iray Ji, 18#). ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
419 
counties ia Great Britain and Ireland in reference to fruit culture, with 
descriptions of orchards and fruit farms, also of market gardens and 
private gardens where fruit culture is a special feature. The details 
will comprise extent of land occupied, situation, soil and subsoil, age 
and character of trees, varieties, stocks, and methods of culture. 
Sections will also be devoted to markets, dealing with supplies, 
salesmen’s charges, packing, and cost of carriage ; to expenses, returns, 
and profits, and to the prospects of fruit culture, pointing out the land 
and districts best suited for fruit culture, the best systems, and the 
varieties recommended. 
Arrangements are being made to collect the information required 
through the Committee, the local secretaries, and the members of the 
Association, but assistance of any kind will be gladly welcomed. 
It was announced that Mr. Joseph Cheal of Crawley was about to 
undertake a long tour in the fruit districts of the United States and 
•Canada, and he was therefore appointed delegate from the Association, 
with the object of collecting as much information as possible bearing 
upon the fruit question, and he expects to be home in time to give the 
results of his experience at the September meeting in the Crystal 
Palace. Messrs. Castle and Gordon proposed to devote a holiday in 
Ireland this year to an investigation of the condition and prospects of 
fruit culture there, and were also appointed delegates from the 
Association. 
The programmes for the Conference were discussed at some length, 
and Mr. J. Burn of Leicester, who was present, stated that the meeting 
■to be held there in August had already excited much attention in the 
local papers. Arrangements are being made for a series of lectures in 
good districts during the autumn. 
Some discussion arose concerning the use of Paris green and London 
purple as insecticides, and the general opinion was that they were 
•dangerous compounds, needing much care in their application. The 
■Chairman gave, as the result of an analysis of samples of the two 
•substances that Paris green was an arsenite of copper CuHAsOs or 
cupric arsenite, also known as Scheele’s green. The basis of London 
•purple is carbonate of lime, coloured with an arsenical aniline com¬ 
pound. It was stated that the old application for caterpillars, quassia, 
was still found more directly effective, used at the rate of 2 to 4 ozs. to 
the gallon of water, with similar quantities of softsoap. A hearty vote 
cf thanks to the Chairman concluded the business. 
CLASSIFICATION OF PICOTEES. 
Mr. Joe Edwards, Blackley, Manchester, writing to Mr. Dodwell 
cn the classification of the Picotee, says, “ I should like your opinion 
upon that part of Rule 7 of the northern section of the National Carna- 
•tion Society’s scheilule, underlined in accompanying copy—viz., ‘ each 
Picotee shall have one colour only on the edge. Blooms having two or 
more colours on the edge are disqualified.’ Are there any Ijizarred 
Picotees ? and are they so undesirable as here implied ? The rule, 
■carried only by a very narrow majority, was raised because of the show¬ 
ing by Mr. Sydenham of Matthews’ Nove’ty—a variety having pink and 
lilac for its margin—which, there being no class for this combination, 
was declared by a majority of the Judges to be outside competition, 
though the terms of the schedule simply said, ‘ twelve Picotees, all 
dissimilar.’ Tour answer in the gardening papers would be useful.” 
The rule is unwarrancable, and a grave offence. It proscribes or 
■limits a point of chiefest excellence in florists’ flowers—variety. “ From 
whatever source, however arisingAit is essential that the florists’ flower, 
which would claim a high position, should not be deficient in this ” 
.^variety)—Rev. George Jeans. 
I am surprised, indeed, to note the adoption of such a rule in these 
days. It is a survival of the barbarous ignorance which fifty years ago 
rejected the rose and salmon hues of the margins of Picotees, and 
declaring Sarah Payne to be “ rubbish,” withstood the recognition of 
the pink and purple in bizarres. With precisely the same propriety it 
•might be ruled bizarres should not be accepted in the longitudinal 
markings, and I am astonished such a rule should have been issued by 
such an Association. I very unwillingly thus assume the censorship of 
my brother florists, but to my sense the rule is nothing less than a 
scandal, and I cannot hesitate as a florist, and for the maintenance of 
floral law, to say no power on earth should induce me to be a party to 
it. I am a unit amongst florists only, as all are, and I hold there is 
nothing more intolerable than the affectation of personal pretension, so 
I ask nothing to be conceded to my opinion ; but as I have known no 
-grosser violation of cardinal law during my long floricultural experi- 
•«nce I cannot hesitate to declare not a day should be lost in obtaining 
its rejection. Whilst the role stands violence is done to a cardinal law 
of floral excellence. Reject it, as from its inception it should have been 
rejected, and no wrong work will have been done to the few whose 
tastes, well or ill educated as may be thought, lead them to reject two 
■oolours for curvilinear markings. Individual preferences in such 
circumstances may lawfully be indulged, but no florist has the right to 
make his preferences the rule of his brother’s life.—E. S. Dodwell, 
The Cottage, Stanley Itoad, Oxford. 
MICROCACRYS TETRAGONA. 
Tasmania is not rich in Conifers, though examples of several genera 
unknown or rare in the northern hemisphere occur in the island, such 
as Arthrotaxis, Fitzroya, Dacrydium, Podocarpus, and Microcacrys ; 
but few of these are confined to that country, some being common 
both to New Zealand and Australia. Dacrydium Franklini, the Iluon 
Pine, is a well-known inhabitant of Tasmania, but the plant of which 
a spray is shown in the woodcut (fig. 61) is rare in its native countrj', 
and also rare in cultivation in England. It is, however, one of the 
most remarkable of the Conifers found at the Antipodes, and indeed in 
the whole family. The great peculiarity of the plant is that the female 
cones are of a semi-transparent texture, fleshy, and most brilliantly 
coloured, being of a rich red hue, that in sunlight is very striking. 
These cones, though small, are borne in considerable numbers on short 
branchlets, and, the main branches being of a decumbent or drooping 
FIG. 61.— MICROCACRYS TETRAGONA. 
habit, the plant has a graceful and really beautiful effect grown in a 
pot with the main stem secured to a stake. It is found growing on the 
western mountains of Tasmania, where it forms a low straggling bush, 
the branches being four-angled, as the specific name indicates, the 
leaves small and closely pressed to the stem. It was introduced to 
Kew about 1862 by W. Archer, Esq., of Cheshunt, and several pliints 
in the temperate house there succeed very well, and produce their 
attractive cones very freely. 
Several Conifers produce coloured fruits, but in most cases it is a 
disk, aril, or some appendage that is so coloured, and not a true cone, as 
with the Microcacrys. For instance, the fleshy aril of the common 
Yew is well known, and in the genus Podocarpus several similar 
examples occur, one of the most noteworthy being P. neriifolia, the 
Oleander-leaved Pcdocarp. The fruit of this species has a large fleshy 
globular or ovoid bright red disk about half an inch long, upon the top 
