240 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 3. 
the buds for the next year, consequently, the crop of 
1853 was slight again. In this instance, I will admit it 
was much affected by some sharp frosts in May; on the 
6 th of that month the thermometer indicating 6° of frost. 
This was fatal to Cherries and many other orchard-fruits, 
while the summer was again a wet and cold one, the 
autumn especially so; butthe deficiency of fruit enabled ' 
the trees to attain a little strength, so that the crop of 
1854 was good, the spring being a dry one; and we 
escaped the severe frosts which did so much damage { 
about London at the end of April. The lowest range I 
have on record, after the 10th of March, was 0° of frost 
on the 13th of April, the atmosphere and ground being j 
exceedingly dry at the time. The orchard-fruit was j 
moderately good, also, better than in 1853; and though 
the month of May was a dull, cold one, and the three 
following ones no way remarkable, yet September and 
October were fine, enabling the buds to be again per¬ 
fected in a way calculated to ensure a crop, barring 
extraneous causes. 
Before saying anything of the crop of the present 
year, I may mention, that we have had our full share of 
severe weather the past winter; the early part of it, up 
to the middle of January, being mild ; after that, to the 
middle of March, was one continued frost, or nearly so, 
the ice at the end of it being eleven inches thick on the 
ponds, and the lowest point of the thermometer 6° on 
the 10th of February; the quantity of snow not being very 
great, but very much drifted, so that some of it was still 
lying in the full sun on the 10th of April, and possibly 
later where it had been drifted. I may remark, that 
the latter part of March and the whole of April was 
dry; the whole rain I have registered for the latter month 
being 0.20 inch, and that all fell in the second week. 
May has been much more moist, there being 2.32 inches 
of rain that month; and up to the time 1 write, the ,12th 
of June, we have had about half-an-inch of rain. But 
the spring has been an unusually cold one, without being 
in any one instance remarkable for frost; for I find, after 
the 2nd of April, my thermometer only once sunk as low 
as 28°, while on the 16th of that month it rose to 79°, 
in the shade, but the generality was very cold, the days 
being more so than the nights; consequently, vegetation 
was much retarded, and none of our orchard-fruits were 
fully in bloom until the 12th of May; but from then to 
the 23rd, some fine days brought the whole out; not, how¬ 
ever, until the trees had been more clothed with leaves 
than usual, and the subsequent fine weather hastened 
their period of setting, so that the “ beauty of our 
orchards,” was of shorter duration this year than usual; 
and at the time I write, although I may say there is a 
general promise of a fruitful season, it is not so 
generally so as was expected some time since; so 
many causes combining to create fertility, or other¬ 
wise, that it is even yet too soon to say, for a certainty, 
whether everything will be plentiful or not. Wall-fruit 
certainly looks well, and the trees healthy; Apricots 
excepted; which, being over-taxed last year, are more 
sparingly set this. Gooseberries are also a good crop, and 
Red and White Currants pretty well; but “ Black ” are 
not so good as was expected; and I fear the Raspberries 
have suffered from the severe winter. Cherries are set well, 
and Plums may be said to be nearly the same. Pears are, 
however, irregular; some of the early, common sorts, as 
Sweet Water, Crawfurd, and Green Cliissel are plentiful 
enough, while the better kinds look thin; and 1 am far 
from certain that the Apple crop is past danger yet, as 
I saw some trees in the middle of an Orchard, whose 
south or south-west sides had the blight in its worst 
features; and though this may not yet be general, it is 
possible it may bo so; and those who have witnessed its 
pernicious effects know full well that all hope for a crop 
is over when it attacks. It is somewhat singular that it 
should proceed from the direction we think the most 
congenial one for the wind to be in, yet such is the case; 
however, it is to be hoped that the evil will stop without | 
going farther; and I think we may reckon on a good 
fruit year, providing that the weather and other things | 
favour the development of the fruit now set. But 1 ' 
will report hereafter; in the meantime I may say, that 
the results of the last few years have materially altered 
my opinion of the “ setting ” of fruits, as well as the 
protection and other treatment they are subject to ; but 
as the subject is too long a one for the present article, I 
must wind up by a few extracts from my registry of the 
weather, which will, perhaps, enable others keeping 
notes to compare them together, so as to see wherein 
the difference between the present and former years 
really lies. 
Asparagus up on 12th April 1850 
11 11 
10 
„ 1851 
17 11 
10 
„ 1852 
11 11 
19 
„ 1853 
11 11 
17 
„ 1855 
Cuckoo heard on 
16 th 
April 1850 
11 11 
15 
1851 
11 11 
18 
„ 1852 
11 11 
12 
„ 1853 
11 11 
15 
,, 1854 
11 11 
.18 
„ 1855 
gbtingale beard 
on 10th April 1850 
11 71 
13 
„ 1851 
11 11 
12 
„ 1854 
11 11 
21 
,, 1855 
Peas in blossom on 13th April 1852 
Swallows seen on 21 „ 1852 
Apple blossom partly out 19th April and fully so 23rd 1854 
„ „ 19 May „ 22nd 1855 
The above notes I have selected as bearing on 
differences of the seasons, which is the most remarkable 
in the blossoming of fruit, last year and this; but as 
there are other causes at work besides those generally 
attributed, it is needless saying more here than that the 
disparity, in a great measure, was in the April of 1854 
being unusually fine, while the May of that year, as well 
as the whole spring of this, has been unusually cold ; 
yet it is possible that a fortnight of fine weather after the 
present time will restore things to their balance again. But 
I will return to this subject; in the meantime, 1 shall be 
glad for our friends to forward any particulars corre¬ 
sponding with the above from their different localities. 
J. Robson. 
HOW NEMOPHILA SHOULD BE SPELT. 
To save time and trouble allow me to quote the following 
paragraph from the communication of “ H. G. M.,” at page 
211 :— 
“ In the Cottage Gardeners’ Dictionary, page 031, there is 
an article on the Ncmophila (so spelt). The derivation of 
the name there given, is “ from nemos, a grove, and pinko, 
j to love, from an erroneous idea of their place of growth.” 
| If I now find fault with the incorrectness of this derivation, 
at least let me bear my testimony to the ingenuity of it. 
But, let me suggest that nemus (not nemos) is the Latin 
for a grove, and cpi\eco (pliileo), the Greek for I love. So 
that, at best, this precious word is a Grscco-Latin monster. 
But I well remember when this flower was first introduced 
as an annual—1833 is the date given for the N. insignis, 
which is, perhaps, the most common. Its najne in those 
days used to be Nemo'phylla, derived, I imagine, from vt/xu 
(nemo), to distribute, and (pl/Kbou (phylion), a leaf, probably 
from the spreading habit of its growth. It seemed good, | 
however, to divers fine ladies, to lay the accent on the second 
syllable, instead of the third, and the poor Nemophylla I 
became fine-lady-ized into Nemo'phylla ; and then, of course, I 
