July 13, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
33 
- Weather at Liverpool.—L ast week the heat was iatense, 
•all kinds of vegetables showing greater signs of distress than has been 
apparent this season, more particularly Lettuces, which were simply 
scorched. Friday last was one of our hottest days, the thermometer on 
a south wall registered over 100°, On Saturday welcome rain descended. 
Sunday more rain fell in gentle showers, and on Monday at 11.30 a.m. 
we had a thunder shower of unusual severity, which rendered spouts 
and grids in many places quite incapable of taking away the immense 
volume oE water. As I write (6.30 P.M., Monday) a steady rain is 
falling.—R, P, R. 
- The Queen and the Gardener.—A daily contemporary 
says, “At the luncheon of the Council and Judges, held at the Royal 
Botanical Gardens, Manchester, last week, Mr. Bruce Findlay, the Curator, 
in proposing the health of the newly married Royal couple, said, ‘ I may 
perhaps be excused for mentioning an incident (not a secret, inasmuch 
as it is known to Her Majesty the Queen). In the year 1821 my father 
was a gardener in the then Duke of York’s garden at Oatlands Park, in 
Surrey. The Princess Victoria, then a baby, was in the garden with her 
nurse and fell into a pool of water. My father, who was near at hand, 
pulled the baby out of what might have been a watery grave.’ ” 
- Mignonettes. —Somewhat of a surprise this wonderfully dry 
season was it to see the extraordinary free growth from seed at Reading 
of these hardy annuals. The product was as good at the seed farm 
where there was no watering as at the nursery, where possibly beds 
may have been watered. Out of the many varieties grown a few 
seemed to stand out as specially good, and of these for purity of white¬ 
ness none excels the Double White, a variety that is not yet thoroughly 
fixed, but doubtless will be so in good time. The best single white is 
the Giant White, a first-rate variety for massing and cutting from. 
Golden Queen is a really beautiful golden yellow, very true and of a 
compact habit, and the Giant Red Pyramidal is the best of its section. 
Those who like Mignonettes, and they are literally everybody, should 
secure these four varieties at least.—D. 
- Hail and Heat. —A correspondent, writing to the Standard, 
says, “ It may interest readers to learn that this locality, Amisfield 
Tower, near Dumfries, N.B., was visited, about half-past 12 to 
1 P.M., July 8th, with a severe thunderstorm, with lightning accom¬ 
panied with very large hailstones, formed of solid ice, averaging from 
3 to 4 inches in circumference, and were picked up by the writer to 
5 inches; it seems almost incredible. As a matter of course a large 
quantity of glass in vineries has been destroyed, in many cases riddled 
as if with rifle bullets. At the time the thermometer was 73° in shade. 
Such a visitation is unknown to the oldest inhabitant.” The conjunction 
of heavy hail and great heat is a characteristic of certain climatic belts 
of the temperate zone. We have seen in South Africa, on a day when 
the temperature was about 96° in the shade, hailstones fall which riddled 
the corrugated iron verandah above our head till it resembled a colander. 
- The Birkbeck Bank. —The forty-second annual meeting of 
the Birkbeck Building Society was held on the 5th, at the offices, 
29 and 30, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane. The report adopted 
states that the receipts during the year which ended March 31st last 
reached £12,169,030, making a total from the commencement of the 
Society of £163,297,213. The deposits received were £9,857,817, and 
the subscriptions £215,871. The gross profits amounted to £213,867. 
The surplus funds now stand at £5,727,331, of which £1,670,210 is 
invested in Consols and other securities guaranteed by the British 
Government. Upwards of two millions (2,093,590) registered in the 
books of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. The 
subscriptions and deposits withdrawable on demand amount to 
£5,883,572. The new accounts opened during the year were 13,752, 
and there are altogether 67,244 shareholders and depositors on the 
books. Since its establishment the Society has returned to the share¬ 
holders and depositors £135,309,265, the whole amount having been 
repaid upon demand. During the panic brought about in September 
last by the collapse of the Liberator and its allied companies, the run 
on the Birkbeck lasted eleven days, and £1,578,005 was withdrawn. 
Only when it became known that every depositor could be paid in full 
did the panic subside. So large has been the amount of deposits 
received since that panic that the Directors have thought it prudent to 
reduce the rate of interest on deposit accounts from March 3l8t, 1893, 
to 2J per cent., a step which they believe has materially strengthened 
the position of the Society, and which will enable them in future to 
invest a still larger proportion of the funds entrusted to them in Consols 
and other British Goverment securities. 
- Potato Snowdrop. —With us this season the above-named 
variety has yielded a wonderfully fine crop of handsome tubers, and the 
quality has been first-rate. We planted a good breadth a yard distance 
between the rows, and half that space between the sets, and the ground 
was perfectly hidden by their vigorous stalks. In these gardens Potatoes 
are not usually of good quality, the ground being too strong, but Snow¬ 
drop is an exception, and as a consequence obtains more space than other 
sorts. It remains good, too, over a long season. For exhibition purposes 
it is well suited, because of its clear skin and handsome form. It is a 
very early variety to mature, and for this reason should be useful to those 
having restricted garden space, because of planting the ground with 
another winter crop after the Potatoes are lifted. Snowdrop is also a 
good market Potato, that is where it grows as it does hereabouts. I have 
seen no other sample in the greengrocers’ windows equal to this variety 
up to now, or command the same prices.—W. Strugnell, Rood Ashton, 
-Coal Tar to Protect Trees from Injurious Insects.— 
Discussions continue as to whether coal tar is or is not injurious to the 
bark of trees. It has often been recommended, in order to paint around 
the base of trees that are liable to the attacks of borers—for instance 
the Apple borer. Quince borer, and Peach borer. Certainly, the writer 
has known of cases where it has been applied without the slightest 
injury, while there are undoubted cases of treeshaving suffered by its 
use. Just how this variation in effect comes about is not clear, nor does 
it much matter to the practical man. If is safe to say that sometimes 
coal tar so applied is a serious injury; but why use coal tar at all ? 
Pine tar is just as effectual in preserving trees from the ravages ef these 
noxious insects, and certainly does no damage to the tree. It is one of 
the best preventives against the inroads of stem borers, that is, when 
these borers operate near the ground, and it is also effectual in preserving 
the trees from the ravages of mice in winter time. Many trees, 
especially in regions where the ground is covered by snow in the winter 
time, suffer seriously from the attacks of mice.— (^Meehans' Monthly,') 
- Employment of Gas Lime. —Your correspondent “E. M.” 
(page 9) may rest assured that I have advised the use of gas lime to 
allotment holders only with the greatest possible care. A dressing is 
laid on to vacant ground, especially that previously occupied, or to 
be occupied with Onions, early in the winter, and allowed to become 
disintegrated through the action of the frost, then forked in several 
inches in depth a month at least before the ground is sown. Where 
ground is trenched the dressing of gas lime should be put on after 
that work is done, as it is the top several inches of soil that contain 
the elements of harm in the shape of chrysaloids, of course that is 
assuming that the top soil is kept on the surface in trenching, and is 
not thrown into the bottom of the trench. I have read of a thin dress¬ 
ing of gas lime being advised to be strewn along the spaces between 
the rows of the young Onion plants as giving off a perfume that is 
obnoxious to the fly. That seems to be dangerous advice, especially 
that it might lead to much tramping of the plants. I very much 
doubt whether, having regard to the relative values of the two vege¬ 
tables, the present plague of maggots is not worse for Onions than is 
the Peronospora infestans for Potatoes. In any case, apart from any 
ameliorative action, more harm relatively seems to be done to the Onion 
than to the Potato. Whosoever can devise any practical and perfect 
cure for the Onion maggot will deserve well of his country.—A. D. 
THE BEXLEY BEGONIAS. 
“Not at home,” was the response to my inquiry at the door of Mr. 
Horticultural Builder Burton on the occasion of a recent visit to the 
Bexley Peacheries, and “ Not at home ” was the same dismal refrain 
when after a mile and a half’s walk I reached the residence of Mr. 
Begonia Pope, near the famous wayside hostelry known as the Old 
Crook Log, Bexley Heath. It was a double disappointment, not tem¬ 
pered by the fact of having to take the sunny side of the familiar 
reading, “ 90° in the shade, 120° in the sun ” for the aforesaid walk ; 
but the Begonias had returned from Earl’s Court if the grower had 
not, and so the danger of my disposition becoming as crooked as the 
ancient billet itself was happily averted. at a 
I ventured to pen a few remarks last year about Mr. 
Ware’s Begonia Enterprise at Bexley, and am glad ^ to observe that 
there has been a further advance in the high merits of his strains 
during the past season. The novelties embrace some very beautiful and 
distinct varieties, which can hardly fail to be widely sought after. The 
inevitable Princess May was amongst them. It is a fringed double 
flower, pure white and pleasing, by no means a commonplace addition 
to the whites. More distinct is a magnificent seedling double, as yet 
unnamed, the colour of which is not easily to be described. It is a rich, 
brownish bronze with a deeper edge; but the words give no adequate 
idea of the unique shade the flower possesses. There is a sunset glow 
