260 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
December 28, 1889. 
Yule-tides and milder winters are more con¬ 
ducive to health and national prosperity. 
he R. II. S. Committees. — Too late for con¬ 
sideration this year, it has been suggested 
to us that it would be an exceedingly pleasant 
thing if the whole of the members of the Fruit 
and Floral Committees of the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society could meet and dine together at 
the conclusion of their year’s labours. It does 
seem somewhat odd, that whilst the members 
meet so regularly for the discharge of the 
duties which pertain to their offices, yet that 
no one gathering should take a purely social 
or festive nature. We believe that if a dinner 
on the last of the meeting days of the year 
were arranged, limited, of course, to the mem¬ 
bers of the committees only, that it would 
prove a very popular gathering. 
Naturally, in the ordinary course of events, 
some of the members would, for a time at least, 
take a sort of official farewell of their fellows, 
but it would be with the satisfactory assurance 
that so far as possible they had dene their 
duty. No doubt whatever the most proper 
thing — but because it is so very proper we fear 
there is little hope of its being realised— would 
be for the Council of the society to invite the 
committees to meet them. Formerly the 
society did provide the members of the com¬ 
mittees with a modest luncheon on each meet¬ 
ing day. A suitable dinner would cost but 
one-tenth of the old luncheon expense, and 
would be particularly appreciated, not so much 
for its intrinsic value as for the courtesy shown, 
as well as bringing the Council into intimate 
association with the committees for once in 
the year, and enabling them to be thanked for 
their services. 
We hope the suggestion made will hear good 
fruit, and that at the close of the coming year 
the hope may be realised. 
2She Horticultural College.— We gather 
from the perusal of an article, de¬ 
scriptive of the Swanley Horticultural College, 
which appeared the other day in the Daily 
News, that the Government has given that 
institution aid,—why and wherefore, and what 
the amount, we should like to have learned; 
but no information is afforded. When we 
remember the remarkably good work done in 
the interest of horticulture from year to year 
at the Chiswick Gardens, and recollect also 
that Government has never favoured them 
with one small half-penny, it is indeed hard 
to understand why the new-fangled institution, 
so infantile and so immature in its work as yet, 
whatever it may develop into, should thus so 
cpiickly receive Government support. Has the 
aid of the Minister of Education, Sir W. 
Hart Dyke, who owns land all round Swanley, 
mainly been utilised 1 In any case, it would 
seem as if the college had friends at court, 
whilst the Royal Horticultural Society seems 
to have only foes. The information as to 
this subvention is singularly suggestive. 
-- 
The Botanical Magazine.—The one hundred and 
fifteenth volume of this invaluable publication is 
dedicated by its editor to Prof. Isaac Bayley Balfour, 
Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. 
Another Hirsute Chrysanthemum.—An American 
paper states that at the recent Chrysanthemum show 
in Philadelphia, Mr. Peter Henderson had a new 
variety named Louis Bcehmer, which was quite as 
hairy as Mrs. Alpheus Hardy, and described as rosy 
lilac in colour. 
M. Henri de Vilmorin, of the firm of Yilmorin, 
Andrieux & Co., of Paris, was recently presented with 
a bronze statue (David and Goliath), accompanied by 
an address, signed by 448 employes of the firm, con¬ 
gratulating him on his promotion to the grade of 
“ Officer of the Legion of Honour.” 
The Conference Tomato, the handsome and very 
prolific new variety raised this year at Chiswick, is to 
be distributed amoDg the Fellows of the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society, so far as the stock will allow. Early 
application should be made to Mr. Barron by those who 
desire to possess the good thing. 
“ Experiments w ith Manure in Orchid Cultnre " is 
the title of a paper by Mr. F. 1Y. Moore, of Dublin, 
which should be of some interest to Orchid lovers, that 
is to be read at the next meeting of the Scottish Horti¬ 
cultural Association. 
Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society.—At the 
annual meeting of this society, recently held, Mr. 
D. P. Laird presiding, it was announced that there was 
a loss on the year’s working of £2 15s. 10 bd. This was 
attributed to the summer show, which failed to pay its 
expenses. Mr. James Stewart, W.S., and Mr. P. Neill 
Fraser, were again elected secretary and treasurer. 
The Lady Downes’ House at the Tweed Vine¬ 
yard.—IVe have received from Messrs. W. Thomson & 
Sons a capital photograph of their fine house of Lady 
Downes Grapes. Though planted some twenty years 
ago, the canes are seen to be carrying a remarkably 
regular and even crop. Good management and the 
value of their Vine and Plant Manure are both borne 
testimony to in the photograph before us. 
Gardening Engagements.—Mr. C. Roberts, of 
Highfield Hall Gardens, Leek, as gardener to Lord 
Hill Trevor, Brynkinalt, Chirk. Mr. R. Brown, late 
foreman to Mr. Rabone, at Alton Towers, as gardener 
to W. Smith, Esq., Spring Hill, near Accrington. 
Import Statistics.—The statistical returns of the 
Board of Trade show that during the month of Nov¬ 
ember, the importation of Apples amounted to 688,068 
bushels, or over 250,000 bushels less than the corre¬ 
sponding month of last year. Oranges and Lemons, 
on the other hand, show a very large increase, the 
total being 447,143 bushels. 
Covent Garden Market.—The Exchange Telegraph 
Company understands that tentative negotiations have 
been entered into with the view of transferring Covent 
Garden Market to the London County Council. The 
Duke of Bedford's agent has the full assent of the duke 
to hand over the property to the Council pending an 
Act of Parliament authorising the Council to take 
over and extend further the market system. The Duke 
of Bedford has written to Lord Rosebery that he had 
formerly offered to the City of London the property, 
expressing his opinion that such a property should not 
be in the hands of a private individual. 
The Hall and Fraser Memorial Fund.—At the final 
meeting of the committee held at Messrs. Protheroe 
& Morris’s Rooms on the 20th of December, Mr. H. J. 
Yeitch presiding, Mr. Ilorsman, the honorary secretary, 
announced that the total receipts amounted to £453 3s., 
and it was unanimously resolved : 1, That the subscrip¬ 
tion list be declared closed ; 2, That the sum of £452 be 
equally divided between Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Fraser ; 
3, That the arrangements for investing the respective 
amounts be left in the hands of Mr. Yeitch and Mr. 
Protheroe ; and 4, That as soon as the investments 
have been made, a report be sent to all subscribers. 
Mr. Horsman was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his 
services as secretary, as also were theeditors of the various 
gardening papers for their kindness in giving publicity 
to the committee’s proceedings. 
Relation of Forestry to Agriculture.—At a meeting 
last week of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts in 
Edinburgh, the secretary, Mr. Carter, read a paper by 
Mr. George Cadell, on the subject of “ Forestry in its 
relation to Agriculture.” Mr. Cadell pointed out that 
the conditions of forestry in this country were more 
indirect than direct, but indirectly they exercised a 
very powerful and very beneficial effect on the opera¬ 
tions of agriculture. There was a wide latitude between 
the estimates of the value of the land which could be 
planted in this counlry, and also in the return to be 
derived from forested land. At the same time he pointed 
out that we imported timber and forest products to an 
enormous value, and that about a third of the total 
area of the land was put down as barren mountain 
land and waste, part of which, he suggested, might be 
usefully planted. 
-- 
SERMONS IN STONES. 
( Continued from p. 213 ). 
Uxstratified Rocks. 
Under this heading are classed all the rocks whose 
crystalline and unstratified appearance has earned for 
themselves the name of igueous, because they are 
believed to have been at one time in a molten state. 
They are of two kinds—namely, granites and trap. 
Granite consists of quartz and felspar, with a small 
quantity of mica ; while trap is composed chiefly of 
felspar and hornblende. A chemical analysis of the 
two shows that trap is the richest in plant food. Soils 
produced by the disintegration of granite, if unmixed 
with organic matter or other soils containing plant 
food, are necessarily barren or relatively unproductive. 
The greater part of Scotland north of the Grampians 
consists of granite, but not wholly so, as will be men¬ 
tioned later on. Soils produced by the decay of granite 
alone, consist of a cold, rather unproductive clay soil, 
while a great part of the country is covered by peat, 
sometimes of great depth, originating by the damming 
up of water by an impermeable clay bottom. The 
mountains are covered with heath and moor up to a 
considerable altitude, presenting a bleak and sombre 
aspect compared with the grassy downs of the chalk 
formation. Owing to the presence of trap, however, 
in many places, to the accumulation of organic matter, 
and above all to the improvements effected by drainage, 
with the addition of lime, the stubborn clay soils have 
been made to produce heavy crops of corn, and green 
crops, such as vegetables and fruit, chiefly Apples, and 
bush fruit—the kinds dependent to a great extent upon 
climate. 
Primary op. Paleozoic strata. 
These in Britain have been estimated to extend to a 
thickness of 70,000 ft., and besides being the first laid 
down, that is, the oldest, constitute about five-sixths of 
the whole depth to which stratified rocks arc known to 
descend. The Archaean or Pre-Cambrian systems are 
the oldest rocks that come to the earth’s surface, and 
consist of gneiss or flaky granite and hard mica-slates 
that crumble very slowly, producing thin, unproductive 
soils. They occur at great elevations in Perth and 
Argyle-shires, as well as in the north and west of 
Ireland, and therefore are rendered more barren by an 
adverse climate. Like the granite they are covered by 
extensive heaths. Much the same may be said of the 
Cambrian system, which mostly consists of hard, slaty 
rocks, poor soils, or heavy almost unworkable 
clays. As far as geologists can make out, the British 
Islands at this period consisted of groups of volcanic 
islands, the volcanoes of which were in a state of 
great activity. They are now represented by the 
mountains of Cornwall, western AVales, Cumberland, 
and Tipperary in Ireland. The Upper Cambrian— 
also sometimes called the Lower Silurian—forms the 
mountains of the border counties between England and 
Y'ales, and more extensively in the south of Scotland. 
They consist of sandstones and limestones, mostly the 
former, and reaching a great altitude they are covered 
with barren heaths, moor, or bog of enormous depth 
sometimes, and the crops in bad seasons never ripen on 
the higher altitudes. The Silurian—also called the 
Upper Silurian—system is chiefly developed in the 
border counties between England and Y~ales, and con¬ 
sists of sandstones, slaty material, and a little limestone. 
Of the soils formed from these, cold muddy clays 
predominate, and the crops are consequently poor. 
Fossils, chiefly of animals, now begin to appear.— J. F. 
-->x<—-- 
WHAT IS A BEGONIA 1 ?* 
A member of this genus may be recognised by its 
unisexual, monoecious, irregular flowers, petaloid, ir¬ 
regular perianth, numerous stamens with free or partly 
united filaments and adnate anthers, by its inferior 
three-celled, three-angled or winged ovary, and 
numerous inverted ovules arranged all over simple or 
bi-lamellate axile placentas, and by the dry, capsular 
fruit with exceedingly numerous and minute seeds. 
The stems are succulent, herbaceous or shrubby, and 
branching or reduced to a rhizome or tuber, while the 
leaves are alternate, stipulate and unsymmetrical. 
The above characters constitute the main or leading 
features of the genus. There are a few exceptions, as 
might be expected where the species are numerous, 
some having the placentas on the walls of the ovary ; 
two having beny-like fruits that do not open when 
mature ; and those belonging to the section Begoniella 
have definite stamens and a bell-shaped perianth 
cohering in one piece. The capsular fruit opens below 
the perianth, in order to allow of the dissemination of 
the seeds. In this it differs from Hildebrandtia, the 
only other genus of the order, the fruit of which opens 
above the perianth, as in Mignonette and "Wahlen- 
bergia. Hildebrandia sandwicensis, the only species, 
resembles a Begonia very closely, but in addition to a 
five-leaved calyx has a similar number of small petals. 
It is well known to growers that the male and female 
flowers are of different forms, the former having either 
two or four sepals, the pairs alternating with one 
another, while the female flowers vary with two, five 
or eight, but generally have five overlapping one 
another. From a horticultural point of view the male 
-A paper read by Mr. J. Fraser, before the Ealing Gardeners' 
Improvement Society, December ISth. 
