48 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 20,1887. 
Begonia Hoegeana. ( Gfl . 1886. p. 398) G. Something in the way of 
B. nitida; very glabrous, with a climbing stem, and broadly ovate 1., 
rounded at the base, and sca cely oblique. The white fl. are in axillary lax 
cymes, and only half as large as those of B. nitida. Mexico. 
Begonia Maktiana, var. racemifi.oka. (R. H. 1886, p. 202.) G. A 
useful decorative variety, of bushy habit, with red stems, and darker fl. than 
in B. Martiana. Garden variety. 
Begonia sehperflorens, var. Sturzii. (Gfl., t. 1220.) G. A fine florl- 
ferous variety, with cymose panicles of rose-pink fl., and having the 1. 
spotted with whitish. 
Billbergia andegavensis. ( R . H. 1886, p. 309.) Bromeliace®. S. 
A hybrid between B.thyrsoidea and B. Moreliana, with broad, obtuse, pale- 
green 1., and a mealy-white arching fl.-slem, with bright red bracts. The 
fl. have a spreading limb, with the tube and centre dark red, broadly 
bordered with violaceous-indigo. Garden hybrid. 
Billberia Cappei. (B. H. 1385, p. 192.) 8. A fine Bromeliad, 
remarkable for its numerous 1., which are banded with white, and its 
panioles of blue fl. subtended by large bracts of a delicate rosy colour. 
Garden hybrid. 
Billbergia Enderi. (Gfl., t. 1217.) S. L. 12 to 16 in. long, lj to 2 in. 
broad, ascending. Fl.-stem larger than the 1., the sheaths and bracts bright 
coral-rel. Spike short, few flowered, bracts bright coral-red, fl. f in. long, 
blue. Brazil. 
Billbergia Glazioviana. (Gfl., t. 1203.) S. Bromeliad, with a few 
broad ascending 1., very concave on the face, and clasping each other at 
the basal part, spiny on the margins, blackish-green, marked with silvery 
zones beneath. Fl.-stem shorter than the 1., with a short dense ovate- 
oblong spike of-red fl., with white floccose bracts and calyces. Brazil. 
BillbergmAVindi. (B. H. 1885, p. 250.) A hybiid between B. nutans 
and B. Baraquiniana, no description given. Garden hybrid. 
Billbergia Worleana. (B. H. 1885, p. 249) A graceful and orna¬ 
mental hybrid between B. nutans and B. Moreliana, having the outer 1. 
narrow, as in B. nutans, and the inner ones broader, as in B. Moreliana. 
The long, slender, arching fl.-stem is adorned with numerous rosy bracts, 
and bears about a dozen dark blue fl., the calyx being rosy and blue. 
Garden hybrid. 
Biota pvramidalis, var. comp acta. (R. H. 1886, p. 34.) Conifer®. 
H. A variety of compaot narrow conical growth. Garden variety. 
Bismarckia nobilis. (Gfl., t. 1221.) Palm®. S. An ornamental 
Palm, somewhat the aspect of a Pritchardia, the large 1. being digitately 
divided into 8 to 10 long linear segments, and several drooping thread-like 
ones. Madagascar. 
Boronia heterophylla, var. brevipes. (B. M., t. 6845.) Rutace®. 
A pretty G., shr. with variable opposite 1., sometimes simple and linear, 
sometimes pinnate, with 1 to 2 pairs of linear acute leaflets. Fl. 2 to 4 in a 
whorl, drooping, globose, bright red, J in. in diam., on pedicels about J in. 
long (in the typical form they are much longer). S.W. Australia. 
Brassia elegantula. (G. C. xxiv, p. 616.) An elegant small-flowered 
species, with glaucous bulbs and leaves. Raceme 2 to 5-flowered ; sep. 
spreading green, with brown bars. Lip oblong, apiculate, with two keels, 
hairy inside, white, with purple-brown dots in front of the calli. Mexico. 
Broprea grandiflora, var. Warei. (Gfl. 1886, p. 116.) Liliaoe®. 
H.H. bulb. A beautiful variety, with lilac-rose fl. 3 in. long, and a fl.-stem 
2 to ft. high. California. 
Bulbophylltjm saurocephalum. (G. C. xxvi., p. 262.) Orchidese. 
A curious and interesting species, with 4 to 5 angled, one-leaved bulbs, 
and a thick, clavate, bright red rachis, loaded with odd-looking fl. Sep. 
light ochreous, with brown nerves. Ptt. small, white, with reddish mid¬ 
line and borders. Lip ochreous, with a deep purple base. Philippine 
Islands. 
{To be continued.) 
GEOS COLMAN GRAPE. 
I AM Borry my remarks upon this Grape in the Journal of Jan. 6th 
(page 18) were not plain enough to enable Mr. Goodacre to understand 
them. With your leave I will endeavour to put the matter plainer this 
time. You reported the bunch as having sixty-eight berries and weighing 
7 lbs. I doubted the accuracy of this report, and asked if a mistake had 
not occurred, either in weighing, or a printer’s error, which might easily 
happen. I beg to ask Mr. Goodacre if he will kindly state if such was 
the correct weight of the bunch, and if he means a pound of 16 ozs. 
I have spoken to many gardeners well versed in the weight of Grapes 
of this wonderful bunch, and all are of opinion that some mistake has 
occurred about its weight, thinking it almost impossible for sixty-eight 
berries of the size indicated to weigh 7 lbs. I think the same from my 
own experience, for though I did not weigh the berries, I saw as large as 
the Elvaston fruit, still I can humbly claim a little knowledge of the 
weight of Grapes, as I have passed about 2000 bunches through my 
hands in one day. 
The few lines of your correspondent, Mr. Stephen Castle, on this 
subject are rather interesting. The berry he measured, fully 4 inches 
round, weighed only half an ounce. Granting Mr. Goodacre’s Gros 
Colman an inch more in circumference, which would make fully 5 inches, 
and give them double the weight of Mr. Castle's, we find his sixty-eight 
berries would only weigh 4^ lbs., whereas, according to report, they 
weighed 7 lbs.—D. B. ' 
Like your correspondent, “ D. B.,” I admired the samples of the 
above Grape as shown by Mr. Goodacre in November last, as well as his 
other varieties, but cannot yet understand a bunch containing sixty-eight 
berries weighing J lbs. I have just weighed a small bunch containing 
about fifty berries. It scarcely weighed 2 lbs., and yet there is not such 
a wonderful difference in the size of those grown by myself and those 
exhibited by Mr. Goodacre at York in November last, for I happen to be 
tbe exhibitor referred to by Mr. Goodacre’s foreman, and he says that 
ours approach nearest the Elvaston harries than any others he has seen ; 
so here I must leave the matter for readers to judge for themselves. 
What a pity that this grand-looking Grape is not of first-class flavour l 
We should then soon see housefuls of it grown a'most everywhere. I 
have it grafted on Lady Downe’s, on which stock it does very well, but the 
character of the bunch is quite altered, and I think spoiled, being 
shorter and thicker, and not so handsome as when grown upon Its own 
roots.—W m. Jenkins, Aldin Grange, Durham. 
LONDON’S LESSER OPEN SPACES—THE[R TREES. 
AND PLANTS. 
NEW SERIES. —No. 1. 
It is noteworthy that we may thank the lawyers for having kept 
intact till now some large open spaces in or near the heart of London 
city ; but to a great extent these have been, and yet are unfortunately, 
reserved for the enjoyment of a few individuals. Granted that the- 
public ha9 usually the privilege of contemplating their trees and shrubs 
from the exterior of the ground, and this glimpse of greenery has, it 
may be, refreshed many a weary heait; but I trust some day soon the 
Public Gardens Association will be able to throw open these precincts to 
all persons who can behave decorously. Before the passing of a recent 
Act there was danger that most of them might be seized upon by builders 
sooner or later. Strangers to the metrop lis who pass along the busy 
thoroughfare of Holborn could have no idea that within a bowshot there 
is a place so suggestive of quietude, almost of rurality, as is Lincoln’s 
Inn Fields, though what once was fields is converted into an enclosed 
garden. A London space equalled by no other, exceeding even the 
famed Temple Gardens, for its extent is twelve acres, there is a tale that 
Inigo Jones planned it, making it just the s.zs of one of the pyramids 
of Egypt; but in fact he only built some houses on the west side, others 
being gradually added. The central square was fields till 1735, a resort of 
vagrants and horse-breakers. Trees were planted about that date, bat T 
doubt if there are any now left; yet it has an abundance of timber, per¬ 
haps overcrowded in some parts. Towards Holborn, north ef this space 
was an ancient avenue of trees, referred to by Stuart writers, probably 
Elms. A small number of these are to be seen in Lincoln’s Inn Fields,, 
with a larger number of Limes and Planes and some Horse Chestnuts. 
There are some fine specimens of the Asb, a tree that does well in London. 
Of tbe Hawthorn there are a few fairly grown trees of the common 
species, one with a rather singular trunk, and some Birches, a tree too 
sddom planted about our gardens. Amongst the familiar shrubs the 
Elder, so much a favourite fifty years ago, is conspicuous, and showing 
leaves developed late in autumn. On the whole, this ground is rather 
deficient in evergreens, the oldest being some Hollies much besmoked. 
It would be an improvement to a square like this were a central mound, 
or terrace formed. 
A short distance to the east is the open space of Lincoln’s Inn proper. 
This garden, much curtailed by the erection of the grand Hall and Library 
in 1843, had its shady avenues of trees two centuries ago or more, where 
the benchers and their friends sat or strolled. The centre is grass, and 
the beds are arranged in a trim old-fashioned style, having a sprinkling of 
shrubs, and with herbaceous species that will stand a London winter, 
amongst which are placed during the summer some of the usual bedding 
out plants, but annuals seldom succeed, as is the case in similar gardens. 
Here are some young Poplars ; this is a tree that does well about London 
where the subsoil is suitable and the Goat caterpillar leaves it alone- 
Beyonl this space is another to the north, being the garden of New Inn y 
here are some Elms and Planes, forming a sort of avenue, and along one 
side a shrubbery screened by a high wall, where lopping would be advan¬ 
tageous. We are looking, it may be remembered, upon what was once a 
rare place for fruit, these two spaces, with other land adjacent, being the 
garden of Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, in the reign of Edward I. and after. He 
succeeded so well that he was able to sell his fruit to the citizens, the 
quantity produced exceeding his own requirements most years. Apples, 
Pears, Filberts, and Cherries are specified, and he also raised vegetables, 
some of which are named ; for instance, Beans, Onions, and Garlic, for 
our strong-stomached ancestors favoured the latter veg> table, and the old 
journal states that he grew Roses, perhaps other flowers. 
Time was when from the gardens of Gray’s Inn there was obtainable 
an extensive view of the uplands at Hampstead and Highgate. There 
seems to have been in the olden time a larger space than now with lees 
restriction, since the walks of Gray’s Inn are repeatedly mentioned as a 
common meeting place and promenade by old writers. “The plea¬ 
santest place about London,’’ says a writer of 1621, and the great Lord 
Bacon is stated to have planted trees here, from which the present trees* 
are, it may be, descendants. There are some good-sized Limes, Elms, and 
Planes. In the topmost branches of several of these yet remain the nests 
of a colony of rooks that for many years had their abode in Gray’s Inn. 
The modern walks are skirted by grassy slope*’, which might be diversi¬ 
fied with advantage by occasional flower beds. In the circular enclosure 
of Furnival’s Inn, close at hand, though the space is but small, it is made 
pleasing by beds of varying shapes and sizes which surround a central 
bed, these being filled with the usual flowers of summer during the season- 
After their removal in autumn, the gap is prevented by the introduction of 
evergreens of a particular size, which are taken up when the spring 
allows of a brighter display. This would not be a bad plan for adoption 
in other London spaces, the evergreens put in averaging about a foot in 
height, and from four to six kinds being placed in each bed according to 
size, the arrangement is matter of taste. 
