6 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 7, 1886. 
The publication of the index for binding with the numbers of the 
last half-year compels us to hold over several interesting articles till 
next week. 
- A well-known plant-grower, Me. William Cole, died at 
Didsbury, Manchester, on the 26th u't. He was a skilful cultivator of 
hardwooded plants, and was for many years a successful exhibitor at 
Manchester and other leading shows. He had been latterly employed by 
Mr. W. Broome at Fairlawn, Didsbury. 
-We also learn that Mr. William KEmp, who had been thirty 
years gardener to the Duke of Northumberland at Albury Park, Guild¬ 
ford, died on the 23ri ult., at the age of fifty-five. 
-The Devon and Exeter Horticultural Society will 
hold their shows this year on the undermentioned dates :—Friday, 20th 
August; Friday, 12th November. The Trustees of the Yeitch Memorial 
Prize Fund have allotted a Veitch Memorial medal and a prize of £5 for 
competition at Exeter in 1886, the competition to be confined to the 
county of Devon. The Committee of the Devon and Exeter Horticul¬ 
tural Society have resolved that the medal and prize shall be given for a 
collection of vegetables, to be competed for at their summer show (20th 
August). 
- The following are the dates of the meetings of the Royal 
' Horticultural Society’s Scientific, Fruit and Floral Com¬ 
mittees, in 1886.—Scientific Committee—January 12tb, February 9th, 
March 9th and 23rd, April 13th and 27th, May 11th and 25th, June 8th 
and 22nd, July 13th and 27th, November 9th, December 7th. Fruit and 
Floral Committees—January 12th, February 9th, March 9th and 23rd, 
April 13th and 27th, May 11th and 25th, June 8th and 22nd, July 13th 
and 27th, August 10th and 21th, September 7th and 21st, October 12th and 
26th, November 9th, December 7th. 
- We are informed that the Stoke Newington Chrysanthe¬ 
mum Society held a special general meeting on Friday evening last, at 
the Highbury Athenaeum, Highbury New Park, the chair being taken by 
Mr. J. Hicks (one of the vice-presidents). The proceedings opened by the 
chairman reading the circular calling the meeting, which was in effect to 
consider the advisability of holding the next exhibition at the Highbury 
. Athenaeum. Letters were read from several gentlemen, who were all of 
opinion that if the next exhibition is held at this place it would be very 
beneficial to the Society. The matter was then freely discussed, and the 
following resolutions were agreed to—viz., 1st, That the Society should in 
future be called The Stoke Newington and Highbury Chrysanthemum 
Society, and that the next exhibition should be held at the Highbury 
Athenaeum. 2nd, That the days on which the Exhibition should take 
place shall be the 4 th and 5th November next. Another general meeting 
will shortly take place, when the rules and schedule will be entirely rc- 
• vised. 
- In reply to “ J. R ,” page 539, who asks for information on Fill¬ 
ing Ice Houses, “ G.C., Caterham Valley," sends the following:—When 
in the gardens of Dysart House, Fife, in 1869, and at Broxmouth Park 
near Dunbar, I assisted in filling two ice houses, and the way we pro¬ 
ceeded was to bring the carts to the house, and break the ice in pieces 
about 3 or 4 inches square, and then fill the house, three of us being 
inside with hammers breaking the ice as small as we could, in fact trying to 
fill every crevice, and when I went to see it in the summer it was in one 
solid mass. We filled the house and then filled the inside of the door with 
;straw. Both these ice houses were built in the Bhape of an egg, sunk in 
the ground, and in places where the sun’s rays had no effect on them. 
- The Executive Committee of the Hull and East Riding 
Chrysanthemum Society having in view the special object of the 
Society—viz., “ To promote and improve the cultivation of the Chrysan¬ 
themum in the district,” have considered it desirable to engage an expert 
te give a lecture on this subject. The Committee have therefore arranged 
for a lecture to be given in the Royal Institution, Albion Street, Hull, on 
Friday, January 8th, 1886, at eight o’clock in the evening, by Mr. J. 
Udale of Sheffield. The syllabus comprises the following :—History 
(brief); Classification ; Propagation ; Cultivation — for Conservatory 
Decoration, Specimen Plants (including training Flat, Bush, Pyramidal, 
and Standard) Specimen Blooms for Exhibition; “Dressing;” Insects; 
Mildew ; Select varieties for various purposes ; Bouquets and Deco¬ 
rations. 
- The National Chrysanthemum Society will hold an ex¬ 
hibition of flowering Chrysanthemums at the Royal Aquarium, Westmin¬ 
ster, January 13th, when prizes will be offered in six classes “ with the 
view of encouraging the cultivation of late-flowering Chrysanthemums.’’ 
The classes are for twelve incurved blooms, six ditto ; twelve Japanese’ 
six ditto, twelve blooms any varieties, and for a collection of cut Chrysan¬ 
themums. The prizes, of which two are offered in each clasp, range 
from £2 to 10s. Many are curious to see what the result will be, as if a 
full show can be provided in the middle of January it will form a most 
welcome attraction at a dull season. 
-A Horticultural Congress is to be held in Paris from the 
4th to the 9th of May next during the great International Exhibition, at 
which a number of topics in connection with horticulture are to be dis¬ 
cussed. 
-The Orchid Album for December contains four particularly 
good coloured plates, not that the execution could be better than usual, 
but the subjects are very distinct. Aeranthus Leonis or Angrsecum 
Leonis, as it is known in gardens, is well represented. The plant is a 
native of the Comoro Islands, at an altitude of 5000 feet, and was dis¬ 
covered by M. L6on Humblot, who introduced it to Europe. It is dwarf 
in habit, with curved falcate leaves, and racemes of four to seven white 
flowers, which are freely produced. A superb plate is given of Dendro- 
bium nobile nobilius, the grand variety which has become so famous. 
Odontoglossum Insleayi splendens is a wonderfully fine variety, the 
sepals and petals brown, the lip golden spotted with bright red. A 
faithful figure of the distinct Miltonia Warscewiczii is also given, the 
large lip being of a peculiar crimson hue with a lighter margin, the 
sepals and petals brownish and undulated and crinkled. 
-Mr. R. G. Waterman, Roseleigh, WooltoD, Liverpool, sends the 
following note on the rainfall of 1885 :—The rainfall in this district 
for the pastjyear amounted to 34 - 75 inches. The heaviest fall during any 
one month was in October, which proved the greatest on record, the 
amount as registered by a 12-inch guage being 7'30 inches. In the 
months of January, March, April, and August a fall of less than 2 inches 
was recorded. The heaviest rains of any twenty-four hours occurred on 
June 4th and December 30ih, with falls of 1‘02 and 110 inches. 
THE WHITE BLADDER-BLOOM. 
A short time since we received from Mrs. Crowley, Waddon House, 
Croydon, a fine example of the fruit of Physianthus albens, or the White 
Bladder-Bloom, which had been forwarded to ler from Cannes, and as 
the plant is little known in England we have had a woodcut prepared, 
showing also the flowers which accompanied the specimen in question. 
Physianthus albens is a member of the Asclepias family, and was first 
described by Van Martius in his work on Brazilian plants from specimens 
which that botanist collected in the woods of Ypanema in the province of 
St. Paul’s. Seeds were sent to this country in 1830 by Mr. Tweedie of 
Buenos Ayres, and the plants produced flowered freely in 1831, from which 
an illustration was prepared for the “Botanical Magazine” (t. 3201, 
1832). A few years after examples of the same plant were sent to 
Lindley, then Editor of the “ Botanical Register,” with the statement that 
they had been received from Mexico apparently in mistake, as was ex¬ 
plained when the flowers were figured in the work named (t. 1759,1836.) 
In Decandolle’s “ Prodromus,” vol. viii. page 533, this Physianthus is re¬ 
ferred to the genus Arauja, which has been adopted by several authors 
since, with it being associated A. sericea (formerly known as Apocynum 
Peruvianum), A. calycina, and A. angustifolia, all natives of Brazil or 
neighbouring districts. 
In cultivation the Physianthus has always been scarce, being con¬ 
fined to botanic gardens or a few private gardens where curiosities are 
prized. This is probably due to the fact that it cannot claim a prominent 
place on account of its beauty, though the white flowers possess a powerful 
fragrance, and when the plant is bearing its large twin fruits it is very 
remarkable. Like many of its relatives it is of twining habit, producing the 
white flowers in small stalked clusters (usually four each) from near the 
axils of the opposite bright green leaves. Before the corollas expand they 
have a curious inflated appearance, and to this it owes the generic name 
popularly rendered “Bladder-Bloom.” The fruits are rarely produced 
under cultivation, and in the figures we have cited, which are the only 
ones known to us, this most characteristic feature is omitted from the 
absence of materials. When mature the fruit measures about 8 inches 
