182 
THE FLORIST AND J'OMOLOGIST. 
and good fruit of the same variety, though 
not rema-kable for weight, came from some 
other exhibitors. Of Grapes upwa ds of 200 
hunches were shown, besides several good 
baskets. In the class for three kinds, Mr. 
Meredith was first with Black Hamburgh, 
equally fine with those which he usually ex¬ 
hibits, Black Prince, and Trentham black; 
and in the class for Black Hamburgh he had 
a first prize for three bunches weighing 
10'| lbs., beautifully coloured, and the large 
even-sized berries densely covered with bloom. 
An equal first prize was awarded in the same 
class to Mr. Clement, East Barnet, for very 
fine bunches; and though these two exhi¬ 
bitors far out-distanced all other compe'itors, 
several excellent bunches were exhibited. 
The only perfectly ripe Muscats were those 
from Mr. Turner, which had acquired that 
beautiful amber tinge which is so desirable, 
and, at the same time, so rarely seen even at 
the July shows. To secure its thorough ripen¬ 
ing the Muscat of Alexandria requires a much 
higher temperature than it generally receives. 
Good bunches of Black Prince were shown by 
Mr. Turnbull, gardener to the Duke of Marl¬ 
borough, at Blenheim, and Mr. Sage, gar¬ 
dener to Earl Howe; and of West’s St. Peter’s 
by Mr. Allport, gardener to H. Ackroyd, Esq. 
There was a fair show of Melons, and Peaches, 
and Nectarines were in most instances very 
fine. The best Strawberries came fr >m Mr. 
Widdowson, gardener to J. H. Barnes, Esq., 
Rickmanswor'h; and of Cherries we noticed 
fine fruit of the Black Tartarian from Mr. 
Turner, Slough, and Mr. Hill, gardener to 
R. Hanburv, Esq., The Poles, Ware. 
In the floral department the most noticeable 
specimen among the stove and greenhouse 
plants was a worked plant of Ixora salicifolia, 
shown by Mr. Peed, gardener to Mrs. Tred- 
well, Lower Norwood ; it stood about 5| feet 
high, and was profusely studded with great 
heads of orange flowers. A finer specimen 
Ixora we rlo not remember to have seen. Fine- 
foliaged plants (including Ferns), Heaths, 
and Pelargoniums, were well represented; 
and some very good Roses in pots came from 
Messrs. Paul & Son. For new plants and 
seedling florists’ flowers numerous certificates 
were awarded to Messrs. Yeitch, Bull, Wil¬ 
liams, F. & A. Smith, W. Paul, and Turner— 
to the last three for Pelargoniums. 
Botanical Appointment. — Mr. W. II. 
Baxter, Curator of the Oxford Botanic Gar¬ 
den, has been appointed to the curatorship of 
the University New Park, where, we under¬ 
stand, it is in contemplation to establish an 
arboretum. 
The Reynolds Hole Testimonial. —On 
the evening of the Royal Horticultural and 
National Rose Show the Rev. S. Reynolds 
Hole was presented with a handsome silver 
tea-urn at a dinner held at Anderton’s Hotel, 
Fleet Street. Some months ago the fact was 
noticed in these pages that a subscription had 
been set on foot for the purpose of marking, 
by a suitable presentation, the obligations 
which the Rose-grov/ers and Rose-lovers of 
this country owe to this gentleman for his ex¬ 
ertions in originating and maintaining the 
National Rose Show, and in extending a love 
for the culture of that flower by his genial 
writings and example. The Rev. H. II. 
Dombrain presided. 
Fruit Tree Plantations on Railway 
Embankments — Plantations of fruit trees, 
consisting of Currants, Vines, and even tall¬ 
stemmed trees, such as Plums, have been es¬ 
tablished at various parts along the Orleans 
line. The plantations, which have been well 
made and kept up, are established in furrows 
along the sloping side of the bank. In this 
way, doubtless, a considerable quantity of fruit 
could be secured from ground by the sides of 
our railways at present lying idle, or worse 
than idle, for such banks are nurseries whence 
weeds are freely disseminated over the adjoin¬ 
ing lands. 
Dr. Hooker has had the distinguished 
honour of being elected a corresponding 
member of the French Academy of Sciences, 
having obtained thirty-two out of thirty-seven 
votes. 
At a meeting of the Imperial and Central 
Horticultural Society of France Messrs. Thi- 
baut and Keteleer, of Paris, exhibited an 
Ch ange tree, obtained by grafting the under 
side of the midrib of a leaf-cutting. The 
operator was a gardener named M. Auber. 
The leafstalk rooted, and the graft took, and 
eventually produced a shoot; but the most 
singular circumstance of this cas j was, that of 
the stem which was eventually produced, 
one half appears to be formed by the leaf¬ 
stalk and base of the midrib, which hake 
thus become ligneous and persistent, and the 
other half by the graft. Two ridges on the 
stem mark the edges of the leafstalk and 
midrib. At a subsequent meeting M. Verdier 
directed attention to a mode of avoiding Rose 
suckers. This simply consists in working 
dwarf seedling Briars beneath the seed-leaves. 
OBITUARY. 
Mr. "William Cock, an extensive market 
gardener at Chiswick, a few years ago well 
known to the frequenters of the metropolitan 
flower shows as a highly successful cultivator 
of the Pelargonium, died at that village on the 
1st of July, at the age of sixty-three. For 
many years his favourite flower was the Pelar¬ 
gonium, and few indeed there were who ap¬ 
proached him in the extraordinary size and 
beauty of the specimens which year after 
year he was in the habit of exhibiting. The 
cultivation of these was with him entirely a 
labour of love—they were in fact the hobby 
to which he devoted what time he could spare 
from the superintendence of his highly-eulti- 
