(Tune 26 . 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
D 
M 
D 
VV 
JUNE 26—JULY 2, 1855. 
Weathernear London is 
1853. 
Sun 
Sets. 
EIopu 
11. & S. 
Eicon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
D»v 0 ! 
Year. 
Ilarometer. 
Thermo. Wind. 
Kain in 
Inches. 
bun 
Rises. 
26 
Tu 
Lampyris noctiluca. 
29.690—29.651 
68—48 
S.W. 
_ 
46 a 3 
19a 8 
1 1 
12 
2 
23 
1/7 
27 
VV 
Dasytes fiavipes. 
29.790—29.725 
65—49 
S.W. 
17 
16 
19 
1 20 
13 
2 
35 
178 
28 
Th 
Queen Victoria’s Cor. 1838. 
29.649—29.611 
68—43 
S.W. 
06 
47 
19 
1 49 
14 
2 
48 
] 79 
29 
F 
St. Peter. 
29.615—29.590 
71 — 41 
S.W. 
— 
47 
19 
rises. 
© 
3 
0 
180 
30 
S 
Elalacbius ruficollis. 
29.803—29.606 
70—51 
w. 
41 
48 
18 
gall 
16 
3 
12 
181 
1 
Sun 
4 Sunday after Trinity. 
29.918—29.878 
61-49 
w. 
02 
III 
VIII 
10 19 
17 
3 
23 
182 
2 
M 
Conocephalus griscus. 
29.949—29.876 
69—55 
S.W. 
02 
49 
- 18 
10 47 
18 
3 
35 
183 
Meteorology of the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 72.7°, and 51°, respectively. The greatest heat, 93°, occurred on the 27 th, in 1826; andfthe lowest cold 35 ° 
on the 30th, in 1649. During the period 115 days were fine, and on 81 rain fell. 
In all artistic compositions, to be most pleasing to tbe 
eye, the figures must be arranged so that the outline of 
the whole approaches to that of a pyramid—the most 
important figures being the loftiest, and in the middle, 
and the subordinate figures gradually lower on each 
side. This is a rule so universal that bouquets are 
not excepted from it. 
To form with facility a good pyramidal bouquet, 
hitherto, has been a very difficult task. The central 
flowers, if to be arranged in a vase of water, either bad 
to be so long-stalked that but few flowers were fitted for 
the place of honour, or such large portions of the plant 
giving them birth had to be cut off as completely to 
disfigure it. As a further ill consequence, so many 
flowers were required to form a table-bouquet that it 
became either a very expensive ornament, if purchased, 
or very inconvenient to supply from home growths, 
unless plants were specially grown for the purpose. 
As flowers have become a very fashionable table 
decoration, many plans have been proposed to economise 
the consumption of flowers employed for their formation, 
but the only one who has succeeded is Mr. Daniel Stead, 
Gardener, Marsh Grove, Huddersfield. 
The following drawing will give a better idea of his 
Pyramidal Bouquet Stand than any description we can 
employ. 
2 in 
6 me- 
\ 
The upper portion is a metal cylinder pierced with 
holes all round, each of which have to be supplied with 
water poured in at the single hole at the top. The in 
genuity of the contrivance is in having all the holes 
from the top to the bottom supplied with water. This 
we can assure our readers is effected ; and as each hole 
is large enough to admit a flower stalk, and the water is 
close up to each hole, we need not do more than point 
out the great saving of flowers which is thus accom¬ 
plished, for those with very short stalks can be here 
employed. 
We recommend it to all our readers who can afford 
the outlay, and an advertisement elsewhere in our paper 
to-day tells where it can be obtained. 
“ I have often,” says Boswell, “ amused myself with 
thinking, how different a place London is to different 
people. They whose narrow mind is contracted to the 
consideration of some one particular pursuit, view it 
only through that medium. A politician thinks of it 
merely as the seat of government in its different depart¬ 
ments; a grazier as a vast market for cattle; a mer. 
cautile man as a place where a prodigious deal of 
business is done upon ‘ Change’; a dramatic enthusiast 
as the graud scene of theatrical entertainments; a man 
of pleasure as an assembly of taverns. But the in 
tellectual man is struck with it as comprehending the 
whole of human life in all its variety, the contem¬ 
plation of which is inexhaustable.” 
Now that the Crystal Palace at Sydenham has added 
one great attraction to the lovers of gardening, it may be 
interesting to many who have not visited London for 
several years, and to others who may be strangers in 
the great Metropolis, to know how they could most ad¬ 
vantageously spend a few days in pursuit of their 
favourite amusement. 
For tbe successful management of the various pro¬ 
ductions required at his hands, a gardener is always 
pondering on the best methods to be adopted to pro¬ 
vide for each particular plant, fruit, or vegetable; the 
constitutents necessary to advance it to the highest 
state of perfection. Gardening has progressed to its 
present position by a series of experiments; one gar¬ 
dener improving upon the experiments of another, until 
the wholo of the art has now become practice founded 
upon well-attested facts, and to be still further advanced 
No. CCCLII. Vol XI Y. 
