April 22. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION. 
59 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
D 
1) 
\V E A T H K R N K A tt LONDON IN 
1855. 
j 
APRIL 22—28, 1856. 
. . -- • 
Sun 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
ClOCh 
Day of 
M 
\V 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R. 
ik 9> 
Age. 
bf. Sun. 
Year. 
1 . — - 
Inches. 
22 
To 
Staphylinus ceneoccphalus. 
30.473—30.327 
52—28 
E. 
_ 
51 a 4 
6 a 7 
10 
7 
17 
, 
37 
113 
23 
W 
Staphylinus tristia. 
30.503—30 422 
60—22 
N.E. 
— 
49 
8 
11 
23 
18 
1 
49 
114 
24 
Tb 
Staphylinus picipennis. 
30.321—30.174 
69—40 
N. 1 
— 
47 
9 
morn. 
19 
2 
0 
115 
25 
F 
St. Mark. Prs. Al. b. 
1843. 
30.161—30.134 
51—27 
N.E. 
— 
45 
11 
0 
33 
20 
2 
11 
116 
26 
S 
[Ds. Glo, b. 
1/76. 
30.230—30.212 
57—31 
N. 
— 
43 
12 
1 
29 
21 
2 
21 
117 
27 
Son 
Rogation Sunday. 
30.222-30.162 
60-28 
n. : 
— 
41 
14 
2 
e 
2 
31 
118 
28 
M 
Staphylinus decorus. 
1 
30.091—30.046 
1 57—36 
N.E. 
— 
39 1 
16 
2 
39 
23 
2 
40 
119 
Meteorology op the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-nine years, the averagehighest and lowest tem- 
i peratures of these days are 58 . 9 °, anil 37 . 2 °, respectively. The greatest heat, 81°, occurred on the 28th, in 1640 ; and the lowest cold, 18 3 , 
on the 21th, in !S54. During the period 103 days were fine, and on 93 rain fell. 
CYSTO’PTERIS DENTA'TA. 
like a bolder round the leftfit. Stem about one half its 
This is the Toothed Bladder Fern, or Toothed Poly¬ 
pody, aud has been variously described as Polypodium 
dentaturn, Aspidium dentatum, Cyathea deutata, and 
Cystea dentata, while some consider it merely a variety 
of Cystopteris fragilis. Like C. angmtata, we consider 
it sufficiently distinct to be retained as a species. 
1 Root tufted, small; rootlets scattered, rather woolly 
| and black. Frond, pale green, generally correctly 
doubiy-leafleted (bipinnate), some of the lower leaflets 
only, and these in luxuriant specimens, being simply I 
leafited, or cut so as to be nearly leafited (pinnate or 
pinnatifid). The leaflets more or less spread horizon¬ 
tally; nearly alternate. Leaflts egg-shaped, or rounded 
I (our drawing scarcely shows them sufficiently so), 
blunt, abundantly but bluntly toothed ; their ribs wavy, 
their buses not decurrent, though on a winged mid-rib. 
Fructification at the end of the veins, and when nu¬ 
merous, running together, or confluent, so as to seem 
Of all gardening practices during the last forty years, 
perhaps that I have chosen for present consideration 
inis been the most mystified. Certainly, the last half- 
dozen years may have proved an exception, inasmuch 
as people have been retracing their steps, and going 
back to Nature, finding it to be a step in the right di¬ 
rection. When we come to consider what vineyards are 
in Vine-growing countries, and observe how little manu- 
rial matters, comparatively speaking, the Vines are 
allowed, we may naturally feel astonished at, the singu¬ 
lar discrepancy in practice between the culture of the 
Vine under natural conditions, and as a matter of art in 
Britain. Many a Vine-border in thoso kingdoms, ap¬ 
pertaining to a house some thirty or forty feet in length, 
iias consumed as much of valuable manures and com¬ 
posts, in luilf-a-dozen years, as would serve, on the 
average, a llhenish vineyard of an acre or more. 
This I believe to be within the murk; and if so, we 
are naturally led to consider why such should be the 
ease. That Vines out-of-doors, under the hot suns of 
Vine-growing countries, are more severely taxed in re¬ 
gard of their perspiring, as compared with their absorb¬ 
ing, conditions, I should think might be fairly assumed, 
especially when we take into consideration the generally 
drier conditions of atmosphere, as compared with that 
of Britain. If so, why, then, with a heavier demand on 
their foliage, should they succeed with so much less 
food ? 
To be fair, however, in the statement, it is proper to 
observe, that a Vine up a hothouse rafter in Britain, j 
bearing annually, if all be well, from twenty to thirty 
pounds of grapes, has more work of that kind to perform | 
than one like a large Raspberry-bush up a stake, with j 
perhaps a dozen pounds’ weight of grapes, and not by ' 
any means so much surface of foliage exposed to the 
light. This statement, I think, opens the case fairly ; [ 
and let us look a little further into it. 
length without leaflets, very slender, smooth, shining, 
in colour brownish-purple, and rather scaly at the base. 
From six to nine iuches high, aud not so brittle as in 
C. fragilis. 
This species does not appear to have been noticed by 
the older botanists, aud to have been first discovered by j 
Mr. Dickson, about the year 1784, in clefts of rocks in ! 
the highlands of Scotland. In Wales it has been found 
at the foot of the walls of Castle Dinas Bran ; iu Flint¬ 
shire, at Llangollen ; in Denbighshire, on rocks north of | 
the mansion of Trejorwerth, iu Anglesea, and on 
Snowdon. In England it has been found between 
Widdy Bank, and Caldron Snout, in Durham. 
It may be cultivated, probably, the same as directed 
for C. alpina. 
VINE-BORDERS. 
No. CCCXCV. Vol XVI. 
