April 26, 1894. 
321 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GADDK\KR.. 
- Zonal Pelargoniums for Winter Flowering. —I read 
with interest “ Sassenach’s ” note on page 276, but cannot agree with 
him in not making the soil firm at the final potting, it is a well known 
fact that if they, as well as most other similar plants, are not potted 
in firm soil they make a soft growth, which invariably fails to become 
sufficiently ripened. By potting them firmly they make harder, short- 
jointed growth, consequently the plants are not only much dwarfer but 
the blooms are not nearly so subject to damping as when the other 
method is pursued.— Cmyrw. 
- Shirley and District G-ardeners’ and Amateurs’ 
Mutual Improvement Association. —At the last monthly meeting 
Mr. J. T. Keen of Southampton read an instructive paper on the 
Auricula, and as he had staged a brilliant group of show and alpine 
varieties to illustrate his essay, great interest was evinced by the 
audience. Mr. H. Adlem, Southampton ; Mr. A. Veale, Shirley ; Mr. 
T. Meredith, Shirley; and Mr. B.Ladhams also exhibited plants; Mr. 
J. Miles, Southampton ; Mr. T. B. Wilcox, Aldernoor; and Mr. T. Mill, 
Shirley, showing cut blooms. In addition to which there was a good 
display of Polyanthus and hardy perennials from the well-known 
nursery of Mr. B. Ladhams. Mr. W. F. Perkins, Portswood House, 
Southampton, having kindly offered to give a lecture at the June 
meeting on “ The Composition of Artificial Manures and the Limits to 
their Economical Use in the Garden.” 
- Double Primroses. —I have to thank Mr. Arnott (page 279) 
for his kind reply to my recent note respecting these plants. It was, 
I am sorry to say, the only one, and rather leads to the inference either 
that double Primroses are little grown or little known generally. The 
three varieties alluded to by Mr. Arnott, as Brilliant, Original, and 
Harlequin, are doubtless the old Crimson Purple, a profuse bloomer, 
commonly in clusters, and has small smooth leafage ; Croussei, and 
Platypetala plena, or Arthur Dumollin, with which forms the descrip¬ 
tions tally. Mr. C. W. Smith told me recently that this latter variety 
bloomed profusely at Leonardslee, Horsham. The blush form came 
to us originally from Ireland, and I have no doubt but that some scarce 
forms here are to be heard of in that humid country in fair abundance. 
Double Polyanthuses are at the best poor flowers, and should be regarded 
solely as curiosities. Golden Ball is a somewhat yellow edged form, 
and Rex Theodore is a crimson self. I have never met with a wild 
double Primrose, and can only assume that doubles have come from 
garden forms exclusively, and after long and patient selection. Having 
raised tens of thousands of singles of all colours, and of Polyanthuses 
also, I hawe never met with a double or one that looked like a breeder. 
If now and then a flower showed a tiny petal bursting from the thrum, 
certainly it never got beyond that. Doubles in Primroses, like doubling 
in Chinese Primroses, seems to come seldom, and in cycles. Both 
however, are rare. In Polyanthuses many persons who have found 
hose-in-hose flowers in their stocks have termed these doubles. That is, 
however, an error. They are duplex, but still are fertile, whilst true 
doubles are non-fertile.—A. D. 
BROCCOLI AND CABBAGES. 
Seeing that many of the ireaders of the Journal of Horticulture 
are comparing notes anent their fortune or misfortune with two very 
important crops for the gardener during the winter and spring months 
of the year, I herewith send you a few notes that I have taken after 
reading your correspondents’ remarks. It may be well to state that the 
soil here is a tenacious clay, aspect south-east, elevation 550 feet above 
sea level. 
The varieties of Broccoli planted last year were Purple Sprouting, 
Model, Leamington, Dickson’s Late May, and Methven’s June. As in 
many other parts of the country the weather here for about nine days in 
the early part of January was very cold, sharp frost and keen east wind, 
with the result that Leamington and Model Broccoli, planted in the 
most exposed part of the garden, were severely crippled, and about two- 
thirds of them were ultimately useless. On the other hand Purple 
Sprouting, Dickson’s Late May, and Methven’s June were quite 
unharmed, and are now giving a constant supply of good heads, while 
Methven’s June gives a good promise for later use. 
The seeds of Cabbages were sown the third week in July, and the 
seedlings transplanted to their permanent quarter the first week in 
October. The varieties were Nonpareil Improved, Clibran’s Tender and 
True, and Enfield Market. They are now hearting well in the follow¬ 
ing order :—Nonpareil Improved, of two hundred plants fully one- 
half are fit for use, and not one bolted. Clibran’s Tender and True, of 
five hundred plants many are fit for use, and only two bolted. Enfield 
Market, five hundred plants, not so forward as the other two sorts, and 
so far ten have bolted.—D. Bowen, The Gardens, Plas Dinam, 
Montgomeryshire. 
After what we have been reading respecting the effects of a very 
short, if exceptionally severe, spell of frost last winter on Broccolis 
south and north, it seems very difficult indeed to class these as hardy 
vegetables. Cannot raisers produce something that shall be as useful 
and much hardier?- It is so very disappointing to see breadths of fine 
Broccolis destroyed wholesale ere they can be utilised. Are not these 
plants hardier and less injured on breezy uplands than they seem to be 
in enclosed gardens ?—D. 
I AM afraid many market cultivators are suffering very much from 
the effect of the mild winter and dry spring—that is, as far as their 
Cabbage crops are concerned. I notice in the majority of fields through¬ 
out the county of Kent the per-centage of .seeding Cabbages appears 
unusually large, especially is this the case where the soil is light and 
dry. The “ bolting forms ” give a rather novel appearance to the fields. 
I should think in some cases quite 30 per cent, have “ bolted,” which 
must prove a serious item in the returns. No doubt the seeds were sown 
at the usual time, and in an ordinary season would have produced good 
Cabbages. I suppose in this particular respect we shall always 
be at the mercy of the weather. The mild autumn enabled the plants 
to make an extra growth, which the winter failed to retard ; thens 
following this, the dry weather of the early spring no doubt gave them, 
the desired check. On the clays of Essex this bolting is not so notice¬ 
able.—J. B. R. 
Hearing on all sides complaints of the bolting of Cabbages this 
season, I wish to add my testimony to the value of Ellam’s Early 
Dwarf for early use. I have at the present time a bed, 18 by 9 yards, 
the Cabbages being planted a foot asunder, presenting a most even 
appearance, not one having bolted. All are developing white hearts, 
some as hard as a cricket ball, and I have been cutting during the 
past fortnight, being a month earlier than last year. The seeds were 
sown on July 31st last, and the plants put out on the ground, pre¬ 
viously occupied by Onions, at the end of September.—A. Alderman, 
Effingham Hill, Dorking, 
ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
At the meeting of this Society held on Wednesday evening, the 
18th inst., at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, 
Westminster, Mr. Richard Inwards, F.R.A.S,, the President, delivered 
an address on some phenomena of the upper air. He said that there 
are three principal ways in which the higher atmosphere may be 
studied. First, by living in it on some of the great mountain chains 
which pierce many miles into the air in various parts of the globe; 
second, by ascending into it by means of balloons ; and third, by the 
study of the upper currents as shown to our sight by the movements of 
the clouds. 
After describing the effects of rarefied air on animal life and natural 
phenomena, Mr. Inwards proceeded to give an account of various 
balloon ascents which had been undertaken with the object of making 
meteorological observations. In 1850 Messrs. Barral and Bixio, when 
they had ascended to 20,000 feet, found the temperature had sunk to 
15° Fahr., but this was in a cloud, and on emerging from this, 3000 feet 
higher, the temperature fell as low as minus 38°, or 70° below freezing 
point. In 1862 Mr. Glaisher and Mr. Coxwell made their famous ascent, 
when they reached an altitude of about seven miles from the earth, 
A short time ago a balloon without an aeronaut, but having a set of 
self-recording instruments attached, was sent up in France, and from 
the records obtained it is shown that a height of about ten miles was 
attained and that the temperature fell to minus 104° Fahr. 
Clouds are simply a form of water made visible by the cooling of 
the air, which previously held the water in the form of invisible vapour. 
Every cloud may be regarded as the top of an invisible warm column 
or current thrusting its way into a colder body of air. After referring 
to the various classifications and nomenclatures of clouds, of which that 
proposed by Luke Howard in 1803 is still in general use, Mr. Inwards 
said that whatever system of naming and classifying clouds be adopted, 
it should depend on the heights of the various clouds in the air, and 
he gave a few rough rules by which the comparative altitudes of the 
clouds may be judged when there is no time or opportunity to make 
exact measurements. Among the indications by which a cloud’s height 
in the air may be gathered are its form and outline, its shade or shadow, 
its apparent size and movement, its perspective effect, and the length 
of time it remains directly illuminated after sunset. By the last 
method some clouds have been estimated to have been at least ten 
miles above the surface of the earth. The cloud velocities at high alti¬ 
tudes have been carefully noted at the Blue Hill Observatory, Mass., U.S,, 
and show praetically that at about five miles height the movement is 
three times as fast in the summer and six times in the winter as com¬ 
pared with the currents on the earth’s surface. 
After showing a number of lantern slides illustrating the varioi a 
types and forms of clouds, the Aurora borealis, and rainbow, Mr. In 
wards concluded his address by urging the desirability of establishing a 
good cloud observatory somewhere in the British Isles. 
At the close of the meeting the Fellows and their friends inspected 
the exhibition of instruments, photographs, and drawings relating to 
the representation and measurement of clouds, which had been arranged 
in the rooms of the Institution. A lantern display of slides showing 
cloud effects and other meteorological phenomena was also given. 
