23 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t January u, im. 
dried flowers, and found they yielded 56 per cent, of sugar and 15 per cent, 
of water ; but a further analysis showed that sucrose (cane sugar) was only 
present in the proportion of 3 2 per cent., while glucose (laevulose and 
dextrose) yielded 52 6 per cent. Hence it cannot possibly be a substitute 
for Cane or Beet sugars. Of nitrogenous matters the flowers contained 2'2 
per cent. The usual proportions of useful nitrogenous food should have 
1 part of flesh-formers to 5 saccharine ; but in the case of Bassia it was 
only 2 to 55. He further remarked that in the nectaries of nearly all British 
flowers the sugar was Cane sugar; but in young Grasses the sugar was 
glucose, and it was not until the lower leaves had begun to turn yellow that 
the glucose was converted into sucrose or Cane sugar. In the case of the 
Mahwah the sugar resides solely in the corolla ; a fair size tree will yield 
about half a ton of fresh flowers ; the seeds contain an edible oil. 
A. vote of thanks was unanimously given to Professor Church for his 
interesting communication. 
Macrozamia Denisoni. —A fine male cone of this Australian plant 
(about 2 feet high and 8 inches in diameter at the base) was sent by Mr. H. 
James as the first instance of its flowering in this country. 
Begonia species. —A small-flowered species with white blossoms and 
much-divided leaves was sent by Sir Trevor Laurence, which had come up 
with an Orchid. It was referred to Kew for identification. 
Griselinia littoralis abnormal. —Dr. M. T. Masters showed shoots in 
which the axillary buds had become “uplifted,” so as to be “ extra axillary.” 
On examining the buds microscopically, he observed that the bases of the 
leaves are at first horizontal, but that they subsequently became uplifted 
too, while the stem assum 'd a more flattened character. 
Hybrid Potatoes. —Mr. W. G. Smith forwarded specimens of “hybrid” 
Potatoes obtained by the method of introducing “plugs’’with eyes of one 
sort into other sorts, as described by him in the Gardeners' Chronicle, on 
“ Potato Grafting ” (January Oth, page 54). He also forwarded drawings of 
various sorts illustrative of the results obtained. Dr. Masters observed that 
both botanists and gardeners had qu stioned the possibility, but that his 
own experiments, as well as Mr. Smith’s, had completely disproved the 
assertion. Mr. Henslow remarkid that a gentleman in Warwickshire 
twenty-five yesrs ago had tried it by binding together two halves of a red 
and white Potato, and that the resulting produce was intermediate in colour. 
Mr. O’Brien said that the attempts to unite bulbs of Lilies had as yet com¬ 
pletely failed. 
The Climate of Cornwall. —The Rev. George Henslow drew attention to 
a communication from the Hon. and Rev. J. T. Boscawen in the Gardeners' 
Chronicle for January 9th (p. 55), in which the author alluded to the great 
variations of temperature and the corresponding differences in the effect 
upon vegetation in his garden at Lamorran. Mr. Henslow observed that 
the peculiarities could be at least partly explained by a study of the distri¬ 
bution of cold in England. Mr. Boscawen compared that of Lamorran 
with the temperatures of Kent, Sussex, and Liverpool. It will be found 
that isotherms of 30° or 20°, as the case may be, often ran closely parallel 
with the coast line ; or else, running parallel from Cornwall to nearly the 
meridian of 0°, it then turns abruptly northwards, cutting the E. coast at 
Newcastle. Hence it not unfrequently happens that Kent and Sussex are 
just without the isotherm which includes Cornwall. Similarly, following 
the isotherm round the west coast, an indentation occurs around Liverpool 
in consequence of its being on the great western plain (continuous with the 
Severn Valley). The next point to be observed is that the internal distri¬ 
bution of areas of low temperatures correspond with the more elevated 
tracts, showing that the lowering of the temperature is due to radiation. 
One of these “local centres” always occurs over the elevated region of 
Cornwall and Devonshire. As the Cornish tableland ex’ends far down 
towards the Land’s End, the effects of this cold area are doubtless felt at 
Lamorran. On the other hand, the S.W. coast reaps the benefit of the gulf 
stream, so that in ordinary winters Fuchsias, Escallonias, Hydrangeas, &c., 
are not cut at all. Lastly, individual causes of influence, such as depressed 
spots, where temperatures will be lower than on adjacent heights, exposure 
to IV. or E., as the case may be, &c., as well as differences of soil, in addition 
to the character of the subjacent rock, which may be a good or bad conductor 
of heat. Taking all the above facts into consideration, Mr. Henslow sug¬ 
gested they were amply sufficient to account for the anomalous features of 
Lamorran. 
Plants Injured by Frost in Cornwall. —The Hon. and Rev. Mr. Boscawen 
forwarded leaves and shoots of various shrubs, Camellia, Hydrangea, Ac., 
more or less blackened by the late frost at Lamorran, as described by him 
in the Gardeners' Chronicle. 
JUDGING. 
“ Consult the Judges and act accordingly,” is as far as I can see the 
only remedy advanced by “ W. S.,” page 590, towards the solution of the 
difficulty referred to by me at page 565, and a very weak and unsatisfac¬ 
tory one it appear^ to me to be, simply because it leaves the evil untouched 
and unremedied. 
My desire was to point out the best and least offensive method of 
rectifying palpable and undoubted errors in judgment which unfortu¬ 
nately do sometimes, though seldom, occur at exhibitions. Of course “ the 
Judges would be consulted,” but what I proposed was a Court of Appeal 
in extreme and exceptional cases after the Judges had refused to alter 
their decisions. The Committee, even then, would not have power to 
reverse nor in any way interfere with the awards conferred, but exercise 
a discretionary prerogative by giving or withholding, as they thought fit, 
■an extra or consolation prize to the injured exhibitor. “ W. S. ” would 
cruelly allow the sufferer to go uncompensated without permitting the 
slightest chance of appeal, which to me seems an inconsiderate, unjust. 
m-English-like method of treating the question. 
As to such apractice being likely to induce exhibitors unduly to 
clamour for prizj^ have too good an opinion of their sense of honesty 
and propriety, nor do I think it would have a prejudicial effecton Judges. 
On the contrary, it would, I think, act beneficially by inducing them to 
be even umre careful than they hitherto have been. “ W. S.’s ” estimate 
of the ability as judges of many of the gentlemen who form flower 
show committees may be different to mine, but in my experience I have 
never yet met a committee which has not comprised some amateurs and 
professionals who were in every respect qualified to act as judges, but for 
obvious reasons they would not act in that capacity at home, hence the 
necessity of engaging others. These reasons, however, would in no way 
debar them, either morally or legally, from acting in the capacity I 
have mentioned, as arbitrators in exceptional and extreme cases. 
That such cases do sometimes occur is undeniable. Are they to con¬ 
tinue without an attempt to remedy them ? If not, what are the best 
means to adopt ? The suggestions I ventured to make may not be perfect, 
but they do not appear likely to infringe the rights or privileges of either 
committee, exhibitors, or judges, and practically they would cause hut 
little iriitation to any concerned, whde they would at least partially 
remedy the evil instead of leaving it, as it has been occasionally, a source 
of discord and contention.—T. Challis. 
REVIEW OF BOOK. 
T/ie Praise of Gardens : a Prose Cento , collected, and in part Englished 
by Albert F. Sieveking; with Proem by E. V. B. London: 
Elliot Stock. 
This is one of the series of books issued by Mr. Elliot Stock in the 
quaint style of typography and paper with which readers fond of good 
and wholesome literature issued by that gentleman are already familiar. 
The object of the editor appears to have been to collect from the best 
sources the encomiums which the greatest writers, both ancient and 
modern, h ive bestowed upon gardens and gardening. We, who have been 
so long engaged in the pursuit, and derived both health and pleasure from 
the prosecution of it, are not surprised to find such a treasury of praise as 
Mr. Sieveking has collected in this volume ; but there are many who can¬ 
not realise the enjoyment a garden gives, and to these we commend a 
perusal of this work. 
The following extract from H race Walpole on “ Modern Gardening ’ 
will illustrate the contents of the work :— 
A cottage and a slip of ground for a Cabbage and a Gooseberry hush 
such as we see by the side of a common, were in all probability the earliest 
seats and gardens : a well and bucket succeeded to the Pison and 
Euphrates.* . , 
As settlements increased, the orchard and the vineyard lollowed; and 
the earliest princes of tribes possessed just the necessaries of a modern 
farmer. .... 
Matters, we may well believe, remained long in this situation; and 
though the generality of mankind form their ideas from the import of 
words in their own age, we have no reason to think that for many centuries 
the term garden implied more than a kitchen garden or orchard. When a 
Frenchman reads of the Garden of Eden, I do not doubt but he concludes it 
was something approaching to that of Versailles, with dipt hedges, ber- 
ceaus, and trellis-work. If his devotion humbles him so far as to allow that, 
considering who designed it, there might be a labyrinth full of iEsop’s 
fables, yet he does not conceive that four of the largest rivers in the world 
were half so magnificent as an hundred fountains full of statues by Girardon. 
It is thus that the word garden has at all times passed for whatever was 
understood by that term in different countries. But that it meant no more 
than a kitchen garden or orchard for several centuries, is evident from 
those few descriptions that are preserved of the most famous gardens of 
antiquity. 
In the paintings found at Herculaneum are a few traces of gardens, as 
may he seen in the second volume of the prints. They are small square 
inclosures formed of trellis-work and espaliers,f and regularly ornamented 
with vases, fountains, and Caryatides, elegantly symmetrical, and proper 
for the narrow spaces allotted to the garden of a house in a capital city. 
From such I would not banish those playful waters that refresh a sultry 
mansion in town, nor the neat trellis, which preserves its wooden verdure 
better than natural greens exposed to dust. Those treillages in the gardens 
at Paris, particularly on the Boulevard, have a gay and delightful effect. 
They form light corridores, and transpicuous arbours through which the 
sunbeams play and chequer the shade, set off the statues, vases, and flowers, 
that marry with their gaudy hotels, and suit the galant and idle society who 
paint the walks between their parterres, and realise the fantastic scenes of 
Watteau and Durfe. , 
From what I have said, it appears how naturally and insensibly the idea 
of a kitchen garden slid into that which has for so many ages been peculiarly 
termed a garden, and by our ancestors in this country distinguished by the 
name of a pleasure garden. 
A square piece of ground was originally parted off in early ages for the 
use of the family—to exclude cattle and ascertain the property, it was sepa¬ 
rated from the fields by a hedge. As pride and desire of privacy increased 
the inclosure was dignified by walls ; and in climes where fruits were not 
lavished by the ripening glow of nature and soil, fruit trees were assisted 
and sheltered from surrounding winds by the like expedient; for the 
inundation of luxuries which have swelled into general necessities, have 
almost all taken their source from the simple fountain of reason. 
When the custom of making square gardens enclosed with walls was 
thus established, to the exclusion of nature and prospect, pomp and solitude 
combined to call for something that might enrich and enliven the insipid 
and unanimated partition. Fountains, first invented for use, which 
grandeur loves to disguise and throw out of the question, received embel¬ 
lishments from costly marbles, and at last to contradict utility, tossed their 
waste of waters into air in spouting columns. Art, in the hands of rude 
man, had at first been made a succedaneum to nature; in the hands of 
* Two of the four rivers enclosing Paradise, the others being Gihon and Hiddekel. 
1 At Warwick Castle Is an ancient suit of arras, in which there is a garden exactly 
resembling these pictures of Herculaneum — Walpole’s Hole. 
