206 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
produce if suitable prizes be offered. The 
Crystal Palace Show, on the 5th and 6th of 
this month, that at Edinburgh on the same 
days, and the Brighton Exhibition in the 
following week, are events which will be 
looked to with some interest. 
Royal Horticultural Society. — The 
fortnightly meetings continue to sustain their 
interest, and the subjects brought before the 
Committees increase in number as the season 
advances. Indeed, these meetings have quite 
assumed the character of small exhibitions, at 
which, instead of a heterogeneous mass of ma¬ 
terials, all the subjects shown are either novel, 
or, if old, of real interest: such meetings are 
most instructive. In addition to the Society’s 
other shows, it has been determined to hold 
one annually in connection with that of the 
Royal Agricultural Society. Next year Bury 
St. Edmunds is to be the place of meeting 
for the latter Society, and if sufficient en¬ 
couragement be held out by the district, the 
experiment of holding an annual migratory 
horticultural exhibition will be inaugurated. 
That such an exhibition may be made most 
conducive to the advancement of horticulture 
is certain, and that it maybe made financially 
successful there is every reason to believe. 
Wo also understand that the Council have ar¬ 
ranged that Mr. Eyles, the Society’s Super¬ 
intendent at Kensington, shall give to the 
Fellows his advice and assistance in the lay¬ 
ing-out and management of their grounds at 
a guinea a-visit,' and this privilege will no 
doubt be regarded as a boon by many who 
have hitherto been unable to avail themselves 
of Mr. Eyles’a great experience in such 
matters. On Monday, the 27th inst., when 
the gardens were thrown open free to the 
public, in commemoration of the Prince Con¬ 
sort’s birthday, upwards of 100,000 persons 
visited the grounds. The bands of the 1st 
and 2nd Life Guards, and of the A, B, G, 
H, and T divisions of Police gave their ser¬ 
vices gratuitously, and contributed much to 
the enjoyment of the public. The Council 
have also very liberally determined to open 
the gardens free every Wednesday during 
the months of September and October. 
Purification of Water. —Mr. Alfred Bird, 
of Worcester Street, Birmingham, has recently 
patented a simple, inexpensive, and apparently 
efficient mode of divesting water taken from 
rivers, ponds, tanks, or wells of all impurities. 
The process has been suggested by the known 
affinity of hydrated alumina for organic mat¬ 
ters; and the object is accomplished by the 
addition of one part ter-sulphate of aluminium 
in solution to seven thousand parts of the 
water—that is to say, twenty drops of the 
former to every gallon of the latter. As soon 
as the mixture takes place, a cloudy haze is 
seen in the water, which haze rapidly con¬ 
denses into flocculi, with spaces of clear water 
between them. As the flocculi become more 
dense, they rapidly descend to the bottom of 
the water, leaving it absolutely free from all 
organic colouring matter, as clear as crystal, 
and free from taint. The lime, which is in 
solution in the water as a carbonate, combines 
with the sulphuric acid of the ter-sulphate, 
and forms sulphate of lime. The liberated 
hydrate of alumina instantly attacks the organic 
matter, which it renders insoluble, and both 
rapidly descend to the bottom of the water, 
while the carbonic acid gas which remains in 
the water imparts to it a sparkling freshness. 
The time required for complete precipitation 
is from six to eight hours; so that, if the patent 
precipitant be added to it over-night, the water 
will be ready for use in the morning. Ten 
thousand gallons can as quickly be purified by 
this process as a single gallon. When the 
operation is performed in a large jug, decanter, 
or stone jar, the clear fluid thus obtained may 
be poured off, care being taken that the sedi¬ 
ment is not disturbed; and from a cask, cistern, 
or other large vessel, it may be drawn by a 
tap furnished with a small piece of sponge or 
quantity of cotton wool to arrest any flocculi 
which may not have completely settled down. 
The patentee suggests that large bodies of 
water may be purified by the same means, 
openings being provided in reservoirs and 
tanks for the occasional removal of the sedi¬ 
ment. The cost of the precipitant presents no 
obstacle to its use, as a quantity sufficient for 
thirty gallons of water costs only one penny. 
—(Midland Counties Herald.) 
The Stork a Gardeners’ Friend. —Gar¬ 
deners have often useful auxiliaries, whose 
merit they do not appreciate, and we would 
particularise the stork as one. In a recent 
journey we saw one of these birds in the 
garden of M. Talabot, at Marseilles, where it 
constantly walks about like a policeman, 
looking after evil-doers in the borders, and 
giving no quarter to the insects, reptiles, 
moles, which it may come across. Thanks 
to its long and powerful beak, which the bird 
uses like a pickaxe, mice find him a terrible 
enemy, from whom they are not safe even 
in their subterranean retreats, for he has a 
fine scent, and with his pickaxe beak turns 
up the soil in search of them. We observed 
a similar thing at M. Leroy’s, at Angers, 
where three storks act as a garden police from 
morning to night. They never go in-doors 
except in severe frosts, when they betake 
themselves to a sheltered place at night and 
during bad weather. As long as they can 
find anything to eat in the garden they do 
not require any food to be supplied to them; 
but when, in consequence of great drought 
or bad weather they cannot find enough 
there,- they do not fail to show themselves at 
the kitchen. Having made a meal there 
they again return to the garden. It is 
curious to see how they run to the kitchen 
when fish is being prepared; however far off 
