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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 21, 1893, 
- Mr. George Gallaher, late gardener at Kilkewan House 
Ayrshire, informs us that he is about to commence business as florist and 
fruit grower at Burnhead, Liberton, Edinburgh. 
- Destroying Wasps’ Nests.— It is reported that Mr. Whit¬ 
bread, M.P., has caused the destruction of no less than 800 wasps’ nests 
in his park at Southill. A few weeks ago Mr, Whitbread offered 6d. 
for each wasp’s nest destroyed in his park, with the result that he has 
just paid on this account over £20. 
- A Potato Problem. —On raising Potatoes in several gardens 
near Tenhury many of the tubers are found to be quite flabby, as if 
scalded or frosted, though some of them are only affected at one end. 
Have other readers of the Journal of Horticulture experienced any¬ 
thing of the kind ? I shall be glad if the cause can be explained, and if 
the tubers will be good for seed. They go black on being cooked. 
—Middledale. 
-A White Flowered Cobcea scandens. — When potting 
some seedling Coboea scandens in the spring I noticed one much lighter 
than the others in the foliage and stems. It was marked and turns out 
to be a white flowered variety. Can you tell me if this is unusual, as I 
have never seen a white one before?— H. R. Richards. [Light coloured 
forms are not uncommon, but so far as we know a pure white one has 
not been exhibited. Have you any flowers to send for examination ?] 
- Queen Wasps. —No delay should take place in destroying 
every nest known to exist, as the queens for another season’s plague 
are very numerous in the nests now. I pointed out last autumn how 
necessary it was to hunt up all the nests, as they were producing an 
unusual number of young queens, and the season from the first has 
been highly favourable for their development. Some seasons I have 
had difficulty in finding a queen being developed for another year, which 
is to me unaccountable, and a few years ago this occurred to such an 
extent that to see a wasp the following summer was a rarity. — 
J. Hi AM. 
- California Midwinter International Exposition.— 
The Agricultural and Horticultural Hall of the Exhibition to be held in 
San Francisco during the winter of 1893-94 has an area of 300 by 
125 feet. Agricultural products, horticultural products, floricultural 
products, forest products, specimens, botanical, fossil and mineral, 
samples of cereals and grasses, when not intended to be returned, may 
be carried from Chicago and Common Points west thereof to San 
Francisco at one-half the regular tariff rate for same. The general 
rules and regulations and information for intending exhibitors are now 
ready, and may be obtained by applying to the Department of Publicity 
and Promotion, California Midwinter International Exposition, Mills 
Building, San Francisco, Cal., U.S.A. 
- A Melon Novelty. —The remarks of a correspondent on 
page 218 of the Journal induce me to relate a similar experience 
with Sutton’s Triumph Melon, a variety with a thin skin and deep 
scarlet flesh. When the fruit was cut it was found that fully half the 
seeds had germinated, many of the plants having roots 2 inches long, 
and what surprised us still more the seed leaves were quite green. 
Acting upon instructions I placed a few of the seedlings in small pots on 
July 24th, and a fortnight later transferred them to 6-inch pots. From 
the first they made healthy growth, in fact there is no difference 
between them and others raised in the usual way. We planted four 
plants in the Cucumber house on the 21st of August; these are now 
flowering, but 1 fear the season is too far advanced for us to be able 
to ripen a crop of fruit upon them.— P. Tarry, The Gardens, Holly 
Hill, Hartfield. 
- Birds and the Drought. —Mr. T. Fox Simpson writes from 
Tunbridge Wells:—“As an illustration of the shifts to which birds 
have been driven for food by ‘the unexampled drought,’ I may mention 
that within the last ten days the blackbirds have attacked and devoured 
dozens of some fine Blaek Hamburgh Grapes growing in my ‘ curate’s 
vinery.’ Have any of your numerous readers suffered in the same 
way ? All the scarlet heps on the Cockspur Thorns were cleared off 
last month, and this morning (Sept. 16th) I saw five of my sable friends 
making a square meal off the heps on a White Thorn, intending, no 
doubt, to lay my Grapes under contribution for dessert. What these 
beautiful birds are to do for food in the coming winter, if it be a hard 
one, is not e.aay to say. Those who enjoy their presence and song in 
spring and summer must be careful to feed them well through the 
winter. Minced uncooked beef will be better for them than° Black 
Hamburgh Grapes.’’ 
- WiDCOMBE Horticultural Club. — There was a large 
attendance at the meeting of the Widcombe Horticultural Club held on 
September 12th, when the Rev. E. Lascelles, Rector of Newton St. Loe, 
read a paper on “ Begonias,” flowers he has cultivated with so much 
success for several years. Mr. W. Pumphrey, the President, occupied 
the chair. Mr. Lascelles dealt with his subject in an interesting and 
able manner. 
- The Sunflower. —Among neglected crops the Sunflower is 
one of the most interesting. Few neople who grow it for ornament have 
any idea of its usefulness. A daily contemporary asserts that birds of 
nearly all kinds thrive on the seeds, and there is no more fattening food 
for poultry. Cattle like them, too, either in their natural state or 
crushed and made into cake ; while the very stalks may be ground up 
and mixed advantageously with other fodder. In one or two places in 
Scotland a few acres have been devoted to Sunflower cultivation for the 
past few years with very satisfactory results. 
- CovENT Garden Fruit. —With a view to putting beyond 
doubt the little likelihood of spreading cholera through the medium of 
Covent Garden, as some questions in the House of Commons might lead 
the public to believe, a reporter pursued inquiries on the subject. The 
Market Inspector told him :—“ There has been no dangerous fruit or 
anything approaching to it within the market area. It does not pay to 
send consignments of bad fruit. If it were otherwise buying would 
stop, and the wide reputation of the market would be ruined. We have 
the best name in the world for sound fruit and vegetables, and it is 
a poor market indeed for bad stuff.” 
- Variegated Aloes. — It not infrequently happens that 
visiting some comparatively remote and almost unknown garden one 
meets with something of more than usual interest, and I found that to 
be so recently in Somersetshire, for when at Inwood House, Mr. Wilkins 
kindly drove me over to Milborne Port to see Mr. Bowers and the 
quaint old gardens attached to Venn Hall, the residence of Sir A. 
Medlycott, and there I found, standing on a terrace, a number of 
huge variegated Agaves, some of the finest and cleanest I have ever seen. 
They seemed specially to be fitting in this fine old garden. In one of 
the houses there is a gigantic Adiantum farleyense some 7 feet through. 
It is in a large pot, and growing in a shaded position. Many other 
good plants show that the cultivation in the highest perfection of this 
grand Fern is well understood here.— A. D. 
- Fern Houses and Ferneries.—A block of formal houses, 
close to the mansion at Inwood, is now full of Ferns, in pots and 
standing on shelves and stages. Of course the result is, as is invari¬ 
ably the case in similar Fern houses, much uninteresting flatness and 
formality. Lady Theodora Guest, the munificent owner of this fine 
property, has resolved to convert these formal houses into one artistic 
fernery, and to that end the entire contents will be removed, the stages 
and shelves cleared away, the floors covered with substantial rockwork 
(which Mr. Wilkins will construct), good roomy alleys provided, and 
then the whole [planted artistically, so as to produce a very delightful 
effect, that can be at all seasons enjoyed. Then a Fern house becomes a 
real fernery. At present the houses are most unattractive to ladies; 
then they will be a favourite place of resort.—A. D. 
-A General Horticultural Society.—W e learn from the 
“ Garden and Forest ” that the birth of a General Horticultural Society 
took place on August 25th, immediately after the Horticultural Congress 
at Chicago, in Mr. Samuel’s office. The scheme provides for three oflScers 
at large, a president, viee-president, and secretary-treasurer. Each 
country is entitled to a vice-president and secretary-treasurer. The 
three general officers, together with the secretary-treasurer of the 
country in which the president resides, constitute a committee on bye¬ 
laws and on finance, while all the officers constitute an executive com¬ 
mittee. The object of a general Horticultural Society is the promotion 
of correspondence, the exchange of plants, seeds, books, and other 
articles, and the general extension of fellowship among the horticultu¬ 
rists of the world. The membership of the society consists of horti¬ 
cultural societies and of individuals, who pay an initial fee of two 
dollars and a subsequent annual fee of one dollar. Only three general 
officers are yet determined. These are—T. J. Berckmans, Georgia, 
president; Henri L. de Vilmorin, Paris, first vice-president; and George 
Nicholson, curator of the Royal Gardens, Kew, England, secretary- 
treasurer. It is expected that one-third of all the money collected in 
each country is to be retained in that country for the expenses of its 
own branch of the work, the remainder going into the hands of the 
secretary-treasurer. 
