July 13, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
723 
think, be utilised well in cabinet work. It is note¬ 
worthy that these cultivated plants are nearly devoid 
of thorns, entirely so of the obvious large ones. As a 
curious contrast in habit of growth I may mention here 
that on my return journey I stopped at Little Rock, a 
city in Texas, for a few hours, and found there the 
Prickly Pear Cactus reduced to a few inches in height, 
quite decumbent, very prickly, and forming large flat 
masses, 5 ft. or 6 ft. across, in the grass of the fields, 
from which at a short distance it could hardly be 
discriminated. 
The Giant Cactus. 
Cereus giganteus, which sometimes reaches, I am told, 
60 ft. in height, I only saw in one place, which 
afforded a singular instance of restricted locality. I 
was shown some photographs of a certain mine which I 
was desired to visit, and in these photos I clearly 
recognised in the hills several specimens of this Cactus 
which I had vainly sought in my journey hitherto. 
The mines were some thirty miles distant across a 
breakneck country, only traversable on horseback, and 
I need hardly say that all the way I was on the look 
out for the Cacti in question, locally named Saguaros, 
yet singular to relate I found when I arrived at the 
mine that they were entirely confined in that region to 
the one hillside, where possibly some thirty or forty 
were scattered. On the way the country round for 
many miles could be seen, but here and there only 
were they to be found, yet the general conditions 
seemed identical all about. The hill in question, how¬ 
ever, was distinguished from the others by containing 
a network of silver lead veins, which suggests the pro¬ 
bability of the restriction of the Cactus being due to 
the existence solely in this spot of some essential 
elements in the soil. Some day the botanist may help 
the miner. 
-- — 
COLOURED RAIN. 
After the exceptionally warm weather of a few days 
ago a very curious phenomenon was reported from the 
neighbourhood of Cardiff, one which doubtless alarmed 
not a few of the more ignorant and superstitious resi¬ 
dents, and perhaps also people at a distance who read 
the account of it. With the break up of the fine 
weather came showers of rain, and to the surprise, if 
not consternation, of those who witnessed the sight, 
the pools of water were found to have a very red 
appearance ; it was, in fact, very much like blood, a 
phenomenon which in past ages, and to a more limited 
extent in the present day, has been relied upon as an 
augur of the approach of most terrible events in the 
shape of bloody and devastating wars, plagues and 
other evils which mean loss of life. We are glad to 
know, however, that the Welsh university town has 
not exhibited the fatuity which such an event would 
have occasioned not many years ago, or in a less 
enlightened locality. At first it does seem rather 
strange to find after a shower that the water has 
changed colour, and of course the first idea which 
suggests itself is that the rain must have been of this 
colour. Unfortunately the popular practice hitherto 
has been to allow the first impression to have sole 
weight, and the result is that in nearly all parts of the 
world there have been no end of instances in which 
nations have allowed themselves to be frightened by 
“showers of blood,” or of some other curiously-tinged 
rain, in each case the worst possible construction being 
placed upon the circumstance. When ignorance ruled 
supreme such weakness is, perhaps, not to be wondered 
at, but now that in every civilised country the banner 
of education is hoisted high, it is to be hoped that all 
such superstitious beliefs will die out, and that they 
will only be looked back upon as evidence of the 
natural simplicity of the human mind during the 
intervening stage in the development from the inferior 
to the superior being. 
The more we observe rain and snow, the more 
certain are we that, according to circumstances, it can 
be of any colour. The actual water is, of course, the 
crystal drop we usually see, but it may in its fall 
gather unto itself whatever foreign substances happen 
to be floating in the air, and it is not only by, as it 
were, washing the atmosphere that it becomes tinted, 
but the state of the ground at the time may lead to 
a change in its appearance, and this is probably the 
real explanation of the recent experience at Cardiff. 
Had a glass of the liquid been drawn, it would at once 
have been seen that the water was perfectly clean, but 
on the surface thousands of tiny red insects would be 
detected full of life and energy. A little consideration 
would show that during the dry weather these ani- 
maculEe had been bred in vast colonies along the sides 
of ponds, and the first sharp shower trickling down 
the banks would wash millions of them from terra 
firma, and the surface of the water would forthwith 
become red and blood-like. The whole process is per¬ 
fectly natural, and anyone possessed of a microscope 
can examine the lively fleas, with their great branching 
horns, darting hither and thither. Individually they 
are almost too small to be seen by the naked eye, and 
yet it is such minute objects which have so frequently 
terrified whole nations. Early last year Cochin China 
witnessed one of these so-called blood showers, and the 
gravest fears were entertained by the inhabitants lest 
some dire calamity would befall their country in 
consequence. 
Pulex arborescens, however, are not the only animate 
things which are thus brought to light so mysteriously. 
Hear Edinburgh showers of herrings have been re¬ 
corded with a gale of wind blowing inland from the 
sea ; no doubt they were caught up with the spray, and 
the strong wind carried them some distance before 
they came to earth. French fishponds have been 
known to have both the water and most of the smaller 
fish whipped up in this way by a wind, and scattered 
over the surrounding country. In Italy the tiny fleas 
of which we have spoken are replaced by something 
more substantial. The dry weather drives toads and 
frogs into their hiding places, where they remain in a 
state of torpor until the rain comes, when they quickly 
hurry forth, and it is not a rare occurrence in Rome to 
see the streets alive with them after a shower. The 
Italians for centuries were convinced that they actually 
descended from the clouds, and there were not wanting 
those who asserted that they had seen them fall, and 
this, notwithstanding the correct opinion of such an 
ancient authority as Theophrastus. That the air we 
breathe is full of life no one disputes, but it clearly 
is not inhabited by toads, frogs, and fishes as if they 
were flies or birds. Dr. Frankland, who has been in¬ 
vestigating the micro-organisms present in the atmo¬ 
sphere, found on June 9th, 1886, in the gardens of the 
Natural History Museum, at South Kensington, that 
12 litres of air yielded 158 colonies of micro-organisms, 
but next day, after heavy rain, 11 litres in the same 
place contained only twenty colonies, so that the rain 
had effected a considerable clearance. These in¬ 
finitesimal organisms, however, were neither toads nor 
the fleas already described. 
Quite as curious and interesting as these lively 
objects, which do not come down from the clouds, are 
the various inanimate things, mineral and vegetable 
substances, which the rain brings down. About a 
fortnight before the red rain was observed at Cardiff it 
was reported that a shower of red mud had fallen at 
Nice, the leaves of trees and plants being covered with 
the substance. In the south of Europe this phenomenon 
is of comparatively frequent occurrence, and is explained 
generally as due to the reddish sand brought across the 
Mediterranean from the Sahara, or it may at times be 
due to the clouds of dust belched forth from the 
Italian volcanoes. Twenty-six years ago Scotland 
was visited on several days by black rains, and 
the inquiries which were then made led to the con¬ 
clusion that the blackness was due to the dust from 
a recent eruption of Vesuvius. That volcanic dust is 
shot up very high into the air and travels far is abun¬ 
dantly testified by the Krakatao explosion of 1883, 
which spread a fine dust all round the globe. In the 
last days of March, 1875, over a large area of Scandi¬ 
navia, from the Gulf of Bothnia to the west coast, and 
on ships out on the ocean, a rain of ashes was recorded. 
Professor Mohn discussed the whole question, and 
decided that the ashes had been carried by atmospheric 
currents all the way from the Icelandic volcano, Hecla. 
Instead of the red fleas in the ponds we sometimes 
find the water covered with a yellowish powder, which 
is nothing more than the dust from the Alder, Hazel¬ 
nut, Beech, or other trees in the locality. In very 
woody districts the powder is, of course, more plentiful, 
and the phenomenon therefore more marked. Sixty-three 
years ago the country people in Friesland were startled 
to find it raining sulphur. Naturally it was supposed 
that the end of all things was at hand—that the tale 
of Sodom and Gomorrah was about to be repeated. 
The “ sulphur ” proved to be the pollen of trees and 
plants wafted thither by the wind. Wiltshire once had 
a miraculous shower of “Wheat,” which caused no 
small alarm round the country-side until it was found 
that a gale of wind had blown great quantities of ripe 
ivy seed, from their pods and distributed them far and 
near. Similar instances have been noted on the 
Continent, but in one case there was a fall of real 
Wheat. In 1804 a storm caught up the stock of 
Wheat from a Tetuan threshing floor, carried it across 
the Strait of Gibraltar, and deposited it in Andalusia 
to the wonder and delight of the Spaniards who pro¬ 
fited by the visitation. 
It is a common thing for vessels in the Atlantic, 
within from 600 to 1,000 miles of the African coast, to 
have their sails thickly covered with a reddish powder, 
and they are liable to meet with it over 1,000 miles 
of latitude. It is visible in the air as a thick haze. 
The particles of dust are only about one-thousandth of 
an inch square, and there is no question that it comes 
from the interior of Africa, the constant easterly and 
north-easterly winds keeping up an almost continual 
reddish haze along the coast. 
Snow, like rain, is subject to change of colour 
through the presence of foreign matter, Arctic and 
mountain snow being sometimes tinged red, at other 
times green, the cause being a very small insect, of the 
same nature as the red fleas in warmer climates. The 
variation of colour is said to be very pleasing to the eye 
after a long continuance of a glistening white surface 
in all directions. During a thunderstorm the rain is 
sometimes highly electrified, with the result that the 
drops appear to be throwing out sparks of light, as if it 
were a rain of fire, something after the fashion of the 
Crystal Palace pyrotechnic displays .—Daily Chronicle. 
-- 
IfoTES from Scotland. 
Orchids at Nunfield, Dumfries.— A pretty 
display of Orchids combined with foliage and other 
flowering plants is now to be seen in the neat and well- 
kept gardens at Nunfield, which are under the practical 
charge of Mr. Rowe. I noted several well-flowered 
varieties of Cattleya gigas—nice plants, with two or 
three spikes, and some having four flowers on a spike. 
The plants are not large, but are evidently well done, 
and include C. Eldorado, C. superba, C. Mossiie, C. 
Mendelii, Dendrobium Jamesianum, Bulbophvllum 
Lobbii, OJontoglossum citrosmum, O. Ilirryanum, 
many fine forms and well-flowered plants of Miltonia 
vexillaria, Cypripediums in variety, Lielia purpurata, 
&c. These are mixed with Caladiums, Ferns, Palms, 
Anthuriums, Ixoras, Gloxinias, &c. The edges of the 
stages are draped with Ficus repens, with Isolepis 
gracilis here and there, and dotted with Caladium 
argyrites. From the roof are suspended good baskets 
of Achimenes gloriously flowered. The artistic manner 
in which they are arranged produces a most pleasing 
effect. A house of well-coloured Crotons and Dracaenas 
is also very attractive, amongst other foliage, with 
Nepenthes suspended from the roof in pleasing grace¬ 
fulness. — Rusticus. 
Grape-growing at Clovenfords.— Should 
any of your gardening friends find themselves in the 
district of Clovenfords, let me advise them to visit the 
vineyards of Messrs. W. Thomson & Sons. They have 
been famed for Grape-growing for many years, but 
never before, I believe, have their crops been so fine a3 
they are this season. The cultivation of the Grape 
here is simply perfection, and the houses are worth 
going a long journey to see. In addition to the Vines, 
there is a smart collection of Orchids also in first-rate 
condition, and containing many novelties of sterling 
merit. A collection of zonal Pelargoniums and 
tuberous Begonias, grown in small pots and fed with 
their famous Vine Manure, shows the great benefit 
derived from the use of this stimulant.— Rusticus. 
The Weather and Crops in Kincardine¬ 
shire. —-The drought is beginning to be very severely 
felt in some parts of Scotland, and Mr. A. Cruickshank, 
Glenbervie Gardens, Kincardineshire, writes to say that 
he has never seen the ground there in so dry a condition. 
The herbaceous plants are dying down, and the flowers 
drying up before expansion—a very unusual occurrence 
in that part of the country, where, being nearer the 
Grampian range of mountains, rain is usually too 
plentiful than otherwise. Oats and Barley are coming 
into full ear, and on light lands the crops will not 
exceed 9 ins. in height. In the garden likewise the 
warm dry weather has been the means of bringing on 
the crops earlier than usual in this district. He has 
been able to keep up a regular supply of Strawberries 
from the 24th of June, and had an abundance of Peas, 
Potatos and Cauliflower on the 1st of July. "VVe 
understand that the Cauliflower was autumn-sown, and 
that the Peas and Potatos were from the open ground, 
as he does not usually, at all events, force these things. 
At present there is a good appearance of crops of all 
kinds, but the small fruits are most abundant. As 
has been the case in the south, green-fly has been very 
troublesome, and considerable pains have had to be taken 
to keep them from destroying the crops. 
