1884 .] 
FUCHSIAS ON KAFTEES.-SELAGINELLA VIEIDANGULA. 
141 
With the certain prospect that there will be 
little autumn fruit to gather, and assured of 
the worst, fruit growers are naturally thinking 
now of the outlook for the coming year. 
Business men, great as may be their losses 
from time to time, cannot afford to despair. 
It is wisest to accept the inevitable and to 
make the best of a bad condition, still looking 
hopefully for better things in time. The 
growers argue, two such disasters can hardly 
happen in successive seasons. Therefore the 
probable fruitfulness or otherwise of all kinds 
of hardy fruit-trees naturally forms an interest¬ 
ing subject of observation, and having regard 
to the absence of check to abundant growth 
because of the lack of fruit, we see the 
grower absolutely rejoicing at the long-con¬ 
tinued drought, or comparative drought; for 
throughout the Midland and Southern Counties, 
at least, no rain has fallen that can in any way 
materially affect the roots of the trees. They 
reason that a flood of moisture just now would 
promote such an activity of vegetation as to 
endanger the now forming and ripening buds 
on the wood, and possibly produce an abnormal 
autumn growth that would prove most injuri¬ 
ous. Ample wood has already been produced, 
and the one great need is the thorough ripen¬ 
ing of what is formed. This continued dryness 
for a few weeks longer will materially aid, 
whilst there is yet ample life and vigour in the 
trees, to create and mature fruit-buds—indeed, 
these are already plentiful and stout, so that 
whatever may be the result another year 
(should all things go well during the remainder 
of the present season), there will be no lack of 
bloom, and without that factor fruit crops can¬ 
not possibly follow. 
Of the Potato Ceop the reports received 
from many diverse quarters of the United King¬ 
dom show that there is a comparative absence 
of disease, while the wide area of the drought 
will result in reduced produce in all early 
kinds. The late sorts are everywhere showing 
luxuriant growth, and, so far, little or no evi¬ 
dence of supertuberation. Thus all things 
point to a splendid crop, and through that a 
notable addition to the food of the people. 
To have reached the end of July with reports 
of disease seen of only the most inconsiderable 
kind, shows a circumstance in the history of 
modern Potato culture well worthy of comment. 
There is every prospect that, with a good corn 
crop, one of the best for many years, we shall 
see a wondrous Potato produce, and these two 
things combined must help to keep food cheap 
through the winter.— [Gardeners' Chronicled) 
FUCHSIAS ON KAFTEKS. 
EW plants contribute more to the gaiety 
of the conservatory or flower garden 
than the Fuchsia ; few plants are more 
generally grown; and there are few 
plants more largely cultivated for decorative 
purposes. The varieties now extant are so 
numerous that there is difficulty in making a 
selection. 
The Fuchsia is generally grown either as a 
pyramid or bush, but to see it in perfection 
it must be trained up a rafter in a cool house. 
There is no better way of showing its fine rich 
pendant flowers to advantage than to train 
it up the rafters. I have nowhere seen them 
better done in this way than they are in the 
Gardens of Ribston Park, where they are grown 
to perfection. They have been planted out 
more than twenty years, and are now large 
plants, chiefly of old varieties, such as Rose of 
Castile and Venus de Medici, there being 
several plants of the latter. Standing at either 
end of the conservatory and taking its full 
length into view, the sight is most beautiful 
and striking; the profusion of flowers is as¬ 
tonishing. Some of the visitors to Harrogate 
who see over the grounds at Ribston, which 
are open to the public one day in the week, 
through the kindness and liberality of the 
proprietor, Mr. Dent, will not soon forget this 
beautiful sight.—M. Saul, York. 
SELAGINELLA VIRIDANGULA. 
NEW species of Club-moss, intro¬ 
duced from the South Sea Islands by 
Mr. B. S. Williams, of Holloway, to 
whom we are indebted for the ac¬ 
companying illustrations. It is one of the 
climbing species, with the habit of S. Will- 
denovii, long known in gardens under the 
unauthorised name of 8. casia arborea, but 
differing in sundry details of structure. It 
bears also some degree of resemblance to 
S. canaliculata, a fine Indian and Oceanic 
species introduced both by Mr. W. Bull and 
Messrs. Veitch of Chelsea. The presence of 
these three scandent species in our gardens 
furnishes useful material for the tasteful plant¬ 
ing and furnishing of tropical ferneries; and 
the species we now figure is by no means the 
least elegant when in a fully developed con¬ 
dition, the long tail-like spikes of fructifi- 
