July 22, 1836. 1 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
65 
Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons hare now an extensive display of 
Carnations and Picotees in their Chelsea Nursery, and an excellent 
opportunity is afforded for amateurs to compare the numerous varieties 
and make selections according to their taste or requirements. Carnations 
generally are promising well, and we hear that the National Society’s 
Show at South Kensington next week is likely to be a good one. 
- We are informed that Messrs. Sutton &; Sons, Reading, and 
Messrs. Webb & Sons, Stourbridge, had extensive and magnificent 
Stands of Flowers, Seeds, and Roots at the Royal Agricultural 
Society’s Norwich Show, and tint Mr. Sbarman, manager to Messrs 
James Carter & Co., presented to H.R.H. the Princess of Wales a hand¬ 
some bouquet of Roses from their Rose grounds in Kent. 
-Some attention was drawn to Statice Suworowi a year or two 
since, but there was a general impression that the plant was difficult of 
cultivation and that its merits had been overrated. Good evidence is 
afforded at Kew that both these opinions are unfounded, for a little group 
of plants in the Cape house are extremely healthy and beau ifully 
flowered. The bright rose-coloured flowers are small individually, but 
very numerous and' clustered densely round the c\lindrical branches of 
the panicles, which are frequently 2 feet or more in length. The plants 
are grown in small pots in a cold frame until the flowers are showing 
when they are removed to a corner of the house, where they remain attrac¬ 
tive for some time. 
- At the Ea9t Gloucestershire Rose Society’s Show, held at Moretou- 
in-the-Mar^h, and noted more fully in another column, the two Silver 
Medals of the National Rose Society for ths best H.P. and the best 
Tea or Noisette bloom, exhibited in the classes open to amateurs of All 
England, were awarded to W. J. Grant, Esq., Ledbury, and T. W. Girdle- 
stone, Esq., Sunningdale. The blooms selected for these honours being 
H irace Vernet for the best H.P. from the Ledbury stand, and Mar&thal 
Niel from that of the latter. At the same Show the special prize of £10, 
given by A. B. Mitford, E q., C.B., for the best stand of Roses exhibited, 
provided a task of some difficulty for the Judges, who finally awarded a 
division of the prize between the Cranston Co. and T. W. Girdle-done, Esq., 
to both of whom a prize of £5 had been previously awarded in their 
respective classes. 
- In the north-west territory of Canada a Mr. W. H. Hooper of 
Brandon is giving some attention to the exportation of Buffalo 
Berries (Shepherdia argentea) for pickling or other purposes, 
Some have already been sent to London pickle merchants as samples, 
and it is said the supp'y is abundant, as the plant grows luxurian'ly on 
the prairies, where the Indians have long used the berries. The fruit 
grows in clusters the size of a Red Currant, is more or less acid, and of 
somewhat pleasant flavour. The plant is also known in the United States 
as Rabbit Berry and Beef Suet Tree, and at one time an attempt was made 
to cultivate it in Britain for the sake of its fruit, but the results were not 
satisfactory. 
- The Annual Flower Show held in connection with the 
Aldenham Street Sunday Schools, St. Pancras, was held recently, and 
was attended by the Earl and Countess of Iddesleigh. The former, in 
addressing the youthful competitors, spoke of the humanising influence 
engendered by the love of plants, pointing out that the common pas-ion 
for flowers tended to bring all classes together. There was a great deal 
t) be learned, he thought, from the mere circumstance of contact with 
flowers, and it was a loss, greater than some people supposed, for the 
people of our great cities to be cut off to such an ex ent as they were 
from this happy association with the fair things of Nature. He could 
well remember when it was once thought a strange thing— hardly a right 
thing, indeed—to plant flowers in our West End parks. It was said that 
the people would not appreciate them, and would even spoil them, but 
all experience had shown that the people had worked no harm to the 
flowers, while the flowers had done a great deal of good to the people. 
- Mr. J. W. Mallender sends the following Summary of 
Meteorological Observations at Hodsock Priory, Worksop > 
Notts, May, 1886.—Mean temperature ofmooth, 49 6° ; maximum on the 
5th, 75T° ; minimum on the 2nd, 28-3°. Maximum in the sun on the 
3rd, 127-3° ; minimum on the grass on the 2nd, 22 9°. Mean temperature 
of the air at 9 A.M., 50-9"’; mean temperature of the soil 1 foot deep, 
50-3°. Number of nights below 32°, in shade two, on grass five. Total 
duration of sunshine in month, 106 5 hoars, or 22 per cent, of possible 
duration. We had ten suuless days. Total rainfall, 6 15 inches. Rain 
fell on twenty-three days. Maximum fall in twenty-four hours, on the 
13th 2 02 inches, and 1 31 inch on the 12tb, causing very high floods, 
doing serious damage to growing crop on low land, and starved to death 
scores of swallows. Average velocity of wind, 9 7 miles per hour; 
exceeded 400 miles on four days, and fell short of 100 miles on two days. 
June, 1886.—Mean tempsrature of the month, 54 9°; maximum on the 
29th, 75-1° ; minimum on the 4th, 35-0°. Maximum in the sun on the 
30th, 134-5°; minimum on the grass on the 4 h, 31-5°- Mean tempera¬ 
ture of the air at 9 A M., 56 0° ; mean temperature of the soil 1 foot deep, 
55 3°. Number of nights below 32°, in shade none, on grass one. Total 
duration of sunshine in month, 1-30 hours, or 26 per cent, of possible 
duration. We had four sunless days. Total rainfall, 0 74 inch. Maximum 
fall in twenty-four hours on the 1st, 0-37 inch. Riin fell on eight days. 
Average velocity of wind, 8-4 miles per hour ; exceeded 400 miles on three 
days, fell short of 100 miles on ten days. Colder anl less rain than any 
of the last ten years ; less sunshine than any of the last five years. 
- Messrs. W. Paul & Son, Waltham Cross, send us a Quar¬ 
tette of beautiful new Hoses, which affard most satisfactory 
proof of the success that has attended the efforts of this firm to obtain 
novelties of sterling merit. Most notable amongst them is Grand Mogul, 
which was certificated at the last meeting of the Royal H irticultural 
Society, and whioh gives ample promise of taking a prominent position 
amongst dark Hybrid Pepetuals both for exhibition and as a garden 
Rose. It attracted some attention at the National Rose Society’s Metro¬ 
politan Show, but was not then quite at its best, as shown subsequently ; 
it was, however, in capital form, and the blooms now before us fully 
confirm the good opinion we then formed of it. The fact that it is 
a seedling from A. K. Williams would be suffi dent to recommend it 
to many rosarians ; but while resembling that variety in form, it is 
widely different in col mr, being a rich dark scarlet maroon shaded 
with crimson, of good substance, and much stronger and more reliable 
in habit. Florence Paul is another gtod HP. of flue substance, full, 
and well built; colour a warm crimson scarlet. Lady of the Lake is 
a full pink H.P. Rase, the petals light on the under surface, very 
fragrant, and of vigorous habit. Silver Q ieen is a floriferou3 pale pink 
delicately tinted variety, very pretty when half expanded, and likely 
to be a useful garden variety. These are only a few of the many fine 
Roses raised at Waltham Cross, and of which a remarkable display was 
provided at Kensington recently. 
ORCHID NOMENCLATURE- 
WHAr IS KEW ABOUT ? 
On reading the article on page 35 last week, the question that came 
involuntarily to my mind was this—What is Kew about? 
Our position as a nation appears to be this : We grow more Orchids 
and grow them better than any other nation does, we expend more money 
on specimens and varieties, introduce the great v-t number of plants from 
abroad, and raise more from seed at home, yet we appear to have no 
person to whom we can appeal to determine their d st'nctness or merits, 
describe them accurately, and name them authorativoly in this country. 
Is not that sufficiently humiliating 1 
A greater number of new species or varieties flower for the first time 
in England than in any other kingdom in Europe. They are obtained 
at great cost, tended with great care, wa-ched with great anxiety, 
and as soon as flowers of supposed new varieties expand they are 
sent out of the country and kept out of it, so tha’ a splendid foreign 
museum is beiog formed at the expense of Briti h orchidists. No 
one will begrudge Professor Reichenbach his possess'ons; he has 
fairly won them by his zeal, industry, an 1 ability. All Europe is 
indebted to him, but that is not a sufficient reason for the position in 
whioh we are placed. One would have thought that endeavour would 
have been made long ago in our great national garden to master the 
mysteries pertaining to the subject in question. The researches of the 
famed professor may not always be tea dly aeces-ible to British growers. 
The gieat work “ Reichenbaehia,” probably wt’l become the medium 
through which his communications will r ach the w Hi, and it is not 
unreasonable that it sh mid be since it is presented in three languages ; but 
not oue Orchid grower in fifty can have this work at his elbow, and I 
think with all our wealth ami enterprise we ought to have same home 
authority on a question of this importance, and with which we are so 
