144 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ September, 
— $;Tr. G. Paul lias found tlie Earliest 
Strawberry to be the French variety named 
Pauline, With him it was ripe on June 10th, 
three or four days before the Black Prince. The 
fruit of Vicomtesse Hericart de Thury, growing 
beside it, had not attained more than half its size, 
It seems to be a free-bearing kind, of good size, with 
a less proportion of small fruit than most of the 
earliest sorts. The Journal of Horticulture refers to 
its distinct earliness, and to the good size and quality 
of its peculiar elongated fruit. 
— ®he Annual Meeting of the Pelar¬ 
gonium Society was held, according to an¬ 
nouncement, on August 3rd, in the gardens of 
the Boyal Horticultural Society at Chiswick. The 
report of the Committee showed a steady advance 
in the prosperity of the Society, though the aid of 
generous friends is still needed in order to sustain, 
and if possible enlarge, its operations. Its chief 
effort has hitherto been made in the direction of 
exhibitions, which have been encouraged as the most 
ready means of acting on the sympathies of the 
public; and that of the present year was in every 
respect satisfactory. The amount paid in prizes, 
which were well contested, was £124; and eighteen 
First-class Certificates have during the season been 
awarded to novelties in the several groups of Pelar¬ 
goniums now cultivated. The balance-sheet show's a 
sum of £41 19s. Id. in the hands of the Treasurer, to 
be carried on to next year’s account. The officers 
elected for the ensuing year were :—Chairman, Mr. 
T. Moore; Vice-Chairman, Mr. W. Paul; Hon. 
Treasurer, Mr. H. Little; Hon. Secretary, Mr. S. 
Hibberd. As is customary on these occasions, the 
members present w'ith their friends partook of lun¬ 
cheon in the great vinery, and a pleasant, social hour 
closed the proceedings for 1880-81. 
— En reference to Insectivorous Plants— 
as it is tbe fashion to call those with fly-catching 
leaves and flowers—Mr. P. Henderson, writing 
in the Scientific American, observes :—“ During the 
summer of 1878 exhaustive experiments made with 
the Carolina Fly-trap ( Dioncea muscipula) showed 
that the so-called ‘ feeding ’ of the plants in no way 
conduced to their health and vigour, being identical 
in all respects with those that had not been given 
any insects. Why because the exudations from a 
plant are such as to cause an insect to adhere to it, 
or its mechanical formation should entrap the insect, 
w'e should jump to the conclusion that it should then 
feed on its prey, it is hard to imagine. On the Cruel 
plant ( Physianthus albens) hundreds of moths, 
butterflies, and other insects may be seen any day in 
August when the plant is in bloom, dead and dying, 
firmly held by their antennas. Professor Thurber 
thus describes the trap contrivance, by w'hich the 
insect is caught:—The anthers are so placed that 
their spreading cells form a series of notches in their 
ring around the pistil. The insect in putting its 
proboscis down for the honey must pass it into one 
of these notches, and in attempting to withdraw it 
the end is sure to get caught in a notch, boot-jack 
fashion as it were, and the more the insect pulls, the 
more its trunk is caught.’ Thus caught, tlio insect 
starves to death, hence the well-deserved name of 
Cruel plant. Now', here is a trap nearly as wonder¬ 
ful as that of the Carolina Fly-trap, and far more 
so than that of the viscid exudations of the Silene; 
yet even Mr. Darwin w'ould hardly say that the 
Cruel plant feeds on these insects, any more than 
that the gnats caught by millions by the resinous 
exudations of the Hemlock tend to augment growth, 
or that the thistle and burdock of the wayside owe 
any part of their health and vigour to the scores of 
butterflies, moths, or bumblebees that are in their 
headlong flight impaled on their spines.” 
— ®he Journal of Horticulture gives tlie 
following receipt for preparing Gum-water for 
fixing the petals of Pelargoniums and other 
flowers Place 8 oz. of gum in pints of soft 
water, and allow it to remain about two days to 
dissolve ; then strain it through a piece of muslin, 
and use it from small tins, such as ladies use to 
oil their sewing-machines with. The gumming 
process can be done very quickly with these, as one 
drop is quite sufficient for a flower. 
— Recently, Mr. W. Thomson had at 
Clovenfords a beautiful Cattleya, which was 
most recherche in the colouring of its flowers, 
the sepals and petals being white, suffused with 
rose-purple; the lip dark rosy-purple, the stalk 
purple also, and the sheath that contained the 
flower dark red. The variety appears to be unique, 
and Mr. Thomson, it is reported, has since sold the 
plant to Mr. Wilson, of Lanark, for £210! 
lln fllcmonam. 
— Jewett Cottrell Watson, Esq., died 
at his residence at Thames Ditfcon on July 
27th, at the age of 77. In him British 
botany has lost one of our most painstaking 
w r orkers, and a prolific writer on the geographical 
distribution of British plants. His New Botanist's 
Guide (1835-37), and Cybele Britannica , 4 vols... 
with supplements (1847-59), are indispensable to 
all students of British plants; the London Cata¬ 
logue of British Plants, of which eight editions 
have been issued, was mainly his work. His garden 
at Thames Dittou contained a fine living collection 
of rare and critical British plants. 
— iHR. George Reid, senior partner of 
the firm of Benjamin Reid and Co., seedsmen 
and nurserymen, of Aberdeen, died on July 
18th, after a long illness, at the age of 55. In 1845 
he entered as a journeyman shopman the service of 
Messrs. Benjamin Reid and Co., becoming a partner 
in 1851; and in 1865, on the retirement of his uncle, 
Mr. Benjamin Reid, he assumed the responsibility 
of the business. Messrs. Reid’s nursery was stocked 
with rare Coniferae and other ornamental and 
timber trees, in the acclimatisation of w'hich Mr. 
Reid took a keen and intelligent interest. 
— JKr. William Sharre, gardener to Sir 
John S. Richardson, Bart., at Pitfour Castle, 
Perthshire, died on July 29th, aged 77 years. 
He passed his early years in the gardens of Sir P. 
Murry, Ochtertyre, Crieff, and subsequently in tbo 
Experimental Cardens, Edinburgh. After spending 
some few years at Edmiston and Lexmonnt, he w r as 
called about the year 1834 to the service of Sir John 
S. Richardson, Bart., where he became a competitor 
at the Caledonian Horticultural shows, carryi ng off 
for three consecutive years the Society’s Gold Medal 
for collections of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. 
Dahlias were at one time his study, and he raised 
several varieties of superior merit. In 1859 he 
entered the service of the late Earl of Eglinton, but 
shortly after the death of the earl returned to the ser¬ 
vice of his former employer, Sir J ohn S. Richardson. 
