218 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
seem to liave been similar local notions concerning noxious animals even 
in this country. Sir J. Browne says, “ It is a true and remarkable thing, 
that whereas Islip and Blitchinton, in Oxonshire, are not distant above two 
miles, and noe river between, yet noe man living remembers a snake or 
adder found alive in Blitchinton (which abounds with frogs and toads), and 
yet they he brought from Islip, or other parties, into that towne, they dye 
as venomous things die on Irish earthe brought by ship.” The author 
seems not to have known that adders can swim, nor the fact that these 
excepted, the Irish may have as many venomous creatures as we have, though 
not mentioned in the “ fog of fable,” for the venom of wasps and honey bees 
is sometimes as fatal as that of the viper. Besides, except the vulture, those 
alluded to are harmless—snakes, toads, vultures, moles, or mole crickets. 
Carr, in his “ Tour in Ireland,” mentions these, and also the erroneous 
belief of no frogs having been found in Ireland before the landing of King 
William; but he observes that frogs are stated in ancient accounts of 
noxious animals to have been extirpated from Ireland. It would be useless 
to dwell on that old legend, the origin of which appears to be the damp 
nature of the Irish climate. 
Though toads are bred in water, they cannot live long in it. They 
prefer dry places, where they find proper food—beetles, ants, and many 
other winged insects injurious to cultivation. Therefore they are more 
useful than frogs that thrive in damp places, and whose chief diet consists of 
worms and water insects, or at least of those found in uncultivated places, 
where they also find shelter from the rays of the sun. 
Cossey. J. Wighton. 
DOUBLE PYRETHRUMS. 
Any attempt to chronicle the improvements made during the past few 
years among the flowers employed for garden decoration would be incom¬ 
plete without some allusion to the greatly improved forms of the Double 
Pyrethrum. Only a few years ago a Double Pyrethrum of the section now 
under notice, was a thing unknown. But that patient enterprise that w T orks 
out so many astonishing revolutions in the world of horticulture has been 
applied with great success to this flower, and we have now among us a 
valuable summer-flowering plant for the open ground—one thoroughly 
hardy, being altogether an out-door flower, and at the same time thoroughly 
valuable for the embellishment of shrubbery and mixed borders. 
The history of the improvement of this flower is just the simple process 
that has worked such happy results in the case of other popular flowers. 
Received from the Continent by Mr. John Salter, of Hammersmith, in a 
form suggestive of a much higher order of development, it was at once 
taken in hand, and by careful seeding year by year, semi-double flow T ers 
became resolved into fully double blooms ; increased size both of floret and 
flower-liead followed in the wake of fuller substance, and with these came 
that coveted variation which always gladdens the heart of the florist—a 
breaking away into new colours, or combinations of colour, even to a much 
larger degree than was at first reasonably expected. And so, bringing up 
the “ record of progress ” to the present year, the rich and varying beauty 
of some of these flowers really surprises one who has inspected them, see¬ 
ing what a comparatively short space of time has been devoted to perfect¬ 
ing them. They are certainly a valuable addition to our hardy herbaceous 
plants. That they grow somewhat lanky is really no tenable objection 
