July 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
28!) 
n 
M 
D 
W 
JULY 20-26, 1854. 
Weather near London in 1853. 
Barometer. 'Thermo. Wind. } la \ n * n 
i Inches. 
Sun ! 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. Si S. 
Moon’s 
A g e. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
20 
Til 
Cossonus hypoleucus. 
29-987—29.859 
71—55 
S.W. 1 — 
8 a 4 
4 a 8 
0 
17 
25 
6 
0 
201 
21 
F 
Sun’s declinat., 20° 31' n. 
29.831 —29 750 
70—58 
S.W. 06 
9 
3 
0 
43 
26 
6 
4 
202 
22 
s 
Prionus coriarius. 
29 . 765 — 29.610 
' 70—48 
s. 01 
11 
2 
1 
16 
27 
6 
7 
203 
23 
Sun 
6 Sunday after Trinity. 
29 . 972 - 2 g. 8-9 
1 715—53 
S.W. — 
12 | 
0 
2 
0 
28 
6 
9 
204 
24 
M 
iSaperda lineato-collis. 
29 . 829 — 29.719 
72-47 
S.W. — 
13 
VII 
2 
55 
29 
6 
11 
205 
25 
Tu 
St. James. Ds. Camb. b. 
1797. 
29783—29.776 
7 3—52 
S.W. 04 
15 
58 
set*. 
& 
6 
12 
206 
26 
W 
Leptura apicalis. 
29.831—29798 
63—56 
S.W. — 
16 
56 
9 
a 8 
1 
6 
12 
207 
Meteorology of the Week.—A t Chiswick .from observations during the last twenty-seven years, the average highest and lowest tem- 
i peratures of these days are "2.5° and 52° respectively. The greatest heat, 92 °, occurred on the 25th in 1644 ; and the lowest cold, 40 ’, on the 
' 24th in 1838. During the period 101 days were fine, and on 88 rain fell. 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
{Continued from ‘page 209.) 
Dhaba incana : Twisted-poclded Whitlow Grass; Hoary 
Whitlow Grass ; Small Wreath Cress. 
Description .—It is a biennial. Root long, tapering, with 
numerous hair-like rootlets. Herb all over hoary, with 
minute, starry, crowded and close - pressed hairs, very 
variable in stature and luxuriance, like most biennial or 
annual plants, according to the moisture or nourishment it 
receives. Stem from two to twelve inches high in a wild 
state, two feet when cultivated, simple or somewhat branched, 
copiously leafy, its starry downiness accompanied by, or 
sometimes in the lower part changed for, fine long simple 
hairs. Root leaves elliptic-lanceolate, forming in the first 
season a dense rose like tuft; those of the stem, the fol¬ 
lowing year, very numerous, scattered, stalkless egg-shaped, 
ribbed, variously toothed or cut, seldom, except in starved 
plants, quite entire. Flowers numerous. Calyx hairy. Petals 
white, inversely heart-shaped, twice the length of the calyx, 
with taper claws. Partial flower-stalks very hairy, scarcely half 
the length of the pouch, which is about half-an-inch long, 
elliptic-lanceolate, or oblong, more or less oblique, uneven, 
or twisted half-round, in the direction contrary to the sun’s 
course, flat not tumid, the edges thick, the summit crowned 
with the extremely short thick style, and depressed capitate 
stigma. The surface of the pouch in British specimens 
always smooth. 
Time of flowering .—May and June. 
Places where found .—On the top of limestone mountains 
in England, Scotland, and Wales. Not common. 
History .—This is the Draba coniorta of some botanists. 
Bay first discovered it to be a native of our Island. It is 
more plentiful in Lapland, and other northern countries of 
Europe.— {Smith. Martyn. Ray.) 
On the 10th instant there was a meeting in Regent- 
street, London, for the purpose of establishing a Society 
for the promotion of fruit culture, and the first step 
taken is certainly most encouraging. 
It will be seen from an advertisement in our to-day's 
paper that Sir Joseph Paxton has become its President, 
and that among the forty members enrolled already, 
there are some of the best known pomologists and gar¬ 
deners of the day. We earnestly recommend our 
readers to become members; for every ten shillings, 
which is the amount of the annual subscription, will 
strengthen the Society’s power to work out the good 
which it purposes, and we are quite sure that each 
subscriber will he benefited to a far greater value than 
the'sum he subscribes. 
It will bo seen—“ That the Society has for its objects 
the promotion, gonerally, of fruit culture in the British 
dominions; that it will especially direct attention to the 
production of new varieties of fruit, examining and re¬ 
porting on their merits, as well as striving to classify 
them.” 
Now, towards the improvement of fruits, by promo¬ 
ting the production of varieties, little or nothing has 
been done lately in this country, if we except the Straw¬ 
berry from the list of the neglected. Yet it is not 
because much cannot he effected; the late President of 
the Horticultural Society, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Williams, 
of Pitmaston, are unimpeachable witnesses to the 
contrary ; nor did they exhaust the treasury of improve¬ 
ment, for since their time we have had many superior 
varieties raised in Belgium, France, and America. 
That the Society may protect the public from dis¬ 
appointment, by reporting on the merits of new varieties 
of fruits, is beyond all dispute, and it will he a centre to 
No. CCCIIL, Vol. XII. 
