May 18, 1895. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
597 
latter name is evidently the correct one, judging from 
the description and the uses to which the tubers are 
put. There is an interesting and somewhat amusing 
correspondence concerning a variety of Pineapple. 
One writer from New Mexico, U.S. America, says “I 
have heard a Pineapple called the Giant Kew or 
Mammoth Kew is raised in Ceylon, said to weigh 
between twenty-five pounds and thirty pounds. Can 
you give me the address of any grower of these 
Giant Kews ?” Elsewhere this variety is termed the 
King of Pines. Some trees for timber, fuel, shade, 
shelter, avenues, hedges and ornamental purposes 
are also catalogued, but with exception of a few of 
the more useful and ornamental kinds, they are not 
very common in this country. 
Vegetation in Scotland.—In his monthly report to 
the Edinburgh Botanical Society, read on the gth 
inst., Mr. R. Lindsay said that during April vege¬ 
tation generally made fairly good progress in the 
Edinburgh Botanical Garden. The continuance of 
cold winds, together with a succession of frosty 
nights, during the early part of the month prevented 
any very rapid progress from being made. Conse¬ 
quently the season is still very late. There was no 
very marked change in the leafage of deciduous trees 
till the 20th of the month, after which date the 
foliage began to develop rapidly, in marked contrast 
to their condition at the same date last year, when 
the Hawthorn, for instance, was not only in full leaf 
but in flower also, as early as the 29th of April. 
Fruit trees and bushes, such as Pear, Apple, Cherry, 
Currant, and Gooseberry, look very promising, being 
well set with flower buds. The season being so late, 
they are more likely to escape injury from late frost, 
and thus bear good crops of fruit. On the rock 
garden 133 species of Alpine and herbaceous plants 
came into flower during the month, as against 153 
for April of last year. Mr. A. D. Richardson sub¬ 
mitted meteorological observations recorded at the 
Royal Botanic Garden during the month of April :— 
Barometer, reduced to 32 degs., 76 5 feet above mean 
sea level—Mean of 9 a m. readings, 29787 inches, 
being 0161 inch below the average for April for four 
previous years. Self-registering thermometers in 
screen, 4 feet above grass—Maximum, 62 o degs., 
on the 23rd; minimum, 28 8 degs. on the 7th ; mean 
of maxima, 517 degs. ; mean of minima, 39 8 degs. ; 
mean of the month, 45'8"degs., being 0 9 degs. above 
the average for April for four previous 5ears; frost 
occurred on 5 days. Sunshine—total recorded, 115J 
hours, being 27 per cent, of the possible amount; 
the sunniest day was the 14th with io| hours, being 
75 per cent.of the possible amount; none was recorded 
on three days. Rainfall—rain, &c., fell on r4 days; 
total fall, 1085 inch ; greatest fall in twenty-four 
hours, o 330 inch on the 25th. 
-- 
CHOICE BERTOLONIAS. 
The varieties of Bertolonia now in cultivation are 
very numerous, but the larger leaved ones are the 
most beautiful. They are very different in appear¬ 
ance from the allied Sonerillas on account of the 
greater variety, and richness in coloration, as well as 
the larger size of the leaves. They require, perhaps, 
a little careful treatment to encourage a healthy 
growth of the plant and the preservation of the leaves 
as long as possible in their best and most presentable 
condition ; but they are worthy of any extra attention 
they may receive in the way of a bell glass or frames 
in houses that are in any way draughty. Some 
cultivators succeed in growing them well without 
any special protection other than that of a pit or 
stove. The undermentioned varieties we noted in 
the nursery of Messrs. J. Laing & Sons, Forest Hill. 
One of the best of the large leaved kinds is 
Souvenir de Gand with large leaves of an olive-green 
hue, with five longitudinal, bright carmine-purple 
veins and numerous spots of the same colour in the 
intervening spaces. The leaves of Madame August 
Van Geert are similarly large and olive-green 
with seven grey lines along them tinted with pink, 
and spotted with pink between the veins. The 
variegation is more extensive in the case of Comte 
de Kerchove, and consists of seven rosy veins con. 
nected with transverse ones uniting the long ones 
together in the manner of a wide-meshed net. The 
squarish areas between the veins are olive-green 
and spotted with rose. The leaves of Argyroneura 
have seven silvery nerves as implied by the name 
and are spotted with white all over, but densely so 
towards the margins; the ground colour is olive* 
green or brownish green. Punctata possesses no 
coloured veins but has olive-green leaves simply 
spotted all over with pink markings. There is thus a 
considerable range of variation amongst the above 
five varieties; but others also are noteworthy and 
pretty. Alongside of them is a collection of 
Sonerillas all exhibiting a pearly spotting. Here 
also may be noted the curious and beautiful 
Centrosolenia bullata with very dark green leaves 
raised into blisters, pimples, or sharp elevations all 
over the surface and bronzy when young. 
-- 
DANESFIELD. 
To very few gentlemen’s estates indeed has nature 
been so lavishly kind as it has to Danesfield, the 
seat of C. A. Scott-Murray, Esq., which is situated 
about half-way between Great Marlow and Henley- 
on-Thames, and comprises within its limits very 
much of the finest of the lovely scenery for which 
the banks of the Thames in the district are so widely 
and justly famed. It fell to our lot to make its 
acquaintance on a sweltering hot day that perhaps 
made the steep banks and braes which abound 
on every hand all the more conspicuous, forcibly 
reminding us as they did of the toil that was neces¬ 
sary before the feet of the interested visitor could 
stand upon their summits, and from the vantage 
point thus gained view the surrounding country. 
The pretty little lodge at the entrance to the carriage 
drive looked indeed a spot where beauty reigned 
supreme, for its walls were lavishly decorated with 
the rich dark crimson flowers of Pyrus japonica, 
and a profusion of the dazzling white blossoms of the 
not less beautiful Clematis montana, than which it 
would be hard indeed to enumerate a more worthy 
climber, possessed of a hardy constitution, and 
whose floriferousness it would be impossible to 
question. 
The mansion itself is situated upon a hill, and, 
although a solid and old-fashioned looking structure, 
is evidently a spacious and convenient abode. The 
carriage diive, at the entrance of which stands the 
lodge afore mentioned, winds away up the hill from 
the high road, and, passing close to the mansion, 
leads us into the kitchen and fruit gardens. These 
are about six acres in extent, and have for the last 
thirty or forty years been under the supervision of 
Mr. E. Croker, who, despite his advancing years, is 
still most keenly interested in all that pertains to 
the gardener’s profession. As the owner of the 
estate does not reside thereon, and is indeed trying 
to find a purchaser for it, no pretence at elaborate 
decorative plant culture is attempted. In one stove, 
however, a magnificent specimen of Euphorbia 
splendens, by far the best we have yet seen, met our 
gaze. This plant, we were informed, had occupied 
the same position for the last thirty years, during 
which time it had ODly been twice or thrice re-potted. 
This system of treatment would seem to suit it to 
perfection, judging from the blaze of colour it at 
present affords, the flowers not only being numerous 
but individually large and of good substance. 
The vegetable and hardy fruit gardens certainly 
do not suffer from lack of attention, for, despite the 
fact that rain was badly needed, crops of all kinds 
looked exceedingly well. Only those who are 
practical gardeners can have any idea of the amount 
of head work involved in properly cropping a kitchen 
garden in a way that shall yield the largest and best 
results. This becomes an even more difficult opera¬ 
tion when a sufficiency of men is not obtainable, as 
is the case at Danesfield at present. Onions were a 
very fair crop, although from their appearance we 
gathered that they would joyfully welcome a 
thorough downpour of rain. Carrots, not quite so 
forward, were just peeping above the ground. A 
fine patch of Cabbage was also noteworthy in a 
season when the crops of spring Cabbage have sus¬ 
tained such serious damage. The varieties grown 
are Early Battersea, Fulham, Wheeler's Imperial, 
Veitch's Main Crop, Enfield Market, Cattell’s 
Reliance, and Early Dwarf York, the latter name 
apparently being rather misleading, for the plants of 
this variety were taller than any of the rest. All of 
the sorts mentioned, however, have come through 
the winter exceedingly well and with but compara¬ 
tively few losses, a state of things for which Mr. 
Croker is of opinion the rather late planting is 
responsible, as none of the plants were put out be¬ 
fore the middle of October. 
The display of bloom upon the majority of the 
hardy fruit trees is rrtost profuse, and the prospecte 
for good crops appear very inviting. Apples have 
been making an especially brave show, also Cherries. 
Pears not quite so good, Plums comparatively scanty, 
whilst of small fruits of all kinds there will appar¬ 
ently be no lack. Amongst the fruit trees some 
exceedingly large specimens trained espalier fashion 
along the edges of the walks were very noticeable, 
and were not a whit behind the younger members in 
their crop of bloom. 
The pleasure grounds surrounding the mansion 
and which slope down to the river are of a particu¬ 
larly inviting character, the long sweeps of pas¬ 
ture being enlivened on all hands by patches of the 
Bluebell, the Primrose, the Dog Violet, and hosts of 
other pretty wildlings, which space forbids our 
mentioning here. It must suffice to say that the 
flora of the district is a very rich and varied one, 
and has proved a happy hunting ground for many a 
zealous botanist interested in our native plants, 
and we have no doubt will yet continue to be so for 
some time to come, at any rate as loDg as the lovely 
country-side does not fall into the clutches of the 
brick and mortar fiend. Danesfield boasts of not 
a few historic recollections of deeds of arms 
wrought in days gone by, and doubtless owes its 
present title to the fact that the ground hereabouts 
was once the site of an old Danish camp. That 
this is the case is indisputably proved by the 
existence of a ditch and bank, which even now 
describes an immense horse-shoe-like form in the 
grounds immediately surrounding the mansion, as 
well as by the finding from time to time of various 
relics in the shape of household utensils, which 
doubtless at one time formed part of the stock-in- 
trade of some worthy householder or rather tent- 
holder. 
Mr. Croker informed us that when a few years 
ago he was enclosing a piece of land which had till 
then been tilled by means of the plough, to serve as 
a kitchen garden, a number of huge dishes, several 
inches in thickness, evidently made of roughly burnt 
clay, were brought to light. These had lain too low 
for the plough to disturb them, and they were only 
discovered during the trenching with the spade that 
the land underwent. A great part of the surrounding 
woods are composed of Beech, for the timber finds a 
ready sale, as much as a shilling a foot being some¬ 
times obtained for it for chair making, an industry 
to which a great deal of attention is paid in the 
surrounding district. In many parts of the grounds, 
however, the Beech trees have to a large extent been 
cleared out, and their places occupied by many 
handsome trees and shrubs of various kinds, clumps 
of Lilac being here, as indeed they are everywhere 
else, looked upon with especial favour. Taking it 
altogether, Danesfield is a place which, while it 
undoubtedly possesses a great many natural attrac¬ 
tions, might by a judicious expenditure of a compara¬ 
tively moderate sum be vastly improved. 
--*«-- 
SCIENCE AND PRACTICE. 
I have to admit on looking back on the history of 
civilisation, that if we want to isolate the causes 
which, more than any other, conduce to the move¬ 
ments of great civilised societies, you must not look 
to the politicians of the hour on whom, it may be, 
all eyes are fixed ; you must look to those who, often 
unknown by the multitude, whose work, it may be, 
is never properly realised by the men of their 
country till after they are dead—you must look on 
them and on their labours to find the great sources 
of social movements. It is to those who, very often 
with no other object in view, casting their eyes upon 
no other object that the abstract pure truth, which 
it is their desire to elucidate, penetrate further and 
further into the secrets of Nature and provide the 
practical man with the material upon which he 
works—these are the men to whom, if you analyse 
the social forces to their ultimate units, we owe 
rr ost . . . It may be, however, that though, as a 
nation we have been as productive as other nations 
—I put it modestly—in the men of genius who have 
made these fundamental discoveries, we have not, as 
a nation— and I do not think we have—sufficiently 
realised how great a bearing theory in these modern 
days must necessarily have upon practice if we are 
to keep pace with the rest of the world. We have 
produced great theorists—none greater. We have 
produced men of great practical genius—none 
