134 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 13, 1885. 
Ware of Tottenham, and fresh hatches of flowers every day keep the 
exhibition constantly attractive. Just now Liliums are very largely re¬ 
presented, especially the much-admired L. auratum, together with several 
varieties, and the old well-known hut useful L. tigrinum is equally fine. 
L. longiflorum and others are numerously represented, together with a 
choice selection of the best summer-flowering plants. 
-“ Reading Perfection Tomato. —This variety is much liked in 
the neighbourhood of Frome, and I have seen very fine crops of it both 
in the open and under glass. Particularly good are the large clusters 
of it in the late vinery at Fairlawn, the Frome residence of John Baily, 
Esq., and I should say it would be a difficult matter to find much hand¬ 
somer fruit. They are very solid, smooth, round, and a bright rich red 
Gardeners who have changed their situations since the last edition 
of the “ H irticullural Directory” was published, are invited to send 
without delay their new address to the Editor of the “ Horticultural 
Directory,” 171, Fleet Street, London, E.C., so that it may be inserted in 
the forthcoming edition. 
- A meeting was held at South Kensington on Tuesday last to 
form a Committee in connection with the proposed Charles Turner 
Memorial Fund. It was resolved that, in consideration of the great 
services rendered to floriculture by the late Charles Turner, a fund should 
be raised, the interest on which should be given as prizes for florists’ 
flowers at such shows as should be selected by the Committee. Mr. 
H. M. Pollett was appointed Treasurer, and Mr. J. Douglas Honorary 
Secretary. 
-- A Manchester Cucumber Grower desires the address of 
“ H. H., Yorli," who communicated a note on Cucumbers in our issue of 
July 16th, 1885. If our correspondent has no objection to comply with 
the request he can forward his address to this office. 
-Grand National Dahlia Show and the Turner Memorial 
Prize. —The Committee for managing this Show have decided that the 
prize referred to on a former occasion shall consist of a ten-guinea silver 
cup, the objects of competition to be twelve Show and six Fancy Dahlias. 
The cup is to be competed for by amateurs only, and must be won three 
times before it becomes the property of the winner. Further particulars 
will be announced. 
-A first-rate Grape-grower observes:—“ The more we see of 
Alnwick Seedling And Gros Maroc Grapes the better we like them. In 
looking through a vinery the other day we were pleased to see both in 
tine condition as regards size and finish of bunch and berry. The former 
variety, growing on a Lady Downe’s stock, is found to set as freely as 
Black Hamburgh, upon which stock the Gros Maroc is doing admirably 
in every respect; the flavour which, when the Vine is grown on its own 
roots, Trebbiano, and such varieties, is spoken of as being ‘ coarse,’ 
‘ third-rate,’ &e., is nearly as good as that of well-ripened Hamburghs— 
the result, no doubt, of the union with that excellent variety. Let those 
who are dissatisfied with Gros Maroc on account of its flavour inarch it 
on to a Black Hamburgh stock, and there will be no further cause for 
complaint providing the treatment be good.” 
in colour—just the type, in fact, that find favour with exhibitors, and 
those fruits I tasted were very good in quality. It is a very strong 
grower. 
-“ Spinach Beet.—N ot only are the leaves of this an excellent 
substitute for Spinach during the winter months, but it also proves of 
great value during a dry season like the present. Summer Spinach is 
simply nowhere, but the Spinach Beet affords abundance of thinnings, 
and we can also venture to pick the lower leaves of the reserved plants, 
so luxuriantly do they grow. It is scarcely so good in quality as the 
ordinary Spinach, but good cooks can make it very nearly like it, and 
at any rate it is preferable to the New Zealand Spinach.” 
- The following reply was given to a correspondent last year 
relative to his Grapes not Setting and Stoning. “ The bunch you 
have sent indicates a deficiency of pollen at the time the Vines were 
flowering. Shaking the Vines, tapping the bunches, and lightly drawing 
the hand over them, or shaking the pollen on them from other bunches 
in which it is plentiful, will assist the fertilisation and consequently 
stoning of the fruit. Judging by the leaf sent, the Vine appears very 
healthy, and as the other varieties stone well the failure is not attri¬ 
butable to the deficiency of lime in the border, but is a case of defective 
fertilisation.” Our correspondent now writes:—“ Many thanks for your 
information on the Mill Hill Hamburgh Grapes I sent you last year 
(page 181, August 21st). I have carried out your instructions, and I am 
thankful to say I have no stoneless berries this year, only one bunch that 
I left to see the result of fertilisation.” This experience may possibly be 
u eful to others who find a difficulty in setting full bunches of Grapes. 
■- The Weston-super-Mare and East Somerset Horti¬ 
cultural Society will hold their thirteenth annual Exhibition on 
Tuesday, August 18th, in the Grove and Rectory Field, Weston-super- 
Mare. The schedule enumerates 122 classes, in several of the more 
important of which the prizes are very liberal. For instance, four prizes 
of fifteen, ten, five, and three guineas each, are offered for twelve stove 
and greenhouse plant?, several others of proportionate amounts being 
offered in smaller classes. 
- At the monthly meeting of the Belgian Syndicate of Horticul¬ 
turists at Ghent, on the 11th inst., the following members being pre¬ 
sent :—MM. A. Peeters, A. de Craen, L. de Smet, Ch. Spae, Em- 
Vervaet, Fr. Debois, Em de Cock, A. Roseels, V. Cuvelier, and Romain 
de Smet—certificates were awarded for the undermentioned plants :— 
To MM. Vervaet et Cie for Dendrochilum filiforme ; to M. James Bray 
for Cattleya Dowiana and Cypripedium Stonei; to M. A. D’Haene for 
Pandanus D’Hanei ; and to M. A. Peeters for Cypripedium Morganise. 
Several cultural certificates were also accorded to the Compagnie Conti- 
nentale d’Horticulture and others. 
- Mr. Iggulden sends us the four useful notes following on 
Roses, Apricots, Tomatoes, and Spinach Beet. Short notes of a similar 
character on noteworthy subjects are acceptable from all who can 
obligingly contribute them from time to time. 
- “A Hot Weather Rose. —The hot weather has proved very 
trying to the Roses, and cut blooms are now very scarce. There is one 
noteworthy exception to the rule, this being the good old Bourbon 
Souvenir de la Malmaison. This variety, whether against sheltered 
walls or as dwarfs in the open, invariably flowers early and abundantly, 
and during August and till frost intervenes we are rarely without 
plenty good blooms or buds of it. The blooms, pinkish white in colour, 
are not of very good form, especially when fully expanded, but they 
last well, very few other sorts equalling them in this respect. On the 
whole I consider it one cf the most serviceable Roses in cultivation. 
-“ Among Apricots there are none to surpass the Moor Park 
for quality, but un'ortunatelv this variety is much given to gumming, 
whole limbs frequently dying back in consequence. Hemskerk is rather 
earlier, possesses a good constitution, crops well, and the fine tempting 
looking fruit are of good quality. It rarely fails with us, and if one or 
two trees were grown Hemskirk would be the variety selected. 
- Mr. Hugh Henderson sends a short note on the splitting 
of Grapes, in which he says “ 1 A Thinker ’ shirks all his questions,” 
and observes—” It would be difficult to mention any natural law eo 
universally acknowledged among gardeners as the one in question, and it 
would be as well if our correspondent would bring some facts to prove 
what he so persistently asserts, that moisture passing through the 
skins causes Grapes to burst, and that temperature is no agent in the 
operation.” Perhaps sufficient has been said on this subject at present, 
though we consider it well worthy of the deep consideration of persons 
who have experienced difficulty in preventing the rupturing of the skins 
of certain varieties of Grapes. The action of osmosis is not dependent 
on temperature. 
-Mr. Joseph Mallender seDds the following summary of 
meteorological observations at Hodsock Priory Worksop, Notts, for 
July :—Mean temperature of month, 60'1 ; maximum on the 25th, 86'0 ; 
maximum on the 29th, 40 0; maximum in the sun on the 26th, 133 - 7 ; 
minimum on the grass on the 29th, 32'7 ; extreme range, 46 0. Warmest 
day the 20th, coldest day the 29th ; mean temperature of air at 9 a.m., 
62.5; mean temperature of soil 1 foot deep, 61.1 ; total duration of sun¬ 
shine in month, 166 hour?, or 33 per cent, of possible duration. We had 
one sunless day. Total rainfall, O'32 inch. Ra ; n fell on five days. Average 
