August 16,1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
153 
- Messes. Chakles Sharpe & Co., Limited. — The old- 
established business of Charles Sharpe & Co., Sleaford, seed growers and 
merchants, has been registered as a limited company for its continuity, 
and to give the managers of the different departments an interest in the 
business. The public is not invited to subscribe any capital, the whole 
of the shares having been taken up by those engaged in conducting the 
business. 
- Death op Mr. Georoe Medland.—W e regret to learn of 
the death, on August 3rd, of this well-known veteran horticulturist. Mr. 
Medland was in his eighty-seventh year, and commenced work seventy- 
two years ago in the nurseries of the late Mr. Charles Sclater at Exeter. 
He remained there twenty years, and subsequently held positions in 
Russell’s Nurseries at Sidmouth, Mount Radford Nursery, Addiscott’s 
Nsrseries at St. Thomas, and Messrs. Lucombe, Pince & Co.’s Nvrseries 
at Exeter. 
- Plagtte of Earwigs. —Many parts of East Anglia are visited 
by a plague of earwigs. In Norfolk and Suffolk the insects are said to 
abound in large numbers, and in some towns the extrordiuary swarms 
have resulted in considerable inconvenience to residents. At Ilford two 
roads in particular have been infested with the insects, which have 
invaded houses and swarmed into the beds. At Chelmsford, Halstead, 
Romford, and Saffron Walden the insects are unusually numerous. 
Moths have also been prolific in breeding this year, but wasps, which 
bred to an exceptional extent last year, are comparatively few. 
- American Blackberries, — My experience of them in 
Ireland is that they are an utter failure—that is, so far as fruit is con¬ 
cerned. The foliage of the laciniated variety is handsome and arrests 
attention, so do the huge thorny succulent growths if they get hold of 
one’s garments ; even an Irish tweed is not puncture-proof against their 
barbs. I am trying the Japanese Wineberry, but do not expect our 
climate will give any great results. Should it prove more acid than 
the above-mentioned Blackberry it will, I think, defy even the 
digestive organs of that schoolboy who preferred “ red Blackberries when 
they were green.”—E. K. 
- The Papaw Tree,—T he change of sex described in your 
issue for August 9th (page 129) is quite in keeping with other 
well known phenomena with regard to the production of sexes 
in fiowers, in that it largely depends upon nutrition. The rule 
is that male flowers appear on weaker axes, the female on stronger ones. 
Hence by checking the energy which was expending itself in the 
formation of male flowers it became concentrated, so to say, and 
consequently was able to produce female flowers. As another illustra¬ 
tion, if seeds of dioecious plants— i.e., those which bear sexes on different 
plants (e.g., Mercurialis annua) be sown very thickly and others very 
sparingly in the same soil and conditions, a different proportion of male 
and female plants is pretty sure to result. Other cases will be found in 
my book, “ The Origin of Floral Structures.”— George Henslow. 
- Columbines. —Beautiful as these hardy flowers are, yet it is 
surprising to find them in so few gardens. We have literally thousands 
of gardens in this country in which Columbines of the more beautiful 
species or hybrids are not seen. In some gardens the common single and 
double garden varieties may be found, but all the same, few of these, 
unless very carefully selected, bear any comparison for lightness and 
elegance with the beautiful forms which chrysantha, californica, or 
coerulea present, much less what comes from the intercrossing of these 
species, I have grown some fine selections from the garden forms, but 
whilst I disliked the doubles because they are devoid of elegance, 
have found in white, blue, or other clear hued varieties much that was 
pleasing. I have, so far as relates to purity of seed stocks, found no 
trouble whatever in keeping the various species named true from own 
saved seed, so long as not artificially fertilised. When, however, any of 
the three named have been intercrossed with one or other of the rest, 
then marked changes have taken place. All the same, the general 
colours and characters have been pretty well preserved. The great 
charm of the flowers these species produce is found in their great size, 
their long elegant spurs, and the exceeding freedom with which pro¬ 
duced. These features are specially found when coerulea and chrysantha 
are intercrossed. 'But there is still more, for the plants are always 
much more robust, blooming with exceeding profuseness. Coerulea 
blooms earliest and chrysantha latest, and the hybrids come between. 
Where grown, in all cases some seedlings should be raised every two or 
three years, as old plants get somewhat exhausted in the same soil after 
a few years. Aquilegias, however, seed so freely that seedlings may be 
had with the greatest ease.—A. D. 
-The Cornell University Experimental Gardens.— 
Mr. Michael Barker informs us that he leaves his present position 
next month (August) to take charge of the experiment gardens of 
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Mr. Barker has been Assistant 
Superintendent of the Harvard Botanic Garden during the past six 
years. 
- Fruit in Kent.—A n idea oE the extent of the failure of the 
season’s Strawberry crop may be formulated from the fact that last year 
Messrs. T. Wood & Co., the Kentish Farmhouse Jam Manufacturers, 
picked more than enough of the fruit to meet their requirements from 
their own fields at Swanley and Crockenhill, whilst this season they 
have purchased no less than 4000 pecks of Strawberries from other 
growers. It is reported that Plums show a fair average yield in 
all parts of the country, but in many districts Apples are an entire 
failure. 
- Destructive Storm in Nottinghamshire.— Mr. H. V. 
Machin, writing from Aversham Rectory, Newark, on the 12th inst., 
says :—“ I have just come over here to spend the day, and am informed 
that there was a fearful thunderstorm here yesterday, accompanied by 
a tremendous fall of hail. I am sending some leaves perforated by the 
hailstones for you to look at and judge for yourself : I SO inch of rain (or 
hail) fell in twenty-two minutes. I am told that many hailstones jumped 
out of the wind gauge. We had a heavy thunderstorm at Gateford, 
accompanied by rain, but not hail.” [The specimens received, both of 
bedding plants and forest trees, were cut into ribbons, and holes half an 
inch in diameter were cut through Aucuba leaves by the bail. The 
storm must indeed have been fearful.] 
- A Mountain Garden. —The Botanical Society of Montreux 
has just opened an “ Alpine Garden ” on the summit of the Rochers de 
Naye, the two communes of Veytaux and Villeneuve having 
unanimously voted a free grant of the necessary space of land. The 
art of the gardener is all but superfluous, as Nature has here provided a 
luxurious piece of soil, with a wall of her own building, which 
protects the garden from the north and west winds. The planting 
began in the end of May and beginning of June, immediately after the 
melting of the snow. The new Alpine garden is named after the late 
Professor Favrat of Lausanne, who had long set his mind upon such a 
project. It differs from the other gardens in which experiments are 
being made in Alpine vegetation, in the fact that it lies on the top of a 
mountain, and will thus aid in the solution of many problems which 
could not be tested elsewhere. 
-Pine Apple Growing in Florida.—H arvesting the Pine 
Apple crop, says a Western contemporary, is in progress on the lower 
east coast of Florida. The plantations extend along the Indian River 
from Titusville southward to Jupiter, along the shores of Lake Worth, 
through the fertile lands bordering on Bay Biscayne and the waters 
tributary to it, and out upon the Key as far as Key West. With the 
exception of a comparatively small acreage in Polk, De Soto, Manatie, 
and Lee counties, on the other side of the Peninsula, those east coast 
plantations constitute the Pine Apple area of Florida^ As yet the 
Biscayne Bay growers and those on the Keys have no transportation for 
their “ Pines,” except by boats and small schooners, but the new railroad 
has penetrated as far south as West Palm beach, on Lake Worth, 
and this saves all the way from thirty - six to fifty hours in 
transporting t’ne fruit to market. As a general thing the 
railroad runs close to the plantations, in many instances cutting 
them in two, and in cases where the crop is large, side tracks have 
been built for the convenience of the shippers. The Pine Apple crop 
of the Florida east coast, not including the Keys, is estimated this year 
from 40,000 to 55,000 crates. These crates are in size about that of the 
regulation Orange box, but in weight they will average when filled with 
“ Pines ” over twice as much. The freight agents figure on about 
160 lbs. to the crate, or 150 crates to the car. But sometimes nearly 200 
crates are stowed away in a car if cars are scarce. The average number 
of Pine Apples to the crate is sixty-four, but the fruit varies in size, some 
varieties growing very large and heavy. A conservative estimate of this 
year’s crop is about 60,000 crates, or fully 3,200,000 Pine Apples. Last 
year’s crop was about 35,000 crates, and the largely increased acreage 
coming into bearing this season led to estimates of the crop early in the 
season as high as 70,000 crates, or double that of 1893. But of late 
there has been a scarcity of rain, and in consequence the fruit is late in 
maturing, and in all probability the size and quality of it will be 
slightly inferior to last year’s. As transportation facilities are better 
this season than last the fruit will undoubtedly reach market in better 
condition. 
