February 27, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
175 
- Trade Announcement. —Mr. H. J. Jones, until recently in 
partnership with Mr. N. Davis at Camberwell, has now commenced 
business on his own account at the Ryecroft Nursery, Hither Green, 
Lewisham. 
- Messrs. B. S. Williams & Son send us examples of their 
Meteor strain of Primulas, red, white, and blue. The flowers are of 
good form and substance, the darker colours rich and bright, and the 
white pure, without any suffusion. 
- Gardening Appointment. — We are desired to say that 
Mr. H. Dunkin, whose appointment was announced recently, decided 
not to remain at Porter’s Park, and that he has been succeeded by 
Mr. W. W. Edwards, formerly gardener to A. H. Lancaster, Esq., 
Honeylands, Waltham Abbey, Essex. 
- Early Lettuces.—A French correspondent who has been 
interested in Mr. Bardney’s article on Cos Lettuces (page 112) states 
that a new “ Early self-folding Trianon, a little shorter than Paris 
White, but large, firm, some days earlier, and slow to run to seed, is 
being sent out this year by Messrs. Vilmorin.” The variety will probably 
be obtained by English seedsmen and find a place in our gardens. 
- Mr. Arthur H. Kettlewell sends us a manual on the art 
of Landscape Gardening. It comprises three short essays, the first 
dealing briefly with the general principles of the art, the second on the 
different kinds of gardens, and the third on practical work. It is a very 
short epitome of a great subject, and contains suggestive hints on 
garden arrangements and planting. Mr. R. W. Satchell, Kington, is the 
publisher. 
- Fragrant Ferns. —R. I. L. writes :—“ Whatever the merit 
of Drynaria Willdenovi may be in point of perfume, there is nothing 
perhaps among Ferns that can equal the delightful odour of Nephrodium 
fragrans. It is not often, but it is sometimes met with in hardy and 
greenhouse collections. The perfume is to me much like that of Violets. 
It is quite a small plant with fronds, in cultivation, of only a few inches 
in length. It is native from the Caucasus to Kamschatka, and from 
Arctic America down to Wisconsin.” 
- The Report of the Royal Southampton Horticultural 
Society for 1889 shows a favourable balance on the year's working, but the 
summer Show appears to have cost the Society £498, and to have produced 
£421, not a very satisfactory result. The annual subscriptions are £332. 
The deficit in receipts is attributed to the bad weather which prevailed 
on the Show days. The annual general meeting of the members will be 
held in the small hall, at the Philharmonic Rooms, on Thursday, Feb¬ 
ruary 27th, at 7.30 p.m., to transact the following business: — To 
receive the annual report and statement of accounts ; to elect the 
officers for the current year, also five members to serve on the Council 
(not less than two of whom must be gardeners). 
-The Weather and Spring Flowers in the Isle of Wight. 
—Mr. C. Orchard, writing from Bembridge, says :—“ We are having some 
cold easterly winds that are keeping the early vegetation back. The 
spring flowers were very early out of doors. Snowdrops and Crocuses 
are nearly over. The single and Campernelle Jonquil have been in 
bloom for some weeks, and to-day I have seen clumps of Anemone 
coronaria and the Polyanthus Narcissus in full bloom, also Myosotis 
disitiflora and other spring flowers equally as forward. The Veronicas, 
in different varieties, bloom here all the winter, also Coronaria glauca, 
and at The Castle, St. Helen’s, to-day I saw a fine plant of Genista 
(Cytisus) well out in bloom on all the points. They stand out here all 
the winter and bloom profusely in the spring.” 
- I BEG to ask my brother gardeners through your valuable 
paper if they have had any practical experience in the successful 
eradication of Yarrow from lawns ; if so, may I trouble them to 
enlighten me? I have a large patch of Yarrow in one of my lawns, 
which keeps spreading year by year. I have so far been unable to 
check it. Two years ago the lawn being rather poor I gave it a good 
dressing of bone dust ; later on a good dressing of guano. I also 
watered it on several occasions with diluted liquid manure, and last year 
I gave it two dressings of Watson’s lawn sand, which for the time 
appeared to kill it outright; but it sprang up again, and is now more 
vigorous than ever. I cannot see any other plan but lifting the turf 
and replacing fresh. If any gardeners have been successful in the 
eradication of Yarrow I shall be very pleased if they would give me and 
many others the mode of procedure through our valuable medium, the 
Journal of IIorticuHiire. They will greatly oblige one at any rate who 
would appreciate their kindness.— Geo. Corbett. 
- The Wildsmith Memorial Fund. —We learn that in con¬ 
nection with the Reading and District Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement 
Association the following Committee has been appointed to carry out 
the suggested memorial :—President, W. J. Palmer, Esq., J.P. Com¬ 
mittee—Chairman, W. J. Palmer, Esq., J.P. : Messrs. W. Baskett, 
J. Coombes, T. E. Henwood, C. Holt, W. Lees, J. Martin, J. Pound, and 
G. Stanton. Hon. Treasurers, Arthur W. Sutton, Esq., and Harry J. 
Veitch, Esq. Hon. Sec., Mr. T. Turton, The Gardens. Maiden Erleigh, 
Reading. It is promoted in memory of the late Mr. Wildsmith by some 
of his attached friends for the purpose of placing on the Gardeners’ 
Orphan Fund a child to be known as the Wildsmith Memorial Orphan. 
It is earnestly hoped that there will be a very ready response to this 
appeal by all the gardening friends and admirers of Mr. Wildsmith 
throughout the United Kingdom. The Committee venture to suggest 
that Mr. Wildsmith having promised his friend Mrs. Hyde that he would 
do his utmost to place a second child of hers on the Fund (one having 
been already elected through his instrumentality), they cannot do other¬ 
wise than endeavour to carry out their late friend’s wishes, and they 
sincerely trust that a promise made under such peculiarly touching 
circumstances will commend itself as the most fitting memorial to him 
that can be raised. At least £130 will be required to enable the Com¬ 
mittee to attain the object they have in view. 
- The first part of the Memoirs and Proceedings of the Man¬ 
chester Literary and Philosophical Society for the current session has 
been issued. It contains a paper by Mr. Charles Bailey on the discovery 
near Ribblehead of Arenaria gothica, a plant new to Britain, the 
typical form of which has so far been recorded only for two Swedish 
localities. The Ribblehead specimens are stated to be more robust than 
those from Sweden. The issue also includes a paper by Mr. Charles H. 
Lees on the law of cooling and its bearing on the theory of heat in 
bars ; and the first part of Mr. Faraday’s “ Selections from the (un¬ 
published) Correspondence of Colonel John Leigh Philips, of Mayfield, 
Manchester” (1761-1814). The latter includes letters from Dr. Henry 
Clarke (the mathematician), James Sowerby, and a number of other 
persons of local eminence during the latter half of the last century. 
— (Nature.') 
-Early Snowdrops.—O bserving the remarks by “W. E., Ruther- 
glen,” anent Snowdrops, I may say that the plants to which I alluded 
are all seedlings and distinct from their parents. The one in full bloom 
on the 8th January being the earliest of any Snowdrop, and others a 
few days later the largest and prettiest I have seen. Snowdrops have 
not had the attention paid them they deserve to ensure their improve* 
ment. I believe that by careful crossing a great advance in that 
welcome harbinger of spring will be effected. In a direct line at a mile 
distant two ways, north and south from me. Snowdrops were in full 
bloom at the end of December, and double Primroses have been fresh 
throughout the whole winter in my own garden. Change the position 
of these Snowdrops, and the earliness of mine, flowered on January 8th, 
will be apparent. A little sometimes hastens or delays the maturing of 
plants and flowers. There is only a hedge about 6 feet high which 
separates my garden from a plantation of Gooseberries, Currants, and 
Strawberries, and invariably they ripen at least a week earlier than the 
same varieties in my garden do. Extra manuring in my case may help 
to this, but the main cause is, I think, a better exposure to the rising 
sun.—W. T. 
_ Cabbages at the Wakefield Paxton Society.— Con¬ 
sidering the unfavourable weather which prevailed, a goodly number of 
the Paxtonians assembled at their rooms at the Saw Hotel to listen to 
a paper on “ The Cultivation of the Cabbage,” which had been pre¬ 
pared and was read by one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society— 
Mr. J. G. Brown, head gardener to J. B. Charlesworth, Esq., J.P., of 
Hatfield Hall. Mr. H. Oxley, the President, occupied the chair, and 
Mr. B. Whiteley was in the vice chair. Mr. Brown dealt with his sub¬ 
ject in a thoroughly practical manner, indicating the best varieties to 
use, the mode of raising young plants, the preparation of their perma¬ 
nent quarters, the most suitable soil, and the requisite preparation, 
manuring, &c. An interesting discussion ensued on the paper, in which 
the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, Messrs. Pitt, Gill, Garnett, Kingswell, 
Pickersgill, Pye, and others took part. In the course of the discussion 
some remarks were made with reference to the cooking of the Cabbage, 
and it was said by some of the speakers that many persons spoil Cab¬ 
bage in consequence of improper attention to its preparation for the 
