1868. ] 
MONTHLY CHRONICLE. 
215 
MONTHLY CHRONICLE. 
HE extended report on tlie condition of the Fruit Crops recently given 
in the Gardeners' Chronicle, is full of interest for the fruit-grower. 
The results stated generally are as follows:—Those fruits, such as 
Apricots and Strawberries, that ripen early in the season, have been 
both abundant in quantity and excellent in quality almost every¬ 
where, the early period of their maturity having prevented them from experiencing the baneful 
effects of the drought. Apples, though on the whole abundant, are indifferent as to quality, 
falling off early, and in many places infested v T ith grub. Plums are generally a light crop, 
from the early shedding of the fruit. Cherries have been grown in average quantities. Peaches 
and Nectarines are on the whole inferior ; and in some places the trees have suffered severely. 
Small fruits, including under that designation Currants, Gooseberries, and Raspberries, have 
been plentiful, but there is a very general complaint as to flavour. Nuts are abundant and 
good. 
-Ft is announced that the managers of the Royal Caledonian Horti¬ 
cultural Society, have determined to hold a grand International Exhibition 
of Fruit, in Edinburgh, next year. The Show is to take place in the month 
of September, and to be open to all the world. The splendid success which attended the 
show held in the Scottish metropolis in 186-5, gave a great impetus to fruit-culture, and similar 
results may be expected to follow that w r hich is now contemplated. 
- 3£he success of Exhibitions devoted to the display of Flowers and 
Plants grown by Artisans in grimy town thoroughfares, under the most 
discouraging circumstances as far as vegetation goes, or by cottagers in 
country or suburban villages blest with purer air, but otherwise with per¬ 
haps less means than their urban brethren, is most gratifying. From the slums of West¬ 
minster, the wynds and closes of Edinburgh, the alleys of Dublin, and such like places, we 
hear of these most praiseworthy efforts to brighten the squalor of the too often wretched 
habitations of the poor, and to add one little scrap of wholesome pleasure to the scanty store 
which our boasted civilisation allots to the labouring classes. 
-Che propriety of Exhibiting Cut Flowers of many perennial subjects, 
as Phloxes, Pentstemons, &c., which always have an untidy if not mori¬ 
bund appearance at our summer shows, has lately been questioned, and it 
has been suggested that the production of the growing plant should be more 
encouraged. Take the Phlox, for example. It can be grown as a handsome well-furnished 
pot specimen, but if it be a difficulty, to grow and to convey to a distance a sufficient 
number of plants produced on this plan, at least a capital display might.be made by plants in 
small pots, confined, it may be, to a single stem ; and now that the sensible plan of showing 
all plants of moderate height on the ground level, and on a grass surface, instead of on high 
wooden st'ges, is being more or less generally adopted, a beautiful display might be made by 
groups of Phloxes alone, grown and shown in this simple way. Other hardy flowers, as Pent¬ 
stemons, Double Stocks, &c., might be shown advantageously in the same way. A tent filled 
with Double Stocks in pots arranged parterre-wise, would be almost as attractive and popular 
as a tent full of Roses; and Antirrhinums also might well be grown and exhibited in pots. 
-& beautiful addition to our Hardy British Ferns, called Poly- 
stichum angulare Pateyi, has recently been made known. It ranks without 
question amongst the most lovely hardy Ferns yet discovered. Mr. Patey, 
of Milton, near Steventon, its fortunate finder, picked it up three or four 
years since, as a small seedling, on a Dorsetshire bank. The fronds are of a yellowish cast of 
green, triangular in outline from the length of the lower pinnae, not quite symmetrical, but 
remarkably dense, the pinnae and pinnules overlapping for nearly half their breadth, while 
the pinnules themselves are much developed after the finely-toothed style of cutting which 
