292 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 8, 1887. 
The fierce frost of 1860 left behind traces of 
its power which endured for many years, for 
the destruction wrought amongst shrubs and 
plants was truly of the most potent kind, and 
long to be remembered. We may well hope 
that no such harm to our favoured shrubs will 
follow from the recent low temperature, especi¬ 
ally as the summer of 1860 was wet and cold, 
and growth of all kinds was poorly fitted to 
endure the Arctic weather which followed. 
During the past year there has been a special 
tendency to produce hard solid growth on all 
shrubs and trees, and it may well be hoped 
that little mischief has been done by the frost ; 
but whilst buoyed up, so far, by hope, we have 
to lament terrible destruction by the Christmas 
storm of wind and snow, such as, happily, rarely 
is seen, and if never again reduplicated, all the 
better. 
From all directions correspondents write, in 
terms of painful descriptiveness, of grand old 
trees thrown down, or half denuded of branches 
and beauty ; of handsome conifers and shrubs, 
the pride and delight of owners and gardeners 
alike, broken, wounded, or utterly smashed 
beyond repair. All that we know ; but still, 
perhaps, until the snow has entirely disappeared 
Ave shall not learn the worst. It is not possible 
to withhold hearty and generous sympathy from 
those Avho have seen, as it Avere, the labours and 
products of a life broken, blasted and destroyed 
in a single night, and by a visitation which 
none could forecast or provide against. Hoav 
deeply must that correspondent have felt the 
force of the mischief Avrought, avIio Avrote of 
breaking branches in all directions under the 
Aveight of suoav and pressure of the storm, as 
resembling cries of human beings in pain and 
deep agony 1 To Avhose heart—howsoever hard 
otherwise, but loving trees—Avould not these 
sounds have a painful aspect, and seem full of 
deep sadness 1 
A full account of all the mischief Avrought 
by the storm fiend of that eventful December 
Sunday night Avill never be written; but gar¬ 
deners in their youth now Avill remember it, 
and talk of it to their children’s children half a 
century hence as a fierce visitation. We heard 
of an entire orchard in one place being laid low ; 
probably, one of old trees full of top groAvth, 
which, held the snoAv in large masses until the 
wind pressure overbore them. All these, 
doubtless, carry their proper lessons; but it is 
difficult to shoAv hoAv they may be applied. 
Indeed, we cannot at present see Iioav human 
agency could have done anything to avert the 
disasters Avhich haA r e resulted. Happily, such 
destruction is not Avrought et^ery year, and, as 
a rule, only after long intervals of comparative 
peace and gioAvth. There Avill presently be 
much effort shoAvn in repairing damage as far as 
possible, even to the planting of other trees and 
shrubs to replace those so much injured; and 
if anything has shoAvn that some trees, even 
though ever so beautiful, are more readily 
injured than others, those are the trees to avoid 
in making good, as far as possible, the mischief 
Avrought by 1886 in its death agony. 
That the new year’s intense frost will have 
made its mark on many things none can doubt ; 
and Avhilst, for reasons previously gh'en, Ave are 
hopeful that the mischief may not be great, yet 
mischief has been done certainly. Perhaps the 
snoAv covering, in some cases, did good service ; 
but in others, by bearing doAA-n the outer leafage, 
and leaving bare the hearts or croAvns, harm 
has been accomplished. It Avas during just such 
Aveather as Ave have recently experienced that, 
some feAv years since, fruit trees—but especially 
Apple trees — suffered severely. That disaster, 
too, folloAved upon a Avet summer, and Avood 
Avas full of sap, Avhicli congealed in various parts 
of the stems, froze, and bursting the Avoody fibre, 
left wounds Avhich resembled canker in its 
worst form. We may Avell hope that no such 
harm has been recently done, and that our 
fruit trees are safe. We may be sure that Aveak 
spots in gardening have been found in all direc¬ 
tions ; but these mischances Avill prove useful 
lessons. 
-- 
At one of the spring meetings of the Society of Arts, 
Mr. E. J. Beale, of the firm of Messrs. Janies Carter 
& Co., Avill read a paper on “The Cultia'ATION of 
Tobacco in England. ” 
A great Rose Shoav will be held this summer in 
the gardens of the Birmingham Botanical Society, at 
Edgbaston, and liberal prizes Avill be offered by the 
council of the society. Schedules will be ready shortly, 
and can he obtained from Mr. W. B. Latham, curator, 
Botanical Gardens, Birmingham. 
From Messrs. William Thomson & Sons, Tweed 
Yineyard, Clovenfords, ive have received an admirable 
Gardeners’ Memorandum Book, which, besides con¬ 
taining ruled pages for ivriting upon, includes Avithin 
its cover much useful information of the “ready, 
reference ” order. 
Mr. Robert Leslie, from the nursery of Mr. John 
Downie, has been engaged as gardener to Hugo Haig, 
Esq., Ramonnie, Ladybank. 
“G. B.” Avrites:—To the list of late-flowering Chry¬ 
santhemums, which I gave last year, I should like to 
add the following, viz., Madame Lacroix, AA-hich keeps 
its place as a Avhite ; Souvenir de Haarlem, which 
is producing fine floAvers for the season, and Mons. 
Vivian Morel. Coeur Fidele, Mons. Paul Favre, 
Cullingfordii, Etoile Fleuri and Etoile du Midi also 
stand out well. La Favourite makes a good late- 
bloomer with a bushy habit, and stands heat well. I 
have it in a temperature of 60° Fahr., to get it into 
bloom for next Aveek’s show at The Aquarium. 
Malagasy Arts. —Many of the Malagasy domestic 
implements are directly derived from the vegetable 
kingdom. The Tanalas content themselves with folded 
leaves of the Cardamon plant for spoons and drinking 
cups. Another section of the community employ the 
leaves ( fasy ) of the Pandanus ( fandrana ), doubled over 
at one end, as dishes to contain rice or liquid, and 
folded leaves of the traveller’s tree (Urania speciosa) for 
spoons. Many of the Tanalas carry shields made of a 
circular piece of tough wood, about 18 ins. in diameter, 
covered Avith undressed bullock’s hide, and Avith a 
handle cut out of the solid Avood at the back. The 
Avomen sometimes carry a broad knife or chopper, called 
isitra or anakantsy, for cutting up Manioc and other 
roots. The tough hark of Pavonia platanifolia would 
make good string or rope.— Society of Arts Journal, 
--- 
LILY CULTURE AT THE CAPE. 
We have not many varieties of Lilies in the colony. 
The old Lilium candidum is the commonest, and in 
some old-fashioned Dutch gardens this species is groAvn 
in thousands. L. longiflorum Ave have had in the park 
for twelve years, and three years ago L. Wilsoni Avas 
introduced. This proved a grand form, and double 
the number of flowers are produced on a stem as on 
that of L. giandiflorum ; or, say, sev’en on the latter 
and fourteen on the former. They produced this 
number the first year the bulbs Avere planted, but the 
number of floAvers produced this year has increased to 
twenty, and they seem to increase in vigour annually, 
and in the number of floAvers developed. They seed 
very freely, and availing myself of such ready means 
of propagation, I have raised a great number. They 
floAA^er from seed the second year, and some of the 
bulbs have developed masses of floAvers in the third 
year, and nearly equalling those of old plants for size 
and number. Another advantage in raising plants 
from seed is the fact that such bloom later than their 
parents. We had by such means a succession of 
floAvers from October to February, AAdiereas old bulbs 
cease floAvering early in December. We put in some 2000 
seeds during February and March last, and having 
given them more attention—as regards Avatering—Ave 
expect them to floiver within eighteen months from the 
time of soAA'ing. 
The AA’liite form of L. speeiosum has never been 
seen here, ami small bulbs of L. s. punctatum and 
L. s. roseum, put in the soil, disappeared and Avere 
never seen any more. Imported bulbs of L. auratum 
have failed the second year, so you can imagine Iioav 
anxious ayc are to try them from seed. This applies 
more especially to the lovely form knoAvn as Melpomene. 
We have L. Thunbergianum bicolor, but do not care 
about erect Lilies. We should like L. T. candidum 
better if the flowers Avere more horizontal and less 
vertical. We have also the same dislike to erect 
Gloxinias, as compared with drooping-flowered ones. 
Lilium tigrinum also does well in this part of the 
Avorld, but is not a great favourite with us. I was 
much amused in looking OA r er the volume of The Garden 
for 1878, where “Dunedin” and some other contro- 
A’ersialists discuss the question as to the merits of large, 
as compared with small, Lily bulbs. We are testing 
the above-mentioned writer’s idea of moving the bulbs 
before the floAver-stems get yellow or decay ; this we 
have not hitherto tried in this place. It may not be 
injurious to next season’s bloom ; but we dare not be 
too rash in moving many of them at the first trial, so 
make the experiment tentatively. He may he right in 
his notion ; but certainly fine bulbs always produce 
finer ones. 
This last Aveek Ave Avent over to the Xorthend Park, 
w'here the soil is both deeper and stiffer than on the 
Hill Park, and seeing some grand specimens of Lilium 
longiflorum, Ave thought they must he some from Mr. 
Wilson of his improved variety, L. 1. Wilsoni. Xone 
of them have ever groAvn over there but what had 
thirty-tAvo floAA'ers on a stem. We can detect no dif¬ 
ference betAveen the tAvo forms now ; and it w-ould 
seem that better soil, and a more liberal water supply, 
have developed the ordinary L. longiflorum into L. 1. 
Wilsoni. In The Garden, August, 4th, “Hathaway,” 
Ormskirk, reports that L. auratum is more to be 
depended upon Avhen raised from seed than from im¬ 
ported bulbs. This is hopeful. 
It is better not to move them, so long as they are 
doing well, than move them at the AA’rong time. We 
moved some in March last year, and lost them ; hut 
Ave accounted for that by the heavy rains that rotted 
the bulbs before they got over the effects of removal. 
Those experimental ones, moved immediately after the 
flowers had dropped, bore nice bulbils along the stem 
quite independently of the old bulbs. Surely, those 
bulbs Avere nourished by the stems so long as the latter 
continued green ; and AA'e should have been more 
satisfied to aAA-ait the natural decay of such stems and 
foliage.— R. Hallack, Fort Elizabeth, Nov. 22)«f, 1886. 
-->K-- 
LYE’S NEW FUCHSIAS. 
Some time since, Mr. James Lye, of Clyffe Hall, 
Market Lavington, Wilts, the Avell-known Fuchsia 
groAver and raiser, sent me floAvers of his seedlings of 
1885, Avhich he bloomed again in 1886. As a matter 
of course, having only the floAvers before me, I had no 
opportunity of obtaining information of the habit of 
groAvth of the varieties ; but, I think, having know¬ 
ledge of Mr. Lye’s previous seedlings, it may be 
assumed, as a matter of course, that in this respect his 
nerv varieties are all that can be desired, because he 
invariably makes habit a first consideration, distinct¬ 
ness, form and freedom of bloom being also to the fore 
in every case. Mr. Lye raises annually 300 or 400 
seedlings from his best varieties, and they are all so 
good, that he experiences considerable difficulty in 
making a selection ; and he never names one until it 
has stood the test of a second season’s blooming. 
Of the neAV A'arieties he is announcing for this season, 
three are dark varieties—viz., Abundance, bright red 
tube and sepals, rich dark purple corolla, shaded with 
maroon ; very free, bright and effective. Benjamin 
Pearson, bright scarlet tube and sepals, carmine and 
purple corolla, the latter brilliant in colour, and of the 
finest form ; very free, and extra fine. Eureka, a very 
distinct and pleasing variety, pale bright rosy red tube 
and sepals, deep purple corolla, flushed Avith magenta, 
excellent habit, and A T ery free ; a capital market and 
decorative variety. 
The light varieties are six in number—viz., Alice 
Mary Pearson, creamy Avhite tube and sepals, the latter 
slightly tipped Avith green ; corolla carmine-crimson, 
stout and finely formed ; excellent habit, good grower 
and very free. Annie Earle, Avhite tube and sepals, 
corolla deep bright carmine ; very free and pleasing. 
Cecil Glass, white tube and sepals ; pale magenta-pink 
corolla, Avith distinct beading of carmine at the edges ; 
stout, excellent form and extra fine. Lovely, pure 
Avhite tube and sepals, slightly tinged with magenta ; 
A’ery free and pleasing. Surprise, Avaxy Avhite tube and 
sepals, the latter having slight points of green ; pale 
