186 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
the proprietors of Beard’s patent system of 
glazing. Some of those of the lean-to form 
were particularly well contrived, and there 
are points about them deserving of the highest 
praise. In particular, the mode of glazing, 
which has been fully explained in our pages, 
and is done with the greatest facility; and 
the mechanical arrangements provided for the 
working of the ventilators, which secures per¬ 
fect steadiness and the greatest ease of move¬ 
ment. Both these features were fully recog¬ 
nised by the Jurors in the award of first-class 
certificates, specially for these points. 
Testimonials. —The retirement of Mr. 
Robert Thompson from active duty in the 
service of the Royal Horticultural Society has 
been thought by his friends to offer a fitting 
occasion on which to present him with a sub¬ 
stantial Testimonial, expressive of their sym¬ 
pathy with him in his declining years, and 
indicating also their high appreciation of 
the many services which he has rendered to 
Pomology and Meteorology during a long 
and active life. The Council of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, acting as the expo¬ 
nents of public feeling, have taken the initia¬ 
tive in the movement, by appointing a Com¬ 
mittee to carry out the proposed object. A 
subscription list has in consequence been 
opened, and subscriptions may be transmitted 
to the Secretaries, Dr. Hogg, 99, St. George’s 
Road, Pimlico, S.W.; and Mr. Thos. Moore, 
Botanic Gai’den, Chelsea,’S.W.; or-to Mr. 
James Richards, Assistant Secretary of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensing¬ 
ton, W. We heartily join in the following 
remark:—“ To no man is the gardening 
public so much indebted as to Mr. Robert 
Thompson. Quiet, unassuming; yet pro¬ 
foundly learned in those two branches of 
science, Pomology and Meteorology, which he 
made his special study, he has been one of 
those under-currents of scientific progress 
whose force has been felt and acknowledged, 
without the author being known. We hope 
the appeal will meet with the hearty re¬ 
sponse it so eminently deserves.”-It is also 
proposed to present a testimonial to Mr. 
Bruce Findlay, of the Manchester Botanic 
Garden, in acknowledgment of the great 
pains taken by him in perfecting the arrange¬ 
ments which secured the success of the recent 
National Horticultural Exhibition. Subscrip¬ 
tions may be sent to the Secretary of the 
Botanic and Horticultural Society of that 
city.-In Glasgow, a handsome tea and 
coffee service has just been presented to Mr. 
William Austin, of the firm of Austin and 
McAslan, by his numerous friends, as a tes¬ 
timony' of the esteem in which he is held. 
-Of the nature of a Testimonial too, is 
the acknowledgment of the services of Mr. 
D. T. Fish, in connection with the Bury 
Show, by the Royal Horticultural Society, 
conveyed in the following resolution adopted 
ai a special field meeting of the Council during 
the Show at Bury :—“ Resolved—That the 
thanks of the Council of the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society be conveyed to Mr. D. T. Fish, 
for his great services in connection with the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s Show at Bury' 
St. Edmunds ; and that he be made a Forty- 
guinea Life Fellow of the Society, as a small 
mark of their appreciation of his services in 
bringing the Exhibition to a successful issue.” 
This acknowledgment does honour alike to 
Mr. Fish, and to the representatives of the 
Royal Horticultural Society. 
Monstera deliciosa. —The fruit of this 
plant has been suggested as a choice occasional 
addition to the dessert, but the presence in 
the pulp of minute prickly crystals or raphides 
has been held to detract very much from its 
merits as an edible fruit. If, however, the 
fruit is thoroughly ripened on the plant ihe 
delicious juice may be sucked from the pulp 
with little, if any, of the unpleasant pricking 
sensation caused by eating the substance of 
the fruit itself in the earlier stages of ripe¬ 
ness ; and the flavour is much richer when 
the fruit is thus thoroughly matured. The 
supply of an occasional fruit of Monstera is 
no chimera. “We have ourselves,” writes ths 
editor of the Gardeners' Chronicle, “ from a 
plant only some three or four years old, and 
confined in a half-bushel pot, gathered half a 
dozen fruits during the present season, and 
the same plant has now five other spadices 
just passing through the flowering stage.” 
To secure this thorough ripening on the plant, 
it is necessary to support the fruits with a tie 
to the adjoining leafstalk, their weight being 
sufficient, if they are not thus supported, to 
break them over at a much earlier stage, just 
at the top of the stalk. They take about a 
year more or less to swell and ripen. 
Libocedrus tetragona.— M. Briot states 
in Revue Horticole, that this plant when 
grafted on Saxegothasa not only succeeds in 
spite of the somewhat distant affinity, but its 
habit becomes changed in consequence. In¬ 
stead of forming a narrow cylindrical col um n 
it spreads widely, so as to form with its 
numerous and short branches an irregularly 
spherical or somewhat depressed mass, simi¬ 
lar to Juniperus Oxycedrus echiniformis. 
Large Vine. —Mr. J. A. Watson mentions 
in the Gardeners' Chronicle, a large Yine 
growing on Mount Salevi in Switzerland, 
which has been found to increase in size of 
stem at the rate of 1 inch annually. In 
March, 1867, the circumference of the stem, 
at 4 feet from the ground, was 114 centi¬ 
metres, or 3 feet 10 inches English. The 
branches have covered and monopolised 
several large trees, and have had no pruning 
nor care of any kind for years; still the produce 
last year was four hundred bottles of first- 
class red wine : this at Is. a-bottle is £20 ster¬ 
ling, and calculating the number of square 
yards covered by the Yine, is at the rate of 
over £300 sterling per acre. 
