July S7, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
77 
- The “ Kew Bulletin.” —Copies of the “ Kew Bulletia ” for 
April and May, also for June, are to hand, and these contain much use¬ 
ful information. In the number for the first two months there is an 
interesting account of “ Botanical Enterprize in 1796,” which is well 
worth perusal. Instructive articles on the ” Chinese white wax ” and 
•“ Manila aloe fibre,” with miscellaneous notes are also included in that 
inumber. The issue for June is equally interesting, and in addition to 
various articles contains many miscellaneous notes from which we 
extract the half-dozen that follow this paragraph. 
-Malayan Plants.—D r. G. King, F.E.S., has sent from 
“Calcutta a collection of between two and three hundred new or 
rare Malayan plants, and a set of 270 specimens of the late 
Father Scorlechini’s Perak Ferns. These Ferns were worked out by 
Colonel Beddome, and published in the “Journal of Botany,” in 1887. 
Mr. Charles Curtis, Assistant Superintendent, Fore.st Department, 
Penang, who is an excellent collector, has also forwarded a further set of 
■220 species of Malayan plants. 
-Plants from Japan. —Through Dr. Kingo Miyabe, Kew has 
received from the Agricultural College of Sapporo, Japan, the first part of 
a set of the plants of the Island of Yeso. It contains 237 pieces, and includes 
the orders Ranunculacese to Kosacem. And through Professor Matsumura 
Jinzo, Director of the Botanic Garden, Imperial University, Tokio, the 
Herbarium has been enriched by a collection of some 1350 species, 
including many not previously represented at Kew. This collection is 
valuable, apart from its numerical extent, inasmuch as it contains 
authentic specimens of novelties published by Professor M. Jinzo 
himself. 
-Mexican Plants—K ew has purchased a set of Mr. C. G. 
Pringle’s Mexican Plants, collected in 1892, and also the first three 
centuries of Mr. L. D. Reed’s Virginian plants. Both of these gentle¬ 
men are excellent collectors, and Mr. Pringle’s Mexican plants include 
novelties from the apparently inexhaustible Mexican flora. Dr. A. 
Engler, the Director of the Berlin Botanic Garden, has presented a 
parcel of about 100 species of Brazilian Melastomacem, many of them 
authenticated types of new species. 
-Bulbs from Asia Minor.—M r. E. Whittall, a merchant of 
Smyrna, and an ardent lover of plants, has considerably enriched the 
Kew collection of bulbous plants. He is collecting systematically, and 
the results promise to be very successful. Already several new things 
contributed to the herbarium have come to light, amongst them 
Galanthus Icarisiae, Tulipa concinnea, and Fritillaria Whittallii. 
- New Liliace^ from Tropical Africa. —In Engler’s 
“ Jahrbucher,” vol. xv., pp. 467-179, is a paper by Dr. Engler and Mr. 
J. G. Baker on the new Liliacem discovered by recent German collectors 
in Tropical Africa. It includes an Iphigenia, a bulbine with flat leaves^ 
an Anthericum of the sub-genus Phalangium, five species of Chloro- 
phytum, one Eriospermum, an Aloe, four Albucae, one Urginea, two 
Drimise, five Scillae of the sub-genus Ledebouria, and six new Dracaenas, 
one of which is figured. This latter, which is named D. Braunii after 
its discoverer, has been brought from the Cameroons to the Berlin 
Botanic Garden, where it flowered in August, 1891. It has very short 
fl,owering stems, with only a single pair of leaves, overtopped by the much 
longer leafy sterile stems. The new Aloe (A. venenosa, Engler') was 
found by Dr. Pogge on the Kaissai, one of the feeders of the Congo in the 
very centre of the continent, and is used as an arrow poison. 
- Acidanthera ^quinoctialis, Balter .—Through Mr. Scott 
Elliott, Kew has received full specimens, with corms for cultivation, of 
this plant collected on the top of Sugar-loaf Mountain, Sierra Leone, 
where Mr. Scott Elliot found it on his recent expedition as botanist to 
the Anglo-French Delimitation Commission. It was only known pre¬ 
viously by a sketch of the inflorescence and flowers made by Dean 
Herbert, now in the Bindley Library, a copy of which was made 
several years ago by Mrs. Thiselton Dyer for the Kew collection of 
drawings. The corm is large and globose, with tunics of parallel fibres. 
The plant reaches a height of 4 feet, and the stem bears a large number 
of strongly veined ensiform leaves, the lowest of which is IJ foot 
long, and nearly an inch broad. The tube of the perianth is 5 or 6 
inches long, the longest that is known in the whole order Iridere. The 
species much resembles the Abyssinian A. unicolor and A. bicolor of 
Hochstetter, but is much larger in size. The locality where the plant 
was seen by Mr. Scott Elliot is 3000 feet above sea-level. The whole 
collection brought home contains altogether 1500 species. 
-Mark Smith, Limited. —Just as we are preparing for press 
a request reaches us to announce the amalgamation of the firms of 
Messrs. Mark Smith & Co., Louth, and the Horticultural and Agricultural 
Chemical Company, Glasgow. The above will be the title of the weed 
killing company in future, with the head quarters at Louth, Lincolnshire. 
- Jubilee of the Eothamsted Experiments. — Th* 
arrangements are now completed for the celebration of the Jubilee of 
the Rothamsted agricultural experiments at the Laboratory, Harpenden 
Common, on Saturday, the 29th inst., at 3 P.M., under the presidency 
of Mr. Herbert Gardner, M.P., President of the Board of Agriculture. 
The proceedings, we learn from Nature, will commence with the dedi¬ 
cation by Mr. Gardner of a granite memorial, erected in front of the 
Rothamsted Laboratory, to commemorate the occasion. Addresses of 
congratulation will then be presented to Sir John Lawes and Dr. Gilbert 
on behalf of the subscribers to the Rothamsted Jubilee Fund and 
various learned societies, including the Royal, Royal Agricultural, 
Chemical, Linnean, and other leading scientific institutions. Sir John 
Lawes will also be presented with his portrait, which has been painted 
by Mr. Hubert Herkomer, R.A., for the subscribers to the Jubilee Fund. 
Afterwards there will be a reception at Rothamsted by Lady Lawes. 
The Rothamsted Laboratory, where the ceremony will take place, 
adjoins Harpenden Common, and is distant about half a mile from the 
Harpenden station of the Midland Railway Company. 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
July 25Tn. 
The holiday season had set its mark oh the meeting on the above 
date, the exhibits showing a considerable falling off in numbers and the 
attendance being very small. However, there was a fair show of flowers 
and fruit and a good sprinkling of Orchids. 
Fruit Committee. —Present : T. Francis Rivers, Esq. (in the 
chair) ; the Rev. W. Wilks, Messrs. G. Bunyard, J. Cheai, William 
Warren, H. J. Pearson, A. Dean, G. Woodward, W. H. Divers, 
G. Wytlies, G. Reynolds, F. Q. Lane, H. Balderson, and J. Smith. 
Fruit made an attractive display. Messrs. G. Bunyard & Co., Maid¬ 
stone, Kent, sent a large collection of Apples and Pears, comprising some 
thirty dishes. The Apples were clean, of a good size, and well coloured, 
especially Red Juneating, Duchess of Oldenburg, Gladstone, Beauty of 
Bath, Red Astrachan, Lady Sudeley, and Quarrenden. Other varieties 
especially good were Stirling Castle, Early Transparent, Grenadier, 
Sugarloaf, Peter the Great, and Gold Medal. Some fruits of Pear The 
Beacon were fine and well coloured. The same firm staged fruits of 
the yellow and red Mirabelle Plums and some Apricots. A silver 
Knightian medal was recommended. 
Messrs. T. Rivers & Sons, Sawbridgeworth, sent a grand collection of 
Apples, Apricots, Cherries, Nectarines, Plums, and Pears grown in a cool 
orchard house ; Ribstou Pippin Apples were very fine and well coloured, 
and Louise Bonne of Jersey, and Souvenir du Congres Pears looked 
delicious. Lord Napier and Dryden Nectarines were exceedingly good, 
being richly coloured, and the same may be said of Monarch and Late 
and Early Transparent Gage Plums. The Cherries were Bigarreau Noir 
de Gueben, Emperor Francis, and Geant d’Hedelfinger ; the Apricots 
being Grosse Peche and Mexico (silver Knightian medal). Mr. W. H. 
Divers, gardener to J. S. Hopwood, Esq., Ketton Hall, Stamford, sent 
a box of remarkably fine Dagmar and Crimson Galande Peaches and 
Lord Napier Nectarines. The Peaches were exceedingly good and re¬ 
flected credit on the grower (cultural commendation). Mr. 0. Thomas, 
Royal Gardens, Windsor, staged a grand Smooth Cayenne Pine, cut 
from “ a rootless sucker planted on September 15th, 1892.” The fruit 
weighed 5 lbs. 12 ozs. (cultural commendation). Mr. Thomas also sent 
a hunch of white Grapes for naming, and four baskets of Apricots, com¬ 
prising Moorpark, Frogmore, Shipley’s, and Powell’s Late. 
Mr. Woodward, Barham Court Gardens, Maidstone, staged fruits of 
Alexander Peach grown on an east wall, and some fine Lord Napier 
Nectarines gathered from a standard tree in an unheated house (cultural 
commendation). A dish of 1892 Apples came from Col. E. Smith, 
Threescombe House, Stroud (gardener, Mr. E. Jackson), but the fruit 
was small and uninviting compared with those of this year, sent by Mr. 
Bunyard. Mr. T. W. Rich sent fruits of a seedling culinary Apple, said 
to be very early. They were meelium-sized and well coloured on one 
side, but no award was made. A. H. Smee, Esq., The Grange, Walling- 
ton (gardener, Mr. G. W. Cummins), had a dish of a fine early Apple, 
the name of which was not determined ; and Lord Foley, Ruxley 
Lodge, Esher (gardener, Mr. Miller), some well grown fruits of Royal 
George, Noblesse, Grosse Mignonne, and Alexander Peaches (cultural 
commendation). Mr. Laxton, Bedford, showed coloured plates of his 
new Strawberry Royal Sovereign. 
Mr. G. Wythes, gardener to the Duke of Northumberland, Syon 
House, Brentford, staged seventeen fruits of Beauty of Syon Melon, 
six boxes of Apricots, and four boxes of Morello Cherries (silver Bank- 
sian medal). Mr. J. Smith, Mentmore Gardens, Leighton Buzzard, had 
half a dozen dishes of Apricots, including fine fruits of Moorpark and 
Hemskirk (vote of thanks). Nine dishes of Apricots were also sent from 
the Society’s Garden at Chiswick, the best fruits being Shipley’s Early, 
