December 17, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
517 
- The Royal Caledonian Society.—M r. Charles Stewart, 
Hon. Secretary of the above Society, informs us that the following are 
the dates of the Shows of this Society, to be held in 1892 :—6th and 7th 
April, 13th and 14th July, and 7th and 8th September. 
-- Gardening Appointments.— The following appointments 
have been recently made through Messrs. J. Laing & Sons, Forest Hill :— 
Mr. A. Porteous as head gardener to E. H. Watts, Esq., Devonhurst, 
Chiswick, and Mr. Carpenter as head gardener to Mrs. Dewhurst, 
Highfield, Eastbourne. 
- The following are the dates of the Brighton and Sussex 
Horticultural Association’s Shows for 1892 :—Spring Show, 
March 29;h and 30th ; summer Show, June 29th and 30th ; autumn 
Show, August 24th and 25th; Chrysanthemum and fruit Show, 
October 25th and 26th. Mr. Edward Carpenter, 96, St. James’s Street, 
Brighton, is the Secretary. 
- Spirasa callosa is one of the best of the shrubby species of 
a rather extensive family. Its rosy red terminal flat corymb-like 
flowers are showy during the latter part of the summer as they are 
earlier in the year, which is an advantage, as it does not come into 
flower all at once and then remain flowerless for so long again. Another 
advantage in this Spiraea is that it may be safely hard pruned every 
year, therefore it can be kept low and useful as a shrubbery plant. 
Even then it does not fail to flower profusely every year.—S. 
- The Dahlia. —In your last issue (December 10th, 1891) refer¬ 
ence is made in a very interesting article by “ J. R. S. C.” to the intro¬ 
duction of the Dahlia into this country, “ The first perfect blossom is 
said to have been raised in the French garden of Holland House.” It 
may be interesting in this connection to recall the graceful lines 
addressed to his wife about 1844, by the Lord Holland of that day :— 
“ The Dahlia you brought to our isle 
Your praises for ever shall speak 
’Mid gardens as sweet as your smile, 
And in colours as bright as your cheek.” 
—A. C. 
- Germania Carnation.—I n conversation with a leading 
Carnation grower the remark was made that all yellow varieties were 
wanting in scent. When I reached home I tried Germania and induced 
others to do the same, and it was found to possess a distinctly sweet 
primrose odour. I have seen other yellow Carnations recommended as 
the best, but in my own experience no variety comes near this one. It 
is sweet-scented, the flower is of the most perfect form, of free flowering 
habit, strong growing, easy to increase, and as easy to cultivate as the 
commonest. True, the shade of yellow might be somewhat more intense, 
but as we have not any dark yellow near Germania in any other good 
quality, we may consider ourselves very well off in possessing a large 
flowering stock of this first class variety, 
- I had sent me a few seeds of the Lettuce “ Blond Block¬ 
head,” about which there was some discussion in spring. Those who 
are fond of a large Cabbage Lettuce will find this a good one. It is a large 
grower, is a very pale green, and stands heat well. I made one sowing 
only, and that for trial. It appears to be a much enlarged Drumhead 
inclining to the Neapolitan type. I do not like the flavour so well as 
the small growing Cabbage varieties, nor nearly so well as a good Cos, 
but for those who have a liking for the class, and to others who have a 
large demand, no doubt, it is most useful, and I should be inclined to place 
it among the best.—B. 
- Principal J. L. Thompson, of the Hawkesbury Agricultural 
College, New South Wales, has no doubt that the climate and much of 
the soil of Australia are well suited for the Culture of the Olive. 
All that is needed, he thinks, is an adequate supply of labour. He himself 
has been very successful in preserving green Olives ; and in a paper on 
the subject in the August number of the Agricultural Gazette of New 
South Wales he gives the following account of the system adopted. The 
Olives are very carefully picked from the trees when about full grown, 
but perfectly green. They should be handled like eggs. If they are 
bruised in any way, they will become black and decompose. In the 
green state Olives contain gallic acid, which gives them an acrid taste. 
To remove this they are first of all steeped in alkaline water, made either 
of wood ashes, lime water, or washing soda; of the latter, about 3 or 
4 ozs. to the gallon of water. As soon as the lye has penetrated through 
the pulp, which is usually in from eight to ten hours, they are put into 
clean water and steeped until all acrid and alkaline taste has been 
removed. During that time the water is changed every day. They 
are then put into brine, composed of 1 lb. of salt to each gallon of 
water, and kept carefully covered with a thick linen cloth, for if exposed 
to the air they will turn black. They are finally put up in air-tight 
jars.—( Nature .) 
- Scarcity of Violets. —It is not often that Violets are so 
scarce during a mild autumn as they have been, and still are, this 
season. We have several hundred strong plants, some planted this 
year, and still more two years ago, and principally of the Czar, but all 
we get from these are three fairly large bunches every week. Not only 
do the Russians fail to flower satisfactorily, but the Marie Louise in 
pits is also less free than usual, and these failures are general in this 
neighbourhood. Violets, though moisture-loving plants, evidently do 
not like too much of it. More sunshine than we had last summer is 
needed to develop good foliage and to build up strong crowns, and I am 
afraid that the plants will cut up badly in hard weather.—M. H. 
- HiEMANTHUS Katharine. —Though this plant may grow 
and even flower in a stove it acquires much finer proportions, forms 
larger and finer heads of its brilliant flowers, and increases much more 
quickly when grown all the year round in a cold house from which frost 
is excluded, but no more, and in which Indian Aza eas and Camellias 
would ordinarily thrive. I had clear evidence of this when recently 
visiting the Royal Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin, near Dublin, when I 
was shown by the Curator of that most interesting and well cared for 
establishment an exceedingly fine specimen of the fine form of this 
plant, known as H. Katherinse superbus (which I had presented to 
the Gardens some three or four years previously), which though 
grown a'together in the cold house for the previous year was in every 
respect finer than I had ever seen it when grown in a stove.—• 
W. E. Gumbleton. 
-Rainfall in Hampshire. —The continuous rain of the past 
week or two has brought the total above the record of the last eight 
years. The greatest amount registered in any year during that time was 
34'8 inches in 1886, when rain fell on 141 days. At Droxford, a village 
situated l^mile east of Swanmore, and lying in a valley, 1 find in 1882 
36T0 inches was registered, this was before a register was kept here. I 
also find that Droxford usually registers slightly in advance of what we 
do here, more thunder showers appearing to fall in the valleys than on 
the hills, the altitude of Droxford being but 180 feet, while this station 
is 390 feet above sea level, therefore we may calculate that the previous 
highest total at Swanmore was in that year also. Even then we seem 
likely to considerably surpass that; in fact, we have up to Decem¬ 
ber 8th registered 35-66 inches. During the night of Decem¬ 
ber 1st in nine hours 1-15 inch rain fell. Of 342 days 141 have been 
wet, the present year beiDg remarkable for excesses in the number of 
days, wet and dry continuously. On strong land it has now become 
serious for farming operations, but for planting trees of any kind we 
have not had too much. It is surprising in our heavy soil how little 
water is to be seen on the surface or anywhere in the soil. Land not 
previously having the surface broken for some few months is in splendid 
order for working, owing no doubt to the presence of so many flint 
stones in the soil.—E. M. 
- At a large gathering of the Croydon Gardeners’ and 
Amateurs’ Mutual Improvement Society recently Mr. W. Gunner 
presided, and Mr. Joseph Cheal delivered a most instructive lecture on 
“ Our Conifers: Their History, Introduction, Uses, and Something of 
Their Native Habitats,” illustrated with map, photographs, and draw¬ 
ings. He said at the beginning of the present century no more than 
twenty varieties were known in England, and now we have so many 
that we hardly realise that such rapid progress should be made. He 
first mentioned the sorts that are indigenous to this country, and con¬ 
cerning the Scotch Fir (yellow deal), it was also to be found in Norway 
and Asia, and the Spruce Fir (white deal) grew in vast forests in 
Sweden, Russia, and he had been in large forests of it in Norway, where 
he walked for days and days in stillness and dense shade; and when on 
reaching the clearing he saw the Norwegian sunset over mountains of 
snow, it was such a truly magnificent sight that he should never forget 
it. From these forests alone 85,000,000 cubic feet of timber was annually 
cut. The root fibre is used for making cords and coarse ropes. He paid 
graceful tribute to the memory of David Douglas, to whom we are 
indebted for introducing so many valuable Conifers. It was he who 
first sent over Abies Menziesi from the Pacific coast, and the one named 
in his honour A. Douglasi. This is one of the best timber trees, being so 
full of resin. He mentioned the flagstaff at Kew in the Royal Gardens, 
which was cut from the Douglas Fir. Its height is 59 feet, 22 inches in 
