470 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Norenber 22,1894. 
Events of the Week. —The Committees of the Koyal Horticul¬ 
tural Society will meet at the Drill Hall, James Street, Westminster, 
on the 27th inst., when another display of Chrysanthemums is anti¬ 
cipated. A few exhibitions remain to be held in northern districts, and 
the annual dinner of the National Chrysanthemum Society will be held 
.at Anderton’s Hotel, Fleet Street, on the 29th inst. 
-The Weather in London. —Changeable weather has again 
-characterised the past week in the metropolis. Sunday was fine, 
but Monday opened foggy, with local showers. Tuesday proved fine, 
but it rained heavily at night, and Wednesday was dull and damp. 
■Serious floods are prevalent in the Thames Valley, and thousands of 
acres of land are still under water, towns and villages in that district 
► being inundated. 
- Eoyal Horticultural Society. —At the next meeting of 
this Society, which will be held in the Drill Hall, James Street, Victoria 
'Street, Westminster, on Tuesday next, November 27th, Mr. James 
Douglas will deliver a lecture on the “ Principles of Judging at Flower 
Shows.’’ 
- The York Gala. —The balance-sheet for 1894 shows an 
income from various sources of £2293, the gate money on the three days 
of the last exhibition amounting to nearly £1800. The expenditure 
includes prizes and Judges’ fees, £654 ; music and amusements, £410 ; 
and tents, staging, and fittings, £390. During the years 1893 and 1894 
nearly £560 have bee a given to the York charities, and the large amount 
of close upon £2300 stands to the Society’s credit in investments and 
property. 
- Golden Wedding op Mr. and Mrs. Biddles. — On 
Thursday last, the 15th inst., Mr. and Mrs. Biddles of Loughborough 
celebrated their golden wedding at the Middlefield Nurseries, when 
between eighty and ninety guests, including the employes, were 
• entertained. Mr. Biddles is the head partner of the Penny Packet 
-Seed Co. His health was proposed by Councillor Brett, the firm’s 
manager, and enthusiastically received, the employes according musical 
honours. 
- Horticultural Club. — The usual monthly meeting and 
conversazione took place on Tuesday in last week at the Hotel Windsor, 
Victoria Street, Westminster. The chair was occupied by Mr. C. E. Shea, 
and there were present Messrs. J. H. Pearson, C. E. Pearson, A. H. 
Pearson, Henry C. Seebohm, George Bunyard, George Paul, J. Assbee, 
H. Selfe-Lennard, J. E. Jeffries, Harry Turner, and others. A very 
interesting lecture was given by Mr. C. E. Pearson on the Flora and 
general characteristics of Iceland, from observations made during a 
recent visit to that island. He gave an account of the plants observed 
by him, and showed that the Flora is very similar to that of the British 
isles. An interesting conversation took place afterwards, in which 
most of the members present joined. A vote of thanks was cordially 
.given to Mr. Pearson. 
- Gros Colman Grape on Madresfield Court. —At Kidder- 
■minster Chrysanthemum show, held on the 13th and 14th inst., Mr. 
T. Pool, gardener to W. Hatton, Esq., Hill Grove, exhibited, with other 
Grapes, a bunch of Gros Colman, cut from a rod grafted on Madresfield 
‘C'ourt. This showed a marked improvement in the berries, which were 
finer than usual, and of better colour than when this variety is grown 
on its own roots.—Y. 
- Desfontania spinosa. —It is certainly time to draw atten¬ 
tion to any good shrub worth planting, and the above ought to find a 
place in all gardens of any size where choice plants find a place. It 
requires a sheltered position, and then proves perfectly hardy. We 
have a good sized bush here, although unfortunately it has been half 
smothered. It is, however, recovering fast, and in a year or two will be 
a very creditable plant 6 or 7 feet through. It grows freely in poor 
gravelly soil, and flowered fairly well during the past three or four 
years. This year it has been one mass of bloom. Its tube-shaped 
blooms of red and yellow were very effective. — W. B., Osmaston 
’Manor, 
- Mild Weather in Dublin.—A correspondent writes ;— 
“ We have had a most wonderful mild November here. No frost to kill 
Castor Oil plants or Dahlias ; abundance of rain, however.” 
-i A Large Peach. —What is the largest Peach on record ? 
According to “ Meehan’s Monthly,” Mr. W. A. G. Adams of Dallas, 
Texas, has raised “ Chinese clings” 10^ inches in circumference. 
- Birmingham Botanical Gardens.— We are informed that a 
large tract of ground, formerly used for exhibition at these Botanical 
Gardens, under an enormous tent, is now being converted into an alpine 
rockery garden, designed and planted by Messrs. James Backhouse and 
Son of York. 
- Gardening Appointments. —Mr. James Clarke, for the last 
four years foreman at Koby Hall, Liverpool, has been appointed head 
gardener to Captain Trelawney, Shotwick Park, Chester. Mr. John 
Williams, late gardener for eight years to John Whitehead, Esq., 
Penwortham Priory, Greston, has been appointed gardener to W. H. 
King, Esq., The Brooklands, Garstang, Lancashire. 
- Highbury Gardens.—M r. William Earp, who succeeded the 
late Mr. E. Cooper as gardener to the Eight Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, 
M.P., Highbury, Birmingham, is leaving to take up the active manage¬ 
ment of the Guildford Street, Nurseries, Hereford, of which he is now a 
proprietor, and the business will be carried on under the title of William 
Earp & Son. His successor at Highbury has been appointed, and Mr. 
H. A. Burberry retains entire charge of the Orchid department as 
usual. 
- Olearia Haasti. —Mr. W. Bardney writes :—“ This plant is 
perfectly hardy, of dwarf compact growth, and flowers most profusely, 
in fact it is annually covered with its small white trusses of bloom. 
One advantage this plant possesses, and that is it flowers at a time 
when all other trees and shrubs have done. It is well worth a place at 
the front of shrubbery borders, or makes a very handsome bed. The 
plant appears to grow very well in all ordinary soil, but like the 
majority of other things, the better the preparation the strorger the 
plant grows.” 
-Metropolitan Public Gardens Association.—A t the 
monthly meeting of this association held recently, it was agreed to appeal 
for contributions towards the purchase of a recreation ground in West 
Ham, and playgrounds in Walworth and Deptford, S.E. Progress was 
reported in the laying out of the churchyards of St. Peter’s, Walworth, 
and St. Mary’s, Woolwich, and the wharf, Battersea, and in negotiations 
for the laying out of several other grounds ; while among other matters 
brought before the meeting were questions relating to tree-cutting in 
Bpping Forest and to tree-lopping in London streets and gardens, the 
preservation of the site of a City church, the opening of Bessborough 
Gardens, S.W., and the acquisition of a strip of land belonging to the 
New River Company in Islington. 
- Cyanastrum CORDIFOLIUM. —According to a foreign contem¬ 
porary “ this is the sole representative of a new genus of Hsemodoracem, 
founded by Professor Oliver three years ago on a plant discovered in 
Lagos, West Tropical Africa, and figured and described in Hooker’s 
“ leones Plantarum,” t. 1965, where the Professor recommended it as a 
likely garden plant for tropical collections. It recently flowered for the 
first time in one of the stoves at Kew, and although not likely to please 
growers generally, it is, nevertheless, worth including in choice or 
botanical collections. It has a creeping rootstock, from which spring 
leaves 9 inches high, on erect peduncles 8 inches long, the blade 6 inches 
long, deeply heart-shaped and coloured shining green, of two shades. 
The flowers, which are purple, are borne on short erect scapes, and are 
an inch across, star-shaped, with six segments.” 
- Apodolirion Ett.<e.—T he genus Apodolirion is composed of 
six species of bulbous plants allied to Cooperia and Anoiganthus, and 
confined to South Africa. They have tunicated bulbs, with leaves and 
flowers not unlike those of Crocus, coloured white or reddish. So far as 
I know, says a correspondent in the American '• Garden and Forest,” 
none of them had been introduced into cultivation until now, a few 
bulbs of A. Ettse having lately been received at Kew from Natal, where 
this species is said to be rare and local. It was first described by Baker 
from a specimen collected in Natal and sent to Kew in 1885, the name 
being in compliment to a Miss Etta Stainbank. According to Mr. 
Baker, the flowers have a cylindrical tube 3 inches long, and a limb 
over an inch long, spreading as in Zephyranthes, and coloured white and 
rose. It is an interesting little plant, and a worthy addition to the 
smaller favourites among Cape bulbous plants. 
