292 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 4, 1898. 
- The Batlet Chktsanthemum Show is announced to be 
held on November 17th. 
- Gaedekihg Appointment.—M r. T. A. Glover, for the last 
eight and half years gardener to Ed. Ellis, Esq., Manor House, Walling- 
ton, Surrey, has been appointed head gardener to F. Macmillan, Esq., 
Temple Dinsley, near Hitchin. 
- Calanthe Cultuee. — Permit me to inform “ S. K., 
Lymington” (I'e Calanthe Culture, page 273, in last week’s issue of 
the Journal) that I was not referring to his article ancnt placing 
three good bulbs in a 5-inch pot; in fact, I was merely illustrating the 
system of a writer in one of our contemporaries.— James Feiend. 
- Peesentation to Me. Wilson.—M r. Wilson, steward and 
gardener to the Earl of Lindsay, Uffington House, a post he has filled 
for twenty-six years, was recently presented by his Lordship with a 
handsome watch and chain, a tripod lamp, also a scarf pin from the 
Ladies Bertie, on his leaving Uffington for Bank Hall, Tarleton, A 
silver inkstand formed a gift from the villagers 
- Maech in Mid-Sussex. —The first three weeks of March 
were in this district (Haywards Heath) on the whole favourable for 
garden work. The frost came slowly out of the ground, and fortunately 
but little rain fell, so that by the 14th the land was dry and working 
well. Since the 20th it has been showery, cold and sunless. To-day 
(April Ist) we had a sharp thunderstorm, which brought a heavy down¬ 
pour of hail. 
- Sussex Eainfall. —The total rainfall at Abbot’s Leigh, 
Haywards Heath, Sussex, for the past month was 1-76 inch, being 
0'32 inch below the average. The heaviest fall was O'40 inch on the 26th. 
Rain fell on sixteen days. Total for the quarter, 4 40 inches, which is 
2 26 inches below the average. The maximum temperature in the 
shade was 60° on the 22nd, and the minimum 22° on the 4th. Mean 
maximum, 48 16°, mean minimum, 34']6°; mean temperature, 41'16°, 
which is 0 40° below the average.—R. I. 
-Maech Weathee in South Wales. — The following is a 
summary of the weather here for the past month;—Total amount of 
sunshine eighty-five hours fifty-five minutes. Maximum, nine hours and 
a half on the 13th ; minimum ten minutes on the 20th. Rain fell on 
eighteen days, total depth 5-26 inches; maximum 1 63 inch on the 
23rd ; minimum 0 01 on the 20th. The wind was in the N. and N.W. 
on twenty-five days. It was a very cold stormy month throughout. 
Snow fell on five days. There was a very strong gale on the 23rd and 
24th, and it has been stormy every day since then.—W. Mabbott, 
Gioernllwyn House, Doiolais, Olamorgan. 
- OvEEDOiNG Gaedening. —“ I went to stay at a very grand 
and beautiful place in the country where the grounds are said to belaid 
out with consummate taste. For the first three or four days I was 
enchanted. It seemed so much better than Nature, that I began to wish 
the earth had been laid out according to the latest principles of 
improvement. In three days’ time I was tired to death ; a Thistle, a 
heap of dead bushes, anything that wore the appearance of accident and 
want of intention was quite a relief. I used to escape from the made 
grounds and walk on the adjacent goose common, where the cart ruts, 
gravel pits, bumps, coarse, ungentleman-like grass and all the varieties 
produced by neglect were a thousand times more gratifying.”— (Sydney 
Smith ) 
- Moveable Feasts.—I do not think “E. K.” (page 269) can 
have had much to do with the management of horticultural societies, of 
which exhibitions are the primary import, or I do not suppose he would 
advocate the moving of the day. Managers of societies have too often 
found to their cost that to alter the date when once fixed is a mistake, 
and has more than once drifted them into debt and despondency. I 
have known a date changed, the original turned out a splendid day as 
regards the weather, and the new one vice versa. From an exhibitor’s 
point of view I do not think it is good policy. The cultivator who 
overcomes diflSculties that occur through adverse weather, and is ready 
on the appointed day, surely deserves much more consideration than he 
who does not meet the exigencies of the season in the same practical 
manner. I have attended many Committee meetings where an altera¬ 
tion has been proposed, but it has met with little favour. I never yet 
saw an exhibition that was an utter failure for the reasons stated by 
"E. K.,” but I have seen Rose shows that were “thin,” but simply 
because too many were held in that particular neighbourhood.— 
Exhibitoe. 
- Hoeticultueal Club. —We are requested to state that the 
next conversazione will take place on Tuesday, 9th. The discussion 
will be initiated by Dr. M. C. Cooke on the Fungoid Diseases of 
Cultivated Plants, a subject of great interest and importance. 
- Mod ESN Geape Geowing — Heating.—I should feel very 
much obliged to Mr. Taylor if he would kindly state the name (if any) 
of the boiler to which he alludes in his article on page 252 of the issue 
of March 2l8t, which has given him so much satisfaction ; also would 
he kindly give the name of the firm who supplies them ?—W. Neild. 
-The Hessle Gaedenees’ Mutual Impeovement Society. 
—The last meeting of the season was held on March 26th, when a paper 
was read by Mr. G. Jarvis, gardener to Mrs. Whittaker, Cliff House, on 
“ The Working of Our Society.” Mr. Jarvis gave some good advice on 
this subject, and pointed out the advantages to gardeners of joining 
societies such as this. One of the great things, he said, derived frona 
these societies by young men was the art of public speaking. A few 
alterations in the rules were suggested, and that the present rnles 
should be submitted to the Committee to revise, and have ready, for 
adoption or rejection, by the members at the next general meeting,, 
to be held early in August.—F. L. T. 
• - Eaely Laxton Potato. —This, which seems to have been the 
most meritorious Potato that the late Mr. Laxton raised, has already, I 
find, made a great reputation with some extensive market growers 
at Mitcham, who found it to be last year not only a wonderful cropper, 
but remarkably early. They have it, I think, under the name of 
Harrison’s Short Top, that well-known Leicester firm having purchased 
the stock of Mr. Laxton and put it into commerce. The title which 
heads this note was that by which it was known at Chiswick, where two 
years in succession it proved to be a perfect wonder amongst first early 
sorts. It should make a first-rate pot or frame variety, because its top 
is very short and its crop relatively remarkable.—A. D. 
- Musheoom Spawn. —I saw last Christmas in a first-class 
garden an illustration of the fact that it is not always the cheaper 
spawn that is worst. A couple of large beds, spawned several weeks, 
had given a great number of tiny and utterly worthless growths, much 
to the annoyance and disappointment of the gardener, who preferred 
to endure in silence rather than make a row about it with the seedsman. 
Yet this spawn was high-priced, and came from a leading house. It 
need hardly be said that so soon as this state of things was seen other 
spawn was obtained from a different source, and fresh beds made up. 
Still the loss at that time of the year was great. Cannot some means 
be devised whereby the spawning fertility of the cakes can be tested at 
once, and before beds are made up ? Surely that should be practicable, 
and thus save such annoyances as that I have mentioned.—D. 
- The Botanists’ Illusteated Pocket-book op the 
Floea op Switzeeland, the Pyeenees, and the Mountains 
OP Southern France. —To all lovers of field botanising the need of 
an illustrated handbook of the fiora of the particular region in which 
they are interested must always have been apparent. Before the rise 
of cheap illustration, however, there could not be the slightest prospect 
of this very natural desire being gratified. Such a work must have 
been too costly and too cumbrous ever to have possessed any practical 
utility. Even now in England the cost of production is such that a 
cheap and convenient manual for the purposes of home botanising does 
not exist in colour. Absence of a sufficient demand is undoubtedly 
the reason of this, though it is not impossible that the demand may yet 
be stimulated by some enterprising publisher. In France they manage 
things otherwise, either owing to special facilities or exceptional 
enterprise. We have received from Mons. H. Correvon, of the Garden 
of Acclimatisation at Geneva, a copy of his pocket-book of the fiora 
of the mountainous region of Switzerland and Southern France, 
published by M. Paul Klincksieck, of Paris. It is quite a handy 
volume, and possesses the unique distinction for a work of its lize, of 
having 144 plates representing in colour 180 species of plants. These 
are the most characteristic of the 480 species described in the text, and 
80 excellently are they portrayed that a novice, far from experiencing 
bewilderment in identifying a plant, must recognise it on sight with 
a feeling of absolute pleasure. Indeed, so attractive are the pages, that 
the book if encountered casually by a tourist, might easily arouse a 
feeling of interest in the flora of the neighbourhood and end by winning 
another adherent to the cause of botany. We give Mons. H. Correvon 
our hearty congratulations on the appearance of this useful little 
work, and trust^we may see the day when its antitype will appear in 
this country. 
