January :3, ]890. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
67 
subjects has been derived from the gardens and communicated to our 
pages by Mr. J. Muir. When visiting Margam we were pleased to 
hear so much that was good about Mr. and Miss Talbot. Just and 
generous to tenants, and considerate and kind to servants, they were 
beloved by all. Miss Talbot, we believe, is the inheritor of the 
immense wealth of her father, and her pleasure in gardening being 
great, there is reason to hope that Mr. Muir will not be restricted in 
his work through the great change referred to. 
- A TELEGRAjr to a London daily paper announces the death 
of Mr. Peter Henderson, the well-known florist and seedsman of 
New York, which took place on January 18th of influenza. “• He was 
born at Pathhead, near Edinburgh, in 1823, and came to America at 
the age of nineteen, and built up the immense business which has made 
him famous throughout the country.” 
Royal Horticultural Society. —The following gentlemen 
are recommended for retirement from the Council for the ensuing 
year:—Messrs. J. E. Bourne, W. Coleman, and A. H. Smee ; and the 
names of Fellows recommended to fill ihe vacancies are Messrs. E. A. 
Hambro, N. N. Sherwood, and Martin E. Smith. The officers recom¬ 
mended by the Council are Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., President; D. 
Morris, M.A., F.L.S., Treasurer; Rev. W. Wilks,-M.A., Secretary ; and 
Messrs. George Deal, W. Richards, and Harry Turner, Auditors. The 
annual meeting will be held on February 11th. 
- Ware amd District Horticultural Improvement 
Society. — A successful meeting of this Society was held on the 
13th inst., the Rev. A. E. W. Lofts in the chair. Some excellent 
Primulas, Roman Hyacinths, Ferns, Primula obconica, and Grapes 
were staged, which added to the interest of the meeting. A paper 
on Adiantums was read by Mr. H. A. Smith, illustrated by living and 
dried specimens. A slight discussion followed, and the meeting ended 
with the usual votes of thanks. 
- The opening meeting of the spring session of the Reading 
AND District Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Association 
was held at the usual place on Monday evening last, when a large 
number of members assembled to hear a paper on ” Salads all the Year 
Round,” by Mr. Chas. Ilott, the able gardener from Wokefield Park.' 
Mr. T. Turton occupied the chair. The subject was treated throughout 
with considerable ability, and the discussion that followed proved how 
highly it was appreciated by the members. The Association is rapidly 
increasing in numbers, and there is every prospect of a successful 
session. 
- The Stott Insecticide Distributor.—W e are informed 
that the inventions of Mr. S. H. Stott, insecticide and liquid manure 
distributors, have been taken over by a Company. This undertaking 
was registered last Friday with a subscribed capital of £10,000. The 
directors are Mr. Frank Hollins, J.P., Mr. S. 11. Stott, and Mr. Clapham 
At the monthly meeting of the Preston and Fulwood Horticultural 
Society, held on Saturday evening, a very warm tribute was passed 
to the inventor anent his machines, Mr. Stott having since received 
the following, signed by the Secretary of the Society, Mr. John Ather¬ 
ton :—“ I am pleased to inform you that at a crowded meeting of 
the members of our Society held on Saturday evening, it was pro¬ 
posed by the Vice-President, and carried unanimously, that a first- 
class certificate be awarded you for your insecticide and liquid manure 
distributors, and which I am instructed to forward to you in due 
course.” The Stott insecticide distributor will probably be tried at 
Chiswick during the ensuing season. 
- Mushroom Bed Refuse. —The remarks of “ Mushroom,” 
page 5.5C, last vol., induce me to give my method of dealing with this 
material, not that I think it will be of benefit to your correspondent, 
but it may be to others who, like myself, have the charge of poultry 
and other live stock. I find nothing better for laying on the floor of 
the poultry house than dry mushroom bed refuse. Like dry earth, it 
possesses considerable deodorising power, and if a layer is thrown over 
the floor twice or thrice weekly it may be allowed to accumulate 
for some time. When taken out it will be a more valuable manure 
than when it was put in. It should be used in the garden at once, or 
mixed with the manure heap, for if put into a heap by itself a brisk 
fermentation soon set in, and much of the ammonia it contains is given 
off.—T. S., Ilenlury Ilill. 
- The following is the m.anner in which a London daily paper 
refers to the recent meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society : 
—“ Fogs have affected English flowers as well as English people, judging 
from the Show of the Horticultural Society at the Drill Hall, West¬ 
minster. Though there was a fine display of Ferns and ‘ Nepenthes 
Hybrids,’ and even a fair show of Auriculas and Cypripedia, the early 
spring blossoms—Crocuses and Daffodils—looked as pinched and wizened 
as if they had been suffering from influenza, that to have pulled through 
at all is greatly to their credit. A rich violet Primula, ‘ El Spirito 
Sancto ’; a ‘ Celia Althiopica,’ or Ethiopian Lily, of snowy whiteness ; 
and a ‘Laslia Anceps’—white with brown heart, imported by the Liver¬ 
pool Horticultural Company—were among the novelties.” [ The greatest 
novelty, we think, in connection with the meeting, was our contem¬ 
porary’s report.] 
- Fruit Growing in Australia.—T he latest report on the 
progress of Mildura gave the population as numbering 1200 persons. 
The necessary works for the efficient irrigation of 23,000 acres of land 
were nearly completed, and special steam machinery for ploughing and 
grubbing had already been obtained. In order to afford some idea of 
the work done on the settlement the following figures were published : 
—-2000 acres cleared, 2200 acres ploughed, 2000 acres under fruit. Vine, 
and fodder crops ; 24 miles of main channels completed, 30 miles of 
subsidiary ditches, 20 miles surveyed and in hand, 186 miles of fencing, 
and 4 miles of main pipes laid. Steps were being taken in order that 
Mildura might become a municipality, and nursery stock had also been 
successfully introduced, some of the settlers procuring supplies on their 
own account. Messrs, Chaffey Bros, had imported for contract planting 
more than 100,000 Vines, 20,000 Orange and Lemon trees, and 30,000 
Olive truncheons. 
--- The “ tercentenary of the invention of the compound micro¬ 
scope ” will be ce’ebrated by a Universal Exhibition of Botany 
AND Microscopy, to be held at Antwerp during the present j'ear, under 
the auspicra of M. Ch. de. Bosschere, President, M. Ch. Van Geert> 
Secretary, and Dr. H. Van Heurck, Vice-President. It is proposed to 
organise an historical exhibition of microscopes, and an exhibition of 
the instruments of all makers, and of accessory apparatus and photo¬ 
micrography. At the conferences the following subjects will be discussed 
and illustrated :—The history of the microscope ; the use of the micro¬ 
scope ; the projecting microscope and photomicrography ; the micro¬ 
scopical structure of plants ; the microscopical structure of man and of 
animals ; microbes ; the adulteration of food substances, kc. Com¬ 
munications are to be addressed to M. Ch. de Bosschere, Lierre, 
Belgium.— [Nature.') 
- Watering Plants. —In many places this important work is 
left to young men, who do not take sufficient interest in their work. 
The consequence is that many plants are overwatered, which ultimately 
causes death. I know a head gardener who has a man under him (and 
whom he is obliged to keep, as he is considered a trustworthy man by his 
employer), who is a very careless waterer, so that one class ot plants has 
to be given up entirely and cannot be grown, and he knows the fault lies 
with the waterer, but he dare not say so. Every plant under his charge 
has a good watering on Saturday,!so that it shall not want it on Sunday. 
He is a good man to work, but should not have charge of delicate or 
costly plants. Many plants suffer by want of water, but far more 
are killed from excessive waterings, especially so during the winter, 
when root action is almost at a standstill. —Hector. 
-- Tuberous Begonias as Bedding Plants in Perthshire. 
—About the middle of last August, while on a visit to Glassengall, the 
seat of Mrs. Wallace, near Dunblane, Perthshire, I had the pleasure of 
seeing two most brilliant flower beds. They were filled with two-year- 
old seedling Tuberous Begonias of the large-flowered varieties, and all 
shades of colour. The seed was saved from plants in pots in the con¬ 
servatory. The plants in the beds were dwarf and robust, the flower 
stems strong and standing well above the foliage, showing the flowers- to 
perfection, and arresting attention whenever they were seen. The other 
beds and borders in the flower garden were filled with the usual plants, 
but they failed to attract notice when the Begonias were in sight. I 
have before seen beds of Begonias of the small-flowered varieties, bat 
owing to their drooping habit and small flowers they never made the 
same brilliant display as those at Glassengall. Seeing that they do so 
well as far north as Perthshire, and 300 feet above sea level, it is en¬ 
couraging for those who are in a more favoured situation to give them a 
trial. I am so convinced of their superiority over the Pelargonium as a 
bedding plant, at least in cold and wet districts, that I purpose procur¬ 
ing a stock, and should they succeed half as well as those I saw at 
Glassengall the Pelargonium will be partially superseded. Mr. Mc.4ra,_ 
the gardener—who is to be congratulated on his success with the Begonia 
