May 4. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
CO 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
» 
w 
MAY 4—10, 1854. 
Weather near London in 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
1853. 
ltain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. b S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
4 
Th 
Dolomedcs mirabilis. 
30.0/3—30.042 
55—39 
E. 
_ 
29 a 4 
25 a 7 
1 
38 
7 
3 
22 
124 
5 
F 
Salticus scenicus. 
30.141 — 30.014 
61—31 
E. 
— 
27 
26 
2 
9 
3 
3 
28 
125 
6 
s 
Ixodes ricinus. 
29.994—29.547 
1 50—35 
N.E. 
— 
25 
28 
2 
32 
9 
3 
33 
12s 
, 7 
Sdn 
3 Sunday after Easter. 
29.649-29.530 
' 42—28 
N. 
24 
23 
30 
2 
51 
10 
2 
3/ 
127 
8 
nr 
Petrobius maritimus. 
29.615—29.560 
' 53—29 
N.W. 
02 
22 
31 
3 
7 
11 
3 
42 
128 
9 
To 
Cvchrus rostratus. 
29.510—29.40/ 
52—36 
s. 
24 
20 
33 
3 
23 
12 
3 
45 
129 
10 
w 
Carabus intricatus. 
30.020—29.771 
1 56—27 
N.W. 
02 
18 
34 
3 
38 
13 
3 
43 
130 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-seven years, the average highest and lowest tern- 
peratures of these days are 62.5° and 40./° respectively. The greatest heat, 81°, occurred on the 6th in 1830 ; and the lowest cold, 28°, on the 
4th in 1852. During the period 112 days were fine, and on 77 rain fell. 
NEW PLANTS. 
Exacuji MAGT.anthum ( Large-flowered Exacum). 
There is reason for hoping that this very beautiful 
In gardening quite as much as in any other pursuit in 
life, if its practitioners assume anything as sure to come 
to pass, usually they will be disappointed, and if they 
do not provide for the possibility of its not coming to 
pass they as usually suffer for their temerity. Leave 
nothing to chance, is an anxiom as full of protective 
wisdom in gardening as in war. 
I We were led into this train of warning reflection 
j from having walked round a kitchen-garden during the 
morning of Monday, the 24tli of April. We never saw 
| the crops more forward, more healthy, or more abun¬ 
dant. The Asparagus thick, and wearing a vigorous 
green hue; the Gooseberries, on some bushes, as large 
as the ripe beans of the Scarlet Pamner; Potatoes with 
leaves and stems spreading broadly, and site inches 
i above the surface; Cherries with leaves fully expanded, 
j and fruit thickly set, and as large as peas; and Straw¬ 
berry-blooms thick in clusters, and expanding their 
broad faces to the warm and unclouded sun. The wind, 
member of the Gentianworts will be cultivatable as an 
annual or biennial, find bloomed in our open borders. It 
was first discovered by the late Mrs. General Walker, who 
found it at an elevation of 6,000 feet in the mountains of 
Ceylon. That lady was one of the most ardent of botanists, 
and of skilful portrait-painters of plants we ever had the 
pleasure of knowing. We met her some fifteen years since 
during the hottest period of the year, in India, yet she was 
still adding to her stores, for although the climate was a 
barrier that she could not surmount so as to search the 
jungles and other localities for plants personally, yet she 
1 employed many native explorers, and rewarded liberally 
those who brought her any floral treasures. 
This Exacum bloomed first in these islands at the Glas- 
i nevin Botanical Garden, in the December of 1853, under 
5 the skilful management of Mr. Moore, the curator. It 
bloomed there in a stove. In what does this differ from 
the Exacum teres of Dr. Wallich ? The flowers are a beau¬ 
tiful gentian-blue, and the plant about eighteen inches high. 
—(Botanical Magazine, t. 4771.) It belongs to the Natural 
\ Order of Gentianworts, and to Pentandria Monogynia of 
j Linnieus. 
FircAiRNU muscosa (Hoary Pitcairnia.) 
This member of the Pineapple-worts belongs to the 
! Ilexandria Monogynia class and order of Linnieus. It grows 
in small tufts, and blooming freely in December, its scarlet 
blossoms rendering it a desirable decoration for the plant- 
stove during the winter. It is a native of Serra de riedade, 
in Brazil.— (Ibid. t. 4770.) 
Saccolabium denticulatum (Toothed Saccolabium.) 
An Orchid not sufficiently conspicuous to render it an 
object for exhibition. It is a native of Ivhaysa in Eastern 
Bengal.— (Ibid. t. 4772.) 
still in the east, however, was chilly, and we remarked 
that that day, the 24th, was the day on or about which 
severe night frosts almost invariably occur. We pointed 
to the Potatoes especially, and recommended that a ridge ! 
of earth should be drawn up on each side of every row, I 
and a little littery straw be scattered over them at night, J 
to be removed in the day, until danger was passed. Our 
auditor, however, seemed to think that summer had ' 
“ found some of the months asleep, and leaped them 
over.” He thought that it was going to be just such a 
season as his father remembered in seventeen hundred 
and something, when the thermometer never fell to the 
freezing point after March, and the earth got so warmed 
that, to uso his own words, “ winter was put aside 
wholly.” 
We visited that kitchen-garden again on the morning 
of the 25th of April, and we were glad that our auditor 
of the previous day was not there. Phe thermometci 
during the night had fallen to 21°, accompanied by a 
No. CCXCIL, Vol. XII. 
