January 5. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 053 ' 
WEEKLY CALENDAR 
. 
M 
1) 
D 
W 
JANUARY 5—11, 1854. 
Weather near London in 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
i 
1852. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun Moon Moon’s 
Sets. R.&S, -Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
5 
Tu 
Glomeris marginata; sand. 
29 716—29.629 
52—30 
s.w. 
01 
8 
4 11 
5J 6 
5 
42 
5 
6 
F 
Epiphany. Twelfth Day. 
29.656—29.481 
49—32 
s.w. 
is 
7 
5 morn* | 
6 
9 
6 
7 
S 
Julus Londinensis ; moss. 
1 29.456—29.136 
53—30 
s.w. 
34 
7 
6 1 
11 8 
6 
35 
7 
8 
Son 
l Sunday after Epiphany. 
29.527—29.404 
49—32 
S.E. 
— 
7 
7 2 
22 q 
7 
1 
8 
9 
M 
Julus terrestris ; sand, woods. 
29.740—29.680 
50—35 
W. 
01 
6 
9 3 
32 10 
26 
9 
1 10 
To 
Julus punctatus ; tree bark. 
29-664—29.300 
51—42 
s. 
06 
6 
10 4 
41 11 
7 
50 
10 
u 
W 
Julus pulcbellus ; moss. 
29.622—29.473 
51—42 
s.w. 
02 
5 
12 5 
49 12 
8 
14 
11 
Mktkobolooy or the Week.— At ChUwick, from obiervation. durini? the la*t twenty-Bi* years, the average highe.t and loweBt tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 40.7“ and 30.3° respectively. The greatest heat, 54°, oocurredon the 6 th in 1645 j and the lowest cold, 6 ° on the 
7th in 1841. During the period 119 days were fine, and on /0 rain fell. 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
(Continued from page 273.) 
Arams ciliata: Fringed Wall Cress. 
Description .—It is a biennial. Root simple, tapering. 
Stem generally solitary, from two to four inches, but, when 
cultivated, near a foot in height, erect, quite simple, leafy, 
cylindrical, smooth. Root-leaves several, in one simple tuft, 
various in size, reversed-egg-shaped, often reddish; tapering 
at the base ; those of the stem alternate, stalkless, or half- 
clasping, elliptic-oblong; all somewhat milky-green, quite 
smooth on both sides, more or less evidently toothed, 
fringed with simple or forked, scattered, spreading, bristly 
hairs; some of which are often crowded into a small tuft or 
beard at the tips of the leaves, whilst others form a more 
regular fringe upon the taper bases, or foot stalks, of the 
root-leaves. Flowers in a simple, terminal, upright, smooth, 
flat cluster. Calyx tawny, with a white edge. Petals twice 
its length, pure white, almost erect. Pods upright, slender, 
each tipped with the simple, blunt, stigma, supported by a 
very short, conical style ; their valves undulated, channeled, 
and slightly keeled. 
Places where found .—It is very rare, being found only on 
rocks by the sea-side at Rinville, Cunnamara, in the west of 
Ireland; and in Scotland on rocks near Loch Lea, in 
Glen Esk. 
Times of flowering .—July and August. 
History .—This is the Turrilis ciliata, and T. alpina, the 
Fringed or Alpine Tower Mustard, of some botanists. The 
specific name ciliata, eye-lashed or fringed, alludes to the 
hairs round the edges of the leaves. (Smith. Wither- 
I hy.) 
There was a time, part of what some people still call 
“ the good old times," a time enduring to the close of 
the reign of George III., when Kew Gardens were 
sealed up from vulgar eyes, and its vegetable riches 
guarded as watchfully, and kept as exclusive, as the 
golden fruit of the Hesperides. In those times, the 
heart that beat beneath a fustian jacket was considered 
i as incapable, or as unworthy, of being gladdened by the 
beautiful in nature; and the head that was ever put into 
a brown paper cap was deemed as too devoid of taste 
and ingenuity ever to relish or succeed in the culture of 
exotic plants. If the hands couriected with such heads 
and hearts should be allowed to come within arms length 
of such plants, there was no telling what might happen. 
The least horrible event expected to occur was that they 
would tear oft'the leaves and blossoms for the mere sake 
of mischief, aud from the mere propensity to destroy 
what is lovely. So Sir Joseph Banks, and others of 
those “ old times,” shut up Ivew Gardens, and were 
sedulous aud diligent to take care that when once a 
plant got within their iron gates no mortal out of the 
peerage, and very few in it, should have a cutting or a 
root whereby it might be propagated. 
It never entered among the thoughts of those guar¬ 
dians of the Kew riches that it was possible, or proper, 
that such things should be diffused among the people, 
known to them only as “ the vulgar.” They never seem 
to have suspected that by such diffusion—by fostering a 
taste for such things—by rendering a man’s garden moro 
varied and beautiful, his dwelling more attractive—that 
you weaned him from pleasures not of home-growth, and 
elevated his desires to strive for something less debasing 
than such things as could be found on aud around the 
tap-room table. 
In these “ bad times” of change we go upon a different 
system—we have adopted as a rule, that the more people 
have of new plants, and the more they delight in them, 
the happier aud the better they will be; we let them 
into Kew Gardens unwatched, yet not a leaf is rifled ; 
we build, or they build for themselves, Crystal Palaces, j 
No. CCLXXV., Vol. XL 
