THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 9, 1857. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
143 
D 
M 
D 
W 
JUNE 9—15, 1857. 
Weather ni 
Barometer. 
car London in 
Thermo.| Wind. 
1856. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock' 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
9 
'Tu 
Butterwort (Pinguicula). 
30.128—30.062 
75—49 
S.W. 
— 
46 a. 3 
12 a. 8 
10 
38 
17 
1 
6 
160 
10 
W 
Meadow Clary (Salvia). 
30.083—30.064 
76—37 
N.E. 
— 
45 
13 
11 
12 
18 
0 
55 
161 
11 
Th 
St. Barnabas. 
30.066—30.004 
76—39 
S. 
— 
45 
14 
11 
36 
19 
0 
43 
162 
12 
F 
Wild Clary (S. verbenaca) 
29.920—29.854 
66—55 
S.W. 
12 
45 
14 
11 
53 
20 
0 
31 
163 
13 
S 
Butterfly Orchis (O. bifolia). 
29-777—29.525 
64—54 
s.w. 
24 
44 
15 
morn. 
21 
0 
19 
164 
14 
Son 
1 Sunday aft. Trinity. 
29-779—29-568 
65—37 
S.W. 
04 
44 
16 
0 
8 
22 
0 
6 
165 
15 
M 
Lizard Flower (Satyrium). 
30.102-29-909 
75—35 
N.W. 
— 
44 
16 
0 
20 
€ 
bef. 7 
166 
Meteorology of the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 71.3°, and 48.8°, respectively. The greatest heat, 90°, occurred on the 12th, in 1842 ; and the lowest cold, 34°, 
on the 13th, in 1849. During the period 107 days were fine, and on 89 rain fell. 
USEFUL GARDEN GRASSES. 
FESTU'CA OYI'NA TENUIFO'LIA. 
(Slender-leaved Sheep’s Fescue.) 
This is one of the best of our lawn Grasses. It is a 
perennial, with roots fibrous, numerous, long, hair¬ 
shaped, smooth, and blackish. Stems averaging ten 
inches in height, square in the upper part, erect, slender, 
rather stiff*, smooth, leafy below only. Leaves chiefly 
rising from the roots, very numerous, in dense tufts, 
pointed, long, folded so as to be fine and bristle-like, 
rough ish, dull green. Leaf-sheaths angular, or furrowed. 
Stipules very short, blunt, having on each side a polished 
tubercle at the top of the sheath like a knot. Flower- 
head a small, erect panicle, close, and unilateral. Florets 
nearly cylindrical, pointed, smooth at the base, and at 
the edges of the inner valve awned in Festuea ovina, 
but not awned in F , ovina tenuifolia; keel scarcely pro¬ 
minent, upper part roughish from very small tubercles. 
One valve of calyx only three-quarters the length of the 
other. Flowers in June and July. It belongs to Tri- 
andria Digynia. 
This is an excellent lawn Grass, for, unlike Festuea 
ovina , it is not of a very tufted habit of growth, has 
shorter stems, more slender leaves, is brighter green, 
thrives best on a light, dry, garden soil, grows early, and 
continues of a good colour late in the year. 
It was known to Ray, who describes it as Gramen 
capillaceum locustellis pennatis non aristatis. It is good 
for the making of Leghorn bonnets, because the stems 
are very fine, only jointed near their base, and are nearly 
of an equal thickness throughout. 
We have great pleasure in announcing that the 
Horticultural Society’s Gardens will be open to 
the public without any payment for entrance during 
the whole of this week. This is to enable visitors to 
inspect the implements and other horticultural manu¬ 
factures there assembled. They well deserve inspec¬ 
tion. 
CRYSTAL PALACE FLOWER SHOW.— May 30th. 
This was one of the largest Flower Shows, if not the 
very largest, that ever was held in England. I never saw 
more plants put together with among them so few of 
second and third rate merit. The fruit was also very 
abundant, and some of it was very good, but the great 
bulk of it was inferior. Grapes and Pines were the chief 
of the whole. The Pines were particularly uneven in 
the degrees of comparison, as of good, better, best; 
big, bigger, biggest; small, smaller, smallest; and the 
English language is so decided in the adjectives that we 
are not able to express the qualities and qualifications 
but to one half the extent they could do in the Gaelic 
language. We have no words in the language to 
express the different degrees of ripeness among the 
Grapes, the white ones being the least ripe. There were 
about a dozen of pot Grapes, and some Raspberries also, 
very few Peaches, Figs, or Cherries, and no orchard- 
house trees at all. There were not many really new 
plants, but some of the newest were of great interest and 
value. The stove and greenhouse plants in collections 
in bloom were magnificently grand. The variegated 
and fine-leaved collections were good, but variegated 
only as angels’ visits ; except the collection which won 
the second prize I would disqualify them “ in the 
lump ” for lack of variation. 
No. CCCCLIV. Vol XVIII. 
