293 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 12,1883. 
or three cases has the fire gone out without burning, and I attribute the 
failure then to having let the body of fire get too low before stoking. 
My house is a sunken one, and the top lights not fitting closely I found the 
night temperature fall greatly when the wind was cold and strong, 
and to obviate this I hit upon a plan which may perhaps be very com¬ 
mon, but which I have not seen elsewhere, and it proved very successful. 
I joined one end of an archangel mat to another, and they were thus 
long enough to go right over the house, and having heavily weighted 
with iron bars the ends on each side of the house they were kept 
securely in their places however high the wind might be. Four pairs 
of mats covered the house, were easily removeable, and considerably 
added to the temperature at little expense.—H. S. Easty. 
Evexts of the Week. —The principal horticultural gatherings of 
the week will be the Ghent Quinquennial Show, which opens on Sunday 
next, the l.lth inst., and continues open for eight days. It will no doubt 
attract many British horticulturists, eitherdas exhibitors, 'members of 
the Jury, or visitors. On Wednesday, the 18th inst., the Koyal Botanic 
Society will hold their second spring Exhibition in the Botanic Gardens, 
Kegent’s Park; and the Newcastle-on-Tyne Horticultural Society will 
hold their spring Show on the same da}’'. 
- The Ghext Exhibition. —We have received the following note 
from Mr. Henry Pearson :—“Thecontinental Manager of the L.C.andD. 
Kailway writes me that through tickets will be issued for Ghent 
Show from London, via Dover, Ostend, Ghent, Brussels, and Kotterdam 
to Haarlem, returning via Flushing, Queenborough, to London, at 
£3 18s. first class, and £2 15s. second class. He sends no rates for 
return tickets to Ghent.” It may be added that travellers, to whom a 
day in London is an object, can leave Liverpool Street Station, G.E.R., at 
8 P.M., arriving at Antwerp the next morning, from which Ghent i* 
about an hour distant by rail. Return tickets between London and 
Antwerp are—First class £2, and second class £1 4s. ; single fare £1 Cs. 
and 15s. respectively. We are informed by a Dutch bulb-grower that 
the Hyacinths are not in flower in Holland, being unusually late this 
year. 
- The Weather.—“ B. D.” writes from Perthshire—“ April 
2nd to 9th has been a week of beautiful weather. There has been frost 
every night from 1° to 9° last night, 8th. The days have been bright 
and sunshiny, and garden and farm work has been pushed forward.” 
The weather in the south remains very cold, with slight frosts and light 
occasional showers. There has been no material interruption to work) 
but vegetation appears at a standstill. 
- Large Cixerarias. —We said on page 258 if any growers of 
blooms 3 inches or upwards in diameter, with florets three-quarters of 
an inch across anil overlapping, they would merit and receive recog¬ 
nition. Mr. H. Cannell sends us examples of what he calls his “ minia 
tures.” Some of these equal the dimensions aVjove named, one bloom 
being 3.^ inches across, and the florets of another exceed three-quarters 
of an inch in diameter. The colours are varied and rich. We observed 
in Mr. Rivers’ greenhouse at Sawbridgeworth la.st week a plant with 
blooms 3^ inches in diameter and the florets seven-eighths of an inch 
across. Mr. Riveis does not sell seed. 
- Mr. W. Bellivaxt, Homewood, Eden Park, Beckenham, 
writes :—“I notice Messrs. Sutton & Sons sent you a bloom of Cineraria, 
grown by my gardener, Mr. J. Ores well, and which you were good enough 
to notice in your Journal. It may be interesting to you and your readers 
to know that this Cineraria was grown in a 6-inch pot, and that there 
have been fifty-eight flowers on it, many—I should say a dozen—equal 
to the one you had, and I think some of more perfect colour, and none 
under 2.^ inches across. 1 have the plant still in my greenhouse, buf 
some of the flowers are not now at their best, and one spray, I am sorry 
to say, has been broken. I have at present grown by the same gardener 
a Dendrobium densiflorum in full flower, with six racemes, that lam told 
by two well known Orchid growers arc by far the finest they have eve 
seen.” 
- “ Spero ” writes “If any of your readers have tried Flower 
pots glazed on the outside only, would they give their experience 
of them 1 I began by trying pots painted on the outside (two coats of 
Walter Carson’s red paint). I liked the plan so much that I am growing 
plants largely in glazed ones. The gardener so far likes it, and under 
my instructions is growing two plants of the same kind in the same 
sized pots side by side. The plants in glazed pots do not require water¬ 
ing so often, and certainly look the best'so far.” 
- Destroying Crickets and Cockroaches.— “ J. E. M. 
writes ;—“ Procure 1 lb. of treacle and a few jelly pots, then mix some 
of the treacle with water to the thickness of paint, and fill the jelly pots 
about a third part. Plunge the pots in fibre up to the top, so that the 
crickets or cockroaches can easily fall in. The pots ought to be placed 
wherever the crickets abound most, which is always where there is a 
warm dry heat. The smell of the treacle seems to have a great attrac¬ 
tion for tliem, as in one night I have seen the pots with as many as the 
mixture would hold ; and when they once get in there is not the 
slightest fear of their coming out.” 
-The Chiswick Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Asso¬ 
ciation concluded their winter session on the 4th inst. by a supper and 
entertainment at the Bolton Hotel, Chiswick, when about thirty members 
and visitors wei'e present. The officials of the Association, Mr. J. Fraser, 
Mr. Sidney Summers, and Mr. J. Barry (Secretary) were present, and 
referred in appropriate terms to the work of the past .season, the 
character of the papers read, and the interest taken in the general 
proceedings. Mr. G. Gordon, Mr. Bones, and Mr. Daniels, as proposers 
or responders to various toasts, also noted that satisfactory progress is 
being made, though a desire was expressed that members would attend 
the meetings more regularly as an encouragement to those who con¬ 
tribute papers. Several capital songs were sung by Messrs. Barry, Cook, 
Cannon, and others, and a very pleasant evening was spent. 
- Wakefield Paxton Society.—T he Committee of the above 
Society have unanimously decided to recognise the able services rendered 
to the Society by Mr. Herbert Chapman, who has acted as one of the 
Secretaries for a term of six years, by presenting him with a student’s 
microscope. It was also resolved that an appeal be made to the mem¬ 
bers of the Society for subscriptions to defray the whole of the cost of 
this testimonial. The microscope will be presented to Mr. Chapman at 
the annual dinner, to be held shortly. The following is the programme 
of meetings for the first quarter, session from the present date, some 
having been held during March, at the Society’s Rooms, “ Saw Hotel,” 
Westgate, each Saturday evening at eight o’clock:—April 14th, “The 
Fringe of Life,” being an exposition of the lowliest forms of animals and 
plants, Mr. Henry Crowther, Manchester. April 21st, “ Plants Suitable 
for Entrance Hall and Room Decoration,” Mr. T. R. Preston. April 28th, 
“ Garden Literature, Past and Present,” Mr. W. K. Woodcock, Sheffield. 
Sale of Periodicals. May 2nd, “ The Auricula,” Rev. F. D. Horner, 
Kiricby Lonsdale. May 5th, “ The Daphne,” Mr. J. Smith, Leeds. 
May 12th, “ Some Peculiarities of Climbing Plants,’’ Mr. T. Garnett. 
May 19th, “ The Peach and Nectarine,” Mr. Atkin, Clayton West. 
May 2Cth, “ The Tulip,” exhibition and discussion. Sale of periodicals. 
The Hon. Secs, are Messrs. Geo. W. Fallas and T. Garnett. 
-Ax" interesting experiment in Planting Waste Saline tracts 
in India has been carried out by Mr. Maries, Superintendent of the 
Gardens of the Maharajah of Durbhunga. “ The results,” says A'aflire, 
“ have been communicated to the Agricultural Department, Bengal, and 
are contained in the last report of the Director. Mr. Maries says that 
six years ago, when he went to Durbhunga, he did not know what to do 
with patches of saline soil, on some of which not even weeds would 
grow. He dug the soil to a depth of 2 feet, and planted it thickly at 
the commencement of the rainy season with trees which had been grown 
in pots till they were about 3 feet high. In three years the gi-ound was 
filled with roots, and to all appearances the salt had gone. When the 
trees were thinned out last year, leaving only the best, the ground was 
found to be in good condition. Similar experiments have been carried 
out in other places, and now Mr. Maries has splendid Plantains growing 
on soil which a few years ago would not even grow a weed. He em¬ 
ployed various kinds of trees in his reclaiming operations, but he says 
that the best were the Inga Saman, or Rain Trees, and the Albizzia 
procera. The former is valuable as producing an enormous quantity of 
surface-feeding roots, and these decaying yearly leave a rich vegetable 
deposit on the soil. The trees soon completely change the character of 
