274 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 23, 1886. 
retailed at Id., lid., and 2d. each. The Oranges are highly commended 
for their flavour and marketable qualities, but they are badly picked and 
indifferently sorted. Some cases, judging from their appearance, would 
almost justify the belief that they had been placed under the trees and 
the Oranges roughly shaken into them, large and small indiscriminately. 
A scheme is now being arranged to export English fruit to Australia, the 
intention being to despatch three successive consignments of Grape3 and 
Plums to arrive in the Australian spring. At present the refrigerating 
chambers used for the storage of mutton are almost empty on the voyage 
out, and the fruit will, if possible, be sent in these chambers. 
- Mb. A. B. Seymour, botanist in the Illinois State Laboratory 
of Natural History, contributes to the “ American Florist ” a description 
and figures of the Palm Fungus, Gbaphiola phcenicis, which has 
proved troublesome to many growers of Palms. “ It was first known on 
the Date Palm, but is not confined to that. It occurs also on the Sugar 
Palm and others. It is a true parasite, and is the cause of disease in the 
Palms on which it is found. It originates from minute spores of a 
certain kind, which are so minute and light that they float in the air even 
more easily than ordinary dust. Falling upon the Palm leaf under 
favourable circumstances, a spore germinates and grows. The growth 
makes its way into the tissues of the leaf, and, like other parasitic fungi, 
produces long slender filaments, which make their way in various directions 
through the tissues. After some time it produces it3 fruit or spores, and 
then it is first seen on the outside of the leaf. All this growth takes place 
at the expense of the Palm. Besides this the green colouring matter of 
the leaf is more or less injured or destroyed, and thus the power of the 
plant to provide a newsupplyof food is impaired. The most effective 
remedy is to cut out and burn all diseased parts. If this is not desirable 
it may be beneficial to wash with a weak solution of carbolic acid or a 
kerosene emulsion, or to dust with sulphur. Rubbing the leaves with a 
wet rag before applying the remedy would remove large numbers of the 
spores, which could then be destroyed.” 
- In the course of a recent lecture on Beitish Noeth Boeneo ) 
Mr. E. J. Wells, C.E., remarked that North Borneo, although the youngest 
of our colonies, is a most important one both commercially and strategi¬ 
cally, lying as it does on the high road between China and Australia, and 
also within five days’ steam of both Singapore and Hong Kong. The 
lecturer considered North Borneo had a great future. The Chinese 
followed slowly but surely the treading of European civilisation, and as 
soon as the demand for labour arose so soon would the stream of emigra¬ 
tion set in. The area was about 31,000 square miles, with a sea coast of 
about 600 miles. The soil and climate were good, well suited for the 
cultivation of sugar, tobacco, &c. The revenue for 1881 was 20,207 dols.; 
in 1885, 110,256 dols.; the exports had advanced from 145,000 dols. in 
1881 to 387,000 dols. in 1885. North Borneo, he said, might be con¬ 
sidered one of the grand timber yards of the world. Sarawak had an 
area of about 40,000 square miles, and a population of about 300,000, 
composed of mixed races, and had a ceast line of about 400 miles. The 
revenue in 1880 was 229,718 dols. ; in 1884 it was 274,269 dols. Imports 
and exports in 1881 were 3,666,902 dols.; in 1884, 3,631,974 dols. Labuan, 
an island on the north-west coast of Borneo, had an area of 30 square 
miles. It was ceded to Great Britain in the year 1846, and occupied in 
1848. The total population of the island was about 6000 of all nation¬ 
alities. 
- The monthly meeting of the Belgian Horticulturists was 
held in Ghent on September 13th, the following being present :—MM. 
Desmet-Duvivier, Em. De Cock, Ad. Rosseel, B. Spae, A. Yan Geeit p6re, 
Edm. Yervaet, Ph. Blancquaert, and Jules Closon of the firm of J. Makoy 
and Co., M. Ch. Yan. Geert of Antwerp presided, andM. Jules Hye acted 
as Secretary. Certificates of merit were awarded for Vanda Sanderiana from 
M. James Bray ; Curmera Kegeljeani, from MM. Jacob Makoy & Co. ; 
and Davallia tenuifolia Veitchi, from the same firm; Alocasia Lindeni, 
Cupania denticulata, and Aphelandra Macedoana, from M. Linden. 
Cultural certificates were awarded for Alocasia Van Houttei and 
Sphmrogyne imperialis, from M. Aug. Van Geert fils. ; Miltonia Clowesi, 
from M. Desmet-Duvivier, and Cypripedium Parishi, from MM. Yervaet 
and Co. Honourable mention was also adjudged for Pinanga specta. 
bilis and Adiantum Weigandi, from MM. Jacob Makoy & Co ; Croton 
Alicse, from M. Aug. Van Geert fils ; Ardisia velutina, from M. Linden ; 
Lselia euspatha, Bollea pulvinaris, and Cattleya Dowiana, from MM. 
Vervaet&Co. ; Cattleya Eldorado, from M. Linden ; Asplenium dimoi- 
phum, from M. Bern. Spae. 
- “ D., Deal," sends the following respecting “ AmATEUES — I 
am sorry that I did not make myself sufficiently plain to ‘ Saxoring ’ or his 
friends, and I doubt whether I can enlighten him farther. Let me, how¬ 
ever, say that the term ‘ employing a regular gardener,’ or 1 regularly 
employing a gardener,’ has been interpreted in so many ways that it lays 
the door open to many evasions. Does it mean employing anyone who is 
a gardener by profession ? Is a person who has a man who acts in the 
capacity of groom and gardener (as is so often the case) considered to 
employ a regular gardener ? Does another who has a gardener in for 
three or four days a week come under the same description ? Is another 
who has a labourer in to do all the work which he himself superintends, 
employing a gardener ? These are some of the ways in which the term 
has been interpreted. I give no judgment on the matter, but only indi¬ 
cate what a very risky thing it is to bring such a term into a schedule.’ ” 
-— The San Francisco Chronicle says that in distributing Water 
foe Ibrigating Pueposes in Southeen California, it is calculated 
that 1 inch of water will suffice for ten acres. One thousand dollars per 
inch is the average value affixed to the title to water, or at the rate of 100 
dollars per acre, although sales are daily made at from 150 to 400 dollars 
per acre, said lands being absolutely worthless without water. At this 
figure the value of water in San Diego county aggregates the enormous 
sum of 1,300,000,000 dollars ; while the water of Los Angeles county 
where the valuation is 3000 dollars per inch, is worth 2,400,000,000 dollars 
-Dr. T. H. Hoskins, writing upon the Relation of Stock 
to Scion in Vicks’ Magazine, proceeds as follows:—“A more curious 
matter still is, that by grafting ‘ in-and-in ’ upon the same tree the 
change produced can be much intensified. By ‘ in-and-in ’ grafting, I 
mean grafting a scion upon the limb of a tree, then next year taking a 
scion from the graft and grafting it into the same tree; next year take 
a scion from the second graft and insert it in the same tree. This may 
be repeated again and again, the result being that you will have all 
grades between the original fruit of the graft and the original fruit of 
the stock. To be quite successful there must be difference enough 
between the stock and first scion to start a change. But by in-and-in 
grafting the effect is often so marked from one year’s graft to the next, 
and so on, as to make a positive demonstration of what I call ‘graft 
crossing.’ R. Dibble, of Brantford, Conn., in June, 1873, first called my 
attention to this method of intensification of the graft cross by grafting 
in-and-in. He wrote :—‘ About forty years ago my father had a large 
and thrifty Apple tree which bore exceedingly sour fruit. I helped him 
graft a part of it from a very sweet Apple standing near. The second 
year we grafted another part from the scions set the previous year. The 
third year we grafted the rest of the tree from the second setting. These 
grafts produced three different kinds of fruit, all differing from each of 
the original stocks. The first strongly resembled the sweet Apple, but 
were only moderately sweet. The second were slightly striped, like the 
sour Apple, and neither sweet nor sour, while the third were clearly 
striped, and a moderately sour Apple.’ In grafting common Apples 
upon Siberian Crabs the cross is so violent that these effects are very 
often seen, and as this is done to a considerable extent in my neighbour¬ 
hood, I have frequent opportunities of seeing what remarkablejchanges are 
thus effected in size, colour, and quality of fruit.” 
THE PROPAGATION OF THE CHOICER ALPINES. 
When we happen to meet a good collection of alpine plants in private 
gardens how seldom do we find the rarer types of alpine vegetation repre¬ 
sented by more than a solitary specimen, which has been grown for 
many years, and no attempt probably to increase it in any way. Too 
valuable it may be deemed perhaps to attempt to divide some solitary 
rarity lest the operation be unsuccessful, while on the other hand the 
experience of the would-be operator may be insufficient to attempt it in 
any other way. The number of alpine plants which will not submit to 
the care and patience of the propagator are very few indeed, since most 
of them, if not all, may be increased either by cuttings or divisions, and 
not a few by seeds. I do not wish it to be understood that I am an 
advocate of mutilation, and that I would prefer to see half a dozen micro¬ 
scopic scraps than a fair-sized specimen of any given alpine. On the 
other hand, I delight to see and rejoice in good examples of these plants as 
much perhaps and probably more than those who find the height of their 
ambition in some fine greenhouse plant 4 or 6 feet diameter. What I am 
desirous should be gathered from these observations is, instead of being 
satisfied with solitary examples of choice alpines, to attempt to increase 
them in such a way that small colonies or groups may be formed of them 
either in the border or the rockery border, or the rock garden proper, and 
when this is accomplished, though the after progress be slow, there will 
| remain the satisfaction of having formed a good stock. 
