18TS. ] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
47 
Long Red Surrey Carrots , tlie latter for 
the main crop, Leeks , Onions , Lettuces , 
Radishes , &c. Take advantage of fine drying 
weather to sow seeds in the open ground, but 
Celery and other things raised in boxes can be 
sown at any time. Raise a few Cucumbers and 
Vegetable Marrows in heat, for planting out 
by-and-by, as required. 
Fruit Garden.— Pruning and nailing must 
be proceeded with without delay, and should 
further planting be necessary, lose no time in 
doing it. Gooseberries , Currants, and Rasp- 
hemes should be pruned at once, and the soil 
dug about them. All this cannot be completed 
too soon, for a general advance is now percep¬ 
tible, owing to the balmy influences that are 
abroad.— Suburbanus. 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
^=A®)HE Annual Meeting of the Royal 
<( 1 ^T> Horticultural Society, on February 
12, which was presided over by Lord 
Aberdare, was very thinly attended. The Council 
in their Report to the Fellows, referred, as they 
were bound to do, to the work of the several Com¬ 
mittees, as having been most assiduously performed 
—these being, in fact, the backbone of the Society. 
The Society’s Journal was referred to apologetically, 
with a hope that it would shortly reappear in a form 
worthy of the Society, which it has not done lately ; 
and we may add a hope that if at all it will also appear 
more promptly. The Provincial Show fund having 
been misappropriated by a former Council, “ cannot 
be recovered,” and so the form of guarantee for the 
Preston Show is to provide for the future security 
from “ misappropriation ” of any profits from such a 
source. Chiswick stands out nobly as having done 
its work well. “ The ordinary receipts for the year 
have exceeded the expenditure by £11 17s. Id., to 
which must be added the sum of £336 19s. 7d., 
levied upon and paid by the Society in past years 
in respect of rates, which should have been paid by 
her Majesty’s Commissioners, and which they have 
repaid to the Society.” If the Horticultural body 
will now but rally round the old flag, there seems to 
be some hope for the future. 
— SMe have received from Mr. Shaw, of 
Finchfield, Wolverhampton, the first part of 
his Illustrations of Ferns for Amateurs, 
an attempt to supply the means of identifying ferns 
without much letter-press description. The idea is 
a good one. Reduced figures of twelve species are 
given on a page, and opposite these are somewhat 
enlarged portions of the same, the intermediate 
pages being occupied by descriptive notes. The 
reduced figures of the plants are in many cases not 
very characteristic, while the figures professing to 
give an enlarged view of the parts are in them¬ 
selves so small as to be practically useless, though 
in the space devoted to them there is room for 
much better figures. Were these indeed larger and 
better worked out, so as to give the details with 
more clearness and accuracy, the book would be 
much more likely" to bo useful. 
— ®iie Schedule of Prizes for the Show 
of the National Auricula Society (Southern 
Section), at the Crystal Palace, on April 25, has 
been issued for some time, and can be had of the 
Hon. Secretary, E. S. Dodwell, Esq., 11 Chatham 
Terrace, Larkhall Rise, Clapliam, S.W. The prizes 
are similar to those offered last year. There is yet 
a deficiency in the subscriptions for prize-money, 
which the officials would gladly see filled up, and 
contributions towards which would bo thankfully 
acknowledged by Mr. Dodwell. The rules and con¬ 
ditions for showing are the same as those of last 
year, the innovations then introduced being, we 
believe, generally regarded as advantages. 
— £n districts where Pea-sticks are not 
readily obtained, Wilkinson’s Trainer for 
Peas, represented in the annexed figure, may 
be recommended as a handy substitute. With ordi¬ 
nary care, they last a lifetime. Having feet and 
stays complete, they can be fixed by any labourer, 
and be put down after the peas are sown without 
disturbing them. The figures represent one of the 
Pea-trainers, which can be adapted to any length of 
row bv increasing the number of intermediate 
standards, each row requiring a straining standard, 
a terminating standard, and one or more intermedi¬ 
ates, according to the length, the usual distance 
apart being 15 ft. The smaller figure is the strainer. 
A is the head'through which the wire is passed. The 
wire is pulled tight and cut off, and the ends just 
turned back. On the end of the head, near the 
screw, are two teeth which work in cogs on the 
standard, preventing the wire from slipping back 
when turned round, which is done by inserting a 
square key in the end. B shows the end and key-hole. 
After the wire is as tight as required, the nut, C, is 
tightened up with the spanner, thus making it im¬ 
possible for the pulley to turn back. The inventor 
is Mr. Wilkinson, of Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire. 
A form with vertical wires is made for Scarlet 
Runners, and the trainers are also recommended for 
Raspberries and espalier fruit-trees. 
— &n excellent portrait of John Claudius 
Loudon, painted by Linnell, has been secured 
by subscription, and will be presented by the 
subscribers to the Linnean Society. The portrait 
is half the size of nature, an excellent likeness, and 
remarkable as a work of art; and it has been 
obtained at a cost much below its real value, on 
condition of its being placed in the Linnean 
Society’s rooms. 
— Ft has been observed that in certain 
soils and situations, more than in others, 
Variegated-leaved Plants show a disposi¬ 
tion to lose their variegation. Now, it has been 
ascertained by recent experiments that the ashes of 
white and of green leaves differ very much in their 
