18 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ January, 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
STATEMENT of accounts relating to the exhibition of the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society at Bath has recently been pubhshed, from which it appears that 
a profit of £1,248 17s. 3d. was realised, of which sum the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society receive £624 8s. 8d., and the other half is divided amongst 
the local institutions. The Royal Literary and Scientific Institution Gardens receives £20; 
the Royal Victoria Park, £302 4s. 4d.; and the Hanoverian Band and Floral Fete Committee, 
£302 48. 3d. The Prizes and Medals distributed amounted to £1,312 Os. fid. 
- Hn reference to Tacsonia insignis^ figured in our last volume, Mr. Ander¬ 
son, of Sowerby-House Gardens, where it was bloomed, writes :—“ Your artist has 
done the Tacsonia well—rather highly coloured. The true colour is a clear 
magenta-scarlet. The flowers are from 7^ in. to 8 in. across. After remaining horizontal for 
a day or so, the flower-segments turn up like those of a dog-tooth violet, and remain so 
for a day or two, when they again resume the horizontal position, and shortly after fall off. It 
produces no seed unless carefully impregnated. The fruit is quite round, likje a green orange, 
at present (Nov. 5) not ripe, from 7 in. to 8 in. in circumference. When treated the same as 
T. Van Volxemi, that is, freely cut back in spring, it flowers a month or six weeks before that 
variety, and pi'oduces mostly two flowers from the axil of each leaf, that is, after it begins 
flowering.” ^ 
- 029^e have lately seen in the Knap Hill Nursery what we believe is the 
fastest-growing tree in cultivation. It is the Populus canadensis (monilifera) 
nova^ a new variety of the Cotton-wood. The rapidity of its growth is extra¬ 
ordinary, plants only three years old being now upwards of 20 ft. in height, and forming well 
made trees. It is a better grower than any other Poplar, has a free healthy habit, and is 
well worthy of the attention of planters. 
- 0NE of the most important of gardening operations is that of Potting. 
Mr, Fish gives the following instructions respecting it:—A stock of clean, dry 
pots, turfy loam, fibry peat, clean sharp silver-sand, white sphagnum, potsherds, 
and charcoal should be kept always in readiness, and each plant should be potted as it needs 
it. I don’t believe in a general potting, any more than a general watering. “ As they need 
it,” should be the rule, one or few at a time. Nostrums in the way of soil, I also hate ; those 
I have named, simply mixed, will grow anything. The chief point is right mechanical con¬ 
ditions. Food can always be given to plants in their drink. The state of the old ball and 
the mode of potting have more to do with success than the character of the soil; it should 
never be too wet, nor too dry. The outer roots, if possible, should bo made to point into tho 
earth, and the latter can hardly be made too firm. Give water, to consolidate and amalga¬ 
mate tho old with the new, and to home the plant in its new pot, using water always a little 
warmer than the temperature of the house in which tho plants grow. 
IBr. Hooker communicated to tbe Gardeners^ Chronicle some time since 
tbe following remarks on tbe Production of Honey-dew :—“ I have,” he remarks, 
‘‘ carefully watched the first formation of honey-dew in the Lime during this and 
tho preceding two weeks, and am satisfied that its first appearance is wholly independent of 
insect agency. In each week, on the accession of hot and sunny weather, the upper surface of 
tho leaves, inclusive of those on the extreme branches, become very uniformly speckled with 
honey-dew, the specks appearing on the tumid spaces between the venules, and seldom ex¬ 
ceeding one-tenth of an inch in diameter. These were washed away by the first shower, and 
reappeared with tho returning hot sun. In the first week it was difficult to find an aphis any¬ 
where on these Limes, and such as I found were solitary, very immature, and confined to the 
lower surface of the leaves. On the extreme twigs, the leaves of which projected some feet 
beyond tho rest of tho foliage, and which leaves were equally speckled, scarcely an aphis was 
to bo seen. During the last week and this, tho aphides have become more numerous, but are 
still comparatively rare, and always solitary. That the formation of honey-dew is indepen¬ 
dent of aphides, and is a function of the plant unstimulated by insect agency, is clear to me ; 
but it remains to bo seen whether the aphides may not at a later period induce a more 
copious secretion of honey-dew.” 
