THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 25tli, 1885. 
noted the gouty and rheumatic diatheses. A tendency 
to diarrhoea or a dysenteric history obviously forbids 
the free or frequent use of fruit. Saccharine diabetes, 
or nervous conditions in which it is apt to appear, are 
similarly antagonistic—at all events, where any but 
the non-amyloid fruits, such as Nuts, are considered. 
Dyspeptic stomachs, on the other hand, are usually 
benefited by a moderate allowance of this light and 
stimulating fare. It must be remembered, moreover, 
that every fruit is not equally wholesome, let the 
digestion be as powerful as it may. Nuts, for 
example—consisting as they do, for the most part, of 
condensed albuminoid and fatty matters—cannot 
compare in acceptance, either by the palate or the 
stomach, with other more succulent kinds, even 
though they contain in the same bulk a far greater 
amount of nutriment. A little of such fruit is enough 
for digestion, and that little is best cooked. Neverthe¬ 
less, if we take fruit as a whole, ripe and sound, of 
course, and consider its variety, its lightness, and 
nourishing properties, whether eaten alone or with 
other food, and its cheap abundance, we cannot 
hesitate to add our voice in support of its just claims 
on public attention. In former articles we have 
shown why vegetable produce of all kinds should 
enter largely into the food of children. Well-chosen 
fruits are consequently for them as safe and beneficial 
as agreeable.— Lancet. 
- g. 9 - 
SYDNEY BOTANIC GARDENS. 
An obliging correspondent who has read C. B.’s 
remarks in our last number, sends us the following 
cutting from an Australian paper, in which the gardens 
are described in more favourable terms :— 
“ The recently added features to these gardens, on 
the site of the once famous and ever to be remembered 
Garden Palace, forms the subject of the sketch pre¬ 
sented as a supplement with the present issue. The 
great beauty and fidelity of the picture will be recog¬ 
nized at once by those whose privilege it is to be able 
occasionally to visit our Sydney Jardin des Plantes; 
while to distant friends it will convey a very good idea 
of the great attention paid to floriculture, and the 
advanced state of landscape gardening, in a country 
which is generally supposed to be so engrossed in 
amassing money as to find little time or inclination 
for encouraging the elevating and salutary influences 
of horticulture. 
“ This is no place to institute comparisons as to the 
relative merits of the Sydney Botanic Gardens and 
other colonial establishments of the same nature, 
but it is beyond all doubt true that for beauty of 
situation, and for display of skill in utilizing the 
natural features of the situation, these gardens are far 
and away the most noteworthy of colonial institutions, 
and there are few gardens in the world which come 
near them for beauty and effectiveness. We miss the 
grand old Oaks, Elms, and Chestnut trees which are 
special features at the Kew and Hampton Court 
Gardens, and the stiff and formal lines of the French 
and other continental public gardens are not here to 
be found. The tropical features of the Perradinia 
Gardens, in Ceylon, and those of the famed cities on 
the South American coast, have all their special and 
typical beauty, for their chief features are the plants 
indigenous to the country. 
“ But the Sydney Gardens are more than this, and it 
only needs the visitor to take a leisurely stroll through 
them to be struck with astonishment at the patience 
and indomitable industry with which plants have been 
got together, literally from the ends of the world ; and 
those who have any knowledge of the difficulties 
experienced in sending delicate plants great distances 
by sea, will appreciate to the full the amount of labour 
and care represented by the collection. The group of 
palms alone, near the entrance to the new' grounds, 
is a miracle of beauty, and it is questionable if any 
other establishment in the world can exhibit such a 
diversity of typical forms growing in the open air, and 
in so finely developed a state. To mention even a few 
of these would be to carry the mind to countries 
separated from each other by thousands of miles, and 
to islands rarely visited by civilized man, and the very 
existence of which is rarely shown on any map. 
“ The Chamerops humilis, the only Palm of Europe 
(indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean), grows 
side by side with the Hyophorbe of the Mauritius, the 
graceful Kentias of Howe Island, the Arenga of the 
Asiatic Islands, the Cocos of Ceylon, the Pritchardia 
of the Sandwich Islands, the monstrous Jubea spec- 
tablis, the Sabal Palm of Jamaica, the C3'cads of 
Queensland and Mexico, the Date Palm of the East, 
the Diplothenium of Brazil, and other magnificent 
forms of this extensive genus from the various islands 
of the North and South Pacific. Indeed, to those who 
have grown rather rusty in their geography, it would 
be a difficult matter to point on the map to fully half 
the countries represented in this single Palm group. 
This feature is mentioned specially here, but really all 
other divisions of the garden are equally characterized 
by suggestiveness of the same nature. 
“ Valuable as arc the gardens in this respect, it is 
to their great use as pleasure grounds that the public 
most appreciates them, without troubling much as to 
the order, genera, and habitat of particular plants and 
trees. Visitors only know they admire them, and 
that the gardens form a deliciously cool promenade 
and lounging place at all times; and this, too, in 
five minutes’ walk of the town, and within a tram ride 
of less than half-an-hour from even the outlaying 
suburbs. Little wonder, then, that on fine days its 
shady walks are scarcely less brilliant than the 
borders with gaily dressed visitors, old and young, 
enjoying to their hearts content the health-inspiring 
zephyrs, and the magnificent views of the harbour, 
with its panorama of inward and outw'ard bound 
ocean-going steamers, the butterfly-like Sittings of 
yachts and sailing ships, and the stern and surly- 
looking men-of-war at anchor in the immediate fore¬ 
ground ! 
“ Sydney has reason to be proud and grateful for its 
gardens, and must award to Mr. Charles Moore and 
his able assistants the praise they so richly deserve 
for keeping the place well up to the high standard of 
European gardening. If the learned curator could 
only find time to issue a popular guide to the place— 
such as is found so useful at Kew and other old-world 
places of the kind—they would be still further 
gratified, and the enjoyment of visitors would be 
much promoted.” 
- g—- _ 3 — 
HERBACEOUS PEONIES, 
The herbaceous Pseonies, originally of Chinese 
origin, constitute not only one of the most extensive 
groups among florists’ flowers, but at the same time 
one of the most telling. It is, indeed, impossible to 
conceive a more valuable group of decorative plants, 
so stately are they in growth, with their massive 
globular heads of flowers, so varied in colour, so 
elegantly formed, and the plants withal of such 
simple requirements. To grow them to perfection 
a deep rich soil, of a somewhat holding character, is 
essential, and when once planted they must be allowed 
to remain undisturbed for several years. This is an 
important point in the cultivation of the Pteonia, for 
no group of hardy perennials, save the Christmas Boses 
or Hellebores, are more impatient of periodical trans¬ 
planting. This will be seen at a glance when I state 
that old-established clumps of these Pamnies not 
unfrequently send their long tapering roots a distance 
of from 2 ft. to 3 ft. into the earth, and these being 
exceedingly brittle renders it impossible for even the 
most careful hands to remove large clumps without 
breaking a number of their roots ; this, together with 
the fact that they annually increase in size and beautv, 
and, when established, constitute one of the chief 
summer-flowering ornaments among hardy plants, 
alone demands for them a place in all gardens, large 
or small, where a gorgeous display is sought after. 
Those who aie unacquainted with the Pteonia can 
form no adequate idea of its beauty and diversity of 
colour, combined in many instances with delicious 
fragrance. It must be numbered too among the 
hardiest of herbaceous perennials, withstanding un¬ 
protected our severest winters with impunity. But, 
notwithstanding all these excellent qualities, and their 
adaptability for back-row border plants or for grouping 
in shrubberies, they are only known to the few whose 
love for hardy plants, notwithstanding the incessant 
changes occasioned by fashion and time, remains 
unaltered or, it may be, intensified. Like most 
florists’ flowers the Preonia has been much improved 
both in form, size, and colour within the past few 
years, and to-day the varieties in commerce may be 
counted by hundreds, not all sufficiently distinct it 
may be, but none so bad that they should be dis¬ 
carded. 
I cannot do other than give a prominent place to 
the old double crimson kind, which is seen to perfec¬ 
tion in so many cottage gardens, and which is known 
as P. officinalis fiore-pleno. Of pure whites, Alba 
Sulphurea, Candidissima plena, and Nivea plenissima 
are the best. Of blush-white kinds we have Faust, 
Festiva maxima, Grandiflora nivea, and Mdme. Marie 
Lemoine, all excellent free-flowering varieties. Of the 
various shades of rose, Versicolor, Beine des Boses, 
Eosea plenissima superba, and Mdme. Cliaumy are 
grand and all distinct. Then we have Purpurea 
superba, Surpass Potsii, Mdme. Lebon, and Mdme. 
Furtado, with purple or purplish-rose coloured flowers, 
to which may be added Modeste Geurin. Then, with 
flowers of purplish-crimson or varying shades, we 
have Gloire de Douai, Francois Ortigat, and Etan- 
dard du Grand Homme. Of crimson, Atrosanguinea, 
Jupiter, and Victor Lemoine, the latter a dazzling 
reddish-crimson, are the best. Beyond these there 
are numbers of intermediate shades, exquisite in them¬ 
selves but requiring descriptions too lengthy to be 
quoted here ; those unacquainted with them, however, 
would do well to leave the selection to such nursery¬ 
men as keep collections of these plants. They may 
be planted safely from October to February in deep, 
well-enriched loamy soil.— E. J. 
— - r^ <> cr -— 
THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE, 
The ambiguity of the name we give to this useful 
esculent, reminds me of an old anecdote of the 
definition which the French academicians, after some 
considerable research and consultation amongst them¬ 
selves, gave to the crab, viz., a small red fish which 
walks backward. This being shown to Cuvier, that 
great naturalist remarked, “ The definition is jJerfect! 
except that a crab is not a fish, is not always red, 
and does not walk backwards 1” We can also say of 
this plant that it is not an Artichoke ! and does not 
come from Jerusalem ! 
As it seems not to be generally known how it came 
by the name, a few explanatory words on the subject 
may not be inappropriate. The Brazilian or Spanish 
name used in Brazil, from whence it was imported 
into Europe, “ Girasol tuberoso,” coupled with the 
fact of a supposed resemblance of its flavour when 
cooked to that of the Artichoke (Cynara Scolymus), 
gave rise to the name it now bears. It is a variety of 
the Sunflower, and its botanical name is Helianthus 
tuberosus, Linn. Its introduction into England W'as 
from Canada by the French. Fabius Columna, who 
first wrote about it in 1592, called it Aster Peruvianus 
tuberosus, and also Flos solis Farnesianus, from the 
fact of having observed it first growing in the garden 
of Cardinal Farnesius, who had introduced it from 
the West Indies. 
John Goodyer, writing October 17th, 1621, says, 
“ I received in 1617 two small roots of Mr. Franque- 
ville, of London, no bigger than hens’ eggs; the one I 
planted, the other I gave to a friend ; myne brought 
me a pecke of rootes, wherewith I stored Hamp- 
shiie. Peliiterius calls it Heliotropium indicum 
tuberosum. Bauhin, in his Podromue, 1620, called it 
Chiysanthemum iutifolium Brazilianum, but in his 
Pina.r, 1623, Helianthemum indicum tuberosum. 
Parkinson, in Faradism terrestris, in 1625, calls them 
Batatas de Canada—Potatos of Canada—which, he 
saj s, 1 by reason of their great increasing grown to 
be so common with us at London, that even the 
most v ulgai begin to despise them, whereas when 
they were first received among us they were dainties 
for a Queen.” 
Johnson, in his revised edition of Gerarde's Ilerbal, 
1633, says, “ One may well perceive by the English 
name of this plant that those that vulgarly give names 
to plants have little either judgment or knowledge of 
them, for this plant hath no similitude in leaf, stalk, 
root, or manner of growing with an Artichoke, but 
only a little likeness of taste in the dressed root; 
neither came it from Jerusalem, or out of Asia, but 
out of America. ’ ’—FEdipus. 
— g— s —- 
Carpet Plants for Bose Beds.—W hat is best to 
grow in Bose beds, under standards and half standards, 
to cover the bare ground, and look nice without 
robbing or hurting the Boses ?— E. AT. IF. 
