576 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 28, 1893. 
- Colonial Gardening Appointments. —We are informed 
that Mr. H. J. Davies, who for some time past has been sub-foreman of 
the Orchid department at the Royal Gardens, Kew, will shortly leave 
England for the Calcutta Botanic Gardens. Mr. J. Ward, also from 
Kew, goes out as Curator of the Magpur Gardens in the Bengal Presi¬ 
dency. Mr. H. Millen, after a six months’ holiday, has left England 
once more for the Lagos Gardens, of which he is Curator. 
- Ivy under Trees. —Mr. E. Molyneux writes :—The best 
example of utilising Ivy for covering the ground under large forest 
trees, where but little else would grow that I have seen, is at Dove 
Park, Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool. A width of about 15 feet 
on each side of a long winding carriage drive, planted with Beech, 
Sycamore, and Lime trees, is covered quite thickly with Irish Ivy, 
making a charming green carpet fully 1 foot thick. True, the trees are 
not furnished with branches very near the ground, which is all in favour 
of the Ivy. One would think that the leaves falling from the trees 
would have an untidy appearance amongst the Ivy, but such is not the 
case; they seem to be thoroughly hidden by the Ivy covering. Mr. 
Carling told me that they always throw the leaves among the Ivy when 
cleaning the drive. In time they decay, and act as a surface dress¬ 
ing and manure for the Ivy. Examples of this kind are well worthy 
of imitation, the result being so satisfactory. 
- Bananas.—T he Banana is not nearly so largely cultivated in 
English gardens as it deserves, one chief reason being the amount of 
space required when given full root room. We have had six plants of 
Musa Cavendish! growing in a bed 12 feet long by 6 feet wide, and 
about 3 feet 6 inches deep, in a compost comprising good turfy loam 
and decayed stableyard manure. When planted on April 1st, 1893, they 
had scarcely any roots, but by shading and frequently syringing the 
plants have attained enormous dimensions, and are all carrying tremen- 
. dous clusters of fruit. One plant measures 3 feet in circumference at the 
base of the stem, and is carrying a bunch 3 feet long, and thickly packed 
'Withfruit. The other four measure from 2 feet 8 inches to 3 feet at 
‘ base of stem, and are carrying bunches of similar dimensions. We cut 
one bunch about the 25th of November weighing 130 lbs., with 
186 fruits on it, which we have been using for dessert. The plants have 
• been watered occasionally with liquid manure, and assisted by night 
-with a gentle fire heat. The remaining fruits are swelling fast, and 
promise a long lasting supply for dessert.— Arthur Smith, Foreman, 
Knightshayes Court. 
—— Royal Meteorological Society.— The monthly meeting of 
this Society was held on Wednesday evening, the 20th inst., at the 
Institution of Civil Engineers, 25, Great George Street, Westminster, 
Dr. C. Theodore Williams, President, in the chair. Mr. C. Harding, 
F.R.Met.Soc., gave an account of the “ Great Storm of November 16th 
to 20th, 1893. This storm was the most violent of recent years, and so 
far as anemometr.'cal records are concerned, the wind attained a greater 
velocity than has previously been recorded in the British Islands. The 
velocity of the wind was ninety-six miles in the hour from 8.30 to 
9.30 P.M., November 16th, in the Orkneys, where the hurricane burst 
with such suddenness that it is described as like the shot of a gun ; and 
the wind afterwards attained the very high rate of ninety miles and 
upwards in the hour for five consecutive hours. At Holyhead the storm 
was terrific. The anemometer recorded a wind velocity of eighty-nine 
miles in the hour, and it was eighty miles or above for eleven hours ; 
while the force of a whole gale, sixty-five miles an hour and upwards) 
was maintained for thirty-one hours, and for four and a half days the 
mean hourly velocity was fifty-four miles. Many of the gusts were at 
the rate of 115 miles an hour; and at Fleetwood a squall occurred with 
the wind at the rate of 120 miles in the hour. The storm was felt over 
the entire area of the United Kingdom, and the wreck returns show 
that disasters occurred with almost equal frequency on all coasts. Four 
weeks after the storm the official records gave the total loss of life on 
our coasts as 335, while there were 140 vessels which had been abandoned 
or had foundered, stranded, or met with other severe casualty, involving 
either loss of life or saving of life by some extraneous assistance. There 
were 600 lives saved on our coasts by aid of the Life Boat Institution 
and other means. The author has tracked the storm from the neighbour- 
ho^ of the Bahamas on November 7th across the Atlantic and over the 
British Islands to Central Europe on November 20th. The other papers 
read were “Rainfall and Evaporation Observations at the Bombay 
Waterworks,” by Mr. S. Tomlinson, M.Inst.C.E.; and “ On Changes 
M Months,” by Mr. A. E. Watson, B.A., 
Rose, Mrs. W. C. Whitney. 
For the accompanying illustration (fig. 84) and description of this 
charming Rose we are indebted to “ Gardening.” Says our excellent 
transatlantic contemporary :—“This is a vigorous Rose of the American 
Beauty stamp, raised from seed by Mr. John N. May of Summit, N.J., 
who describes it as a Hybrid Tea. Its parents are Souvenir d’un Ami 
crossed with American Beauty. The flower is large and heavy,the colour 
is a deep clear pink, and the fragrance is delicious. It was obtained 
after several years’ trial to obtain the same result. Seedling Roses 
are very difficult to raise. Oftentimes when desiring to reach a 
certain point the conditions are so that the seeds either fail to set, or 
after they have set and matured, fail to germinate ; this was the case in 
this partieular instance. Finally, however, success followed our efforts, 
and the Mrs. W. C. Whitney Rose is the result. It is one of the freest 
flowering Roses in existence, and it has handsome, heavy foliage.” 
Classification and Protection of Roses. 
All your numerous readers at all interested in Rose growing eagerly 
read with pleasure all that “ W. R. Raillem” sends to “ our Journal.” 
On his contribution in last week’s Journal (page 559) I wish to make a 
few remarks. In my opinion there is no sure resting place for the 
classification of modern summer and autumn flowering Roses other than 
that of Hybrid Perpetuals. They are so much interbred that no 
other designation is true or logical in my opinion. Let any rosarian 
judicially consider the leaves and wood of Edith Gifford and Comtesse 
de Nadailac, or even Ernest Metz, and if they can, avoid the conviction 
that they are not pure Teas, but hybrids. And fancy the perpetual 
Gloire de Dijon being classed with Niphetos or Adam 1 Even a pure 
Bourbon is a “ Hybrid Perpetual,” we might add where needed, of 
“ Tea stain ” or “ Bourbon strain,” but Hybrid Perpetuals is the proper 
classification. 
As to protection, burnt rubbish in a mound of 6 inches and then 
stable manure I have found best for some thousands of plants.—S. S, 
Protecting Tea Roses. 
Mr. Grahame, and other suburban Rose growers, if they have no 
leaves for the protection of their Teas, may yet congratulate themselves 
that they have not, in the large trees so often thickly present in 
country gardens, one of the greatest obstacles to the successful culture 
of the Rose, and they should also remember that walls and buildings 
which drop no seeds have no robbing roots, and refract and increase the 
heat, are the very best shelter against the wind, and are even in some 
small degree a protection against wind-frosts. If actually in the smoke- 
circle of a large town, no doubt watering, syringing, and even sponging 
of the leaves are sometimes necessary, 
“ R, M, D.” (page 559) may rest assured that I have not only no 
objection to “ slightly disturbing the surface,” but even regard it (by 
means of a hoe, not a fork) as perhaps the most important point in what 
may be strictly called the cultivation of the Rose. But as I said last 
week, I do not at all know how manure can be got into the ground with 
a fork by only slightly disturbing the surface. 1 can further assure 
him that I am most serious in recommending leaves as the best pro¬ 
tection from frost. That they are efficient I have thoroughly proved in 
the past hard winters, and recent correspondence in the Journal has 
shown how they even keep Apples in the open in good condition. I 
recommend their being placed in, around, and among the dwarf Teas 
18 inches to 2 feet in depth, when they probably generate some very 
slight heat in themselves. It will be found that they do not blow away, 
the low thorny branches holding them. We have had severe gales from 
every quarter during the last few weeks; trees, chimney-pots, 
and palings have been blown down, but my Tea Roses are as well 
protected as before. 
Let “R. M. D.” examine any low thorny bush not under shade, but 
in an open field, provided there be trees any distance off in the hedges. 
Instead of the leaves having been blown away from the bush during the 
winter, he will find that they have been blown into it, and remain there 
thick and deep till the spring. He will also see, if he looks to page 540, 
that I said “ the great bulk”—not all—“ of the leaves fall in ten days 
or a fortnight.” I think if “ Practice ” (page 559) had had practice in 
growing Tea Roses in low-lying ground in the eastern counties, he would 
certainly have had great losses during the past few winters if he had not 
protected his plants with the greatest care and precaution. He alludes to 
Magnolias : my plant has sto^ unprotected during the last eight years, 
and has suffered no harm whatever during winters which have some¬ 
times swept away my Tea Roses, in spite of all my protection and care, 
—W. R. Raillem. 
Blue Roses, 
The late Mr. Laxton, in reply to an inquiry I once made of him in 
the columns of the Journal of Horticulture, wrote—“ A yellow Perpetual 
ought long since to have been evolved from Lyons or the sunny South. 
Now, however, that Rose-crossing in earnest is being taken up with 
skill, judgment, and the best appliances in this country and the United 
