March 12,1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
207 
- In' an Avenue of Horse Chestnuts one of the trees has 
lately developed a black mark on the bark, apparently rising from the 
roots on one side of the trunk, and gradually extending in size. It has 
a charred appearance, with fringe of a rusty colour. When the sap 
rises it is of a sticky bleeding nature. Can any reader tell me how I 
can stop its extending ? I have lost one tree some 50 yards distant 
after a similar sickly condition lasting five years.— Anxious. 
- The Weather.— After long waiting rain came at last on 
Saturday, and continued in the Metropolitan district throughout the 
greater part of Sunday. It became clear and cold towards night, and 
after falling rapidly the barometer commenced rising again with north¬ 
east winds and a low temperature. On Monday afternoon a sudden 
snowstorm of remarkable severity was experienced in London, recalling 
the great storm of January ISth, 1881. Driven by strong winds the 
snow descended continuously all night and far into AVednesday morning^ 
accumulating in some places to the depth of afoot or more. Oving, 
however, to the soft moist state of the ground it is not likely to remain 
long, but it will seriously retard gardening and farming operations of 
all kinds. In the north and west of England the storm appears to have 
been still more severe, and it is said that there is a greater depth of 
snow in several western counties than has been observed for many 
years. Gardeners and farmers had during February a month of capital 
weather to prepare land for the crops, and it is many years since so dry 
a season has been experienced. The 0'17 inch of rain registered on 
Monday morning last was the greatest fall in t-venty-four hours in 
London since August 2oth. 
- Weather in the North. —After some very boisterous 
weather, with cold winds and occasional showers of sleet and snow, 
calm frosty weather has set in. The higher hills are covered, the lower 
dappled, with snow. On the night of the Gth inst. and two following 
9°, 12°, 17° of frost were registered. The last has been reached only 
twice during the winter here on the nights of December 20th and 
January 9th.—B. D., S. Perthshire, 
- The Weather in Scotland. —The proverbial old weather 
lore has been verified this year. The month commenced with a beautiful 
day, the warmest of the season, 557°, the 4th 54’9°, A very strong 
gale prevailed nearly all week. On Saturday morning the mercury 
fell to 207°, with a slight fall of snow, but on Sunday we had 2 inches 
of snow, the thermometer registering 14-2°, or 18° of frost, at 9 A.M. 
with a strong sun, we had 12° of frost. The highest for the day was 
39°; the snow had almost all disappeared from the plain by night. 
On Monday at 7 A.M. the thermometer was standing at 12 8°, the 
lowest reading for the night with a beautiful sunrise and clear sky.— 
G. M’Dougall, Stirling. 
- The Weather Last Month. —February was very dry. Only 
0 09 inch of rain was recorded on five days, and of this amount 0 03 
inch was precipitation from fog on three days ; very little movement 
in the air was noticed except a strong breeze on the 11th, We had 
severe frost on 17th and 18th, and from the 23rd to the end of the 
month, also a large amount of fog, with a fair proportion of sunshine 
and five clear days. The barometer was high all the month, the 
maximum reading being 30 69 at 9 P.M. on the 4th, lowest 29 98 at 
noon on the 26th ; highest shade temperature 63° on 27th and 28th, 
lowest 19° on 24th and 26th ; lowest on grass 15° on 26th ; mean tem¬ 
perature of the month 38-96°, The garden spring'ran 12 gallons per 
minute on the 28th. There is no fresh growth on the grass lands at 
present, and all of them look very brown and dried up.—W. H. Divers 
Ketton Hall, Stamford. 
- Summary of Meteorological Observations at Hodsock 
Priory, Worksop, Notts, February 1891, 56 feet above mean sea 
level. — Mean temperature of mouth 39'5°; maximum on the 28th, 
63‘5° ; minimum on the 26th, 2L6°. Maximum in the sun on the 
28th, 104T°; minimum on the grass on the 26th, 14‘9°. Mean tempera¬ 
ture of the air at 9 A.M., 34-9°. Mean temperature of soil 1 foot deep, 
37'9°. Nights below 32°, in shade 18, on grass 21. Total duration of 
sunshine in month 76 hours, or 28 per cent, of possible duration ; we 
had nine sunless days. Total rainfall 0'03 inch. Kain fell on four 
days. Wind, average velocity, 8'5 miles per hour. Velocity exceeded 
400 miles on one day and fell short of 100 miles on fourteen days. 
Approximate averages for February :—Mean temperature 40 2°, sun¬ 
shine fifty-six hours, rainfall 1’63. A fine, calm and dry month. The 
rainfall is less than in any month during the last fifteen years, and we 
should have to go back to December 1873, or perhaps even to July 1869, 
for one equally dry in this district. Half the sunshine was measured 
in the last week.— Joseph Mallender. 
- Mr. J. Wallace of Abbots Langley sends an example of the 
Cabbage Butterfly which he caught in his garden last week, and 
which he thinks “ upsets the idea that a hard winter kills all insects.” 
-A PAPER on Horticulture in America, by Mr. James H. 
Laing of Forest Hill, was read at the Birmingham Gardeners’ Association 
on March 9th last, in which an interesting description is given of his 
journey through the United States last year. 
- One of Clibran's Patent d^'’LOWER Pot Suspenders has 
been sent to us, and merits a few words of description as a useful 
contrivance for greenhouses. It is constructed of strong wire in the 
form of a large ring or oval, connected by hooks at each end, with a 
brass spiral spring, which is placed on the pots to be suspended 
immediately below the rim. The spring adapts itself to the size of the 
pot, clasps it firmly, and the hooks are readily removed, so that the 
plants can be changed as quickly and often as desired. The plants are 
seen to best advantage, as no obstruction to the spread of the foliage is 
caused by the wires, and they can be suspended in any portion of the 
house by a hook at the top of the wire ring. 
-- The record of deaths in the horticultural 's^^orld has 
been a terribly long one during the past few months, and we have now 
to add several others. Mr. Edward Kemp, the well-known landscape 
gardener, died at Birkenhead on March 2ad in his seventy-fifth year, 
having been born at Streatham, September 25th, 1817. His book, 
“How to Lay Out a Garden,” has had a large sale, and one of his best 
works was Birkenhead Park, which is very tastefully designed and 
planted. Mr. George Parmsnter of the Camden Pioad Nurseries also 
died very suddenly on the 24th ult., through hurrying to catch a train 
at Easton ; while under the report of the Ptoyal Horticultural Society’s 
Orchid Committee, on another page, we record the death of the late 
Mr. J. Dominy’s widow and second son. 
- Late Melons.—T he Beading Mercury of February 28th has 
this letter on the above subject :—Those who require late Melons 
should grow Suttons’ Monarch. I have grown it for two years with 
perfect success, and have managed to have all fruit ripe by the first 
week in November ; then, if carefully handled in cutting and storing 
away in a dry fruit room or any other dry place, you -will be able to 
eat as good Melons on Christmas day as you would on a July day. 
1 believe it to be the only good late Melon now grown. To-day, 
February 18th, I have just finished our November crop by cutting the 
last fruit; fruit sound, flavour and style excellent.— W. Allen, The 
Gardens, Sioallowjicld Parh. 
- Bullfinches, Sparro-uts and Gooseberry Buds.—L ast 
winter my Gooseberry bushes were almost spoiled by bullfinches and 
sparrows, in fact I had not two bushels of fruit. Last December I put 
one of my men to cut Spruce branches and cover the bushes, which only 
took him a couple of days, and I am pleased to state I have not seen 
one bullfinch in the garden this winter. I have examined some of the 
Gooseberry bushes and not one bud is removed. The sparrows had not 
been seen in the garden till last week, when we had our Strawberry 
beds mulched with stable manure, but I have not seen them near the 
Spruce branches or Gooseberry bushes. Towards the end of this month 
I shall have the Spruce branches removed and the bushes pruned, and 
later on I will let you know what crop of fruit is secured.— Geo. 
Clinging, Harden Park Gardens. 
- Destroying Bullfinches. —I can sympathise with any body 
of kind-hearted individuals like the Sclborne Society, banded together 
for the preservation of wild creatures, and up to a certain point I can 
and do assist them. Where bullfinches are plentiful, however, a fruit 
crop is out of the question if some of them are not destroyed, and 
if the Selborne Society will publish a practical method of preventing 
bullfinches eating the buds of fruit trees, gardeners would not have 
to waste their time in killing them. But to say that bullfinches 
are not nearly so injurious as represented is not correct, and in my 
case although birds abound, and we have plenty of netting, it is the 
only bird that I find it necessary to destroy. At least a dozen bull¬ 
finches were at work in our Plum and Cherry trees the other day.— 
R, Maher, Yattendon Court, Xeiohury, 
_ Dielytra spectabilis. —I have always considered this one 
of the most beautiful of hardy herbaceous plants, and whenever it is 
seen in positions where its pendant pink flowers and graceful habit 
are shown to advantage it always elicits admiration. In some 
parts of England it is frequently seen growing in cottage gardens^ 
and I remember many fine old roots which a few years ago I 
