March 2. 
TFIE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
Weather near London in 1853. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
— 
w 
MARCH 2—S, 1854. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. Wind. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
2 
3 
4 
5 
0 
7 
8 
Th 
F 
S 
Son 
M 
Tv 
W 
Drassus ater; stones. 
Clubiona lapidicola. 
Arauea domestica; house. 
1 Sdnday in Lent. 
Forbicina polypoda; stones. 
Cicindela campestris; paths. 
Ember Week. 
29.503—29.389 
30.087—29.810 
30.113—29.982 
29.840—29.838 
29.897—29.862 
29.937—29.917 
30.043—29.932 
45— 27 
40—21 
46— 35 
49— 39 
55—44 
54—34 
50— 29 
N.W. 
N.E. 
S. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
10 
03 
12 
02 
11 
03 
46 a G 
43 
41 - 
39 
37 
35 
33 
39 a 5 
41 
43 
45 
46 
48 
50 
9 47 
11 1 
morn. 
0 14 
1 24 
2 30 
3 33 
3 
4 
5 
6 
1 
8 
9 
12 25 
12 13 
11 59 
11 46 
11 32 
11 17 
11 3 
61 
62 
63 
64 
65 
66 
67 
Meteorology of the Week.—A t Chiswick,from observations during the last twenty-seven years, the average highest andiowest tem- 
5 th a inT 8 45 During ^ loo f ,2 ° res P ec . tivel 5 r ’ , The B«atest heat, 66°, occurred on the 8th in 1826 ; and the lowfst cold, 13°, on the 
otn in 1845. During the period 122 days were fine, and on 67 rain fell. * * 
NEW PLANTS. 
Ceropegia Tjtwaitesu (Mr. Thwaites’s Ceropcgia). 
The name, of the genus, derived from keros, wax, and 
pege, a fountain, refers to the waxy appearance and form of 
the flower, for although in the above sketch the flowers 
appear unexpanded, yet they never become more opened, 
but retain this fountain-head form. The specific name is in 
honour of Mr. Thwaites, who sont the plant, in 1851, from 
Ceylon to Kew. They belong to the Natural Order Ascle- 
pinds, and to Pentandria Digynia of Linnaeus. It is not 
unlike Ceropegia bulbosa, as we remember seeing it growing 
in India. It flowered at Kew in September, 1853. The 
plant is a twiner; the young stem and leaves are frequently 
tinged with red; calyx of five sepals, green tinged with red ; 
corolla with yellow tube funnel-shaped, “very narrow 
below the middle, much inflated, and almost globose at the 
base, dilated upwards, and there sprinkled with dark, blood- 
red spots.” The root of C. bulbosa is solid and eatable. It 
is a native of the Coromondel coast, and is called by the 
natives Manchy-Mandu.—(Botanical Magazine, t. 4758.) 
It has been often noted that the world must be cir¬ 
cumnavigated before a washerwoman can be comfortably 
at breakfast with tea and sugar in her caddy; and now 
it is a truth as strange, that Cape Horn must be doubled 
twice before Scotch farmers can excel in Wheat crops. 
Never was a “ truth stranger than fiction ” more strange 
than the truth, that those farmers now depend, in a 
great measure, for such crops, upon the manure made 
by sea-birds on the furthest—most western—coast of 
South America. 
When Pizarro first conquered the country of the 
Incas, he found the Peruvians using that manure as a 
No. COLXXXHI., Vox. XI. 
Passiflora Medusa:a (Medusean Passion-flower'). 
Believed to be from Mexico. It is a climber, and blooms 
in November, when trained along the rafter of a stove. 
Leaves crescent-shaped, with two rows of yellow pellucid 
glands, from the leaf-stalk towards the concave edge of the 
leaf. Calyx pale yellow green ; the filamentous crown pale 
crimson. Flowers rather small. — (Botanical Maqazine , 
t. 4752.) 
Cirrhopetalum cornutum (Morn-bearing Cirrhopetalum). 
This Orchid is a native of the Khasya Hills of eastern 
Bengal, and bloomed at Kew in the September of 1803. 
blowers in a radiating umbel. Upper sepals yellowish, 
sprinkled with purple ; lower ones purplish, and united so 
as to resemble a horn. Odour like “that of bad glue.”— 
(Botanical Magazine, t. 4753.) 
Coleus Blumei (Blume's Coleus). 
This is a Melissa or Balm-like plant, chiefly remarkable 
for the leaves, all but their green margins being of a dark 
crimson or blood colour. The plant was sent by Mr. Low, 
of the Clapton Nursery, to Kew Gardens. The flowers, 
purple and white, are in long, upright clusters or racemes. 
It is a native of Java. Sir AV. Hooker says :—“ Nothing is 
more easily cultivated, and no stove should be without it, 
for it flowers throughout the summer, and till the setting in 
of the winter.” It belongs to the Natural Order of Lipworts, 
and to Didynamia Qymnospermia of Linnaeus.— (Botanical 
Magazine, t. 4754.) 
Dendrobium cymbldioides (Cymbidium-like Dendrobium). 
This Orchid is the Desmotrichum cymbldioides of Blume, 
but that genus has been incorporated with Dendrobium. 
“ Native of the lofty wooded mountains of Gede Salak, in 
Java.” Sepals and petals yellow, labellum white, sprinkled 
near the base with purple. —(Botanical Magazine, t. 4755.) 
Billbergia thyrsoldea (Dense-flowered Billbergia). 
This Pine-applewort is a native of rocky places near Rio 
Janeiro. It was sent to the Kew Gardens by Messrs. Hen¬ 
derson, of the Nursery, St. John’s Wood. It has erect, 
prickly - edged leaves two feet long. The flowers are 
crimson, and in a very dense bunch or thyrse, and its size 
and beauty are increased by the bractes being of the same 
colour, and descending some distance down the flower-stem. 
It is a stove plant, and flowered at Kew in the November of 
1853. —(Botanical Magazine, t. 4756.) 
fertiliser, and among the thoughts which never crossed 
his brain most certainly were the facts, that some three 
centuries after, instead of Peru being the land of gold. 
she would derive a chief portion of her revenue from 
that dung of the sea-birds! Yet such a fact is only one 
more illustration of the truth, that all which appertains 
to the cultivation of the soil is a more enduring source 
of wealth than the veins of gold which may traverse 
its substrata. 
That our agriculture has greatly benefited by the use 
of Guano, this “ dung of the sea-birds,” requires no 
further proofs than are afforded by the deputation of the 
