October 15, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
337 
to some changes in the family. Mr. Child has been fourteen years at 
Garbrani Hall, and bears the reputation of a good practical gardener. 
- Mr. Robert Owen has sent us “some blooms of Tuberous 
Begonias gathered from the open ground this day, to show how they 
will stand frost.” The blooms were fresh, bright, and very little the 
worse for their exposure. 
- Some time ago we referred to the devastation effected in the 
Drumlanrig Woods by a severe gale. It appears according to a 
northern contemporary that “ The trees have remained ever since as they 
fell. No one could be induced to undertake the huge contract of 
removing them. Just lately, however, an enterprising London merchant 
has purchased the entire lot from the Duke’s stewards, who, indeed, had 
become so anxious to have them removed that they offered them at an 
extremely low price. The purchaser has begun to do a flourishing trade, 
for he can afford to undersell the Baltic merchants. The incident seems 
to show that forestry is indeed a neglected industry in this country. 
There seems no reason why the Baltic trade should not be permanently 
rivalled by the products of our own woodlands.” 
- Mr. Gilbert has sent as samples of three good things 
from Burghley —namely, Her Ladyship’s Favourite Melon, Burghley 
Champion Tomato, and the not yet extinct Chou de Burghley. As to the 
Melon, we have to regard her ladyship 'as an excellent judge. The fruit 
was beautifully netted, skin thiD, flesh thick, colour deep groen, and 
quality delicious. The Tomato is round, smooth, firm ; the fruit looks 
good, and is as good as it looks. Chou de Burghleywas in form like a 
well-grown Cos Lettuce, and all who tasted it wanted more. 
-“T. W., The Elmg," sends a note upon Exhibiting Grapes, in 
which he remarks that it is unfair working or single-handed gardeners 
should have to compete in the same classes with gardeners who are in 
charge of large establishments and have much greater facilities for pro¬ 
ducing good Grapes. He considers that a class should be set apart at 
large shows for “ Working Gardeners,” which would encourage more 
exhibitors to enter, and be much better than the present system. 
-An Irish correspondent writes as follows on British and 
foreign Apples :—“ I am getting my neighbours at last to see that 
they must grow large fruit of the best quality to compete with the 
imported fruit, and not small rubbish like our markets are filled with this 
year. In Portadown last market day Apples were selling freely at £1 
per ton.” 
-A lovely little annual is Ionopsidium acaule, though little 
known and rarely seen, and if introduced again as a new plant would 
become popular. In the Whittington Nurseries at Lichfield there is a 
good breadth of it now in full beauty. It forms a carpet of lovely silvery 
grey close to the ground, and as it has a habit of reproducing itself so 
freely from seed, no one need fear losing it, as thousands of young plants 
are coming up about the bed from self-sown seeds. Such plants will 
give a charming spring display, whilst spring-sown seeds out of doors 
give a later bloom. 
-Large Yield of Potatoes.—M r. J. Rogers, The Garden^, 
Langton Hall, Spilsby, states that, “ Last spring, with several other 
varieties, I obtained from Messrs. Daniels of Norwich 1 lb. of Imperator, 
and lifted 108J lbs., six of the largest weighing lbs., the heaviest 
beiDg 1 lb. 13 ozj. The seed was cut into eighteen sets, and only planted 
in the ordinary way in old garden soil resting on sand. The produce is 
quite free from disease, is not ugly grown, but mostly of regular shape, 
rather a long round.” 
-The third and fourth “fascicules” of reports of the Antwerp 
International Botanical Congress, held from the 1st to the 10th 
of August, are now issued. They continue the reports from page 225 to 
420, and contain papers by M. L. de Nobele of Ghent, M. E. Laurent of 
Vilvorde, Dr. Jules Gandy of Ixelles, M. Amelin of Brussels, M. F. Bur- 
venich of Ghent, M. J. H. Krelage of Haarlem, M. Emile Rodigas of 
Ghent, M. Adolphe d’Haene of Ghent, Dr. Henri van Heurck of Antwerp, 
M. C. Wittmack of Berlin, and M. O. Bruneel of Ghent. These deal 
with a variety of subjects, particular prominence being given to the Flora 
of the Congo. 
- A suburban correspondent wishes to know if any of our 
readers can explain the undermentioned fact —“ During the four past 
winters I have had two plants of Agave Americana variegata out 
of doors in my garden near London, and each season the frosts have 
destroyed the old leaves—that is, those of the previous year, the young 
leaves of the current year's production being uninjured. We are so 
accustomed to seeing the young growing tips of plants first injured by 
frost, that it seems strange the old leaves should, in the case of this 
Agave, be the only ones affected.” 
- “ It could not be want of a subject,” writes “ C. S. R.,” 
“ that compelled Mr. Muir to so depreciate the Stephanotis and 
Gardenias (page 295). * The pure colour and fragrance may be 
thought pleasing,’ says he, 1 but the fragrance of the Gardenia espe¬ 
cially is so strong that not one person in a dozen can really enjoy it.’ 
How different this sounds to my experience of Gardenias and persons, as 
not one in a hundred speaks but to praise. Are Mr. Muir’s olfactory 
nerves so very acute that the fragrance of the Gardenia is offensive ? If 
so he was right in transferring them to the rubbish heap, as no one would 
wish to hear that the able gardener at Margam Park had died ‘ in aro¬ 
matic pain.’ That these plants are subject to mealy bug I admit ; but if 
clean to start with the attention that most other stove plants require to 
do them well will keep the Gardenias and Stephanotis clean. We find 
a regular application of weak soapsuds very useful for these plants.” 
-An extensive Willow Farm in Georgia is thus described by 
an American contemporary:—“ A flying trip yesterday to the Osier 
Willow farm of I. C. Plant, a mile below the city of Macon, presented a 
surprise. In a building on the premises were a number of negro women 
and boys at work stripping the bark and leaves from the Willow switches. 
This is the first cutting of the crop of two years’ growth, and the yield 
will be two or three tons. These switches are from 4 to 7 feet long, and 
are cut and placed in bundles like sheaves of Wheat. They are then 
taken to the stripping building and placed in a vat filled with water. 
The large ends are then placed in a peculiar little machine, which loosens 
the bark for a couple of inches. Passing along on the table they are 
placed one by one in the strippers, and with a pair of pliers are pulled 
through with one jerk. This process takes off all the bark and leaves. 
The switches are then wiped off with a woollen cloth by passing them 
through the hand. They are then bundled and laid away to dry. All 
the leaves and bark are dried and are used for a certain kind of medicine 
Mr. Plant has 400,000 Willows now growing on his farm. He has 
within one week set out 80,000, and they are growing finely. He will 
have sixty acres in Willows alone. A ton to the acre is the average 
yield, and the Willows, when shipped dried, command 200 dollars per 
ton in a dozen markets. In three years all he has set out now will be 
high enough to cut.” 
- At the annual Cryptogamic Meeting of the Essex Field Club on 
October 3rd, Mr. Worthington G. Smith read an amusing paper upon 
Botanical Mare’s Nests, in which several remarkable cases of 
“ mistaken identity ” are given. One of these, referring to the ear 
cockle in Wheat, was thus noted :—“ I always take pleasure in thrust¬ 
ing at shady ‘ doctors ’ and 1 professors.’ I will, therefore, take a 
‘ doctor ’ first, a German ‘ doctor.’ His name is Dr. Carle Miicke, a pecu¬ 
liar name, in English it indicates a mess or a muddle. This Dr. Miicke, 
in 1870, discovered a terrific mare’s nest in reference to a common 
and very familiar disease of Wheat termed ‘ ear-cockle.’ 1 Ear-cockle,’ 
as every beginner knows, is caused by a minute thread-worm, named 
Anguillula tritici. This little worm, which is allied to the so-called 
‘vinegar-eel,’ causes little offensive galls to replace grains of corn in the 
ear. Friend Miicke * discovered ’ that the disease was caused by a mare’s 
nest fungus, named by him ‘ Xenodochius,’ he probably meant Xenodo- 
chus. Dr. Miicke’s essay was published by the Board of Agriculture of 
Melbourne, and Dr. Miicke was awarded a substantial money prize by 
the Board for his wonderful mare’s nest. The essay is a remarkable one. 
The German ‘ doctor’ does not write ‘ tritici’ but in every instance where 
he should use that word, he writes the extraordinary word “ tritii ; ’ he 
also tells the Melhourneites that some persons believe ear-cockle to be 
caused by the ‘ chrysalis of an aphis.’ The 1 chrysalis of an aphis ’ is a 
grand mare’s nest, one of the first water. He illustrates what he calls 
the ‘ imagines ’—possibly meaning imago—of an aphis without a rostrum. 
He also figures a very red garden worm, and calls it ‘ such an eel,’ and 
says it is not always red, for, says he, it is sometimes white. Dr. Miicke 
says he has examined ‘ flour ’ from the roots of Wheat, and found the 
‘ flour ’ to consist of the ‘ eggs of an aphis unknown to him.’ Fancy 
< flour ’ from the ‘ roots of Wheat ’ being not flour but the eggs of an 
aphis, and an unknown aphis I ’ 
