218 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST, 
[ October, 
August to vegetate, unless the soil is kept moist during any dry warm weather 
which may occur in these months. 
Unfortunately few gardens have the chance of being irrigated like this, by 
water brought in pipes, and most gardens must depend upon water obtained from 
other sources, and stored until wanted. Where there is a very deficient supply, 
through not having large tanks made, it is, however, practicable in nearly every 
garden to have supplies of water, but the means of effecting it will depend 
upon circumstances which will vary with the locality. Water-rams and wind¬ 
mills of various kinds are now made at no great cost, and water can be raised 
cheaply by them into cistern-reservoirs, and thus enough may be stored to irri¬ 
gate a moderate surface of a kitchen garden. I believe there is no matter 
connected with gardening of more importance than this of irrigation, and the 
present time, when the effects of the drought are still visible, is the best time to 
consider about the “ ways and means ” of preventing disastrous results in another 
dry summer.— William Tillery, Welheck, 
ADIANTUM SEEMANNI. 
HIS is one of the finest of the large pinnate forms of Maidenhair Fern, quite 
distinct from, and a fitting companion for, the more familiar Adiantum 
f macropliyllum. It is really a new introduction to our gardens, though by 
a misadventure, quite excusable at the time, the name has been for some 
time applied to another fern, which proves to be A. Wilsoni. The Messrs. Veitch 
introduced the true A. Seemanni —of which a sterile frond is represented on 
the opposite page—and exhibited it under the name of A. Zahnii in 1874, when 
it was certificated. It is a noble species, with fronds fully 2 ft. long, the fertile 
pinnae 3 in. long'and 2 in. broad at the base, while some of the sterile pinnae are 
nearly 4 in. long and 2^ in. broad. The fronds have a comparatively slender 
glossy black stipe, bare at the lower part, and furnished towards the top with 
from four to eight of the magnificent pinnae, each attached by a slender petiole 
an inch long. The plant was originally gathered by Dr. Seemann at Veraguas, 
in Central America, where also it was obtained by Messrs. Veitch’s collector, Mr. 
Zahn. It seems to be a free-growing plant, of course requiring stove-heat, as 
very fine specimens have been exhibited by Messrs. Veitch.—T. Moore. 
DATE PALMS, Etc., AS DECOEATIONS. 
WAS shown the other day a number of young Date Palms about 3 ft. high, 
with all the grace and elegance peculiar to the tribe, and on inquiry I 
found that some of the fruit had been purchased, and the kernels had 
been sown with only as much care as would be needed to dibble in as 
many potatos. For table decoration, the Date Palm has the “ bend of beauty,” 
and it is, moreover, very light, open, and airy, casting, like itself, a curved and 
graceful shadow, without obstructing the sight so as to hinder one guest from 
seeing the other guests at table. Moreover, as the Date does well in a very 
