528 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 15, 1892. 
- Guild of Kew Gardeners —The gardeners of Kew, past 
and present, are desirous of forming themselves into a Guild, and pro¬ 
pose to publish annually a journal in which will be recorded—1, The 
present Kew staff, from the Director to the gardeners; 2, A list of all 
Old Kewites, with the date of their leaving Kew, and their positions 
and addresses; 3, Brief notices of distinguished Past Kewites ; 4, Kew 
Notes ; 5, Interesting Correspondence from Old Kewites ; 6, The Pro¬ 
ceedings of the Mutual Improvement Society and the prize essays of 
the year ; 7, The Proceedings of the Kew British Botany Club ; 8, The 
Report of the Cricket Club ; Frontispiece—portrait of a distinguished 
Kewite. The journal will consist of about fifty pages, royal 8vo., to 
cover the cost of which, with postage, an annual subscription of Is. will 
be necessary. It will be published on May 1st. Will all Old Kewites ) 
ie., men who have at any time worked as gardeners at Kew, kindly send 
their names, date of leaving Kew, wi:h present position and address, to 
the Secretary, for publication in the journal ? It is anticipated that 
every Kewite will gladly become a subscribing member of the Guild, 
and also communicate any interesting professional information for pub¬ 
lication in the journal. It will be seen that the aim and object of the 
Guild is the very laudable one of uniting all Kew men in a bond of 
fellowship by means of a journal which will convey to them news of 
interest, and enable them to communicate with each other. There are 
probably 500 Kewites distributed all over the world, but of the where¬ 
abouts of all except a small proportion there is at present no record. 
The Committee to carry out this scheme is composed of Messrs. W. 
Watson, W. J. Bean, G. H. Krumbiegel, J. Browne, H. Pettigrew, and 
J. Aikman. All communications should be addressed to the Secretary, 
J. Aikman, Whitestile Road, Brentford. It would save correspondence 
if members enclose their subscriptions when they write to the Secretary. 
Poisoning Moles. — Monsieur Ledain, the director of an 
agricultural school in Brittany, has asserted that moles may be poisoned 
by means of live earthworms which have been sprinkled with nux 
vomica. The worms, he says, should be collected and left in peace for 
twenty-four hours to disgorge the earth they have swallowed. Then 
they should be put in a jar and sprinkled with the drug in the pro¬ 
portion of 30 grains to a saucerful of worms. Twelve hours later they 
will be ready for use ; and then they should not be touched with the 
fingers, but taken up with little wooden pincers and put at the entrance 
of the mole galleries, being covered with clods or bits of tile in order that 
the mole may not be alarmed either by a current of air or a ray of light. 
• — Royal Botanic Society.— A meeting of the Fellows of this 
Society was held on Saturday, Major J. W. M. Cotton in the chair 
Included in the objects of general interest exhibited at the meeting wa 3 
a preparation by Messrs. Christy, of the Kola Nut, for a beverage some¬ 
what resembling cocoa or chocolate, and possessing the same tonic 
properties as it, and tea, coffee, and other like beverages to a very high 
percentage. Plants of the tree producing the nuts were on the table 
from the Society’s conservatory. The Secretary said that no thoughtful 
man could walk through the plant houses or museum in the Society’s 
garden without noticing the vast variety of vegetable economic products 
provided by Nature, and at the same time being struck with the thought 
of the little use that had been made of them by civilised humanity. In 
the last fifty years enormous strides had been made in the use of steam, 
electricity, and machinery generally—not to mention iron shipping and 
explosive machines—for the service of man ; but little attention had 
been given by commerce to the utilisation of new vegetable foods, 
beverages, fibres, and timbers, although their value was continually 
being brought to notice by travellers and scientific research. As an 
example, of the many valuable fibres only one or two new ones—and 
they not the best—viz., cocoa-nut fibre and sparto grass—have been 
brought into extensive use during the fifty years. 
Luonymus europasus. —This seems to have been a good year 
for this berry-bearing shrub. Hereabouts the woods and hedgerows 
have been quite ablaze with the brightly coloured berries freely 
produced. Perhaps the greatest profusion of berries was borne on 
bushes growing in shallow soil over chalk, irrespective of position as 
regards aspect, although plenty are to be found carrying good crops of 
berries in stiff land. I came across a plant one day in a hedgerow that 
was laden with pure white berries, which formed a good contrast to 
others near of the more common colour. The natives here call it 
the ‘Skewer” Wood Tree.— E. M., Hants. [The “natives” are not far 
wrong. The common name of the shrub is the Spindle Tree, so called 
from its wood being used long ago for making spindles. It is called 
Prick wood and Priektimber, from being used for toothpicks and 
skewers. 1 he wood is said to be used by musical instrument makers. 
For skewers and toothpicks the wood should be cut when the shrub is 
in bloom, for then it is tough and not easily broken ; it is also used by 
watchmakers for cleaning watches. The berries act as an emetic and 
purgative, and are fatal to sheep ; and when powdered and sprinkled on 
the hair, destroy pediculi; sometimes it is made into an ointment for the 
same purpose. No animals, except the goat, will browse upon the plant. J 
- Mealy Bug on Vines.—R eplying to your correspondent 
“ Nemo ” (page 505) as to what dressing we applied to our Vines, I may 
state that there was nothing special about it, being a mixture of clay 
soot, sulphur, Gishurst, and cow manure, with one wineglass of petroleum 
to a quart of water. The whole was simmered on a slow fire for, say, 
twenty minutes, and brushed well into every crevice of the Vines. The 
wood, glass, trellis, and walls had previously been washed with a strong 
solution of softsoap and petroleum. But I do not attribute our success 
so much to the dressing used as to not syringing it off when starting the 
Vines, and paying strict attention during the summer, destroying every 
insect as it appeared with a small brush dipped in petroleum. This was 
done, not every ten or fourteen days, but four or five times in the week ; 
in fact, every bright day. I may add we are pruning our old Vines just 
now, and I am pleased to say there is not the least sign of bug to be seen 
in the house.—R. R., Belfast. 
- Country Fruit Markets.—I thank “ A. D.” for his well- 
intended advice on page 505, but under the circumstances it would have 
been impracticable to carry out. It may possibly be remembered that just 
as the bulk of the Green Gage crop were ripening it was a very wet 
time, and before the fruit was at its best for gathering nearly the whole 
were split, and especially the finest fruits fit for boxing as described. 
To have boxed up these would have been worse than doing the best one 
could of disposing of them at home at almost any sacrifice. The fact is 
we are too much at the mercy of the middleman, and when one has to 
depend upon one man it is even worse than when there is competition. 
In this particular case a dealer agreed to take my fruit on a certain day. 
It was gathered at some inconvenience and extra expense, mostly cracked, 
and needed using at once. The day came but not the man, and I have 
not seen him even yet. My own impression is that he was overstocked, 
and if fruit is put together damp and split it is spoilt before it could 
get into the consumer’s hands in towns, and would probably be 
slaughtered in price and find its way into the tons of stuff that 
is made into town jam. No ! Bottling and preserving fresh when the 
fruit was gathered was what would have been the proper course if it 
could have been carried out on a small scale on the Toddington 
principle.—J. Hiam. 
-Newcastle Botanical and Horticultural Society.— 
At the annual meeting of this important northern Society, held on the 
7th inst., Mr. Gillespie, the Secretary, reported that the payments 
during the year had amounted to £1425 7s. lid., and, as the income 
was £1277 16s. 3d., there was deficiency on the year of £147 11s. 8d. 
The balance in hand had been reduced from £559 17s. 2d. to £412 5s. 6d. 
The Chairman, Councillor J. Baxter Ellis, in moving the adoption of 
the report and balance-sheet, said they required very little comment 
from him. In one respect they had to a certain extent their usual 
misfortune, but they had had misfortunes many times, and they had 
never been disheartened, nor did they intend to be this time. At the 
time of the spring Show, which they always looked forward to for 
material help, they had had extremely bad weather. For the autumn 
show they had had very fair weather ; but still they had, and through 
no fault of their own, misfortune, for on one of the most important 
Show days there was a bye-election in Newcastle. There was no doubt 
whatever that that interfered very materially with the attendance at 
Leazes Park, and consequently, upon the year’s working there was a 
loss of £147 11s. 8d., leaving the Society with a balance in hand of 
£412 5s. 6d. He had no doubt the Society would again overcome its 
difficulties, for there was one thing that always inspired them, and that 
was the knowledge that they enjoyed the entire confidence of the New¬ 
castle people and the people of the North of England. Next year they 
proposed to join with the Northumberland Agricultural Society, which 
has been invited by the Corporation to hold its Show in Newcastle. 
He then referred to Mr. Gillespie’s retirement from the office of 
Honorary Secretary, and acknowledged the value of his services during 
the last fifteen years. Mr. B. Plummer seconded the motion, which was 
carried unanimously. Aid. Gibson was elected President for the forth¬ 
coming year, with the Mayor of Newcastle (Mr. Edward Culley) Vice- 
President. Mr. Gillespie, in consideration of his valuable services, was 
invited to a seat on the Council, and has accepted the honour. The 
next spririg Show has been fixed for April 19th and 20th. 
