1870.] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
23 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
LEE AD Y tlie note of preparation for tEe Floral Campaign of 1870 is 
sounded. The Royal Horticultural Society of London has issued its prize 
schedule for the year, and from it we learn that a series of combined 
Floral and Fruit Committee-meetings, and exhibitions more or less com¬ 
prehensive, ■will take .place on the following days, namely, January 19, February 16, 
March 2, 16* April 6, 20*, May 4*, 18, June 1, 15*, July 6*, August 3, 17*, September 7, 21, 
October 5, November 2, December 7,—these at Kensington, those marked with an asterisk 
being important exhibitions ; and on July 19 to 22, the Great Provincial Show at Oxford.- 
The Royal Botanic Society has announced two Spring Shows on March 30-1, and April 27-8, 
and thi-ee great Summer Shews on May 25-6, June 22-3, and July 6-7.-The Royal 
Caledonian Horticultural Society has fixed a Hyacinth Show for March 29-30, and a 
Summer Show (Roses) for July 13.-The Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland announces 
a Hyacinth Show on March 24.-The Manchester Grand National Horticultural Exhibition 
is to take place as usual in Whitsun week, opening on June 3, and closing on June 9. 
- have in the Macadamia ternifolia^ of Moreton Bay, a new Edible 
Fruit. The plant is proteaceous, and an evergreen shrub, or rather tree, with 
ternately whorled, oblong-lanceolate, spiny-margined, Brexia-like leaves, and a 
racemose inflorescence. The fruit is a kind of drupe, with a fleshy exterior, encircling a hard 
shell like that of a walnut, within which is a sweet kernel, the flavour of which has been 
compared to that of almonds. Young plants have been recently exhibited from the 
Wellington Road Nursery. 
- ^HERE is a fine specimen of the Ginkgo, Salishuria adiantifolia, at 
Whitfield, in Herefordshire, the residence of the Rev. A. Clive, which measures 
7 ft. 2 in. in girth at 5 ft. from the ground, is 50 ft. 6 in. in height, and has a 
diametric spread of foliage of 40 ft. It is supposed to have been planted about 1776. At 
Messrs. Cutbush’s nursery, Highgate, is a vigorous and beautifully symmetrical tree, also 
about 50 ft. in height. One of the largest trees is said to be growing in the garden at Hassop 
Hall, Bakewell, Derbyshire. Probably the oldest and highest Maidenhair tree in England is 
that in the grounds of Lord Ravensworth, Walham Green, which is 70 ft. high, and was 
planted in 1767. 
-- Another new Grape, Melville’s Perfumed Muscat, has been raised by Mr. 
Melville, Dalmeny Park. It is said to be a good deal like the White Muscat of 
Alexandiia, both in bunch and beny, but more golden in colour when fully ripe, 
and sharper, richer, and more perfumed in flavour; very thin-skinned, tender-fleshed, and 
dissolving in the mouth. Its most striking peculiarity is the delicate agreeable perfume 
which it possesses. It is said to have sprung from Snow’s Muscat Hamburgh, alias Black 
Muscat of Alexandria. 
- l^ioNE of the perennial species of Candytuft are, according to Mr. G^ 
Maw, so ornamental as that which takes its name from the Rock of Gibraltar, 
Iheris gihraltarica. Plants procured and sent home last April were almost con¬ 
tinuously in flower up to November; and one specimen in the open border, which had been 
frozen hard three weeks previously, was on November 19 covered with delicate lilac flowers, 
the corymbs and individual flowers twice the size of those of Iberis sempervirens. It differs 
from all the other species in being a continuous bloomer, the lateral shoots outgrowing and 
hiding the old flowers as they decay. 
-- According to the observations of Dr. Bull, the English Elm., in ordinary 
Herefordshire soil, grows more rapidly than that most vigorous-growing of all 
the varieties of the Wych Elm, the Chichester Elm—a tree that in suitable soil 
w'ill often make sheets of from 6 ft. to 10 ft. long in a single year. The experiment, he says, 
has been made. “ Some say that the English Elm won’t grow well, but the fact is, they are 
