January 18, 1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
51 
-Torquay District Gardeners’ Association.—T he second 
annual dinner of the above was held at St. George’s Hall, Torquay, on 
Wednesday, January 10th, when about eighty attended. The Mayor, 
P. Shrubb, Esq., presided, Mr. W. B. Smale being in the vice-chair. 
Several toasts and songs were given, and a very enjoyable evening was 
spent. The financial position of the Society is excellent, and its 
membership increasing. 
- The Kew Bulletin.—W e received last week a copy of the 
Kew Bulletin ” for October and November, 1893, and as usual it 
contains much useful information. The subjects dealt with include an 
account of a “ Botanical Exploration of Sikkim-Tibet Frontier,’ 
“Poling in Agave Plants,” “Coffee Cultivation in the New World,” 
“Eesources of British Honduras,” “The Prieto-Fibre Extracting 
Machine,” “ Arrowroot,” “ New Orchids : Decade 7th,” “ Jarrah Timber,” 
and some miscellaneous notes, from which we extract the three 
paragraphs which follow this one. 
- Rhus cotinoides. —Several years ago seeds of this rare North 
American tree were received at Kew from Professor C. S. Sargent, of 
the Arnold Arboretum. For the first two or three winters the young 
shoots were badly injured by frost, and the plants had to be sheltered ; 
since then, however, although the growth is not so vigorous as that ol 
its nearest European relative, Rhus Cotinus, it seems to hold its own, 
and proves to be hardy at Kew. The autumnal tints assumed by the 
decaying leaves are specially brilliant, bright crimson and orange-red. 
The following particulars are extracted from Professor Sargent’s magni¬ 
ficent work, “ The Sylva of North America,” where the species is 
figured under the name of Cotinus americanus :—“ Rhus cotinoides was 
first discovered by the Englishman Thomas Nuttall in 1819, on the 
banks of Grand River, a tributary of the Arkansas, within the present 
limits’of Indian territory. Twenty-three years later it was found by 
• Buckley in Alabama, where it grows in a few localities north of the 
Tennessee River, on the south slopes of the Cumberland Mountains, in 
the neighbourhood of Huntsville. It also occurs on the Cheat Moun¬ 
tains, in Eastern Tennessee, and in the valley of the Medina River, in 
Western Texas. In its native habitats it attains a height of 25 to 
35 feet, with a trunk 12 to 14 inches in diameter.” 
- Robinia hispida in Fruit.—T his well known shrub, which 
is a native of the Eastern United States, where it forms in some 
localities a considerable portion of the underbush, reproduces itself 
by means of suckers ; its fruit being until quite recently almost 
unknown. Mr. Thomas Meehan, of Germantown, Philadelphia, who 
has studied the plant in its wild state on the Lookout Mountains, 
Tennessee, having made extensive inquiries as toThe occurrence of seed 
vessels without success, concluded that, owing to the rapid production 
of suckers, the seed-producing power had been lost. At length he 
■ received two specimens, one of which he generously presented to Kew. 
The pod, which is rather more than 2 inches long and tipped by a 
short curved beak, is covered with weak brownish bristles about four 
lines long, and is slightly constricted between the seeds. Several pods 
mature on the same raceme. 
- Ophiopooon japonicus.—S pecimens of this plant were 
recently sent to Kew for identification by H. Labouchere, Esq., M.P. 
“ About the Lake of Como, in many of the villas, they have a sort 
cf grass which they call ‘ erba japonica.’ Its advantage is that it 
grows thickly beneath the trees or in the sun, and stands the 
frost. It makes a thick bed, and they use it for borders or for 
spaces that they wish to cover, in the latter case cutting it short. 
. . . . It seems to me that if it were introduced here it would 
be useful for gardens and shrubberies. I never saw it except about 
Como, and I was told that it was introduced there by the Grand 
Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, who has a villa there. ” According to 
the “ Genera Plantarum,” the name given at the head of these 
notes is the one which should be employed. It is met with in some 
French 'gardens under the name of Convallaria japonica (herbe aux 
turquoises), and in some books as Flueggia japonica, the name adopted 
by Mr. J. G. Baker when he monographed this genus and its allies. In 
“ Garden and Forest ” for 1889 Mr. Nicholson, in no^tes on gardens 
about Lugano, thus writes :—“ As an edging (and a capital one too) 
for shady walks, and also as a sort of turfy covering to the bare ground 
under the dense shade of trees, Flueggia japonica was successfully 
employed. A pretty little plant, with dark green grassy leaves and 
blue berries.; there being not many things which 
thrive under these conditions, it seems desirable to call special attention 
to its merits,” We learn from Kaempfer that it is similarly employed 
in Japan and China, and also that the tuberous knobs of the rhizome 
are preserved in sugar and used medicinally. A figure of the plant 
is given in the “ Botanical Magazine,” t. 1063. 
- Rainfall at Swanmore, 1893.— The year just past was 
remarkable for the excessive drought experienced. The average rainfall 
for this district for the last twelve years hitherto being 30 inches. 
The last year yielded but 22 08, which is less than any year for the 
period named. The year 1887 was the lowest previously, 24 55. From 
March 3rd to May 16th only 0'06 rain fell. When we consider that the 
land in this neig’nbourhood received no less than 800 tons per acre 
below the average the extreme nature of a dry year can easily be 
appreciated. Another remarkable fact worth mention is that 0 76 inch 
is the greatest quantity that fell during any twenty-four hours during 
the year, this occurring July 4th. Such an experience does not occur 
to me as having taken place before.—E. Molyneux. 
- The Recent Severe Weather.—A very remarkable set of 
figures concerning the weather was issued from the Greenwich Obser¬ 
vatory on Tuesday last. It is a commonplace to talk of a great change 
of weather, but the variations of temperature recently experienced have 
to be reduced to figures before their true significance can be adequately 
grasped. The official records show that the lowest reading during the 
recent frost was no less than 22 4° below the early January average of 
the past fifty years, the minimum at the Observatory being 12-8°. Twice 
last week what is technically known as the daily range—that is, the 
difference between the highest and lowest temperature in twenty-four 
hours—ran up to more than 16°. Taking the whole seven days these 
extremes are recorded : highest, 52‘1° ; lowest, 181°; the latter being 
17° below, and the former 8° above, the averages of fifty years. Roughly 
speaking, the mercurial readings in forty-eight hours have ranged from 
those of severe winter to a temperature for which we might often be 
grateful in mid-April or early May. 
- The Recent Cold in Guernsey.—A correspondent writes 
to a daily contemporary :—“ Systematical meteorological observations 
have been taken in Guernsey daring the last fifty years with standard 
certified instruments, and Friday’s, the 5th inst., readings broke the 
record for low temperature. The mean temperature of that day was 
2D9°, which is (excepting Thursday’s, the 4th, mean) 5 9° lower than 
the lowest daily mean previously recorded. The air temperature at 
8 a.m. on Friday, January 5th last, was 181°, the maximum for the 
day 26'5°, the 9 P.M. reading 24-8°, and the minimum for the day 16 2°. 
The mean, as above stated, was 21-9°—that is, no less than 20° too cold 
for that day of the year. The coldest day on record previous to this 
cold snap occurred on February 11th, 1870, the minimum for that day 
being 26°, and the daily mean 27 8°. These local observations were 
commenced fifty-one years ago by the late Dr. Hoskins, F.R.S., and 
are now carried on by Mr. A. Collenette, F.R.M.S. The still lower air 
reading of 16-2° was taken by myself, with a certified instrument 
in a Stevenson screen, at 8 A.M. on the 5th inst., while the minimum 
air reading recorded during that night in the same screen was 15-5°. 
This reading is therefore 0’7° lower than Mr. Collenette’s observation. 
My station, however, is somewhat more exposed than Mr. Collenette’s, 
and some 100 feet higher above the sea. These unprecedented low 
temperatures, in an island with a climate generally so mild, are, I think, 
worthy of record.” 
- The Weather.—I f the recent severe weather has excited so 
much interest that notes from various parts of the country are numerous, 
what will be said of the present condition of temperature, the sun 
shining out almost hotly (January 12th), really more like an advanced 
April day than January 1 It is literally a transformation from an arctic 
to a temperate clime, and all within a few days. No wonder foreigners 
find it difficult to understand that meteorological puzzle—the British 
climate. But in this remarkable versatility also do we find so much of 
that atmospheric training, the which befits the British race for colonisa¬ 
tion as successfully in torrid Africa or in arctic Canada, To us as 
gardeners, however, these varying and considerable variations of tempe¬ 
rature are of grave concern. We have to be prepared for everything 
possible in our range of island weather. The present spring-like warmth, 
BO soft, pleasant, yet so unseasonable, is eminently calculated, because 
of the great reaction that invariably ensues after extreme cold, to pro¬ 
mote abnormal and most undesirable tree development. In nothing 
have we so much to fear as in relation to our fruit crops. Long 
experience of the effects of these mild winter spells have taught us 
that they are fraught with danger to bud and bloom. We would so 
much prefer that all buds should remain inactive for the next two 
