May 23,1«95. 
451 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
- A “ Pat ” Description of Thirsty Ireland.— Parched 
with the drought. Last rain we had was a hailstorm on May Day.— Pat. 
- Bands in the London Parks. —A pamphlet recently issued 
by the Parks Sub-Department of the London County Council informs us 
that bands will play in various parks and recreation grounds on each 
day of the week from May 16th to September 8th, and that in eleven 
open spaces bands will perform on Sundays, commencing May 19th and 
ending September 8th. 
- Staphylea colchica. — Though this pretty flower is exten- 
fiively used for forcing it is not seen blooming in the open air in gardens 
so often as might be expected, and those who grow it under these 
conditions will testify to its usefulness. It is one of the most pleasing 
of all flowering shrubs, and having passed safely through the ordeal of 
the severe winter, may be seen in some gardens blooming profusely, its 
sweet-scented, creamy-white flowers being vfry conspicuous. It grows 
and blooms in almost any position with little attention, which fact alone 
is suflflcient to recommend it.—H. 
- Making Paris Green more Effective. — Paris green is 
soluble in ammonia and carbonate of ammonia, but experience teaches 
that whenever arsenic in solution is applied to foliage it injures the 
leaves ; otherwise compounds of arsenic with potash, soda,and ammonia, 
might be used instead of Paris green. The fact that Paris green yields 
its arsenic slowly is protection against the destructive action of the 
arsenious acid. It is not unlikely that if some gum-like material were 
added to the Paris green mixture, to fasten it to the foliage, failures 
from its use might be prevented. It might be worth while to try adding 
a small amount of dextrine (British gum) for holding the green to the 
foliage.—0. A. Goessmann (in the “ American Agriculturist.”) 
- Rainfall in Palestine. —From a paper on “ Early Agri¬ 
culture in Palestine,” by Dr. H. Vogelstein, we learn the interesting 
fact that in the first two centuries of the Christian era, rainfall was 
measured by means of a receptacle. The Jewish “ Mishnah ” refers to 
two seasons, one wet and the other dry. In normal years the early rain 
fell soon after the autumnal equinox, and its importance to agriculture 
is frequently referred to in that document. The amount which fell at 
this season was about 21 inches, which agrees fairly well with the 
present measurements at Jerusalem, but the total annual fall is not 
stated by Dr. Vogelstein. Further particulars of this interesting 
communication will be found in the “ Meteorologiiche Zeitschrift” for 
April.—(“ Nature.”) 
- A Big Rose —The specimen of Lamarque Rose in one of the 
Californian cities is sufficient to make cultivators of Tea Roses in this 
country somewhat envious. The Rose was planted in the autumn of 
1876, and has grown vigorously from the first, and during the past 
fifteen years has borne enormous numbers of flowers. At the present 
time the stem immediately above the surface of the ground has a cir¬ 
cumference of 2 feet 9 inches, and the two branches that spring from 
the main stem are each 2 feet in circumference. The growth has been 
trained over a large arbour, and this is annually pruned somewhat 
severely, a wagnnload of wood being, it is stated, cut away last autumn. 
A contemporary has been informed that the blooms have been counted 
for several years, and the average in the five seasons previous to this 
has been upwards of 14,000. This year the number produced in March 
and April was 21,640, 
- Floral Decorations in Japan.—T he perambulating florist, 
says an American journal, offers quite a contrast to our ideas, with his 
flowering branches standing in bamboo jars. The Japanese are great 
flower lovers, and the flower vendor is a familiar sight in the streets of 
their cities. They are very fond of flowering shrubs, cut sprays being 
much used in decoration. But their ideas of floral arrangement are 
very different from ours, and our choicest decorations would be coarse 
and inartistic in their e)e8. All their floral arrangements have an 
underlying symboliim which we find difficulty in comprehending, though 
we can recognise the main principle—that of fidelity to Nature. A 
single branch of Cherry blossoms, standing in a bamboo flower holder, 
will be the result of as much thought as we give to an elaborate 
arrangement, and a mixture of incongruous bloom is never seen, being 
absolutely repugnant to them. The idea that a single Rose, thought- 
iully placed so that stem aird foliage as well as bloom show to 
advantage, is sufficient decoration for a table, an opinion offered 
recently by a lady of much taste, is certainly a move toward the 
Japanese Ideal. 
4 
- Wakefield Paxton Society.—A t a recent meeting of this 
Society Lieutenant Goodyear presided, and Mr. B. Whiteley was in the 
vice chair. Mr. J. Burton gave a most interesting lecture on the 
formation of the world. He illustrated his eloquent address, which was 
delivered extempore, by a coloured diagram showing the crust of the 
earth. Mr. Burton’s lecture, which was of a scientific character, was 
most attentively listened to, much applauded, and provoked an 
interesting discussion. 
- Fruit Imports in Germany.—A t a meeting of the Central 
Agricultural Bureau of South Australia it was reported that while it 
had been thought that Germany exported a large amount of fresh fruit, 
it had been found from an official paper of recent date that from 1884 
to 1893, while they only exported 215,521 tons of fresh fruit, they 
imported 376,076 tons. The imports each were half a million sterling 
in excess of the exports. It was thought from these facts that a market 
for South Australian fruit might be secured in Germany. 
- The Hardiness of Scarlet Runner Seeds. — Mr. 
Helmsley in his interesting paper on the “ Vitality of Seeds,” states 
(page 437) that “ The Scarlet Runner Bean loses its germinative powers 
on exposure to slight frost.” Some years ago, as not infrequently 
happens in gardens, a number of pods of Scarlet Runner Beans ripened 
in the plants. After these were dead the sticks to which they adhered 
were drawn and stacked for the winter, but through pressure of work 
the dead twiners were not removed at the time. They were, in fact, 
not removed until the spring, and the dried pods and beans were exposed 
to a month of severe frost, the thermometer on several consecutive nights 
registering only a few degrees above zero. After this ordeal, and the 
beans appearing sound, some of them were tested in the practical 
manner of sowing an extra row by the side of the usual number from 
purchased seed. It was not expected there would be many, if any, 
plants, but to the surprise of all concerned, every bean, which must have 
been frozen, germinated, and the plants grew as well and the row was 
as productive as any in the garden. The beans were taken from the 
pods on the ground and placed in the drill by the hand that writes these 
lines, and the facts are exactly as stated. Has Mr. Helmsley proved 
his allegation or relied on books for his information ?—A Gardener. 
- Royal Meteorological Society.—T he monthly meeting of 
this Society was held on Wednesday evening, the 15th inst., at the 
Surveyors’ Institution, Westminster, Mr. R. Inwards, F.R A.S., Presi¬ 
dent, in the chair. Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., and Mr. G. Chatterton, 
M.Inst.C.E., read a paper on “The November Floods of 1894 in the 
Thames Valley,” which they had prepared at the request of the Council 
of the Royal Meteorological Society. This consisted of a systematic 
description of the causes which led to the great floods of November last, 
and analysis of the records obtained from the Thames Conservancy 
Board, from the engineers of several of the towns along the river, and 
also from rainfall observers throughout the Thames watershed. The 
information was given chiefly in the form of tables, one of the first 
being a chronological history of floods in the Thames Valley from the 
earliest records down to the present time. This was followed by a short 
description of the damage wrought in November, 1894, which was 
illustrated by a number of interesting lantern slides. Details were then 
given of the levels reached at various places in all the principal floods 
from 1750 to the present time. The authors exhibited a map showing 
the relative elevation of all the parts of the Thames Basin, and then 
gave details of the rainfall for each day from Oct. 23rd to Nov. 18th, 
1894. The results obtained by the Thames Conservancy Board showing 
the flood levels at each lock were exhibited on a longitudinal section 
from Lechlade to Teddington, and the hydraulic inclinations from lock 
to lock were shown in a tabular form. The volume of flood water, as 
gauged by the Thames Conservancy at Teddington, rose rapidly from 
4,000.000,000 gallons per diem on November 12th, to 10,250,000,000 
gallons on the 16 h, 12,800,000,000 gallons on the 17th, and to over 
20,000,000,000 gallons on the 18th, when the discharge reached its 
maximum. The last-named discharge is equivalent to 0 37 inch over 
the whole watershed of the Thames above Teddington Lock. Mr. F. J. 
Brodie also read a short paper “ On the Barometrical Changes Preceding 
and Accompanying the Heavy Rainfall of November, 1894.” from which 
it appeared that the latter half of October was characterised by unusually 
bad weather, especially in the more western and southern parts of the 
British Isles. The torrential rains of November 11th to 14th, which 
actually caused the floods, were due to two secondary depressions which 
developed a certain amount of intensity as they passed over the southern 
part of England. 
