1870. ] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
47 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
HE best mode of Transporting Fruit trees to our distant Colonies is pretty 
clearly indicated in tbe following extract from the annual report of tbe 
Horticultural Society of Victoria for 1869. The Society received from 
Chiswick Garden, in April, 1868, some cuttings of fruit trees, taken in 
October, 1867. “ There being no stocks in a condition for grafting when the cuttings were 
received (April), the scions were preserved until the following August, when they were 
grafted.” A period of more than nine months thus elapsed from the time they were cut from 
the trees ; nevertheless, 66 Apples, 72 Pears, 24 Figs, 5 Vines, and 8 Plums were saved of this 
consignment. The experiment proves conclusively that in the form of cuttings all fruit trees 
may be transported with the certainty of success and in a very simple and inexpensive manner, 
inasmuch as a case of 4 cubic feet capacity will contain some thousands of cuttings, and such 
a case may be hermetically sealed, and stowed away like ordinary merchandise during the 
voyage. 
- ®HE schedule of the Manchester National Horticultural Exhibition^ 
which is to open on the 3rd of June next, offers special prizes, amounting to up¬ 
wards of £130 under 14 classes, the highest prize being the citizens’ prize, £30, 
for 16 stove and greenhouse plants. The other part of the schedule extends to 73 classes, with 
£900 allotted as prizes. We are glad to see that groups of miscellaneous plants, 30 for ama¬ 
teurs and 50 for nurserymen, are invited ; and trust that with the large miscellaneous classes 
introduced in other exhibitions something may be done towards reinstating that variety which 
formerly was one of the crowning elements of great flower-shows. 
- Amongst the Trees and Shrubs which have been recently observed to do 
well by the seaside, notably on the Kentish coast, occur—Austrian Pines ; Euony^ 
mus japonicus, which is in some cases covered with fruits ; Evergreen Oaks, Com¬ 
mon Bays; Veronica Andersoni, in bloom ; Lavatera arborea; Tamarisk, and Gorse, these 
all being green and fresh as if there were no such things as “ nor’-easters” or “ sou’-westers.” 
Atriplex Halimus is commonly planted on the Dorset coast. 
- Though Plant-houses may be fumigated by means of the flower-pot 
and embers, yet Fumigators are far more convenient. Drechslers Patent 
Fumigator^ recently brought out, consists of an iron cylinder, enclosing a strong 
wire basket, made to revolve by means of cog-wheels placed underneath, and turned by a 
handle projected from the side. The smoke is carried off and delivered into the house through 
a square horizontal chimney of considerable size. This Fumigator, which is worked easily, 
may be set in operation by simply igniting a piece of paper with a lucifer match; and it may 
be used without subjecting the operator to be “smoked,” like the insects he is bent on 
destroying, for, by putting the chimney through an aperture made in the wall of the house, 
the operator may stand outside while the machine is pouring forth into the interior its narcotic 
smoke-clouds. In the case of frames and pits, the chimney may be introduced under the front 
part of the sash. Wo have had the apparatus in use, and believe it may be recommended 
with safety. 
- IEt would appear from the recent observations of Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys 
that Plant Life is absent from the Ocean^ with the exception of a comparatively 
narrow fringe, known as the littoral and laminarian zones, which girds the coasts, 
and of the Sargasso tract in the Gulf of Mexico. No trace of any vegetable organism could be 
detected at a greater depth than 15 fathoms, though animal organisms of all kinds and sizes, 
living and dead, were everywhere abundant, from the surface to the bottom. The usual theory, 
he observed, that all animals ultimately depend for their noui’ishment on vegetable life, seems 
not to be applicable to the mahi ocean, and consequently not to one-half of the earth’s smfface. 
Tillery has recently drawn deserved attention to the Black 
Monukka Grape, an old variety not very well known, which he regards as the 
