I December 8. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
173 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
t M 
D 
Weather near London in 
1852. 
.Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Day of 
Year. 
W 
DECEMBER 8—14, 1853. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. Wind. 
1 
Rain in 
Inches. 
UlOCK 
af. Sun. 
j 8 
Tn 
Skylarks flock. 
29.298—29.241 
49—37 s.w. 
08 
55 a 7 
49 a. 3 
morn. 
8 
7 
48 
342 
9 
F 
Red-throated Diver comes* 
29 . 613 — 29.525 
53—45 S.W. 
01 
56 
49 
1 1 
9 
21 
343 
10 
s 
Wild Swan comes. 
30.583—29.537 
54—49 s. 
03 
57 
49 
2 12 
10 
6 
54 
344 
11 
Sun 
3 Sunday in Advent. 
29 . 090 — 29.519 
57—48 S.W. 
— 
58 
49 
3 23 
11 
6 
26 
345 
I 12 
M 
Moles throw up hills. 
29.501—29.429 
54—40 S. 
20 
59 
49 
4 33 
12 
5 
58 
346 
13 
Tu 
29.473—29.383 
54—43 S. 
12 
VIII 
49 
5 43 
13 
5 
29 
347 
14 
W 
Ember Week. 
29 . 361 — 29.335 
55—42 1 S.W. 
25 
1 
49 
6 51 
14 
5 
1 
348 
Meteorology of toe Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-six years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 46.6° and 33.8° respectively. The greatest heat, 6 1°, occurred on the 13th in 1842 ; and the lowest cold, 11°, on the 
13th in 1846. During the period 114 days were fine, and on 68 rain fell. 
BRITISH WILD BLOWERS. 
(Continued from page 113.) 
Arabis stricta; Bristol or St. Vincent's Bock Cress. 
Description .—It is a perennial. Root simply tufted, very 
long, tapering and fibrous, not creeping, certainly perennial. 
Stems for the most part several, erect, or ascending, from 
three to sis inches high, cylindrical, leafy ; tho central one 
usually branched; all rough in the lower part with mostly 
simple, spreading, bristly hairs. Radical-leaves numerous, 
blunt, dark green, purplish underneath, deeply toothed or 
sinuated in a lyrate manner, rough with simple, rarely 
forked, stiff', white hairs ; stem-leaves scattered, smaller, and 
more entire, coarsely and sparingly fringed. Flowers few, 
in a flat cluster, erect, rather large, their petals cream- 
coloured, upright. Calyx smooth, reddish, scarcely if at 
all spreading. Pods slender, erect, straight, smooth, slightly 
wrinkled, on short smooth stalks, of which some of the 
lowermost are accompanied by small line-like leaves, 
looking like bracteas, but not properly such. Glands in a 
ring round the base of the stamens. 
Time of flowering. —May. 
Places where found. —Lime-stone rocks in the south¬ 
western part of England. 
History —It was first discovered in this country by Bay, 
and was considered by him as a dwarf Cardamine, or 
Cuckoo Flower, “with Daisy leaves.” It was found at 
Bristol, about St. Vincent’s Rocks, by Mr. W. Clayfield, 
and thence has received its common name. Its specific 
name, stricta, alludes to the straightness of its flower- 
stems. (Smith. Withering.) It is the Arabis hispida 
or Rough Wall-Cress of Linmeus. — ( Martyn’s Miller’s 
Diet.) 
It is not usual with us to refer editorially to any of the 
subjects discussed by our departmental writers, but we 
must make an exception to-day, for the purpose of 
directing especial attention to Mr. Beaton’s observations 
upon the renovation of old trees. 
This is a subject so interesting, both in a physiolo¬ 
gical and domestic point of view, that it will readily 
obtain an excuse for us from our readers. Very few are 
those who have long resided in the country who have 
not become attached to some tree, and grown the fonder 
of it as decay threatened its destruction. Trees, in their 
old age, acquire that size and irregularity of form, 
gaining for their picturesqueness the descriptive title of 
“ Painters’ trees ; ”—it is a beauty totally distinct from 
the beauty of vigorous growth; and if once lost by the 
destruction of the trees is never to be replaced until 
one or two generations of our descendants have found 
! their graves. To preserve such features about our 
grounds—to retain these “ancestral trees” — is, con¬ 
sequently, an object most desired. We rejoice, there¬ 
fore, that Mr. Appleby has just commenced a series of 
papers upon preserving forest trees in vigour, whilst 
Mr. Beaton has furnished us with information how to 
sustain and rescue them when decaying. 
We have said that the subject is of interest to phy¬ 
siologists also, and it is especially so, because there has 
long been a division of opinion among them upon the 
longevity of trees. Some consider that trees have a 
prescribed period of duration; but others think that by 
grafting, and other devices, some trees may be rendered, 
to an indefinite extent, an exception to that decree of 
death which extends over all other organised beings. 
To the latter opinion we cannot give our unqualified 
assent. We know that the Golden Pippin has been 
quoted as evidence sustaining that opinion, but there is 
no proof of that Apple being mentioned before the time 
No. COLXXI., Vos. XI. 
