THE GARDENING WORLD 
117 
October 2*2, 1892. 
There is no chance in seedling raising that has not 
lain open and common to all. And as the best of 
the old Auriculas have sprung suddenly and far 
ahead of their day, from much inferior parentage, 
there ever remains the chance that a grower who has 
not been long in the field may obtain results equal 
to or beyond those of the labourer who has worked 
much longer. To those, however, who began the 
work many years ago, it is only fair that there should 
be and remain, the chances in their favour that have 
been of their own making. But because some 
growers have sought to develop the Auricula, and 
some elect to lie by, till shares in successes are 
accessible by purchase, I fail to see why the fruits 
of a floral industry should be disfranchised, boy¬ 
cotted, McKinley-tariffed, by what “ R. D.” almost 
half advocates in his suggestion of the question. 
In classical allusion, he calls to the “ Gods of 
the Floral Olympus” to come down and help to 
make up Auricula collections. I don't know that 
there are any such gods, exactly, and the current 
THE COCO DE MER. 
It will probably be many years before we see a 
large-sized tree of the Coco de Mer, or double Coco¬ 
nut of the Seychelles Islands (Lodoiceasechellarum) in 
this country,j udging from the rate of progress it makes. 
The tree in its native country takes thirty years’ 
growth before it produces any flowers, and it re¬ 
quires ioo years to attain full size. Its period of 
greatest beauty, however, is before it produces 
flowers, say the second fifteen years of its growth. 
The female flowers are produced on zigzag stalks, 
and vary from five to eleven in number, being re¬ 
markably few for a Palm ; but then the fruits attain 
the enormous weight of 40 lb. each. They grow to 
their full size in four years, but require nearly ten to 
reach maturity. If not so slow in germinating, they 
certainly take sufficient time to tax the patience of 
any ordinary propagator. 
At Kew three of these huge seeds were 
planted, and the stronger and more forward one 
ceived the name of Coco de Mer from the fact that 
the seeds were found floating on the sea long before 
the habitat of the tree was known, and indeed before 
it was known to exist at all. This gave rise to 
many fabulous tales about the nuts growing upon a 
tree in the bottom of the sea, and other stories. In 
olden times the credulous were duped into paying 
extravagant prices for the nuts, to which great and 
miraculous medicinal value was attached. Water 
drunk out of them was stated to guard people 
against all sorts of sickness and ailments. In modern 
times the tree has been turned to good account in 
various ways: the wood being utilised, the leaves 
made into hats and baskets, and used for thatching 
purposes, while the nuts are made into domestic 
utensils. 
The plant at Kew is the largest in Europe, having 
made more progress than two raised from seeds 
in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. It has developed 
three perfect leaves. Another good plant is smaller, 
and a third seed obtained for Kew was damaged and 
The Coco de Mer in the Victoria House at Kew. 
title of Celestial Majesty may be borne only by the 
heathen Chinee. 
But there is an old fable about an agricultural 
gentleman, who wanted a hand from Olympus to 
help him on with his cart which had stuck in the 
mud ; but the answer to his prayer was, the recom¬ 
mendation to put his own shoulder to the wheel, and 
try the wonderful effect of that. In plainer English, 
I have often commended beginners with Auriculas, 
the pleasure and advantage of seeking to enrich 
their collections, by the ever interesting pursuit of 
raising seedlings. It is a brave way of facing 
difficulties, and of helping themselves where others 
can but very slowly help them.— F. D. Horner, Bur- 
ton-in-Lonsdale. 
-—I—- 
The Fruit Trade in Glasgow.—Ex-Bailie Simons 
was entertained on the 10th inst. by the members of 
the fruit trade, and presented with an address. Mr. 
Simons, referring to the fruit trade, said it had 
developed with extraordinary rapidity in Scotland, 
and by way of illustration instanced the fact that 
fifty years ago, when his father made his advent in 
Glasgow and founded the business, the general 
public of the second city of the Empire did not 
know what a Greengage was. Now this popular 
fruit came into the country by thousands of tons,- 
not alone for dessert, but for the purpose of making 
jam, and in the jam trade, he need hardly tell them, 
Scotland stood at the head. 
represented in our illustration took two years to ger¬ 
minate—that is, till the first leaf was produced. 
During this time it was kept in a propagating pit, 
and more or less covered with Coco-nut fibre. When 
the embryo began to push out of the seed, the latter 
was placed on a slightly elevated and moist shelf, with 
a large pot placed just underneath it, into which the 
seedling could root. The first perfect leaf was 3 ft. 
in diameter. After a time the pot containing the 
plant and the huge seed were taken to the Victoria 
house and stood upon an inverted pot, with that 
containing the seedling dipping into the water, the 
seed itself being placed in a pan resting upon a 
pedestal, as may be seen in the accompanying illus¬ 
tration. Here it has been exposed to the public for 
some time in association with Victoria regia, huge 
Tillandsias, Mauritia flexuosa, Eichornia crassipes, 
Prionium Palmita, a remarkable member of the 
Rush family resembling a Pandanus more than a 
Rush, and other rare and interesting members of the 
vegetable world, all located round the edges or in 
the tank of the Victoria house. 
This remarkable Palm is a native of Praslin and 
Curieuse, two small islands of the Seychelles group 
to the north-east of Madagascar, and is in danger of 
becoming extinct owing to the practice of cutting 
down the trees to obtain the nuts. It originally re¬ 
spoiled. Another fact in the history of this curious 
Palm was that in 1854 a quantity of seed was put up 
for sale at Covent Garden at the price of £10 8s. 
a-piece, but failed to find purchasers. 
-- 
The Purple Toadflax. —The utility of Linaria pur¬ 
purea is never better illustrated than when it gets 
naturalised on old walls, which it will readily do of 
its own accord if planted where the seeds can get blown 
into the crevices or carried by the feet of birds or other 
animals. It is a native of South Europe, from whence 
it was introduced in 1648, and has since become 
naturalised in some parts of this country. The up¬ 
right slightly branching stems attain a height of 2 ft. 
or 3 ft., according to soil and other conditions. When 
growing in the crevices of old walls its vigour is 
somewhat curtailed to advantage. Walls, moreover, 
are improved by it if the joints of the masonry are 
rather open. In the close vicinity of mansion houses 
the walls are generally kept in a more thorough state 
of repair, except where the place happens to be 
notable for its antiquity, when this sort of thing' is 
encouraged rather than otherwise. The flowers 
individually are not very large, but they are of a 
beautiful bluish-purple and produced in long racemes 
terminating the stems and branches. They are also 
produced in succession for a period extending over 
several months. 
