202 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
[ September 2, 1886. 
noted as bearing directly or indirectly on horticulture and its kindred 
pursuits, but space forbids their detailment here. It may safely be said 
that no one can walk through the various courts and note the wonderful 
productions which science and man’s ingenuity combine to evolve from 
the various members of the vegetable world, without being impressed 
with the idea of how little one individual knows of the capabilities and 
the values of thousands of objects around. 
We have been told that there are “ Books in the running brooks, 
sermons in stones, and good in everything.” We may add that there are 
many sermons in such a display of the wonders of Nature, the divine 
endowments of mankind, the triumphs of science and art, and the evidences 
of inventive and constructive genius in the world—all these tending to 
lead up to the great Author of all. May peace and prosperity follow on 
such Exhibitions, and may we, as a people, more earnestly pursue those 
arts that tend to ennoble and refine, to the neglect of those pursuits that 
tend only to keep alive in us feelings of race hatred, of emulation and 
str'fe.—V isitor. 
The Editor of the “ Horticultural Directory ” will be much obliged if 
Secretaries of Horticultural and Cottagers' Shows will send 
on a post card to 171, Fleet Street, their addresses and the full title of 
their societies. 
- The remarkable hybrid Orchid (Sophronitis grandiflora crossed 
■with Cattleya intermedia) in Messrs. J. Yeitch & Sons’ Chelsea nursery, 
which was described in this Journal, page 128, has been named by Pro¬ 
fessor Reichenbacb, Ljelia Batehanniana, in honour of Mr. J. Bate¬ 
man, tbe celebrated orchidist, whose “ Monograph of Odontoglossum ” and 
Orchids of Guatemala and Mexico ” are two of the finest works of their 
kind. It is an extraordinary result that crossing the species of two genera 
should produce a hybrid referable to a third genus, and it indicates that 
the relationship tetwoen Cattleya, Lmlia, and Sophronitis is very close. 
- The Fruit and Dahlia Exhibitions at the Crystal 
Palace take place on Friday and Saturday this week (September 3rd 
and 4th), and it is expected that both Shows will be very satisfactory as 
liberal prizes are offered. On the following Thursday and Friday the 
National Chrysanthemum Society will hold an Exhibition of early 
■Chrysanthemums and Dahlias in the Westminster Aquarium. 
- We are glad to hear that the recently formed Leeds Paxton 
■Society is now fairly established. The rules that have been sent to us 
are excellent. Early in the month about seventy of the members visited 
Clumber and Welbeck, and the Society desires to publicly record “ its 
high appreciation of the great courtesy and kindness of Messrs. Carr and 
•Gleeson and their noble employers in permitting its members to have the 
privilege of visiting these noble places, and the treat thus afforded will 
■not soon be forgotten.” Mr. George Hemming, Allerton Hall Gardens, 
Gledhow, Leeds, is the Hon. Secretary. 
- 11 S. C.” writes, “What a useful decorativeplantis Vallotapur- 
jpurea for a sitting room or window. I have now a plant with two trussep, 
one with eight blooms the other with six, and the more I see it the better 
I like it. By turning the plant round to the light the flower spikes can 
be kept upright without sticks. I do not wonder at this being so popular 
a3 a cottage window plant, for the foliage alone is good. At cottagers’ 
shows in this district it is exhibited largely. The culture is so very simple. 
Liquid manure at flowering time is very beneficial.” 
- We are desired to state that at the recent Shrewsbury Show 
Mr.J . Barker, gardener to J. F. Raynes, Esq. (not A. Baynes, as misprinted), 
Rock Park, Birkenhead, was awarded a second prize for two bunches of 
Black Hamburgh Grapes; and at the Cheadte Show the same exhibitor 
was first with two bunches of Madresfield Court and the same number of 
Black Hamburgh Grapes. Mr. C. Raffell, Low Hill Gardens, Bushbury, 
was also first with six stove and greenhouse plants at the Shrewsbury 
Show. 
- Dr. Schomburgk, in his report for 1885 on the Adelaide 
Botanic Gardens, states that the Rainfall in South Australia last 
year was only 15S87 inches, or 5'272 below the average for forty years. 
In five months, September to January, only 3 inches of rain fell. The 
heat was terrible, maxima being attained of 182° in the sun and 115° in the 
shade ! No wonder if crops failed and general depression existed. After 
the heat came a temperature of 29° and 30° in May and June, with frost. 
- A severe hailstorm in the neighbourhood of Paris has 
recently done enormous damage to the fruit crops, Peaches, it is said, being 
almost all destroyed, causing heavy losses to the grower?. Around 
London the fruit trees are suffering from the heat and drought, Apples 
and Plnms especially. 
- Gardening Appointments. —We are informed that Mr. J. Buss, 
Parkside, Ewell, is engaged to be head gardener to A. Aston, Esq., West 
Hill, Bpsom, Surrey ; and that Mr. David Long is appointed gardener to 
Major the Hon. Robert Needham, Berry Hill. Maidenhead. 
- “ F. H. G.” writes, “ For W. R. Raillem’s information I may fay 
that I bought twelve plants of Rose Her Majesty in pots in the spring, 
and planted them out in the open ground in May, six of them of extra 
size, in hope of blooms this summer. Tbe plants have grown vigorously, 
but I have not had the faintest suspicion of a bloom. I have budded ten 
standard Briars with Her Majesty, but do not expect to see maiden 
blooms in 1887. Her Majesty will have to be classed with Paul Peiras 
and Paul Ricaut of former days, and I hope may prove as good.” 
-A correspondent states that the “ Falkirk Plant, Fruit, 
Flower, and Bee and Honey Society held its 102nd annual Show in 
the Town Hall, Falkirk, on Friday and Saturday, the 27th and 28th August. 
The Show was a success. The competition was keen, and the exhibits mostly 
of a first-class order. The cut flowers were excellent, and Carnations 
superb, sufficient of themselves to form an interesting exhibition. The 
plants were very meritorious, and there was a tasteful display of bouquet?. 
The vegetables were all excellent, and the Celery particularly fine, as were 
the Potatoes. The honey was not a large display, but was in some cases 
very fine. The principal winners were Mr. Baird of Carron Inn, and 
Messrs. Paterson and Sword, Falkirk. The exhibitors were allowed to 
stage their own exhibits, but after the awards were made the Directors 
arranged the whole anew, setting off everything to the best advantage. 
- Mr. H. Mitchell, gardener to Sir G. Elliot, Bart., M.P., 
Aberaman Park, writes, “I wish to inform Mr. W. Eastwood that the 
Variegated Trop2EOLUM mentioned by him was a sport taken from 
the old Ball of Fire Tropaeolum. The parent plant was grown up the 
rafters of the conservatory at this place, and I have no doubt Mr. East- 
wood did bring cuttings with him from Manchester, but I doubt that he 
brought the one in question, unless he brought the parent plant, and up 
to the present time I have claimed that the Variegated Tropseolum wa s 
raised in these gardens. Perhaps Mr. Eastwood will through the Journal 
furnish us with the habit, &c., of the one he mentions, because there is 
more than one Variegated Tropmolum, but I am under the impression the 
one referred to by Mr. Smith in the Journal of Horticulture , August 
12th, 1886, is a distinct variety. 
- New Potatoes at Christmas. —A traveller remarks, “This is 
one of those things in gardening ‘ we sometimes may read about yet very 
seldom see,’ excepting it may be at Covent Garden. How they get there or 
where they come from is often a subject of wonder. We are told they 
hail from Algeria or some other favoured clime, or that they are simply 
late Potatoes, not well ripened, or old ones made to appear as new ! Be 
that as it may, it is no easy matter to get a crop of new Potatoes at 
Christmas. It is easy to plant, but quite another thing to make them 
grow thus out of season. Let anyone try it. The sets have to be 
specially ripened and prepared months in advance. We were not a little 
astonished on visiting the wondrous Grape and Tomato establishment of 
i Mr. George Bashford, at St. Helier’s, Jersey, to find a staff of men 
! actually engaged in preparing the ground (the interior of a huge newly 
erected span-roofed house) to plant with Ashleaf Kidney Potatoes 
the following day, August 20th, for the Christmas market. These 
were, Mr. Bashford stated, to be planted 16 inches apart, and to be suc¬ 
ceeded by another crop of Potatoes, to be dug in May, planted 3 feet 
apart between the rows to allow of the planting of Tomatoes in March 
and April. Fancy a substantial well-built span-roofed house, 480 feet 
long by 44 feet in width, covering an area of about half an acre of ground 
devoted to Potato culture I” 
CARRON HOUSE, STIRLINGSHIRE. 
While we hear of so much agricultural depression and commercial 
inactivity, it is refreshing to notice that horticulture is not entirely for¬ 
saken or reduced to the level which the forebodings of many have pre- 
