October X, 1883.] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
295 
third voyage. From a statement in Sparmanu’s “ Travels in South 
Africa,” it seems that Forster the elder undertook the duties of naturalist 
to the expedition for the sum of £4000, and he took his son with him, 
then only seventeen years old, as an assistant. On arriving at the Cape of 
Good Hope they fell in with Sparmann, who at the instance and expense 
•of Forster, was added to the scientific staff, and continued with them 
until the return to the Cape in 1775. Considerable collections of plants 
were made in New Zealand, many parts of Polynesia, and the extreme 
south of America, and smaller collections in some of the Atlantic Islands, 
including St. Helena, Cape Verd Islands, and Canaries. The collection 
now acquired for Kew is excellently preserved, and the plants mostly 
named and localised. It comprises altogether 1359 species, 785 of which 
were collected on the voyage with Cook, and the rest from various parts 
of the world. Roughly, there are 187 species from Polynesia, 119 from 
New Zealand, twenty-one from the extreme south of America, twenty- 
three from the Atlantic Islands, including all those described by Forster 
from St. Helena, and nine from Australia. Besides the foregoing, which 
are all phanerogams, there are thirty-six Ferns. 
- An American paper gives the following upon Sunflowers as 
FUEL. A correspondent having tried “ turf,” coal wood, and Sun¬ 
flowers has settled upon the last named as the cheapest and best for tree¬ 
less Dakota. He says : “ I grow one acre of them every year, and have 
plenty of fuel for one stove the whole year round, and use some in 
another stove besides. I plant them in hills the same as corn (only three 
seeds to the hill), and cultivate same as corn. I cut them when the 
leader or top flower is ripe, and let them lay on the ground top for three 
days ; in that time I cut off all the seed-heads, which are pm into an open 
shed with a floor in it, the same as a corn-crib ; the stalks are then 
hauled home and packed in a common shed with a good roof on. When 
cut in the right time the stalks when dry are as hard as oak, and make a 
good hot fire, while the seed-heads with seeds in make a better fire than 
the best hard coal. The seed being very rich in oil it will warm better 
and burn longer, bushel for bushel, than hard coal. The Sunflower is 
very hard on land. The piece of ground selected to plant on should be 
highly enriched with manures. In the great steppes (prairie region in 
thejinterior of Russia and in Tartary), where the winters are more severe 
than here in Dakota, the Sunflowers are, and have been for centuries past, 
the only kind of fuel used.” 
-A correspondent of the Tropical Agriculturist thus refers to 
Watercress in Ceylon ;—“ In Moon’s time—1824—the common 
Watercress (Nasturtium officinale, L.) was pretty well naturalised in 
Ceylon, and since then nearly every stream running through the estates in 
the Kandyan country has the Watercress growing in it, the plant being 
known to the Sinhalese as kakkutu pala. In reference to the idea of 
natural selection, we some time ago alluded to the facts recorded by Si r 
J. Hooker, that the Watercress introduced into New Zealand found such a 
congenial climate there that it grew to a length of 12 feet and 1 inch in 
diameter, and it cost Government £300 per annum to keep the mouth of 
one of the rivers clear of this introduction to enable the stream to be navi¬ 
gated. A correspondent who took a stroll on the banks of the Damba- 
gastalawaoya from Cymru as far as Elgin a few days ago, informs us that 
seeing a dense mass of green vegetation on the other side of the riverj 
covering the banks up to the level ground on the top, and not recognising 
it, he got a handful of it picked by one of the men in the lines close by 
when he found it was a bed of Watercress, one of the top bits of which 
measured upwards of 3 feet in length and one-third of an inch in 
diamter, and he believes that entire plants in that bed measure G feet 
and half an inch, so that we can grow Watercress in Ceylon one-half the 
size attained in New Zealand ! ” 
-The sixth annual Cryptogamic and Botanical Meeting of 
the Essex Field Club will be held as previously announced on Friday 
and Saturday, October 2nd and 3rd, 1885, in the northern section of 
Epping Forest (Epping Lower Forest, High Beach, Monk Woods, Ching- 
ford, Buckhurst Hill, &c.). The head quarters for the meeting will be 
“The Roebuck Hotel,” Buckhurst Hill, Epping Forest, and the following 
botanists, among many others, have promised their aid as Referees and 
Directors at the meeting. For Fungi : —Dr. M. C. Cooke, M.A., F.L.S.; 
Rev. Canon Du Port, M.A. ; Mr. James English ; Dr. Spurrell, F.R.M.S., 
&c.; Worthington G. Smith, Esq., F.L.S., M.A.I.; Dr. H. T. Wharton, 
M.A., F.Z S., &c.; Arthur Lister, Esq., J.P., F.L.S. For Mosses, Lichens, 
Algce., 'and Phanerogams :—Professor Boulger, F.L S., F.G.S. ; Rev. J. 
M. Crombie, MA., F.L.S., F.G.S.; Dr. Braithwaite, F.L.S., F.R.M.S, ; 
Henry Groves, Esq. ; Charles A. .Wright, Esq., F.L.S., F.Z.S.; F. J. 
Hanbury, Esq., F.L.S.; E. M. Holmes, Esq., F.L.S.; David Houston, 
Esq., F.L.S. ; F.R.M.S.; W. W. Reeves, Esq., F.R.M.S.; A. Vaughan 
Jennings, Esq The management of the microscopical department will 
be in the hands of Frederick Oxley, Esq., F.R.M.S., assisted by 
Messrs. E. Letchford, F.R.M.S. ; Charles Thomas, F.R.M.S., F.G.S., 
A- P. Wire ; W. T. Christian, F.R.M.S., and many other 
members of the Club. An exhibition of specimens will be held 
in the large ball-room attached to the “Roebuck Inn,” Buckhurst 
Hill. Exhibits of fresh and dried botanical specimens, microscopes, and 
microscopical objects, diagrams, drawings, &c., will be very welcome. 
The Exhibition will be confined to subjects from the vegetable kingdom, 
but not necessarily to the Cryptogamia, although thatjdi vision will hold a 
very important place. The Friday’s assembly is intended to be a 
students’ and collectors’ day in the woods, the evening being devoted to 
the naming and arranging of specimens. Saturday morning and early 
afternoon will be similarly occupied, and Saturday evening’s meeting will 
be of the nature of a conversazione. Ample time will thus be afforded fo 
careful examination of the specimens by the visitors present, and all pos¬ 
sible facilities will be given to exhibitors. The members of the party on 
Saturday are requested to assemble at four o’clock at the “ Roebuck,” 
where the customary Club tea wilFbe served at five o’clock ; after which 
an ordinary meeting of the Club will be held solely for the proposal and 
election of members. The following papers will be read :—“ The Uses of 
Fungi,” by Dr. H. T. Wharton, M.A., F.Z.S. ; “Some Botanical Mare’s- 
nests : chiefly Fungological,” by Worthington G. Smith, Esq., F.L.S., 
M.A.I., &c. A series of large diagrams, illustrating the fungoid diseases 
of plants, being original drawings by Mr. Worthington Smith, have been 
most obligingly lent for exhibition by Messrs. Edward Webb & Sons, 
seed merchants, Stourbridge. 
STEPHANOTIS AND GARDENIAS. 
We are all accustomed to hear these two plants praised so much that 
it would be something new to hear of something against them, but con¬ 
sidered in some ways I think there might be more said in the latter 
way than the former. The pure colour and fragrance of both may be 
thought pleasing, but the fragrance of the Gardenia especially is so strong 
that not one person in a dozen can really enjoy it. The stems, particularly 
of the Stephanotis, are so short, that unless for wreath or cross-making 
they have to be wired before they can be used, and then there is nothing 
uncommonly attractive about them when mixed with other flowers. The 
flowers, however, may be good enough, and if they cannot be disparaged, 
what about the plants ? It would be absolutely impossible to find two 
equal to them for harbouring insects, such as mealy bug, and I am of 
opinion that, considering the time it takes to keep them clean, in the 
majority of cases it would be profitable to be without them. We may 
clean the plants as thoroughly as possible to-day, and in a few weeks’ 
time they are again smothered with mealy bug and other pests. Where 
men can be kept to do little else but sponge the plants may be fairly clean 
always, but in under-handed places and amateurs’ houses they are a per¬ 
petual nuisance. I have heard the latter repeatedly say that they were 
never troubled to any extent with mealy bug until they bought in a 
Stephanotis or a few Gardenias, when the whole of their plants were soon 
infested. This should be well considered by all before introducing these 
two plants, and if no other place can be found for them than in a house 
with other plants or fruits, it would be much batter to do without them. 
There are plenty of other flowers which are just as pretty and sweet, which 
require no more space, and certainly much less attention, that might take 
their place. I have thrown our Gardenias away, as they harboured so 
many insects; their fragrance was not appreciated, and by the time they 
reached London their pure white petals had become almost black. The 
Eucharis amazonica, which now fills their place, is much more appreciated. 
The Stephanotis may share the fate of the Gardenias, and if I had my way 
I would not grow either of them in any house where other plants or fruits 
were being cultivated.—J. Muir. 
GARDENS NORTH AND SOUTH. 
I WAS once travelling across the German Ocean with an American 
tourist who had left his “great country” to see the sights of little 
Europe, and what appeared to astonish him the most was the changes 
he was constantly experiencing, in what was to him a very short journey. 
“ As to the weather,” he remarked, “ you never know what is coming in a 
day’s run ; and as if that is not enough to make one uncomfortable, you 
just go across a ditch like this, and your tongue is of no use except for 
‘ liquoring.’ I have had all sorts of weathers in a fortnight, and found 
three languages in 500 miles ; but in my country, sir, we can calculate 
almost exactly about the weather, and can travel 3000 miles without 
having our baggage searched, and with one lingo—things seem badly 
managed in this old country.” The Customs’ regulations had irritated, 
and a slight attack of mal de oner upset my loquacious companion ; but 
he was, nevertheless, right in the main. The changes are great over a 
