834 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 12, 18Mi 
_ The Weather in West Yorkshire.—T he weather in the 
Bingley district still continues of an open character, no frost having 
been experienced of any consequence. Borders and beds are still 
gay with Dahlias, Sunflowers, Chryganthemums, and other flowering 
plants.—T. H. B. 
_ Hampton Court Gardens. —About 4 acres of private gardens 
at Hampton Court Palace, which have hitherto been maintained out of 
the privy purse, but to which the public have for many years had free 
access, are about to be transferred to the management of the Board of 
Works, and the expense borne by the Parliamentary vote. 
- WooLTON Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society.— 
The members of this Society will open their winter season by giving 
a concert in aid of their library and the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent 
Institution. The Chairman of the evening will be Holbrook Gaskell, 
Esq., T.P. The Committee have also arranged an excellent series of 
papers for the winter meetings.—R. P. R. 
- The Potato Problem (pp. 266-288). —The solution of this 
is that owing to the weather the crop of late Potatoes is growing 
again generally and well, as I experience to my cost, some becoming 
flabby, others watery at the end and uneatable. In many instances 
people took up their early Potatoes safely, and at once replanted, the 
result being now a good crop of sound young Potatoes. On one occasion 
when the tubers began growing again I let them remain till late in the 
season, using for the table the young ones which came, and bestowing 
the others in the piggery.—J. B. Rogward. 
- Sophora japonica. —As an ornamental tree this Sophora, 
says an American contemporary, is hardly appreciated. It is very hardy, 
of good habit, free from the attacks of insects and fungal diseases, and 
the leaves are of a beautiful dark glossy green. The yellowish white 
pea-shaped flowers are produced in great terminal clusters, and well- 
established trees flower freely during two or three weeks. This Sophora 
is certainly one of the beat of the medium-sized exotic trees which we 
can plant. Large specimens are not common in America, although 
S. japonica was one of the first of the eastern Asiatic trees introduced 
into European gardens, where it was sent by Thunberg, who found it 
cultivated in Japan more than a century ago, and who mistook it for a 
Japanese tree. 
- The Origin op the Peach,—I t has never been clearly 
ascertained what was the original parent of the Peach. It is, however, 
well known that the Peach, the Almond, and the Nectarine can all be 
developed, the one from the other ; and it is, therefore, reasonable that 
all had the same origin. It has been supposed that the Almond was 
really the antecedent of the other two. Recently, however, there has 
been found a wild plant in the north of China, which is considered a 
good species, and has been named Amygdalus Davidiana, and it fs 
believed that this is really the parent of the Peach and its allies. 
According to “ Meehan’s Monthly,” all that is known of the Peach and 
Almond is that they were in cultivation as garden plants as far back as 
written history goes. 
- A Cocoa Palm Weevil. —A Jaffna correspondent writes:— 
“ About here Cocoa Nut trees in full bearing, and generally the best 
bearing trees, are attacked by the red weevil. The presence of the larvaj 
is detected by a black spot, from which there flows a reddish liquid, sap 
or otherwise. It is asserted that a Cocoa Nut tree attacked by the 
red weevil can be saved by cutting a hole in it, extracting all the weevil 
grubs that can be found, and fumigating the hole with the smoke of 
burned Chilis to kill any grubs that may remain in the tree ; but we do 
not think there is any experienced Cocoa Nut planter who believes in 
this remedy. We have tried it without success ; and we have also tried 
injecting turpentine into the tree with a syringe, but this also did no 
good. Of the alleged remedy of driving nails into the tree we have not 
previously heard, and it would not be safe to try it without being sure 
of its efficacy, because if it should fail the larvae would mature into 
beetles, and the beetles would in turn breed progeny to destroy more 
trees. We believe the best thing to be done with a tree attacked 
by the red weevil is to chop it in pieces, feed the fowls with all 
the grubs that can be found, and burn the remains of the tree so 
as to destroy any weevils or weevil grubs that may be concealed in 
the pieces. Our opinion is, that a tree attacked by the red weevil is 
doomed any way, and that all that can be done is to prevent more trees 
from being destroyed by the progeny of the weevil and weevil grubs 
which it contains.” 
- Mr. George Cannon.—M r. Cannon, who has been for a 
number of years manager in Messrs. C. Lee & Sons’ nursery at 
Ealing, is about leaving their service, as he has taken to the business 
carried on for so many years by Mr. George Weeden, St. John’s Nursery, 
Matlock Lane, Ealing. Educated at Osborn’s Nursery, Fulham, and 
then four years with Messrs. R. Smith & Co. at Worcester, he twenty- 
nine years since entered the service of Messrs. C. Lee & Son, taking 
charge of the Ealing nursery, the business of which he developed to a 
considerable extent, and made a reputation as a successful cultivator of 
fruit trees, shrubs and trees of all kinds, and especially as a landscape 
gardener, having with marked ability laid out many gardens and 
pleasure grounds at Baling and elsewhere, and planted open spaces. 
Mr. Cannon is so deservedly popular in the trade, and especially so at 
Ealing, where he is widely known, that a host of good wishes will 
follow him as he enters upon business on his own account. 
-The Kingston and Surbiton Gardeners’ Association.— 
The new quarters of this Society, the hall adjoining the Y.M.C.A., Eden 
Street, was occupied for the first time by the gardeners on Tuesday 
evening, October 3rd, when, as previously announced, Mr. James Martin, 
from Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Reading, gave a most interesting address 
on the Begonia. There was a large attendance of members, and 
Mr. J. P. Trew presided. Some new members were also admitted. The 
lecture was illustrated oy a number of plants showing diverse forms and 
species of the Begonia, both tuberous and fibrous rooted, also very 
fine double and single flowers. The President, says the “ Surrey 
Comet,” expressed the exceeding pleasure he felt in being present, 
honoured the gardeners for their evident desire to increase their pro¬ 
fessional knowledge, and said that life without beautiful flowers would 
be almost unbearable. At the close of the lecture, listened to with 
deep interest, a very hearty vote of thanks was proposed to Mr. Martin 
and to Messrs. Sutton & Sons and unanimously carried, as was also 
a similar compliment to Mr. J. P. Trew. 
- Allotments. —So customary is it the case now that allot¬ 
ments for working people are found in rural districts, that I was greatly 
surprised when recently in a somewhat pretentious parish in Surrey, 
where there is a railway station and a large population, with soil for 
garden purposes of the very best, to find that there were no allotments. 
Possibly the local authorities have not yet begun to realise that to have 
made no provision for allotments is becoming a matter of reprehension. 
Why, in myriads of thinly populated, indeed almost poor parishes, one 
meets with them, and it is one of the most pleasing aspects of the 
subject that workers manifest such desire to possess allotments, that 
tenants can be found in abundance provided the conditions of letting 
are such as can be agreed to by workers. There is a considerable 
number of workers of various sorts in the parish I have referred to, and 
it would be interesting to learn whether these have made a request for 
a supply. Sometimes landowners offer ground ere application is made, 
frequently after, and occasionally failing any supply of allotments in 
that way the local authorities have to intervene. That is the case here 
in Kingston-on-Thames, where, the land being largely in request for 
building, it has been found needful to invoke the aid of the Corporation, 
and as ground for the erection of an isolation hospital seems to be abso¬ 
lutely essential, the local authority have agreed to purchase 11 acres of 
land on the eastern side of the town, on a small portion of which to 
locate the hospital, and the remainder will be available for allotments. 
The ground is to be purchased for £140 per acre, not too high a price 
for the locality provided it proves suitable for the purpose. No doubt 
by far the best site for allotments on the north side of the town, 
where some 5000 of the working class reside, is the open or Lammas 
land on the Dysart estate, and which is at present let for six months of 
the year only for market garden crops. This, if it eould be secured, 
would enable some 200 good allotment to be provided easily.—A. D. 
AGAYE LEOPOLD II. 
The Agave shown in the illustration (fig. 49) is one of the best of its 
class in cultivation, and when exhibited by the raiser, W. B. Kellock, 
Esq., of Stamford Hill, at the recent Agricultural Hall Show, the Floral 
Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society awarded a first-class 
certificate for it. As before remarked in this Journal, the plant has an 
interesting history. It is the result of a cross between A. Schidigera 
princeps and A. filifera, the latter being the pollen parent. The plant 
from which the seed was obtained was exhibited by Mr. Kellock about 
fifteen years ago at South Kensington, and was much admired by Her 
Majesty the Queen whilst on a visit to the gardens of the R.H.S. at that 
