274 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 28, 18>5 
- Irish Seed Potatoes. —Replying to a question in the House 
of Commons, Mr. J. Morley said : “ The Seed Potatoes Supply Bill pro¬ 
vides (as did also the similar Bill of 1890) that seeds shall not be sold for 
less than the net price paid by the guardians for them, inclusive of the 
expenses incurred for carriage, storage, and distribution. The price 
would, therefore, vary in different districts according to the contract 
price and to the expenses incurred in distribution. No seeds have yet 
reached Belmullet Union for distribution, but the guardians have entered 
into a contract for about 100 tons of Irish Champions at £5 128. 6d. per 
ton, delivered in Belmullet, and for a small quantity of another kind of 
seeds at £6 178. 6d. per ton; To this will have to be added the cost of 
storage and distribution, and it is not possible at present to say what 
the price charged to the people will be, but the Local Government Board 
do not think it will amount to anything like so high a figure as £10 
a ton." 
- A Note. —During a recent call on Mr. G. Clements at Haseley 
Manor Gardens, Warwick, I noticed that there, as in so many other 
gardens, the severity of the late winter has left unmistakeable marks 
behind. Many fine shrubs are terribly disfigured, and in some instances 
killed to the ground line. Fortunately, the grounds abound in choice 
shrubs and Coniferae, so that they will not be missed so much as in 
many places, and Alfred Hewlett, Esq., the generous proprietor, is such 
an ardent arborist that planting is carried on extensively each year, and 
perhaps in future times the well wooded park at Haseley will possess 
some of the giant trees of the district. In the houses things are growing 
apace under the influence of more genial weather, the conservatory 
being gay with a host of bulbous plants. The well-arranged fernery 
has been thoroughly overhauled, so as to keep some of the stronger 
varieties of Ferns within bounds, and thus allow the weaker ones to 
develop fully. In the course of a few weeks this fernery will look 
exceedingly well.—Z, 
- The Iron Duke and His Gardener.— In an interesting 
reference to Walmer Castle a daily contemporary tells the following 
excellent story :—“ No resident at Walmer has left a more lasting 
impression on the history of the Castle than the Duke of Wellington. 
He did not seem, however, to make any notable improvements in the 
structure, and the gardens during his residence fell into a great state 
of neglect, owing, it is said, to his having given the post of gardener 
to a veteran sergeant who had fought at Waterloo, but who knew 
nothing of gardening. ‘Do you know anything about gardening?’ 
asked the Duke, when the sergeant came by appointment to Apsley 
House in the hope of employment. The man replied that he did not. 
‘ Then,’ said the Duke, ‘go and learn, and come back this day fortnight.* 
At the second interview the Duke said, ‘ Go and take the place of 
gardener at Walmer.’ ‘ But,’ stammered the sergeant, ‘ I know nothing 
about gardening.’ ‘ Nor do I, nor do I,’ retorted the Duke shortly, ‘ take 
your place at once.’ The only subsequent record of the Duke’s interest 
in the gardens was the planting there of a cutting of the Willow that 
grew by the grave of Napoleon in St. Helena.’’ 
- A Puritan Flower. —No more beautiful flower grows in 
New England than the Sabbatia, and at Plymouth, where it is especially 
profuse and luxuriant on the borders of the ponds so characteristic of 
that part of Eastern Massachusetts, it is held in peculiar affection, and 
one may almost say reverence. It is locally called‘‘the Rose of Plymouth," 
and during its brief season of bloom is sold in great numbers in the streets 
of the town, and used in the adornment of houses and churches. Its name, 
according to the “ Garden and Forest,” comes from that of an early 
botanist, Liberatus Sabbatia, but this well-established truth is totally 
disregarded by local tradition. Almost everyone in Plymouth firmly 
believes that the title is due to the fact that the Pilgrims of 1620 first 
saw the flower on a Sabbath day, and entranced by its masses of pinkish 
lilac colour, named it for the holy day. Indeed, this belief is so deeply 
ingrained in the Plymouth mind that, we are told, strong objections 
are made if any other flowers are irreverently mingled with it in church 
decoration. Yet the legend was invented not more than twenty-five 
years ago by a man whose identity is still well remembered, and thus 
it is of even more recent origin than the one, still more universally 
credited, which says that the Pilgrim fathers landed on Plymouth Rock. 
- Winter Bedding. —The past severe frost has done much to 
emphasise the advantage of the employment of small shrubs for the 
winter and spring decoration of the flower beds. “ H. D.’’ (page 225) 
gives a pitiable experience of the death by frost of hosts of plants 
usually employed as spring bedders. In this part (Hants) it is the 
same. Even Wallflowers are killed outright. I never saw the common 
Daisies and Plantain amongst the grass so brown. Beds filled in the 
autumn with small shrubs, like Cupressus Lawsoniana, Cryptomeria 
elegans. Thuja Lobbi, Thujopsis borealis, Retinosporas of sorts, Aucubas, 
common Laurels, Box, Ivy, Heaths, and Euonymus radicans variegata, 
are now looking quite fresh, while on the other hand the beds of 
ordinary spring plants are in a sorry plight. The best of them have 
more gaps than plants. There is something cheerful about these shrub 
beds, even in the depth of winter, that renders them pleasing. The 
point to study in achieving a good effect is to have a sufficient number 
of well grown, bushy plants, and arrange them somewhat thickly, but 
not so closely together that each loses its individuality. A stock is easily 
obtained by rooting a number of cuttings of each annually for a time. 
The summer treatment is not very difficult either. Those who have not 
given the plan a trial should lose no time in doing so.—E. M. 
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Regent’s Park. — Special 
interest attached to the meeting of the Fellows of the Royal Botanic 
Society held on Saturday last, from the fact that notice of motion 
had been given with regard to the important question of opening the 
gardens to the public. Mr. G. W. Bell occupied the chair, and Mr. 
J. S. Rubinstein moved “ That this meeting recommends the Council 
to issue a circular letter to all the Fellows, in order to ascertain 
whether they approve or disapprove of opening the gardens to the 
public by payment on two or more off days in the week." He pointed 
out that it was absolutely necessary to find some new source of income, 
and he was surprised that the Council had not deemed it expedient to 
act upon the previous suggestion he had made in that direction. The 
Chairman then said that the question raised would receive full and 
careful consideration, and if it were found possible to carry out the 
recommendation it would no doubt be done. By some, however, it was 
thought such a scheme would not raise the Society’s income by as much 
as £10 ; but if the Council came to the conclusion that the innovation 
proposed would increase the funds, it would certainly be tried. 
- Woolton Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society.— 
On Thursday evening the last meeting of the session was held in the 
Mechanics’ Institute. Mr. H. Middlehurst presided over a crowded 
attendance, the subject for the evening’s discussion being a prize essay, 
the prize kindly given by Mr. H. Middlehurst, on “ Hardy Bulbous 
Plants Other than Spring Bedding Varieties," and which was won by 
Mr. G. H. Webster. The essay was of much merit and listened to with 
great attention. At nearly every meeting members bring exhibits of 
choice plants, fruits, and vegetables for instruction to younger members, 
and at this the Committee unanimously granted a certificate of merit to 
Mr. R. Todd, gardener to Holbrook Gaskell, Esq., Woolton Wood, for a 
well flowered specimen of Ccelogyne cristata Lemoniana, with about 250 
flowers, several of the spikes bearing eight flowers each. The usual 
votes closed the meeting. In conclusion I should like to add that the 
present season’s work has been equal to any of the former ones. The 
members work really for mutual improvement, and many good lessons 
are taught. The library, which is one of the best of its kind in the 
country, is freely used and much appreciated,—R. P, R. 
_ Yunnan Plants. —An old Chinese correspondent of Kew, Mr. 
W. Hancock, F.L.S., to whom it is indebted for several small collections 
of dried Chinese plants, has sent a further collection, comprising about 
150 species of flowering plants and 120 Ferns. The specimens are 
admirable, and often copious. These plants were collected in the 
neighbourhood of Mongtze, or ‘‘ Mengtsz,” as Mr. Hancock writes it. 
This place is situated in South-eastern Yunnan, just within the tropics ; 
and although the plants were not collected at great elevations (4000 to 
6500 feet) they were all of a temperate or sub-tropical type. Like 
other parts of the vast province of Yunnan, this appears to be exceed¬ 
ingly rich in local species, and there can be no doubt from a cursory 
examination of the collection that it contains a considerable sprinkling 
of undescribed kinds. There are probably at least ten new Ferns, a 
large number considering the wide range of Ferns generally. Among 
flowering plants a species of Jasminum, allied to J. nudiflorum, is 
perhaps the most conspicuous. It has primrose-yellow flowers with 
broad overlapping petals of great substance, and they are from 1^ inch 
to IJ inch in diameter. There is also a remarkable new species of 
Brandisia, with long terminal racemes of “ rich red ’’ flowers. A Rhodo¬ 
dendron having very large solitary or geminate white flowers is 
probably new, and several elegant Cyrtandrese are different from 
anything Kew previously possessed. The very large and distinct Rosa 
gigantea (Collett) is also among the plants collected. Some of the 
most striking novelties will be figured in an early part of ‘‘ Hooker s 
leones Plantarum.’’—(“ Kew Bulletin.’’) 
