44 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 21, 18S6. 
Impact” Hot-water Boilers at both London (Alexandra Palace) and 
“ Inventions ” International Exhibitions. 
-The annual general meeting of the Royal Meteorological 
Society will be held at 25, Great George Street, Westminster, on 
Wednesday, the 20th inst., at 7 P.M., when the report of the Council wilj 
be read, the election of officers and Council for the ensuing year will 
take place, and the President (Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S.) will deliver his 
&idress. 
-We have received a copy of the fifth edition Mr. J. R. Pearson’s 
“Vine Culture under Glass,” which has'been revised and edited 
by Mr. C. E. Pearson, and is published by Messrs. Tho3. Forman & Sons, 
Sherwood Street, Nottingham. It is a concise, practical little work, and 
is a useful guide for amateurs. 
- Mr, Shirley Hibberd’s “ Garden Oracle” for 1886 is just 
issued (4, Ave Maria Lane, Paternoster Row) and, as usual, contains a 
variety of useful information, in addition to the ordinary calendarial 
matter. Lists of new plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables are given, 
with selections of useful varieties and hints on their cultivation. A valu¬ 
able chapter on the cultivation of hardy herbaceous and alpine plants 
with full lists of varieties is included in this edition, and constitutes a very 
useful portion of the work. Those interested in political matters will 
appreciate a list of the members of the new Parliament embodied in this 
edition. 
- We are informed that the Reading Horticultural Society 
will hold their Spring Show on June 1st, and the Summer Show on August 
26th in the Forbury Gardens. 
-Mr. Joseph Mallender sends the following Summary of 
Meteorological Observations at Hodsock Priory, Worksop, 
Notts, for December, 1885. Mean temperature of month 37.4° ; maximum 
on the 16th, 53.7°; minimum on the 8th, 13.2°; maximum in the sun on 
the 31st, 84.8°; minimum on the grass on the 11th, 10.4°. Warmest days 
1st and the 3rd ; coldest day the 8th. Mean temperature of the air at 
9 A.M., 36.8°. Mean temperature of soil 1 foot deep, 38.6°. Nights below 
32° in shade, thirteen; on the grass, twenty-four. Total rainfall 0.81 
inch; maximum fall in twenty-four hours on the 30th, 0.20 inches ; 
rain fell on thirteen days. Average velocity of wind 11.4 miles per hour ; 
velocity exceeded 400 miles on eight days, feU short of 100 miles on three 
days. Sunshine.—Total duration in month twenty-eight hours, or 12 per 
cent, of possible duration. Maximum duration in one day, on the 10th, 
5.1 hours. We had sixteen sunless days. Dry and rather cold month. 
The minimum temperature was rather low, but not exceptionally so. The 
rainfall is smaller than in any of the previous ten Decembers. Very 
little snow fell. The wind was very light, except during the last few 
days. 
-The Meteorological Summary for the Year 1885 is as 
follows, from the same correspondent:—Mean temperature of the year, 
46.8°. Maximum on the 25th July, 86 0°. Minimum on the 8th December, 
.13.2°. Maximum in sun on the 26th July, 133.7°. Minimum on the 
grass on the 11th December, 10.4°. Warmest day the 26th July, mean 
temperature 70.5°. Coldest day the 8th December, mean temperature 
23.6°. Mean temperature of the air at 9 a.m. 47.3. Mean temperature 
of the soil 1 foot deep, 47.9°. Nights below 32° in shade seventy-six ; on 
grass, 133. Total rainfall 24.70 inches. Maximum fall in twenty-four 
hours on the 23rd October, 1.67. Rain fell on 181 days. Snow fell on 
twelve days. Sunshine, total duration in year 1119 hours, or 25 per cent, 
of possible duration. Maximum duration in one day, on the 27th June, 
14.0 hours, or 84 per cent, of possible duration. We had 113 sunless days. 
The year may be described as uniformly cold, of average rainfall, and very 
deficient in sunshine. February was the only month with temperature 
above the average. The number of frosty nights is above the average, hut 
has been exceeded. Sunshine has been very deficient throughout the 
year; the only really bright month was September. The number of 
sunless days is twenty-eight more than in any previous year. Northerly 
winds have been rather more frequent than usual. 
- An American paper states that Peach trees often attain a 
much greater age and size than is generally supposed. In his address 
before the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, President Stitzel stated 
that he had known trees in Maryland from sixty to eighty years old still 
in good bearing condition, while one, supposed to be nearly one hundred 
years old, was 2 feet in diameter near the ground, and was still productive. 
Cases are related where Peach orchards in grass land which had ceased to 
bear and were apparently worthless had been restored to vigour and 
productiveness by cultivating and manuring the soil. 
- An extensive Market Garden in South Wales is thus 
described in the Illustrated London News: “ Llysonen Gardens, seven 
miles from Carmarthen, are the property of Captain Mansfield, R.A., 
where he pursues the art of floriculture successfully. He has an area of 
200,000 feet of glass, with a proportionately large staff of gardeners, 
painters, glaziers, masons, carpenters, and firemen, many of whom reside 
in very pretty cottages which the captain has built for his people. The 
mechanical apparatus for supplying water and heat are the most perfect 
that could be invented ; and the coal used is the anthracite coal, which 
gives tremendous heat. There are no less than six miles of hot-water 
piping passing through the numerous stove and plant houses. Thousands 
of Roses in pots are already in bud. A house is devoted to Liliums, an¬ 
other to Orchids, while others are individually devoted to Geraniums, 
Pelargoniums, Cinerarias, and sweet-scented foliage plants. There are 
100,000 pots of L lies of the Valley for forcing. The Camellias are mag¬ 
nificent, and a house full of Maidenhair Ferns is a sight not easily to be 
forgotten. The forcing houses were already rich in blossom, and thus 
eighteen large houses were devoted to flowers. In the Peach house 10,000 
pots of Strawberries are forced each year. There are many hands em¬ 
ployed in preparing and packing the flowers for the London market.” 
-Writing to the American Florist, Mr. Peter Henderson gives the 
following account of a Crimson Call a, hut it must not be mistaken for a 
variety of Richardia :—“ I give the story of a crimson Calla (Arum palaes- 
tinum) of which I became the fortunate possessor a few years ago. A 
lady called on Messrs. Young & Elliott, seedsmen of New York, and 
seated that she had a crimson Calla in bloom, and she wanted to sell it 
to them for 100 dollars. Mr. Elliott suggested that she bring it down to 
one of his auction sales and let it he sold there. This she agreed to do, 
and down it came in full bloom, crimson sure enough. Mr. Elliott 
expended a wonderful deal of eloquence in trying to get someone to bid 
100 dollars for it, but was obliged to take my first bid of 100 cents, whmh 
was gradually run up to 1000 cents, and I became the possessor of the 
crimson Calla. I then secured all the remaining stock from the lady 
consisting of about a dozen small plants, and grew it until I obtained 
over 100 plants, but in some way by running it against the grain I lost 
the whole stock of it. I do not know to-day if there is a plant of the 
crimson Calla in the country, although if it could be grown easily it would 
be a most interesting plant. It is of a rich crimson maroon, nearly as 
large as the flower of the dwarf Calla, and, unlike most other plants of the 
Arum class, it has a rich fragrance, somewhat similar to the Violet.” 
- The Immigration Office, Sydney, New South Wales, periodically 
issues a sheet containing miscellaneous information relating to the colony, 
and from one just received we extract the following paragraph respecting 
New South Wales Timbers. “Probably no country in the world 
possesses finer or more durable hardwoods than New South Wales. Her 
Pines and Cedars, valuable though some of them may be, yield the palm 
to those of other lands ; but her Ironbark and Blackbutts rank, for 
durability and strength, second to none on the globe. Singularly enough, 
all the principal hardwoods used in the colony are mvrtaceous trees—that 
is, members of the great Myrtle family, which, according to Professor 
Balfour, is divided into five tribes, containing seventy-five known genera 
and upwards of 1800 species. Members of this great family are natives 
chiefly of warm countries, as South America and the East Indies, although 
many are found in more temperate regions. Some of the genera, such as 
the Eucalypts, are peculiar to Australia, although they have been success¬ 
fully transplanted in Europe and the East, and in the Campagna at Rome, 
on the borders of Portugal—where they have been planted by the vignerons 
for the making of casks ; and even on many of the hill stations of the 
Punjaub and Madras the wandering Australian may recognise the tall 
rough stem, leek-green leaves, and strong perfume of the sylvan denizens 
of the sunny south. Eucalypts, which constitute at least three-fourths 
of New South Wales timber-producing trees, furnish us with the bulk of 
colonial hardwoods. Ironbark, Black Butt, Blue-gum, Stringy-bark, 
Swamp Mahogany, Tallow-wood, and Yarrah all belong to the same 
remarkable genus, although they differ from one another in many ways, 
and in none more so than in their rate of growth, the Blue-gums and 
Blackbutts being very rapid growers, while the Ironbark and Box 
take a very much longer time to mature. The remainder of hardwoods 
are principally Angophoras, or “ Apple trees,” most of which are subject 
