Octof er 11,1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
2,61 
all who see it, and this is not to be wondered at, seeing that it is of 
dwarf and constant habit, a good grower and free flowerer, and the 
masses of colour, a beautiful grey, are very distinct and effective when 
contrasted with the surrounding masses of scarlet, yellow, pink, white, 
and blue. A few plants of this Ageratum should be potted at once. 
— H. W. 
- Heliotropes Miss Nightingale and White Lady. —Any¬ 
one in want of a good Heliotrope for bedding could not do better than 
procure the first named variety. It is of medium compact habit, the 
foliage and flowers being dark. For covering the back wall of a green¬ 
house to which is admitted a fair amount of light no better plant 
could be used than White Lady. Its growth is not too robust, while it 
flowers abundantly and the fragrance is especially pleasing. It is well 
to closely prune m the shoots to one or two eyes in the early spring of 
each year, or the branches are liable to become straggling and bare. 
Annual pruning of the shoots renders the succeeding growth free and 
neater in appearance. 
- Hale’s Early Peach. —If anyone wants a good early com¬ 
panion for Bellegarde it will be found in Plale’s Early. If the true form 
is obtained this will be found of fairly strong growth, and provided the 
district favours outdoor culture of Peaches, a sure bearer. It colours 
beautifully, usually ripens about the middle of August, and may be said 
to be of fairly good quality. This and other early varieties, notably 
Waterloo and Elvers’ Early York ought to be most extensively grown in 
gardens where the late Peaches generally fail to ripen. Our collection 
of varieties on the open walls is somewhat limited, and I, and doubtless 
many others, would be glad to hear what has succeeded well in other 
gardens this season.— W. Iggulden. 
- Bellegarde Peach. —If limited to the cultivation of one 
variety of Peach, whether under glass or in the open, Bellegarde would 
be my choice. It possesses a good constitution without being too robust, 
sets well whether forced or otherwise ; the fruit are of good size, colours 
grandly if given fair play, while the quality is first class. It succeeds 
admirably on the open walls here, and even in such a season as we have 
nearly pas-ed through all have ripened capitally. The fruits were 
certainly smaller than usual, but the colour was as good as ever, 
and good judges of fruit expressed the opinion that the quality 
surpassed anything tasted previously this season. In other words, 
Bellegarde ripened in the open was more pleasing to the palate than 
fruit ripened under glass with all its supposed advantages. 
- Ghent Azaleas. —These as well as the old Azalea pontica are 
lovely twice in the year—that is, when they are in flower and in autumn- 
Their bright crimson foliage is now most beautiful. The ordinary smoke 
of large towns does them no harm whatever. They are not really 
effective when planted on the dotting system with Ehododendrons and 
other evergreens, though they look well during the time they 
are in flower. When destitute of their foliage they have, from a 
distance, the objectionable appearance of looking like so many dead 
plants. This objection is overcome by planting them in masses instead 
of, say, alternately with evergreens, and with a good background of the 
latter they are shown to great advantage. They will grow well in any 
good loam where Rhododendrons thrive, but make more rapid growth if 
plenty of leaf soil is mixed with the loam.—W. D. 
-- Mr. J. Mallender sends his usual Summary of Meteor¬ 
ological Observations at Hodsock Priory, Worksop, Notts, 
for September 1888. Mean temperature of month, 53'1°. Maximum on 
the 2nd, 69'1° ; minimum on the 27th, 32'9°. Maximum in sun on the 
14th, 126-4°; minimum on the grass on the 26th, 28 - 2°. Mean tem¬ 
perature of the air at 9 A.M., 54-1°. Mean temperature of the soil 
1 foot deep, 55-4°. Temperature fell below 32° on the grass on two 
nights. Total duration of sunshine in month, 101 hours, or 27 per cent, 
of possible duration. The brightest day was the 13th. We had two 
sunless days. Total rainfall, 0'91 inch. Rain fell fourteen days- 
Average velocity of wind, 6-1 miles per hour. Velocity did not exceed 
400 miles on any day, and fell short of 100 miles on twelve days- 
Approximate averages for September—mean temperature, 53-8°; sun¬ 
shine, 108 hours; rainfall, 2-51 inches. Cold, dry, fine, and very calm 
weather, and a good deal of haze and fog. The mean temperature of 
the past quarter is lower than any of the last thirteen years, and 
probably for a much longer period. 
- A Cold Week.— A daily paper says:—“ The past week has 
been unusually cold in all districts, and in London the temperature of 
the six days, Monday to Saturday, w r as in every respect lower than that 
egistered during any similar period in the past sixteen years. The 
t 
highest temperature of the week was only 54°, or 4° lower than the 
lowest previous maximum, and at least 10° lower than the maximum, 
recorded in ten out of the sixteen years. In October, 1886, an unusually 
warm month, the thermometer on the 4th rose to 80°, or 26° higher than 
last week’s maximum. As regards the night temperatures it appears 
that the actual minimum for the six days was also 4° lower than the 
lowest previously recorded, and strangely enough it was also at least 
10° lower than in ten of the years in question. Although ground frost is 
not very unusual at this time of year, there is no previous instance of 
the thermometer in the screen falling as low as 32°. Last week, how¬ 
ever, it did so on three occasions, and the mean of all the night readings 
was only 32-5, or about 2° lower than the average minimum for Decem¬ 
ber and January.” 
- The Weather in the North.— A fortnight ago, after the 
cold sunless season through which we have passed, there really did seem, 
a promise of a few weeks bright and somewhat settled weather ; but 
alas ! our hopes were raised only to be disappointed, rain and fog soon 
followed, and on the night of the 1st October we were visited with 10° 
of frost. Of course, everything out of doors is now done for the season. 
Chrysanthemums, where not well protected, are cut down as badly as 
last year, when we were visited with 8° on September 28th, late varieties- 
now, as then, suffering most. The difference in the hardiness of varieties 
is very marked, Peter the Great, Fair Maid of Guernsey, Boule de Neige 
I notice are particularly tender, while many others, particularly where 
the buds have been “taken” and the foliage become matured, have 
stood it much better. We have usually felt pretty secure here until 
about the second week in the present month, but our season of safety is 
apparently becoming shorter. We have gathered one small dish of 
Scarlet Runners only. Dwarf Beans have not even flowered, and 
Vegetable Marrows never grew larger than a very small pod of pea?.. 
Surely this is gardening under difficulties.— Wm. Jenkins, Durham. 
- The Weather and the Crops. —Mr. G. R. Allis writes from 
Old Warden, Biggleswade—“ The sudden change in the weather on the 
2nd inst. came as a surprise. The day throughout was heavily overcast, 
cold rain and sleet falling, with a very lo w temperature, the mercury of the 
thermometer only rising 5-42°, or 10° above freezing point. The mercury 
went down during the night to 24°, or 8° of frost. This was unusually 
severe for so early in the month, making sad havoc with vegetables 
—Kidnev Beans, Peas, Marrows, Endive, outdoor Cucumbers, also 
Cauliflowers. Dahlias, Heliotropes, Asters, Sweet Peas, Zinnias, and 
a host of other things were completely spoiled. The same amount of 
frost occurred on the 13th October last year. The thermometer has 
registered frost on most nights since the 2nd from 5° to 7°, but the 
crowning frost of the season occurred on the morning of the 8th, the 
mercury falling to 22°, or 10° of frost. The market gardeners of the 
district have suffered in the loss of fine crops of Vegetable Marrows 
field Cucumbers, and Runner Beans, and it is feared that a good breadth 
of Onion seed will have been spoiled that was late in coming to maturity ; 
but it will be some consolation to those whose crops of Potatoes showed 
such early signs of disease in the haulm to find, on lifting, much better 
results than could have been expected some weeks ago. The crops on 
light sandy soils are yielding fairly well, with but few diseased tubers.”' 
_ An Amateur’s House. —Mr. Edgar Newton has erected in 
his garden at Hitehin some houses with his “ reform ” system of glazing, 
which has been well described in the Journal. The first is span-roofed,, 
about 30 feet long, with stages of corrugated iron on each side, and on 
these are shallow boxes 6 inches to 8 inches wide, containing plants of' 
Tomatoes, which are grown on the single-stem plan to wires under the 
roof glass. They are heavily cropped with fine and richly coloured fruit.. 
In another house a Black Hamburgh Vine is carrying a crop of Grapes, 
the bunches of good form, and the berries well finished in colour. He- 
also grows Ferns and choice flowers for cutting and decoration. Trained 
to the back wall Mardchal Niel Rose and Zonal Pelargoniums are well' 
grown, tall plants of the latter being always in flower. Shelves are pro¬ 
vided near the glass for dwarf-growing and other plauts, and the 
arrangement may be worth noting. A narrow strip of wood is placed 
edgeways the entire length on both sides, and the shelf has a gentler 
fall from the middle to the ends, where a hole is bored and a lead pipe- 
fitted in to carry off the waste water. There is no drip on the plants 
beneath, and anyone can attend to the watering without getting at all 
wet.—T. G. 
_Birmingham Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Asso¬ 
ciation.— The first meeting of the autumn session was held at the- 
Midland Institute on Tuesday evening, October 2nd. The President, Sir 
Thomas Martineau, occupied the chair, and more than 100 members 
