May 7, 1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
565 
Quick Changes of Temperature.—We in England 
are apt to grumble at the great and sudden changes 
in temperature from day to day, and we have had 
our full share of such vicissitudes this spring, but 
parts of the United States have been more hardly 
treated, for on April 5th it was freezing all day, and 
on the 13th, a little more than a week later, the ther¬ 
mometer stood at 70° Fahr. 
Addition to Greenwich Park.—The recent addition 
made to this park is now thrown open to the public. 
The grounds, known as " The Wilderness " were at 
one time attached to the Chief Ranger's Lodge on 
Blackheatb, the residence of H.R.H. the Duke of 
Connaught. The wild character of the place has 
disappeared by the making of paths and converting 
the erstwhile stagnant pool into a miniature pond. 
There are some fine trees on this addition to the 
park, and all has been tastatefully laid out. 
The Island of Cuba, which is the centre of the 
world's interest at the present time, is one of the 
most fertile spots on the earth's surface. It is stated 
by authorities that a farm of 33 acres will produce 
in one year thousands of pounds each of sugar, 
coffee, tobacco, cacao, cotton, indigo, maize, rice, 
and bananas. Of the total area of the island, how¬ 
ever, only ten per cent, is under cultivation, seven 
per cent, is not reclaimed, and four per cent, is 
forest. Great tracts are unexplored. The forests 
contain many valuable woods, such as cedar, 
mahogany, and rosewood. The commerce of the 
island, even under the incapable rule of the 
Spaniards, has been great, for in 1893, before the 
curse of war fell in all its blighting misery, she 
exported 718,204 tons of sugar out of a total produc¬ 
tion of 815,894 tons. The exports of leaf tobacco 
amounted in the same year to 227,865 bales, whilst 
147,365,000 cigars and 39,581,493 packages of 
cigarettes left her shores. Now everything has 
changed, and the people are in the direst misery. 
Ink?, Ancient and Modern —-The statement is fre¬ 
quently made, says The Journal of the Society of Arts, 
that since Mediaeval times the art of ink-making has 
declined, and it is adduced as evidence that on 
documents written over 800 years ago the writing is 
more legible and better preserved than that on some 
written within the last 100 years. It is probable 
that this inferior ink has come into use from the 
desire to employ an ink of more perfect fluidity that 
would facilitate rapid writing better than the old 
ones. Vitruvius, Pliny, and Dioscorides each speak 
of ink as containing soot or lampblack mixed with 
some mucilaginous fluid, and the legibility of the 
old records was doubtless due to the fact that 
carbon was the base of the ink, and that when this 
began to be discarded the fading of manuscripts 
became more rapid. An ink receptacle found at 
Herculaneum contained a quantity of ink which 
proved to be composed of lamp-black mixed with oil. 
Such ink must have required constant stirring, and 
a brush instead of a pen was probably used for 
writing. The lamp-black, says Underwood, was 
ground up with the oil as painters’ colours are now, 
and this throws light upon the meaning of the taunt 
hurled by Demosthenes at his great rival Aeschines, 
that the latter had been compelled in his youth, 
through poverty, to sweep the school, sponge the 
benches, and grind the ink. The rapidity with 
which carbon settles out from the liquid in which it 
is suspended precludes its u: e for modern commercial 
inks. The extract of gall-nuts or other tannin matter 
in combination with an iron salt, which forms the 
base of most black inks of the present day, was used 
many centuries ago, and was at first mixed with 
lamp-black. The coloured inks of to-day are chiefly 
simple solutions of aniline dyes, but logwood and 
other vegetable dyes are still used to a considerable 
extent, as they were by the ancients, A very 
remarkable modern fireproof ink is used for writing 
on fireproof paper largely composed of asbestos. 
This ink has a platinum salt for its basis. Indian 
ink so much used by draughtsmen is chiefly made 
in China. It is a mixture of carbon and gum with 
the addition of a small quantity of musk or Borneo 
camphor. To make it properly the ingredients 
must be of the best and the carbon must be finely 
divided. After the carbon and gum have been 
mixed, the product has to be slowly dried, and 
moulded into sticks to which a high polish is sub¬ 
sequently given by brushing them with a hard 
brush anointed with beeswax. 
He was a vegetarian.—Brown ; " I thought you 
were a vegetarian, but I hear you eat mutton." 
Robinson : " I am not a bigoted vegetarian ; I only 
eat the meat of animals that live on vegetable 
food.” 
The Oxlip in Belgium.—In this country the Oxlip 
(Primula elatior) may be regarded as a very local 
plant, being confined to two areas in Essex, Suffolk, 
and Cambridge, with two other small, outlying spots. 
It is much more abundant upon the Continent, and 
grows by the acre in moist meadows and other low- 
lying places between Ghent and Brussels. The 
plants cover the ground about as thickly as the 
Primrose and Cowslip do in some parts of this 
country where they have not been destroyed either 
by the plough or by wholesale uprooting by the 
" penny-a-root ” marauders. The plants in Belgium 
form thriving tufts of several crowns throwing up 
numerous flower scapes from 4 in. to 8 in. in height, 
and practically giving the meadows a pale yellow 
hue. 
Tomatos and Early Vegetables in the South of 
France. — According to the Nord Horticole it is only a 
few years since the Tomato was, particularly in the 
neighbourhood of Antibes, the object of extensive 
cultivation. This cultivation has, however, diminished 
considerably of late because it has ceased to be so 
remunerative as in the past. Both Egypt and Algeria 
have become close competitors in this direction. The 
first crops of the season in these countries arrive 
rather sooner at maturity than those growing on the 
French side, and the placing of these upon the 
market have brought about a sensible lowering of 
prices. Nevertheless, the resources of vegetable 
culture are many, as the collections of vegetables got 
together by the "Syndicat de Cagnes," and by MM. 
Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co. have proved. The culture 
of Asparagus, for instance, has been absolutely 
transformed. Instead of old local varieties, poor and 
miserable, the grand varieties of Argenteuil have 
been substituted, and the results obtained have been 
excellent. M. Maraini has been especially success¬ 
ful. We must also make mention of the Strawberries 
of M. Nigou, the Artichokes shown by M. Herbert, 
and the collections of vegetables of MM. Angosso, 
Rondelli, and Malaussena which illustrate the 
magnificent results which can be obtained in this 
naturally favoured country. 
DWARF BEAN, VEITCH’S EARLY 
FAVOURITE. 
As the new year comes round, in most places where 
glass structures exist to any extent, the owners are 
looking forward to have early forced vegetables, and 
these are amongst those most frequently asked for. 
This being to those who have to provide for the 
demand are always anxious to obtain a variety that 
comes quickly into use. All those who have been 
cultivators of French Beans from thirty to forty 
years, will remember many selections being put on 
market, all more or less good. 
For many years I pinned my faith to Osborn’s Pro¬ 
lific as a quick dwarf early kind, with Ne Plus 
Ultra to follow; but last year I obtained a small 
supply of Veitch’s Favourite, and tried it beside 
Osborn’s and one or two other kinds, with the 
result that it was earlier than either of them, the 
pods being large, very straight, and of first-rate 
quantity. Some were sown later, and became ready 
for use early in May, being grown in 8-in. pots, six 
plants in a pot, the soil being good, and the plants 
stimulated when in fruit ; and from these we had 
some of the best Beans I ever saw. 
This year our first supply was sown on December 
28th in 7 in. pots, and from these we had Beans 
ready for use on February 14th. Ne Plus Ultra 
sown at the same time was twelve days later. Every¬ 
one who wants a good quick Dwarf Bean should give 
this a trial, as it is first-rate.— J. C., Chard. 
-- 
A FINE STRAIN OF POLYANTHUS. 
A boxful of cut flowers of an admirable strain of 
Polyanthus reached us the other day from Mr. W. 
Angus, gardener to J. Ogston, Esq., Norwood Hall, 
Cults, Aberdeen They were cut from the open 
ground and had stout stalks 6 in. to 9 in. in length, 
and therefore well adapted for placing in water. 
Mr. Angus saves seed of the best varieties every 
year, and sows it in a mild hotbed sometime in 
March. The seedlings are pricked out in due course, 
so as to facilitate and encourage good growth during 
the summer months. Early in October they are 
placed in their flowering quarters, where they prove 
a source of great attraction for many weeks when in 
bloom. All were delightfully fragrant, and redolent 
of the old-fashioned gardens of the spring time of 
the present generation. 
The flowers sent exhibited a considerable amount 
of variety, but we were particularly taken with a 
golden yellow one, having five faint rays round the 
the centre; otherwise, the usual orange eye was 
wanting, leaving a pleasing, uniformly golden flower. 
This ought to make a good bedding variety. 
The yellow sorts, with a large orange eye, were also 
in good form. The white varieties were, however, 
deficient in size. Crimson seifs varied from a glow¬ 
ing red-crimson to dark maroon, almost black, all 
being certainly fine of their colour. The gold-laced 
varieties were also fine, one in particular being quite 
equal to many of the named varieties in the clearly 
defined outline of the lacing and the crimson-maroon 
body-colour. There were also good purple sorts with 
large flowers. Red, purple, and crimson varieties, 
edged or laced with white, might be considered 
fancies. They certainly add greatly to the bizarre 
effect of the whole in mixed plantations. These 
hardy flowers evoke a considerable amount of enthu¬ 
siasm amongst all classes of people, and we con¬ 
gratulate Mr. Angus on his strain. 
- a *- 
INTERESTING WILD PLANTS IN 
DEVON. 
Last week I had an opportunity of looking at some 
of the Devon wild flowers, and found two of the 
three sundews, Drosera rotundifolia and D. inter¬ 
media, growing on Woodbury Common. D. 
anglica grows also, I believe there, but I haye never 
met with it. At the same spot I came upon Pingui- 
cula lusitanica in some abundance, Schoenus nigri¬ 
cans, the black bog rush, and the lovely yellow 
mitred fungus (Mitrula paludosa) floating in the 
water on dead leaves. 
At the mouth of the River Exe, which is about a 
mile and a half wide, juts out a large sandbank 
reaching from the Great Western Railway line nearly 
to within a quarter of a mile of Exmouth, the river 
flowing into the sea between the end of the bank and 
the Exmouth shore. This is known as the Warren, 
and in the fifties there were still a great number of 
rabbits on it, though I believe they have now all 
disappeared. I took the ferry from the Exmouth 
beach and walked over the sand to the farther 
extremity and saw much that was interesting. Parts 
of the sa nd are well kept together by the Marram 
Grass (Psamcna arenaria). It is also called mat 
grass, starr, and bent, the two latter names occurring 
in an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of 
George II., which describes it as a rush or shrub. 
The Act forbids the cutting of it in the north-east 
coast of England and especially in Lancashire, as it 
is stated that the best way to preserve the sandhills 
from being blown away and so letting in the sea and 
destroying cultivated land is to preserve this grass ; 
and any person cutting it without the leave of the 
owner is subjected to a penalty of tweaty shillings, 
or in default three months’ hard labour in the 
House of Correction. It seems, from the Act in 
question, that this grass was cut by " idle persons and 
disposed of for the purpose of making matts, brushes, 
and brooms or besoms.” In Anglesea it is still usei 
for making baskets and ropes. It is stated that were 
it not for this grass the town of Hull would have 
been long since washed away; and Holland's sand¬ 
banks are kept up by it in conjunction with a sedge 
(Carex arenaria) and Lyme Grass (Elymus 
arenarius). 
The pretty little cress Teesdalia nudicaulis grows 
plentifully on the Warren, and already many plants 
were in seed. A few plants of Cakile maritima were 
also flowering. The Portland Spurge showed up 
well with its bright-red leaves, and at each step the 
flowers of the Stork's-bill (Erodium cicutarium) were 
to be seen varying in colour from lilac to white. 
Very like this last flower, but with grassy leaves, I 
found another flower—and this find is the reason of 
my writing to you —a flower which grows only on 
this particular Warren in Great Britain, though I 
am told it is a common flower in Jersey and Guernsey. 
I mean Trichonema Columnae. It is a modest little 
