254 
THE ELOKIST AND POMOLCGIST. 
varieties do on tlie older wood. After pruning, the surface should be stirred 
up, and some good rotten manure forked in round the roots. By giving atten¬ 
tion to these simple rules, any person may have exuberant growth, large flowers, 
and brilliant colours.” 
Rose Mrs. John Berners. —A new Hybrid Perpetual with very compact rosy 
pink flowers, bright and distinct in colour. The name of the raiser is not stated. 
The August and September Numbers of L’Illustration Houticole con¬ 
tain the following plates :— 
Blais guineensis .—The Oil Palm of Western Africa, an ornamental species, 
which has been known for considerably more than a century. It is the tree 
from the fruit of which is obtained the palm oil of commerce, annually 
imported into this country to the value of about £1,750,000. The tree grows 
from 20 to 30 feet high, and has a stem from 12 to 16 inches in diameter, and 
naked for one or two-thirds of its height, though deeply marked with the scars 
resulting from the old leafstalks dropping off, and above this point it bristles 
with their remains, terminating in a crown of pinnate leaves from twelve to 
twenty in number, and varying from 10 to 15 feet in length. The species also 
occurs in tropical America, whither it is supposed to have been introduced, but 
at what date is uncertain. 
Camellia Mrs. Dumbrain. —Flowers large, with very small petals, closely 
and regularly imbricated, of a delicate rose colour, becoming paler towards the 
edges, and finely veined with a somewhat deeper rose. The leaves are divided 
by the midrib in two unequal parts. 
Jacaranda digitalijlora albijlora .—A variety sent to M. Verschaffelt from 
Rio de Janeiro, and having white flowers with a yellow throat. 
Alnus glutinosa aurea (Golden-leaved Alder).—A variety of the common 
Alder, in which the leaves exhibit a handsome golden variegation, and which 
promises to be useful for pictorial effect in groups or planted singly on a lawn. 
It sprung up in a seed-bed in the nurseries of Madame Vervaene & Son, at 
Ledeberg, and is in the hands of M. A. Verschaffelt, of Ghent. 
Rhododendron Archiduc Etienne. —A hardy hybrid variety raised by M. A. 
Verschaffelt. The trusses, as well as the individual flowers, are large; the 
latter are white, densely covered in the upper petals with a multitude of small 
dark chestnut brown spots, which at a little distance appear as if forming one 
large blotch, intersected lengthwise through the middle by a white vein. The 
spots do not extend so far as the margin of the petals, and as they approach 
it they are set further apart; they also exist at the base of the lower petals. 
A group of Pompone Chrysanthemums concludes the September Part. 
OUR MONTHLY CHRONICLE. 
Royal Horticultural Society. — The 
number of persons who visited the gardens at 
South Kensington on the Wednesdays of 
September, on which days the grounds were 
free to the public, was 21,283; but the ex¬ 
periment of free admission is not likely to be 
repeated this year on account of the annoy¬ 
ance caused by disorderly boys who resorted 
to the gardens to play. At a joint meeting of 
the Floral and Fruit Committees on the 2nd 
of October, at which Messrs. John Yeitch, 
Standish, Turner, Fraser, and some other 
leading nurserymen and exhibitors attended, 
the proposal of holding a four-days Exhibition 
in 1867, which had been mooted at the pre¬ 
vious meeting, was discussed and approved of, 
provided the prize list be made sufficiently 
liberal to compensate for the increased risk of 
deterioration to the plants, involved in the 
longer duration of the Show, and the greater 
expenses entailed on the exhibitors. We 
may add that the project of holding a show 
next year at Bury St. Edmunds in connection 
with that of the Royal Agricultural Society 
has been abandoned, in consequence of the 
only site that could be devoted to the purpose 
being unsuitable. 
Perpetual Roses.— In the last Number 
of the “ Revue Horticole,” M. Lebas remarks 
that a large proportion of the Perpetual 
Roses after once blooming only produce a few 
