828 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 13, 1832. 
- A Park at Ramsgate. —A new park has recently been 
opened at Ramsgate. This is situated in the Ellington suburb, and 
together with the mansion was purchased for £12,400. 
- New Park at St. Albans.—S ir J. B. Maple, M.P., has 
recently intimated his intention to present twenty-four acres of land to 
the City of St. Albans to be made into a public park and recreation 
ground, and it is stated that the Corporation has now decided to accept 
the generous offer. 
Pear Doyenne Boussoch. —Mr. Woodward, the well-known 
Maidstone exhibitor of fruit, showed some very fine specimens of this 
Pear, gathered out of doors and perfectly ripe, at Earl’s Court on 
October 6th. It is a large bad luscious Pear, not far removed from the 
front rank as regards flavour if eaten directly it is ripe.—W. 
- Magnificent Vegetables. — Mr. Pope of High Clere, 
Newbury, has exhibited many grand specimens of his skill as a vegetable 
grower, but in the “ trophy ’ arranged by him at Earl’s Court last week 
he fairly excelled himself. It may be doubted whether so magnificent 
a collection has ever been put together by one grower. His Beet, 
Cauliflowers, and Leeks were superb. 
- A Millionaire’s Garden.—I t is stated that Mr. Jay Gould, 
the well known American millionaire, has a passion for gardening, and 
at his residence on the banks of the Hudson River he has a remarkably 
fine collection of plants. An authority says that Mr. Gould has recently 
instructed an American firm to erect a new conservatory at the cost of 
about £20,000. 
- Ants on Oak Trees.—D r. E. Rathay states that the galls of 
Cynips calycis, produced on Quercus pedunculata, attract, by their 
viscid secretion, a number of small ants, which he believes to be advan¬ 
tageous to the tree in killing quantities of caterpillars and other insects 
which are its natural enemies. He illustrates the value of this protec¬ 
tion by the statement that tbe inhabitants of a single ants’ nest may 
destroy in a single day upwards of 100,000 insects. 
An Amateur’s Potatoes. —In many respects one of the 
most noteworthy exhibits at the recent Potato Show was the collection 
from Mr. E. Chopping of Milton, near Sittingbourne. He had not 
merely a dish or two of gigantic tubers, but seventy dishes of as smooth, 
clean, and even produce as ever graced a table. This is a tetter example 
of common-sense Potato growing than half a dozen heaps of deep-ejed 
monsters. Evidently the Judges thought the same, for they awarded a 
silver-gilt medal. They would have appreciated the collection still 
more had they been aware that Mr. Chopping is an amateur cultivator 
who has taught himself how to grow Potatoes, and attends to them in 
the time spared from a business quite distinct from horticulture. A 
silver-gilt medal is a high honour for a working amateur to win, but it 
was well deserved.—W. P. W. 
Pyrethrum uliginosum. —This is a most useful as well as 
showy hardy perennial border plant. It grows from 4 to 5 feet high, 
according as the soil is poor or rich, and produces with great freedom 
large white single flowers with yellow centres, many of which measure 
4 inches in diameter. The flowers of P. uliginosum are most useful for 
filling vases for the embellishment of rooms during the months of 
September and October. Stems 4 or 5 feet long furnished with dozens 
of flowering branches may be used entire in large trumpet-shaped 
glasses, intermixed with similar spikes of Aster novre-angliae rubra, A. 
formosissimus, rosy purple ; Rudbeckia Newmani, and Helianthus 
giganteus ; or the branchlets may be cut wiih stems from 20 inches 
downward as desired. The plant is easily increased by division of the 
roots, and it will thrive in any light soil of average fertility.—H. W. W. 
- Muscat of Alexandria Grape without Heat. — In a 
lean-to house provided with pipes, but which has a boiler out of repair, 
t have a Muscat of Alexandria that has carried six fair-sized bunches 
this year. As I have had no heat from the pipes since early in the 
summer of last year I did not expect these bunches to come to much 
good, but I was agreeably surprised, for the berries are a fair size, and 
I cut four bunches quite ripe on 23rd of September. The other two, 
which were rather exposed to the sun, and being badly scalded were but 
sorry looking things, but the berries which escaped were ripe nearly a 
fortnight earlier than the rest. A Gros Colman has four bunches of 
line berries still hanging, though only partly coloured, but, un¬ 
fortunately, the berries keep cracking. I have not seen a Muscat 
of Alexandria grown in an unheated house before, so fully believed 
it would not ripen its fruit.— H. S. Easty. 
- Strawberries in the Autumn. — Occasionally Strawberry 
plants bear a crop in the autumn, and it is stated that some ripe] fruit 
was gathered last week from gardens at Bekesbourne, near Canterbury, 
and in the neighbourhood of Ashford. The fruit was luscious and of 
full size. 
- Hops in Kent. —The Hop harvest in Kent, which was not 
finally brought to a termination until the end of last week, will be 
noted for phenomenally large growths secured by a few of the most 
successful planters. One of these, an East Kent grower, is reported 
to have obtained as many as 4000 pockets, probably the largest 
individual growth of the season. 
- Foreign Fruit. —The first American Apples of the season 
arrived in London last week, and the majority of the fruit are beautiful 
in colour and of fine size. Californian Peaches of large dimensions are 
also plentiful in the London markets, but the flavour of the fruit is 
somewhat disappointing, being decidedly inferior to a good English 
grown Peach. 
- Dahlias in Scotland.—W e see by a note in the last issue 
of the Journal of Horticulture that Dahlias are cut down in the South 
by frost. We send you a few blooms of new and recently introduced 
varieties, to show that here in the West of Scotland we are still 
untouched by frost, although rain has fallen for six weeks almost con¬ 
tinually.— Dobbie & Co. 
- Fallen Leaves in Orchards.—T o rake up and burn the 
fallen leaves in the orchard or to put them in the manure heap, says 
an American contemporary, will lessen the liability of the spreading of 
fungus diseases, and the same is true of all other plants. Where fungus 
is very troublesome in any season such measures may be necessary to 
prevent its returning the next year with increased power. 
- Violas in Autumn.—B eds of these in wayside gardens 
remind passers-by of the exceptional value of the plants from their 
long period of blooming. If cultivators will take the slight trouble to 
pick off the seed pods as they form, the plants flower on unweariedly for 
many weeks, after those which have been exhausted by early seed- 
ripening have lost their freshness and beauty. Violas are wonderfully 
cheerful at the dull season, notwithstanding their lowly growth, and 
their good qualities are not to be exhausted in the praise of a few 
lines.—P. 
- The Princes’ Street Gardens Arbitration. — The pro¬ 
ceedings in the arbitration between the Corporation of Edinburgh and 
the North British Railway Company as to the price to be paid by the 
latter for the ground taken by them in Princes’ Street Gardens was 
resumed on Wednesday, October 5th, in Dowell’s Rooms, George Street. 
The case for the Corporation, who claim a sum of £150,000, was con¬ 
tinued, and the witnesses examined for them were Mr. Washington 
Browne, Edinburgh, and Mr. Alexander Frew, C.E., Glasgow ; also 
Mr. James Watt, of the firm of Messrs. Little & Ballantyne, nurserymen, 
Carlisle, and Mr. John Methven, of the firm of Methven & Sons, nursery¬ 
men, Edinburgh. Both the latter gentlemen spoke principally on the 
question of amenity and on the laying out of the ground. 
-An American Opinion of English Gardens.—A dis¬ 
tinguished American landscape gardener, who has been sojourning 
among us after a long absence, records his impression of our parks and 
gardens. He did not admire the famous terrace at Chatsworth, but 
found the late Sir Joseph Paxton’s work in the Duke of Devonshire’s 
pleasure ground more interesting than of old. This is attributed to 
growth; for this authority lays it down as a rule that justice cannot 
often be done to a landscape gardener’s design in less than fifty years 
after the work has beei initiated, nor then unless it has been in the 
hands of one in sympathy with Nature. Mr. Olmsted, the gentleman in 
question, is of opinion that the selection and disposition of trees and 
plants, the modelling of surfaces and the arrangement of roads and 
walks and architectural conveniences, with a view to pleasing general 
effects of scenery, have been of late much confused and often lost sight 
of in efforts to provide brilliant local spectacles, to display rarities, 
curiosities, and luxuries of vegetation, and to exhibit masterpieces of 
horticultural craft and costly garden bric-4-brac. Vast numbers of trees 
have, he says, been planted without knowledge or soundly formed antici¬ 
pations of what they wid become. Our visitor notes with satisfaction 
that since his last visit there has been a decided abatement of “ the 
beddiDg-out nuisance ” and “ of all the garish and childish fashions that 
came in with it.” 
