THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 10, 1859. 
Seedling Apple of about medium size, greenish-yellow on the 
shaded side, and dull red next the sun. A month ago it would 
have been in good condition ; but it had now become mealy. It 
had the remains of a good-flavoured Apple, somewhat like that 
of London Pippin. 
Mr. E. Simpson, gardener to Lord Wrottesley, W rottesley 
Hall, Wolverhampton, sent a dish of very beautiful Dumeloio’s 
seedling, large, firm, and heavy. They have been beautifully kept. 
From the Rev. Henry Manton, of Sleaford, was received a dish 
of Scarlet Nonpariel, which was considerably shrivelled, but 
well-flavoured, and were also well kept for that variety. 
The next Meeting of the Society will be held on the 23rd of 
June. 
VARIETIES. 
Japan as recently seen. —"We arc afraid to trust ourselves 
to a minute description of the country scene through which we 
now rode. It was neither monotonous nor stiff; yet the road, 
fields, ditches, drains, and cottages, all looked as if they had just 
been constructed, tilled, clipped, planted, or cleanly swept, ready 
for special inspection;—industry combined with the greatest 
economy of space and material, blended with taste and beauty. 
Our precious saddle—we won’t use violent language, fair reader— 
was enough to knock all appreciation of the picturesque out of 
any one, and it is the best guarantee for our not exaggerating 
what we saw. There were orchards of Pears and Peaches, where 
the trees were trained over neat trellises of Bamboo, as if they 
had been Tines—bright patches of the Taro plant spread their 
dark-green broad leaves on the one hand ; and on the drier soil 
the Millet plant of Northern China flourished, as well as the 
rich golden cars of the Indian Corn. Now a gentleman’s house 
appeared within a neat enclosure of hedge, as well clipped as 
that of a London suburban villa ; but its stiffness of outline was 
broken by a Japanese Convolvulus having been allowed to run 
over it, loaded with many-coloured flowers. Very fine groves of 
trees were seen; and wc noticed among them two sorts of Pine 
tree, one which throws out its sprays like the Norfolk Island 
Pine, and the other the ordinary one peculiar to Japan. The 
Maple, Chestnut, Walnut, and Oak, we likewise recognised, or 
trees very like them, and the Orange was not rare. Bamboo was 
plentiful; and finding it in a climate which in the winter is un¬ 
doubtedly severe, we could not help hoping that if, as well as the 
Banana tree of China, may be naturalised on the south coast of 
England. We were anything but tired of the scenes through 
which we were riding, when the Temple of Tetstze came in sight; 
and we rattled through a street, followed by a vast throng of 
wonder-stricken Japanese, and turned into the portals of the 
temple. A broad well-paved court led to a building that stood 
upon a lofty basement. A fine flight of granite steps led to the 
porch, round which, as well as up the steps, there was a 
balustrade in stone and bronze. The interior of this Buddhist 
temple consisted mainly of a very elaborate altar, having a 
raised dais in front, carefully railed round, upon which there was 
the most extraordinary collection of metal castings, mostly of 
white copper, we ever saw. They were, no doubt, offerings to the 
placid stucco deity, which was ensconced behind candlesticks, 
lights, and silken banners. Everything was clean, neat, and in 
working order, evincing that the religion, such as it is, is active 
in Japan, not dormant, worn-out, effete, as in China. The 
priests were well to do, decently clad, and reverent in then- 
appearance, and were treated with respect. The Principal saluted 
Lord Elo-in, and paid him every attention, offering to conduct 
him over the grounds and cloisters. Time, however, pressed for 
the ride back to the Embassy, and the civility was declined. On 
reaching the porch, the scene round the grand flight of steps, and 
across the court, was such a sight as only Japan could produce 
upon so short a notice. Every space was literally crammed with 
human beings. The corridors of the temple, the galleries in the 
cloisters, the walls and roofs which overlook the yard, were black 
or brown with men, women, and children. It w r as a wonderful 
sight. They shouted, not violently, but shouted with astonish¬ 
ment and delight at the spectacle the half-dozen Europeans 
afforded them." The prospect of having to fight a way through 
such a sea of human beings was not cheering ; but three or four 
policemen quietly cleared the way, and a path opened before us 
to the gate. There the policemen checkmated the crowd, who 
were on the point of rushing after us into the street, by securing 
the gates instantaneously, amidst a roar of indignation from the 
thousands who found themselves thus shut up within the limits 
of the temple. Then came cries, and laughter, and a rush; and 
as we rounded another portion of the temple ertclosure, the 
prodigious crowd had collected for a last gaze at us, where a 
broad intervening ditch, however, prevented them from incom¬ 
moding the strangers. Returning by the way we had come, we 
halted for refreshment at “the Hotel of Ten Thousand Centuries,” 
which was as decent a house as a good many European countries 
could produce, and a vast deal cleaner and more moderate than a 
great many we could mention in Great Britain. Functionary 
No. 2 here ate and drank himself into such a state of supreme 
contempt for foreigners, that he left us; and we only caught sight 
of him again for a moment in what might have been the window 
of his club, where, surrounded by swells as great as himself, to 
whom he was pointing out the various members of our party, he 
had a bevy of Japanese houris dancing attendance upon him. 
As our cavalcade neared Yedo, it was certain that it had been 
expected to return by this route, and all Kanagawa, Omagawn, 
and the inhabitants of that part of ledo, wel*e there to starp. 
The crowd at a Lord Mayor’s Show, in the old days when such 
glories were, can alone bring before the reader the idea of sueh a 
vast mass of human beings thus brought together. The pave¬ 
ment, side-streets, and houses were full; yet no insult was met 
with, and no hindrance suffered. In places where the crowd in 
a side-street threatened to block the thoroughfare by pouring 
into the main street, a small piece of rope or string was stretched 
across from corner to corner, and no one dared to break the 
fragile barrier. In the suburbs, at 5 r.M., everyone was bathing, 
and “cleanliness first, modesty afterwards!” seemed to be their 
motto. In some cases, the tubs were outside the doorways, and 
the family enjoyed themselves in the open air, rubbing themselves 
down in the steaming hot water with cloths ; others had their 
tubs in the room on their ground-floors, but the front of the 
house was perfectly open ; and the manner in which the fair Eves 
stepped out of their baths, and ran to stare at us, holding a 
steaming hot and squalling babe, was a little startling.— (A Cruise 
in Japanese Waters.) 
How the IIoonuman Monkeys Kill Snakes. —The Banyan 
tree is the favoured habitation of these monkeys; and among its 
many branches they play strange antics, undisturbed by any foes 
excepting snakes. These reptiles are greatly dreaded by the 
monkeys, and with good reason. However, it is said that the 
monkeys kill many more snakes in proportion to their own loss, 
and do so with a curiously refined cruelty. A snake may be coiled 
among the branches of the Banyan, fast asleep, when it is spied 
by a Hoonuman. After satisfying himself that the reptile really 
is sleeping, the monkey steals upon it noiselessly, grasps it by the 
neck, tears it from the branch, and hurries to the ground. He then 
runs to a flat stone, and begins to grind down the reptile’s head 
upon it, grinning and chattering with delight at the writhings 
and useless struggles of the tortured snake, and occasional^ - 
inspecting his work to see how it is progressing. When he has 
rubbed away the poor animal’s jaws, so as to deprive it of its 
poison-fangs, he holds great rejoicings over his helpless foe ; and, 
tossing it to the young monkeys, looks complacently at its de¬ 
struction. 
Bamboos. — Immense quantities of fine Bamboos are floated 
down the various rivers of the western coast of India. It is one of 
the riches of the provinces'. They are ordinarily sixty feet long, 
and five inches in diameter near the root. These are readily pur¬ 
chased standing at five rupees per 1000, and small ones at three 
rupees and a half per 1000. Millions are annually cut in the 
forests, and taken away by water in rafts or by land in hackeries ; 
from their great buoyancy they are much used for floating the 
heavier woods as Mutte (Terminalis iomentosa), and Biti (L)al- 
lergia arboreal), and piles of them are lashed to the sides of the 
Paltimars going to Bombay. The larger ones are selected as out¬ 
riggers for ferry boats, or studding-sail booms for small crafts. 
In addition to the vast export by sea, it is estimated that two 
lacs are taken from the Soopah talook eastward. The Malabar 
Bamboo is much smaller than that of Pegu (Pambusa gigantea), 
which is eight inches in diameter. 
Mode of Floating Timber. — It is curious to see the clever 
management pf the floaters, who are a distinct class of persons. 
Rafts are of all sizes, usually longer than broad, and the logs 
bound together by the stringy bark of various trees, and stout 
branches passing through the draglioles at right angles to the log. 
In the centre of the raft a small hut is generally made of thatch, 
or Bamboo lathes, covered with Palmyra leaves ; in this the 
floaters are sheltered at night. It is not usually considered ad¬ 
visable to float logs when the river is at the fullest, as the raft is 
