AUGUST. 
1G7 
effect is the most charming I have ever seen in a small bed. In such 
cases as those hinted at, there is the pleasure (rather a selfish one perhaps), 
of knowing it is improbable that any other grower will possess a bed like 
our own. From the great want of novelties in mixed bedding, any new 
variety of dwarf habit, and of different colour from the common run, will 
always have a telling effect when first seen. 
Welbeck. William Tillery. 
THE VENOM OF TOADS. 
I need hardly mention that toads are considered to be venomous, though 
they neither bite, spit, nor sting. It is hard for creatures so harmless and 
useful to have been thus misrepresented, even in all ages. I consider, how¬ 
ever, that the idea of their venomous character arose from the fact that 
toads when frightened or suddenly attacked eject urine, and also that when 
they are severely injured there exudes from the skin on their backs a very 
acrid milky kind of matter. This is so pungent, that it makes dogs froth at 
the mouth, and cast out a toad if they happen to have seized one. Perhaps 
this matter is like some other poisons, harmless to the touch, though deadly 
in the stomach. I once gave a tame heron a toad, after which he suddenly 
died. Again I tried the same on another heron, which soon sickened and 
cast up the toad. I have mentioned this before in another publication, and 
wish now to observe that the venom of the viper is harmless in the stomach, 
as also is that of the honey bee, which contains far more poison for its size 
than the adder, while both may be fatal in the blood either by bite or sting. 
It is said, moreover, of toads, that they can live in poisonous air in which 
no other creature could exist. This may arise from the fabulous notion of 
the ancients respecting the toad hatching the basilisk’s or cockatrice’s eggs, 
and that the supposed half serpent and half cock afterwards changed into 
a huge toad, which lived in caves and wells, and filled them wfitli deadly 
poison—once a common belief even in this country. 
That, however, is not so ridiculous as some of the other vulgar errors or 
prejudices of our time respecting toads, besides that of their being venomous. 
The worst of these is that they are imps or messengers of evil: hence 
boys will always stone poor toads to death. I pass over others to notice 
that of toads surviving without air, in contradiction to the law of nature, that 
“ air is the life of all living.” There are so many instances recorded re¬ 
specting toads having been found in the hearts of trees and in stones, that 
one is forced to believe it, though contrary to reason. I may mention, how¬ 
ever, that I have repeatedly sealed up toads in small flower-pots, and also 
buried them deeply in the ground, both in summer and late in the autumn, 
and all of them have died, excepting those to which a little air was admitted. 
Cossey Park. J. Wighton. 
NEW PELARGONIUMS. 
The spring of 1867 has been singularly fertile in new Pelargoniums of 
a high-class quality. Show after show has seen them produced in pro¬ 
fusion, but yet of genuine excellence; and it is the object of this paper to 
place before the readers of the Florist and Pomologist a list of these new 
flowers, arranged for easy reference, and as far as this can be done in a series 
of groups having regard to the ground colour of the flowers; in other 
