THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 15, 1859. 
103 
Pompones, in cut tranches, from Mr. George, Hanger 
Lane, Stamford Hill. They were not named, but the 
more popular sorts were conspicuous among them, such 
as Bob, Brilliant, Ste. Thais, Alexander Bell, Helene, 
Bijou de VIlorticulteur, Trophe, Requiqui, Cedo Nulli, 
and so forth. 
Many other collections made up the grand show, at 
which all parties seemed well pleased; and there was a 
design for a Pompon e-bed in the centre of the great 
transept, with which I was particularly taken on account 
of the artistic style of getting the colours into the best 
effect, and to show the way of grouping round-headed 
plants in the “natural way ” with standards, in a richly 
artistic basket without a bottom. That was the best 
thing that has yet been done in the Pompones, and the 
credit of it belongs to the Crystal Palace people. The 
basket was eight feet in diameter, with a high handle 
bound round with cable, and covered with Ivy, had the 
times permitted; in the very centre stood a standard of 
Aigle d’ Or, and round it, but not near it, a match pair of 
Brilliant, in standards, and another match pair of Bob, 
President Decaisne (dwarf), in the centre; under, Aigle 
d' Or, and rounded with the next shade of light pink, 
after Madame Rousselon, but not her madamship; and 
outside a broad band of yellow slightly bronzed—a trick 
which improves all yellow Calceolaria-beds. The clear 
yellow was of Aigle d' Or and Brin Drin, and the bronze 
from the tipped variety of Sacramento. These are the 
things to pay one for going to such exhibitions. Anything 
new in good taste is sure to tell on the visitors in the 
long run. 
In the afternoon I took a run all over the garden to see 
what the frost had done, and I did not see a leaf hurt. 
Yeronica speciosa, in full bloom all over the borders, up 
and down; and salic folia in thousands of bloom-buds,— 
both apparently established as hardy evergreens there. 
Swans and ducks were on the great lakes, and sharp¬ 
shooters were at their rifles in their practising-ground, 
firing away at three-halfpence per shot, per long range, 
and in proportion for shorter distances. The lakes round 
the beasts before the flood were alive with white ducks, 
and happy children feeding them and making them run 
with all their might to catch plum cakes and biscuits— 
the first time I ever saw ducks galloping. D. Beaton. 
VARIETIES. 
Arctic Ocean —The principal production of the Arctic Ocean 
has been the whale. This valuable fish abounds chiefly where 
the current is strongest—near the respective confluences, as it 
were, of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic and the Pacific. 
The whale-fisheries on the west of Spitsbergen, and on both sides 
of Greenland, scarcely need to be mentioned further. But it 
may not be generally known, that, according to official returns as 
quoted by Admiral Eeechey, the Americans had, in two years, 
drawn more than 8,000,000 of dollars, or upwards of £1,600,000 
sterling, from the whale-fishery of Behring Strait alone. On the 
side of East Siberia, however, the Arctic Ocean produces a more 
remarkable article of traffic. Here are found, in the greatest 
abundance, the bones of the mammoth. Spring after spring, the 
alluvial banks of the lakes and rivers crumbling under the thaw, 
give up, as it were, their dead; while the islands lying off the 
Yana, and even the depths of the sea itself, literally teem with 
these mysterious memorials of antiquity. The American half of 
the Arctic Ocean, if it cannot boast of fossil ivory, presents 
something still more difficult perhaps to be explained. In lat. 
74° 25', and lat. 76° 15' respectively, Captain M'Clure and 
Lieutenant Mecham discovered large deposits of trees, apparently 
indigenous, of considerable size. Writing of Banks’ Island, 
M‘Clure has the following passages : ‘Front the summit of these 
hills, which are 300 feet high, to their base, abundance of wood 
is to be found, and in many places layers of trees are visible, 
some protruding twelve or fourteen feet, and so firm that several 
people may jump on them without their breaking: the largest 
trunk yet found measured one foot seven inches in diameter — 
equivalent in girth to about five feet. Again, ‘ I entered a ravine 
some miles inland, and found the north side of it, for a depth of 
forty feet, composed of one mass of wood. Some of it was 
petrefied, the remainder very rotten, and worthless even for 
burning.’ Writing of Prince Patrick Island, Mecham has the 
following passage: ‘ Discovered buried in the east bank of the 
ravine, and protruding about eight feet, a tree of considerable 
size. During the afternoon I found several others of a similar 
kind : circumference of first and second tree seen, three feet; of 
another, two feet ten inches. From the perfect state of the 
bark, and the distance of the trees from the sea, there can be but 
little doubt that they grew originally in this country. I sawed 
one through: it appeared very close-grained, and was so im¬ 
mensely heavy that we could carry but little of it away.’— 
{Chambers's Encyclopadia .) 
African Snakes. —While at tea the conversation turned upon 
snakes, and our friends told us they were very numerous; that 
recently the wife of one of the people, awaking in the night, felt 
something on her arm, which she took hold of, thinking it was 
the infant who slept in the same bed, but found it was a large 
snake, which had crept between her and the child. It bit her 
thumb, but the bite did not prove poisonous. They also con¬ 
firmed the opinion that the bones of certain snakes are poisonous ; 
stating that, during the late war, a Eingoe when on patrol trod 
on the bones of a serpent, and was pierced in the foot. His foot 
swelled, then his leg, and afterwards his whole body, and he died 
in two months. In this case the wound might have been in¬ 
flicted by a living snake, but the general opinion is as above 
stated. In a country abounding, as Africa does, with serpents, 
I expected to hear many anecdotes respecting them ; and con¬ 
versing on one occasion with Mr. Pullen, a farmer who has lived 
many years in the country, and seems to have paid rather more 
than usual attention to this species of reptile, he said he once saw 
a mouse running in a field, and that, coming in sight of a snake, 
though at a considerable distance, it instantly stopped. The 
snake fixed its eye on the mouse, which then crept slowly 
towards the snake, and, as it approached nearer, trembled and 
shrieked most piteously, but still kept aproaching until quite 
close, when it seemed to become prostrate, and the snake then 
devoured it. On another occasion he had watched a snake 
capture a mouse in the same manner ; but, as it was retreating, 
he followed, and struck it on the back with a stick, when it 
opened its mouth, and the mouse, escaping, ran for some distance, 
then fell down, but after a minute recovered and ran away. 
Another time he said he watched a snake in the water which had 
fixed its eye upon a frog sitting amongst the grass on the bank. 
The frog, though greatly alarmed, seemed unable to stir, until 
Mr. Pullen gradually pushed a rush growing near, so that it 
intervened between the eye of the snake and its intended victim, 
when the frog, as if suddenly liberated, darted away. Mr. Pullen’s 
ideas were in accordance with the popular notion that the snake 
has the power of exercising some mesmeric or other influence 
through the steady fixing of its eye, and that whatever intercepts 
this gaze breaks, as it were, the charm, and sets the prisoner free. 
— {Ellis's Madagascar.) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Mushroom-bed (A. K .).— You may commence forcing now in your 
frame, especially if you can construct the bed under a shed. 
Asparagus-bed (0. G. Read). —Your Asparagus-bed having sunk down 
to the level of the path is no misfortune ; and if it sink down below the 
path all the better, for it will he a basin which you can fill with house 
sewage, or other liquid manure—the best of applications to Asparagus. 
Salt is not indispensable for the cultivation of this vegetable; and as your 
soil is clayey, we would not apply it, except dissolved in the liquid manure. 
Salt spread over the surface of a clay soil does cause it to cake. 
Stove for Small Greenhouse (A. R.). — No stove, nor any kind of 
fuel, without a tube to carry off the smoke or fumes is admissible among 
plants. See the subject fully discussed in our No. 522. 
Skeleton Hotbed Frame [A Subscriber). — Covered with water-proof 
felt it will do to force Mushrooms tinder. 
Brown Blotches on Camellia Leaves (A Constant Reader ).—There 
are several causes that will produce such spots, increasing in size, on 
Camellia leaves. If the plants stood in a house with an iron roof, and that 
roof has rusted, and the rust along with condensed drops of water fell on 
the leaves, and remained some time there, and more especially if the sun 
shone bright before the moisture was evaporated. Again, if there were 
spots on the glass, so as to concentrate the sun’s rays upon parts of the 
foliage. In such a case, spots will be burned on hard, leathery leaves like 
those of the Camellia, when more flimsy leaves would escape. Again, if 
the house is kept so long shut in the morning that the sun heats power¬ 
fully' upon it before the leaves are dry, the moisture in the house and on 
the leaves together produces scalding. We think yours have been done 
by bad glass, or iron droppings. We are glad the plants are full of blos¬ 
soms, and you must just make the most of them. No appliance will ever 
succeed in restoring to green vigour the leaves thus affected. They will 
all fall during the winter and spring. At least, they will do so when you 
