F. Pease, Esq., £5 by J. B. Hodgkin, Esq., £2 by 
Messrs. Cranston & Co., £5 by Mrs. Charles Pease, £2 by the 
Hon. F. W. Lambton, Esq., M.P., £2 by Herbert Straker, Esq., 
and £2 by Alfred E. Pease, Esq. In addition to these numerous 
subscriptions have been received, and a guarantee fund amounting 
to £G0 has been formed to make up any deficiency that may 
occur. The total amount offered in prizes is £123 10#. 
- A great improvement has been recently effected in the 
greenhouse at Kew, and the appearance of the house is so 
much more pleasing that it is worth notice. The side shelves 
are of stone, and hitherto the plants have been stood on that, 
the even close surface of the stone interfering with the drainage 
of water from the pots, and, moreover, quickly becoming green 
from the growth of Confervas or similar microscopic plants, 
necessitating frequent scrubbing to keep it clean. Now the 
shelves have been covered with a layer of the small shells such 
as are used for walks in 6ome of the parks, which have the 
advantage of presenting a clean appearance and allowing the 
water to pass freely from the base of the pots while retaining 
a suitable moisture. The edges of the shelves, too, have been 
furnished with a cement rim raised 2 inches above the surface, 
and within this a border of Selaginella Kraussiana has been 
planted, forming a most beautiful fresh green margin. In the 
wings, the ordinary green and variegated forms have been 
planted in alternate lengths, and have a good effect. These 
alterations, slight though they be, have contributed greatly to 
the beauty of this house, which is, perhaps, the most popular 
in the Gardens, and is now well furnished with a variety of 
flowering plants, Calceolarias and Schizanthuses being especially 
abundant, the former with very bright heads of flowers, and the 
latter with graceful mauve and purplish clouds of blooms. 
- A correspondent of the New Yorli Tribune, writing 
from Nordhoff, gives the following descriptions of scenery in 
California —“ Spring is the time to see California. I speak 
particularly of the valley and mountain district of the southern 
part of the State between the higher ranges and the sea, not of 
the coast, for there the spring is the season of fog and wind, and 
the climate is most agreeable in the early winter. The fogs do 
not reach far inland. The scenery of the hill country is dis¬ 
tinguished by an extraordinary variety—undulating meadows, 
wide grassy plains, graceful watercourses, broken ridges, chasms 
and wide cliffs, broad valleys vanishing in distant perspective, 
lofty summits, forests and open groves, thickets and natural 
parks, a farmhouse here and there in the midst of Wheat, few 
roads and fewer fences, nearly the whole lovely face of the country 
in a natural state. On the coast, as in many other parts of the 
State, there is a lamentable lack of shade. But here the timber 
is abundant, and one may ride all day through open woods, where 
the herbage is green and there is too little underbrush to arrest 
a horseman.” 
- “ The characteristic, however, at this season is splendour 
Of COLOUR AND THE FLOWERS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. The 
beauty is heightened by strong contrasts and a rapidly displayed 
variety, and possibly, as some think, by a quality in the pure 
atmosphere which brings out the hues of the fields and woods 
and mountains as the varnish finishes the tints of a picture. And 
then the colours are laid upon the land in such imposing masses. 
I was about to add that flowers of every colour were scattered 
