I October 27. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 53 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
1 ' M 
D 
1 ) 
w 
OCT. 27—NOV. 2, 1853. 
Weather near London in 1852. 
Barometer* Thermo. Wind. j^heT. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
a. & s. 
Moon's 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
! 1 27 
Th 
Tortoise buries. 
29.195—28.842 
46—41 
N.W.I 06 
47 a. 6 
41 a. 4 
morn. 
25 
16 
2 
300 
1 i 28 
F 
St. Simon and St. Jude. 
1 29*644—29*318 
49—31 
N.W. 02 
49 
>39 
I 1 13 
26 
16 
7 
301 
! 29 
s 
Virginian Creeper leafless. 
j 29.742—29.4fi3 
56—40 
S.W. I 22 
50 
37 
2 32 
27 
16 
11 
302 
i 30 
Sun 
23 Sunday after Trinity. 
29.650—29.595 
59-48 
S.W. 14 
52 
35 
3 53 
28 
16 
14 
303 
31 
M 
Woodcock comes. 
29*813—29*585 
61—44 
\V. — 
54 
34 
5 17 
29 
16 
16 
304 
1 i 1 
To 
All Saints. 
■ 29.773—29.675 
62-57 
S. 02 
55 
32 
sets. 
© 
16 
18 
305 
! 2 
W 
November; paling. 
i 29.620—29.538 
60—48 
S.W. 61 
58 
30 
5 al6 
1 
16 
18 
306 
Meteorology of the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-six years, the average highest and lowest tem- ! 
peratures of these days are 53.6° and 3/.2 0 respectively. The greatest heat, 67°, occurred on the 30th in 1833 ; and the lowest cold, 23°, on the 
29th in 1812. During the period 85 days were fine, and on 97 rain fell. 
NEW PLANTS. 
EriSCIA meli.ITTIFOLIA (Balm leaved Episcia). 
This genus belongs to the Natural Order of Gesnerworts, and 
of Didynamia Gymnospermia of the Linnaean system. The 
generic name is derived from epi, upon, and skia, shade, 
because the species it includes prefer shady places. The 
specific name alludes to its coarse Balm-like leaves. It is 
the Besleria mellilifolia of some botanists. It is a stove 
herbaceous plant, being a native of the Carribbean and 
West Indian Islands generally. It was known as long ago 
as 1789, but flowered at Kew, probably for the first time in 
Europe, during the March and April of the present year. 
As now, and for the next two months, is the best of 
periods for shipping trees and plants to emigrant friends 
in Australia and New Zealand, we have made various 
enquiries, and received as various replies, from those 
who have been there; but they are all agreed in the 
sentiment embodied in this one sentence—“Never mind 
about novelties; send good old things—things that 
they can dwell over and say, ‘ Dont you remember 
where this grew in the old garden at home?’” God 
bless those that feel thus, say we; and we hope not a 
I reader of The Cottage Gardener but will respond 
I heartily—Amen. Let us quote a narrative that de- 
It is about one foot high; stem purple; leaves dark green, 
and when young, with pink edges; flowers crimson.— 
{Botanical Magazine, t. 4720.) 
Rhododendron glaitcum ( Glancous-leaved Rhododendron). 
The Rhododendrons belong to the Natural Order of 
Heathworts, and to the Linnnean Decandria Monogynia 
Glass and Order. It was raised at Kew from seeds sent 
home by Dr. Hooker, from the Sikkim Himalaya, in 1850; 
the plants showed flower-buds when about one foot high, and 
bloomed in April, 1853. They were grown in a cool green 
house, but others, which have not bloomed yet, are thriving 
well in the open border.—( Botanical Magazine, t. 4721.) 
The following description is given by Dr. Hooker, in the 
Journal of the Horticultural Society, vii. 102 :— 
“ R. glaucum. — Distribution and range: Sikkim and 
Bhotan, in moist rocky places. 10,000 to 12,000 feet. 
“ This constitutes a small shrub of the average height of 
two feet. Branches scarcely so thick as a goosequill, 
yellowish-brown, often glaucous-white, the younger ones 
scaly. Leaves rather crowded at the extremities of the 
branches, one to three inches long, usually one to one-and- 
a-lialf inch broad, on short stalks, upper side deep green, 
when old naked above, below remarkably glaucous, almost 
white, and quite dotted with copious little scales, which in 
the young state cover the whole leaf, and at all times abound 
on the bractens, bud, flower-stalks, and especially on the 
sepals. Flower-stalks seven to eight, almost in an umbel at 
the ends of the branches, erect, an inch or more long, 
rather slender. Flowers erect or inclined, pale pinkish- 
purple. Corolla rather more thau an inch long, and about 
as broad in the widest part, tube campanulate, limb 
moderately spreading, of five nearly equal rounded notched 
lobes. The remarkable glaucous colour of the underside of 
the leaves, and the great development of the calyx, readily 
distinguish this species. In foliage it closely resembles 
R. virgatum, but the inflorescence and calyx are widely 
different. The whole plant has a powerful resinous smell, 
due to exceedingly small globules of a pale yellow colour 
which exude from beneath the little scales on the underside 
of the leaves. These scales are very curious ; the majority 
are smaller, pale-coloured, exhibiting several concentric 
circles of small, nearly uniform cells ; the larger are bristly 
at the margin, and consist of a centre or disc of small cells 
surrounded by a limb or margin of radiating elongated 
ones.’' 
monstrates how universal is this clinging to “ the old 
country,” and that it is good to foster that attachment; 
and then let us proceed to the immediate subject of our 
remarks. 
“ THE EMIGRANT’S LARK. 
“ Henry Patterson and his wife Elizabeth sailed from the 
Tower in the year 1834, as emigrants on board a vessel 
heavily laden with passengers, and bound to Quebec. 
“Patterson was an intimate friend of a noted bird-catcher 
in London called ‘ Charley Nash.’ Now Nash had deter¬ 
mined to make his friend a present of a good skylark to 
take to Canada with him; but not having what he called 
‘ a real good un ’ among his collection, he went into the 
j country on purpose to trap one. In this effort he suc- 
No. CCLXY., Vol. XI. 
