1877. ] 
GAEDEN GOSSIP. 
47 
of British India (p. 696). Acer pictum has therefore naturally a wide range, extending 
from the Caucasus, through Persia and Kashmir to Bhotan, and thence eastward to China 
and Japan. 
- ^HE Album Benary (Ernst Senary, Erfurt) is a very useful series of 
coloured figures of vegetables, issued as a means of identifying the different 
varieties. The Album, which we presume is to be continued, consists of four 
numbers small folio size, each containing four chromo-lithographed plates, which are remark - 
ably well done by M. Severeyns, of Brussels. On each plate is a series of figures, reduced in size, 
but large enough for identification; each is accompanied by a leaf of text, giving the names in 
Engli.sh, German, French, and Russian. The first plate is devoted to Cabbages, one-seventh the 
natural size, the varieties being large blood-red Dutch, earliest solid.blood-red Erfurt, very 
large early Schweinfurt, small early solid white Erfurt, white (sugar-loaf) Winnigstadt, and 
largest white Brunswick. Then follow savoys, kales, carrots, cabbage-lettuces, cucumbers, 
French beans, radishes, beets, various culinary roots, sugar-beets, mangolds, gourds, and 
onions. The plates will be very useful to seedsmen as illustrations of the seeds they sell, and to 
others, as a means of identifying the sorts they purchase. 
- '^The Fertilisation of Plants^ recently treated on by Mr. Darwin, in a 
volume published by Mr. Murray, is a subject of the highest interest for cultiva¬ 
tors ; and every one who can obtain the book should read Mr. Darwin’s account 
of his experiments, and of the inferences to be drawn from them. The work consists of 
twelve chapters, of which the first half form a record of experiments with different orders of 
plants, and the remainder treat on the means and effects of cross-fertilisation, and the habits 
of insects in relation thereto; the concluding one giving the general results of the author’s 
observations, one of the most important of which is, that “ the mere act of crossing by itself 
does no good; the good depends upon the individuals which are crossed differing slightly in 
constitution, owing to their progenitors having been subjected, during several generations, to 
slightly different conditions, or to what we may call, in our ignorance, spontaneous variation.” 
The book will well repay the most careful study. 
- ©NE of the most clianning of all the Spruces is the Abies Menziesii 
Parryana^ from the Colorado Mountains, of which some small examples may be 
seen in Mr. A. Waterer’s nursery at Knap Hill. Two very beautiful selected 
trees of this new Fir are growing in the garden of Professor C. S. Sargent, at Brookline, near 
Boston. These trees are from 7 to 8 feet in height, with the symmetrical growth of typical 
A. Menziesii, but specially remarkable for the bright blue glaucous hue of the entire plant, 
which as a blue is as bright and striking as is the green of the Knap Hill Cypress. The tree 
is, indeed, on account of its very pronounced glaucous hue, and its naturally symmetrical 
habit, one of the most lovely conifers that can bo imagined. 
- ^HE first number of the Journal des Poses (Paris : Coin), founded by 
M. S. Cochet, and edited by M. Camille Bernardin, is before us. It is to be 
issued monthly, each part illustrated by a coloured plate, that given with the 
January number being the Belle Lyonnaiso—a tea rose of premier vi&iie —from one of Mr. 
Macfarlane’s admirable drawings. The text consists of an address to rose-growers, and a 
chronicle of rose-gossip, followed by articles on the Knight of the Rose, the new roses of 
1876, the rose-tree of a thousand years—a historical legend on the Rosa canina, a rose-fete 
at Grisy-Suisnes, the rose Belle Lyonnaise, the false roses, and a chronicle of general horti¬ 
culture. We look to its continuation -with much interest, as it is a genuine Rose Journal. 
- 0UE old correspondent, Mr. Wifjldon^ the gardener at Cossey Park, has 
lately been presented with a valuable purse of money by his employer. Lord Stafford, 
as a testimonial of respect for long service in his lordship’s family. It is always 
pleasing to hear of .such good-feeling existing between masters and servants, and we con¬ 
gratulate our con-espondcnt on his having for so long a period given satisfaction to so kind- 
hearted and appreciative an employer. 
- ^MONG the Special Exhibitions of the Royal Botanic Society duiing the 
present spring]are included Messrs. Jackman and Son’s show of Clematises, com- 
