THE COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 
March 31. 
quantity for sale. It seems as hard as the best maho¬ 
gany, and of a better colour, with the grain as close as 
the red cedar used for pencils, and very much in that 
style. I should not think it quite so heavy as maho¬ 
gany, hut I'or all kinds of furniture and ornamental 
work, ill which mahogany is now used, I should prefer 
the Fitzroi/ wood, because 1 am sure it will take a finer 
polish, and look richer than mahogany when stained or 
varnished. Then, if our hills and waste lands would 
produce such timber, and the great probability is that 
such will be the case, no wonder that the “ landed 
interest ” showed most attention and anxiety at this 
part of the lecture; so much so, that the drop of a pin 
would have made a noise. There was also a sample of 
the hark of Fitzroya exhibited, but not the very outer 
coating. The inner bark is very thick, soft to the touch, 
and of the same cedar colour as the wood. Some of 
those present thought the thickness of the bark was a 
provision of nature to screen the w’ood or tree from the 
rigour of the climate, which is proverbial along that 
range. But surely that, and otlier fanciful ideas to the 
same effect, must be altogether wrong. The bark of the 
Scotch Fir is not thicker at the northern extremity of its 
range, in Europe or America, than it is at the southern 
limit. And the Cork-tree fails to yield the bark of equal 
thickness in the same ratio as it is introduced into a 
more severe climate. 
The next greatest novelty was a seed-cone of one of the 
huge Pines growing in Moreton Bay, and other islands 
in the South Pacific—one of the Araucarias, called I 
Bidwilliana, after Mr. Bidwill. This cone is not more ; 
than six or seven inches long, but its thickness is nearly ! 
equal to its length all the way through, and flat at both i 
ends. It was said that this kind might stand out our i 
climate in the south of Ireland, and even in the south 
of England, in dry, well-sheltered situations. But its 
great value could only be brought out in some of our 
colonies in a warmer climate, where, besides timber, 
shade, and shelter, the seeds of it would become an 
article of food. These seeds are nearly as large as 
beans, and as good and nourishing to eat. 
Speaking of food, we had here, to-day, another instance 
of the value of gathering all sorts of useful plants into 
one place or garden to investigate their comjiarative 
merits. It is now found out, and proved beyond a 
doubt, that tlie Indian Corn which they grow at Cusco j 
is as far superior to the Maize of North America, as is 
the distance between Washington and Cusco, or any j 
part of the Bolivian Andes. We had several heads of' 
the Cusco Maize on the table, in illustration and sup¬ 
port of all this. Experience does not say that this ] 
better Maize is more hardy for our climate ; but the fact 
of its being a better article at the diggings, or Algoa ‘ 
Bay, than the kind universally in use, should not be lost 
sight of. If it was worth while to make a rush for the 
tea seeds distributed at the last meeting, surely this 
Crusco Corn is worth looking after. If 1 were going 
out to Australia to-morrow, I know of a much better 
way of “ digging for gold” than making holes and 
washing the earth. 1 would take out some of all the 
best vegetable seeds in Europe, the best salads, the 
best herbs, the best roots, the best of every thing; and 
now that there is an Association (the Pomological and 
Horticultural) of influential people, formed on sound 
trade principles, and that they pay me a regular salary 
to be their Inspector,or kind of Exciseman, to look after 
stores, weights, and samples, I am now personally in¬ 
terested to see all these things packed in the best man¬ 
ner for all parts under the sun. 
Of Cut Flowers we had two beautiful Water Lilies 
(Nymphaa), the blue and white, from Mr. Weeks’s stoves, 
the celebrated grower of the Victoria Water Lily in the 
open pond. He also sent a very beautiful Bromelwort 
on a block of wood, like a regular air plant. They call 
490 
this a Puya, but that is one of those modern invasions, 
now so common, of substituting new names for old 
ones, against which no legal claims can be produced. 
The real name is Pourettia longifolia ; Puya is a syno- 
nyme. The plant is a dense mass of small bastard 
bulbs, with long, narrow, hard, dry leaves, and grows on 
trees or rocks, or any support that comes in the way, just 
like an exotic orchid. It flourishes through the sum¬ 
mer, goes to rest in winter, when the leaves drop off, and 
then it looks as if it was a dead mass of tangled roots; 
but in the spring the flower buds give the first note of 
returning life, and the leaves come soon after. When I 
first saw it at a distance, on entering the room, I mis¬ 
took it for a new scarlet yEschynanth, and that gives a 
good idea of the plant in flower. The flowers are nu¬ 
merous, and of the brightest scarlet hue; they come 
directly from the roots, and continue live or six weeks, 
if not longer. 'This specimen was in flower for the last 
month, and it looked as fresh as ever; the price is from 
10s. to 40s., according to size, and I should say it is as 
easy to grow as a Cactus or Pitcairnea. 
There was a beautiful prickly Cayenne Pine Agjpde, 
weighing above 51b., from Mr. Bailey, of Shardeloes; and 
before the meeting, there was a consultation upon Pines 
in general, among some grey heads, the result of which, 
I and I promised to give it, was, that there are only three 
‘ kinds of Pine Apples known that are deserving of 
j cultivation in this countrythis Cayenne, the true 
Black Jamaica, and the Queen; and the latter they put 
down as only fit for table from May to October; the 
other two all the year round, and the only two w'orth 
tasting in winter;—but that in many jiarts of Yorkshire, 
Lancashire, and Cheshire, a very inferior pine, with 
tremendous long leaves—the Monserrat Pine Ajiple— 
is cultivated under the name of Black Jamaica; and that 
the whole breed of this Monserrat, Enviles, llavannahs, 
and such like, ought to be annihilated, to make room 
for the three aforesaid. 
About Orapes I have seldom been more gratified than 
now. I am never satisfied without personally testing 
any new fruit or flower; and some may recollect what I 
said last autumn about this Society and the Black 
Barharossa Grape. Let bygones be bygone, how'ever; 
but this is, without the slightest shadow of a doubt, a 
better hanging Grape than the Black St. Peter, and as 
good to eat as the Black Hamburgh, and the St. Peter 
is not better. On tbe 15th of March wohad two bunches 
of the Muscat of Alexandria, slightly shrivelled, it is 
true, but none the worse for tlie top of a dish in a first- 
rate dessert. Between the tw'o w'as a bunch of the Black 
Barharossa, looking just as fresh as it did last September, 
for I have examined the whole of it, round and round; 
the bloom was perfect also; indeed, it looked so much 
like a bunch of this year's growth, that the lecturer had 
to tell the difference, for fear we should run away with 
that idea, for we all bad seen as good.new grapes from 
Mr. Forbes, the Duke of Bedford’s gardener, six weeks 
before. We had also the history of it in the lecture, as j 
far as it can be traced. 'The late Mr. Ward, of the Isle i 
of Wight, brought it first into notice, and gave cuttings 
of it to his friends. He gathered Grapes, and other 
fruits and flowers, from all parts of the world, to be 
compared, under his own eye, in that favourable climate, 
and this grape appears to have been his favourite; but 
the memorandum about where he had it from was lost 
before the value of the fruit was ascertained, and so tar, 
the name Barharossa is fictitious; and if the verdict of a 
certain number of gardeners, whose hair has turned 
grizzly cultivating the Black Hambrough, is of any 
worth in this question, the Black Barharossais a seedling 
from the Black Hambrough, and the best seedling, too, 
since the day the Esperione was first proved ; the new 
seedling being the best keeper of all Grapes, whatever, 
and the Esperione the hai'diest Grape of all the Black 
