June 14, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
645 
CLIMATE AND PLANT LIFE. 
In an address recently delivered on this subject, at a 
meeting of the Broughty Ferry Horticultural Asso¬ 
ciation, by Mr. A. Hutton, F.L.S., an account was 
given of the nature of the atmosphere and the various 
phenomena associated therewith. The nature of dews 
was also explained, and the latest theories thereon 
fully dealt with. The effects of radiation were also 
described, and in dealing with the distribution of 
plant life, it was stated that mountain ranges played 
a significant part, while the Gulf Stream was not 
less important. The distribution of seeds by the 
agency of birds was also discussed—birds forced by 
gales of wind across wide expanses of ocean, often 
carrying seeds which, being undigested, germinated in 
distant places. The Nutmeg of the East was given as 
an instance, the seeds, being swallowed entire by the 
large fruit-pigeon for the sake of the mace with which 
they are surrounded, having led to the rvide dis¬ 
tribution of that plant in New Guinea and the 
surrounding islands. The minute spores of Crypto- 
gamic plants were instanced as being carried great 
distances by winds, one fungus being mentioned, 
according to Fries, as having produced ten millions of 
spores so minute as to ascend into the atmosphere like 
smoke. Most of our cultivated plants—cereals and 
the like—were said to have come to us from the 
earliest seats of civilisation, and had been the objects 
of care and selection for ages, the result being that it 
was often difficult to determine the original parent. 
The struggle for existence among many plants was 
referred to ; instances of such being very apparent in 
New Zealand and Ceylon. The original home of the 
British flora was said to be the continent of Europe, 
the alpine flora of Scotland having 'been introduced 
immediately after the close of the glacial epoch, and 
which had found a fitting home in the Clova and 
Breadalbane Mountains. The address was closed by a 
reference to the many wonderful contrivances which 
we found around us for the protection and dissemination 
of plant life. Mr. Hutton received a hearty vote of 
thanks. 
-—>-X<—- 
GLOXINIAS AT TOWER HOUSE, 
CHISWICK. 
The amount of variation which has been brought about 
amongst these now truly garden plants is something 
wonderful if we compare the erect, regular, funnel- 
shaped, or almost campanulate flowers of the present 
day with the drooping tubular ones of the past, and 
which in point of shape might be compared with those 
of the Foxglove. High cultivation, cross breeding, 
seed sowing and selection have completely altered not 
merely the size and colour of the flowers, hut also the 
shape ; and the five-lobed lamina has given place to 
one with frequently a greater number of segments. 
The distribution of the colours of the modern flowers is 
also remarkable. There are self-coloured flowers, others 
that are beautifully spotted either in the tube or on 
the lamina, while others are densely spotted throughout. 
Others again have a dark zone- on a light ground, 
forming an arc across some part of the segments ; while 
others again are dark, and fade to a pale margin like 
an Alpine Auricula. In a newer strain the lamina is 
curiously reticulated with white on a groundwork of 
various colours. 
With the exception of the last type all the others may 
be seen in the collection at Tower House, now occupying 
the stages of a low lean-to house where the plants 
receive the full advantage of light. The greater 
number of plants are unnamed seedlings which have 
been brought to the present state of perfection by 
Mr. Bones, who has been cross-breeding the finer kinds 
only for some time past. Although dark foliage is 
most widely prevalent, a large number of the plants are 
characterised by the principal vein being of a silvery 
hue. One of these, named Mrs. J. Donaldson, is of a 
brilliant scarlet with the throat shaded violet, and the 
lower part of the tube richly spotted with purple. 
Avalanche is pure white with a creamy white throat. 
A pretty form is. that which is richly mottled all 
over with violet-purple. Another is crimson, almost 
black when it first expands, fading to a pale margin, 
and i3 a great improvement upon Orestes, one of the 
parents. A white form was tinted with pink on the outer 
half of the lobes, as though the colour was being 
driven to the margin, as in the Picotee. Some of the 
flowers are distinctly fragrant at certain stages of their 
growth, presumably when the stamens have reached 
maturity. 
Hardly any two are exactly alike, while the greater 
number may be described as showy and highly orna¬ 
mental, and differ more or less in habit according as 
the flower stalks are rigid and erect, or long and slender. 
Others again vary in floriferousness, and the quantity 
of bloom produced by a single plant is often truly 
wonderful. As a rule the spotted flowers are the 
largest, but they lose somewhat in substance compared 
with the seifs. The lamina is in most cases 
horizontal, but a little variation was produced in one 
case where the flowers were brilliant scarlet, of medium 
size, with the segments regularly recurved at the edges. 
A curious remnant of colour is shown where the flowers 
are white with a purple spot at the base of each sinus, 
between the lobes of the lamina ; while others are 
spotted all over with pink as well. Some have narrow 
and others wide funnel-shaped tubes ; others are spotted 
with red and some with violet, and in one case there 
was a netted band of rose a short distance within the 
margin. A violet-coloured flower was not unattractive, 
but a dark, navy-blue self gives promise of a novel and 
desirable shade of colour. A distinct blue is always in 
request amongst florists’ flowers, and the variety under 
notice strongly tends that way, and is no doubt capable 
of improvement. 
--—- 
THE ITALIAN ALKANET. 
The accompanying illustration will give an idea of a 
beautiful hardy herbaceous plant that might more 
frequently be grown than it is, considering its hardiness 
and accommodating nature in any well-drained soil of 
ordinary fertility. The stems may be described as 
panicled, for they continue to throw out numerous side 
branches, which expand their flowers in regular succes¬ 
sion all through the summer months. The flowers 
expand of a purple hue, but soon become of a charming 
deep blue, like those of the better-known A. semper- 
virens, only much larger. The plant varies from 3 ft. 
to 4 ft. in height, according to the liclmess of the soil, 
the amount of rainfall, and the space at command. In 
order to attain its proper dimensions it must not be 
much overshadowed by trees or shrubs, nor crowded by 
tall or coarse-growing herbs. It may readily be pro¬ 
pagated by seeds, which it usually ripens freely, or by 
division of the rootstock in autumn or spring, before 
growth is much advanced. Probably the best and most 
vigorous plants would be obtained from seeds, for then 
the large fleshy roots are not interfered with. The 
plant is a native of the Caucasus and other places, and 
has been more or less grown in this country since 1810, 
but is often neglected, and its beauty overlooked. It 
is also known under the names of A. azurea and A. 
paniculata. 
THE SEASONS 1727 AND 1890. 
Some of us when good little boys in pinafores were 
taught that the Rose was the glory of April and May, 
but have in after years been somewhat perplexed with 
the thought as to how it came about that the good old 
divine who penned the lines referred to in the early 
days of the eighteenth century could have made such a 
blunder, seeing that at the present time we are only 
too glad to get them outside in June and July. It is 
quite true that there was a difference of about eleven 
days in the reckoning of time then and now, which 
will in part account for the discrepancy, but only in 
part. It has been suggested that the old hymn writer 
was not a very careful observer of nature, and in¬ 
advertently made a blunder. This, we think, is a 
most unsatisfactory explanation of the difference in the 
time given in the couplet as the advent of the queen of 
flowers then and now ; for living, as he did, most of his 
life surrounded by country scenery, and a man of 
genius, it can hardly be supposed that he would make 
such a glaring mistake or be so unobservant of natural 
phenonema as a mistake of this kind would indicate. 
A partial solution of the difficulty may be found in 
the difference between the varieties known then and 
those in general cultivation at the present time. We 
rely mainly on the hybrid perpetuals for our outdoor 
display of Roses, which were then unknown, and are 
not so early flowering as those so well-known and largely 
grown when some of us were young, and which we 
sometimes regret losing ; for we seldom see them now. 
The good old Doctor was most likely acquainted with 
a few of these, which flowered earlier than their modern 
rivals. This will, in part, explain the difference 
between the flowering season given by him and that 
generally experienced now ; but after making all the 
allowance we can for the difference on these grounds, 
there is still a wide and distinct margin of time left 
which cannot be accounted for, except on two suppo¬ 
sitions—the one being a flow of rhetoric on the Doctor’s 
part without a sufficient substratum of fact to rest upon, 
the other being a distinct change in our climate, by 
which the flowering period of our hardy plants is 
retarded by some fourteen or twenty days. 
Now, if we turn to the pages of Hogg’s Fruit 
Manual, and compare the dates assigned in it for the 
ripening of some well-known fruits with those given by 
the writer of Pomona for the year 1727, we find, after 
making full allowance for the difference in the old and 
new style of time reckoning, that they ripened fully a 
fortnight earlier then than now, as the following few 
examples of the difference will show :— 
Batty Langley, 1727. Fruit Manual . 
Peach—White Nutmeg, 
June 15... 
Anne ... July 10... 
Red Magdalen ,, 20... 
Teton de Venus ,, 20... 
Early Admirable, 
August 3... beg. of Sept. 
Nectarine —Elruge, 
July 30 
Roman ... ,, 30 
middle of July. 
early August. 
end of Aug., beg. of Sept. 
end of Sept. 
end of Aug., beg. of Sept, 
beg. of Sept. 
In addition to these, Strawberries were ripe on May 
10th ; Raspberries, June 1st ; Jargonelle Pears, July 
10th ; Juneating Apples, June 1st ; and quite a list of 
Vines, including Frontignan, are represented as ripening 
their fruit on walls. I take it that these instances are 
pretty conclusive proof that there is a distinct difference 
in our climate between then and now.— IF. B. G. 
PORTLAND NURSERY, 
READING-. 
There is no more instructive place anyone interested 
in gardening can visit than the Portland Nurseries of 
Messrs. Sutton & Sons, at Reading, one of several 
places in which they grow choice seeds; but this 
particular one is devoted to the production of such 
valuable seeds as Gloxinias, Primulas, Cyclamens, 
Calceolarias, Cinerarias, and Begonias—of which this 
famed house holds some of the finest strains to be 
found in the world. From the railway station the 
visitor passes through the market place, where there is 
seen the seed shop—an imposing and handsome struc¬ 
ture, behind which are offices and warehouses, covering 
a very large space of ground : and then passing straight 
on, and making the ascent of London Street, he finds 
himself in the London Road—perhaps the finest and 
most picturesque thoroughfare in Reading—and then 
turning London-ward, the Portland Nursery is a little 
way up on the right. In extent it is some five or six 
acres, and on the eastern side is seen a range of span- 
roofed glasshouses, admirably devoted to the growth 
and harvesting of the choice flower seeds above men¬ 
tioned. 
The marvellous cleanliness, neatness, and systematic 
order seen on every hand at once strike the visitor. 
A very serious and successful endeavour is made to 
have the very best things in the best possible condition. 
There is no haphazard work ; the beautiful Cyclamens, 
Primulas—a marvellous series of fine and distinct 
double and single varieties—Begonias, &c., have all 
been brought on to their high stage of quality by 
carefully-planned and carefully worked-out methods of 
fertilisation. The intelligent handiwork of man, 
assisting and directing rather than forcing and com¬ 
pelling nature, has led on improved and improving 
varieties step by step, until they have resulted in floral 
acquisitions undreamed of years ago. Ask the fore¬ 
man how he has obtained such-and-such a result: he 
refers to his book in which the crosses are recorded, 
and straightway one can see how Nature has been 
coaxed into compliance with the desires of man, 
and has given out of her storehouse of infinite variety 
more than he could almost have hoped for. If she 
sometimes appears coy and unyielding she must be wooed 
to compliance even more earnestly, for she yields to 
persistence what she would not if left alone. Sometimes 
