582 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
May 13, 1899. 
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approved fashion. We must refer to the 
gardens and hothouses on another occasion. 
Query. — " Is the same species of Fern always first 
in different localities ? ” 
Royal Horticultural Society.—The next fruit and 
floral meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society 
will be held on Tuesday, May i6th, in the Drill 
Hal), James Street, Westminster, 1—5 p.m. A lec¬ 
ture on “Some of the Plants Exhibited” will be 
given by the Rev. Prof. G. Henslow, M.A., at 
3 o'clock. 
Tinned Green Peas. — It may not be generally known 
that those Peas which we so largely import, even we 
are told, to the extent of 16,000,000 tins annually, 
contain 07 grain of copper, which is used to retain 
the greenness of the Peas. Such a dose of 
copper is certainly not beneficial to the health of the 
commonwealth and regulations should be ordered 
against the importation of such Peas. 
Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society.—A meeting 
of the Council of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural 
Society was held at 5.St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh, 
on April 28th. The proposals on 1 he excursions to 
Ross and Sutherland this year, and to France next 
year,were explained and generally approved of After 
further business Mr. Elis Nilson, representative of the 
Forest Department of Sweden, was introduced. Mr. 
Nilson is at present in Scotland making collections 
of Larch seeds and investigating the conditions of 
Scotch Larch forests for operations in Sweden. 
Larch seed from the Tyrol and elsewhere has proved 
of little good in Sweden, and trials are now to be 
made with Scotch seeds. 
Death of Mr. T. A Dickson.— It is wfih deep regret 
that we announce the death of Mr. T. A. Dickson, 
one of the well known florists in Central Avenue, 
Covent Garden, London, who died at his residence 
on Tuesday, May 9th. Mr. Dickson has had a 
lingering illness since August last, brought on by 
overwork. His condition of health during the 
months since last autumn has been one prolonged 
depression with spells of returning vigour and 
repeated relapses. He was 65 years of age. Practic¬ 
ally all his life he has been occupied in his Covent 
Garden business, and for many years he has managed 
a nursery at Acre Lane, Brixton, where he lived. 
Everyone who met him or had dealings with him, 
loved and held him in very high respect. During a 
long term he has been a member of the Gardeners’ 
Royal Benevolent Institution, for which be did a lot 
of hard work, as also in his connections with the 
Royal Gardeners’ Orphan Fund. His was a worthy 
life, nobly spent. 
Sutton’s Cycling Club.—Times and again do we 
have notices ot “ Fixtures ” either for cricket 
matches between a team of Messrs. Sutton’s em-. 
ployees, of Reading, and some neighbours, or of 
prospective cycling runs. This represents the 
grandest feeling between masters and men that we 
could wish for. And in these days, when “ Gar¬ 
deners' Unions’’ are lustily being debated, why 
might “Unions” of the Messrs. Sutton’s type not 
be oftener inaugurated ? In the card tabulating 
twenty cycle runs during the half-holiday afternoons 
accorded the workers at Messrs. Sutton’s Nurseries, 
we find Martin J. Sutton, Esq , J.P., as president of 
the club, and Arthur W. Sutton, Esq., Leonard G. 
Sutton, Esq., and M. H. Foquet Sutton, Esq., as the 
vice-presidents. The runs vary in length from seven 
to twenty-two miles, and at the lesser distances 
ladies are invited. If the runs are to shows the club 
starts early, and has more leisure for enjoyment of 
the exhibitions. Evening runs take place as cir¬ 
cumstances may arrange them. Now all this is very 
nice, and we can guess the men themselves are all 
the more willing to do their best in return. For 
health and easy, perfect exercise cycling is the most 
adaptable and recommendable form anyone can put 
themselves to ; and a breezy run through varied 
scenes with pleasant chat and unpunctured tyres is 
a sensation to be experienced for full realisation. 
May the club loDg remain in-tyre, safely seated, and 
as the wheels of time bowl along may its numbers 
be, aye, full-blown 
“ The Fern Bulletin ” for April draws attention to 
the fact that there is too much hunting for rare 
species of Ferns and too little study accorded to the 
commonest forms. " To learn the names of the 
Ferns is merely to become familiar with the alphabet 
of Fern study.” 
“ Fox plant,” “ monkey plant,” and “ rabbit plant” 
are various names applied to Barosma foetidissima, 
owing to its obnoxious odour. A large specimen of 
this Cape plant is now in flower in the Temperate 
House, Kew, where it forms a somewhat conspicuous 
object. 
The Age of the Earth is reckoned to be about sixty 
million years, divided into ( a) twelve million for the 
Azoic,—without life; thiriy-six millions for the 
Palaeozoic,—early Primary forms of life; nine 
million for the Mesozoic ; and three millions for the 
present period or Cenozoic.— Ketchum's American 
Botany. 
Rain Every Day.—In some parts of England rainy 
days are said to far exceed the dry ones. Here is a 
popular rhyme which expresses a summary verdict; 
“ The South winds always bring wet weather; 
The North wind brings wet and cold together. 
The West wind always brings us rain 
And the East wind blows it back again. 
If the sun in red, should set, 
The next day surely will be wet; 
If the sun should set in grey 
The next will be a rainy day.” 
Power of a Mushroom.—Our attention has been 
called to the statement that a Mushroom had lifted a 
paving-stove weighing 500 lb., besides being wedged 
in on all sides in a London pathway. We have not 
seen it, but should guess that many Mushrooms or 
toadstools had been concerned in the case. The 
stinking toadstool, known to the botanist as Phallus 
impudicus, about two years ago, lifted a portion of a 
well-made ashphalt path in Finsbury Park, making 
a hole large enough to let through a cannon ball. 
Roots of trees that have got into cracks and crevices 
of walls, have often been known to rend them or up¬ 
set their stability. 
Strayed Ferns.—An interesting case, which shows 
how plants, confined to certain zones or local areas, 
may be and are, sometimes found in isolated and 
restricted spots away from their true habitat, is 
related in The Fern Bulletin for April. A traveller in 
the Olympic mountains found a single specimen of 
Cryptogramme acrostichoides near the foot of a 
mountain, while all the others of the same species 
were found away up on the summit. The single 
specimen had been carried down by a piece of rock, 
and had established itself and was growing more 
vigorously in its new environs than the rest of its 
members in the higher zone, four or five thousand 
feet up, among barren rocks. 
Forfar Horticultural Improvement Association con¬ 
cluded a well spent session on May 2nd. The 
gathering was in the Meffan Institute, and the 
president, Mr. Thomas Shiel, in the chair. The 
prize essays, of which there were three, on “ The 
Benefits derived from Horticultural Improvement 
Associations” were before the meeting. In this 
essay competition, Mr. Storrie, of Dundee, awarded 
first place to Mr. Thomas Wilson, Glamis Castle 
Gardens, who thus secured the tested barometer 
presented by the Ichthemic Guano Company, of 
Ipswich. Mr. Thomas Shiel, New Cemetry Lodge, 
and Mr. Charles Dickers, Beechhill Gardens were in 
this respective order. Twenty-five of the best vari¬ 
eties of Daffodils were sent from Glamis Castle 
Gardens and, it goes without saying, they were 
much admired. The annual general gathering was 
then held, and from reports put forth the society 
was seen to be in a vigorous condition, financially 
and otherwise. The office bearers for the coming 
year were duly elected whence the assembly afterwards 
met at Robertson’s Hall, Osnaburg Street, for a 
social evening. After the toast of the Society had 
been passed the chairman, Mr. Shiel, called on Mr. 
Knox, who in a pleasant way presented Mr. Brown, 
the society’s secretary, with a handsome barometer 
given by the members in appreciation of valuable 
services rendered to the Association. Mr. Brown 
returned thanks and showed how fully he valued the 
gift. An enjoyable evening was spent in speeches 
and songs. 
Glass Bricks have been used for some time past as 
paving for the streets in Lyons. They are not made 
smooth, but are notched and wear handsomely.— 
Journal of the Society of Arts. 
Hints for Preserving Tools.—Say you are putting 
past such tools as spades or egding-irons, &c., wipe 
them thoroughly clean and thereafter pass them 
before a fire till warm enough to melt beeswax, 
whence they should be well greased all over with 
the beeswax and placed away in a dry place. 
Thinning Plantations.—The first consideration be¬ 
fore thinning is commenced is to take into account 
the position or situation of the wood or plantation. 
On high situations thin cautiously, and also be care¬ 
ful in the thinning of the sides of a plantation open to 
the prevailing gales and winds of the district. The 
distance to which they may be left depends greatly 
or altogether on the soil in which trees in different 
positions are growing. The general rule is to leave 
the trees free from each other, say one-third of their 
height apart. Pines are not benefited by artificial 
pruning. The early summer months is the best 
season for thinning. 
A Puzzle for Botanists is found in what some of 
our daily papers think is a new discovery of a Pine 
tree, whose seed cones neither drop nor open to 
liberate the inclosed seeds. Pinus muricata is the 
species under question, and at Kew Gardens a speci¬ 
men has been bearing ripe cones without any signs 
of dropping them, for years past. Indeed, it takes a 
strong blow with a sharp axe to cause their removal. 
And though they may be buried for months the 
cones remain as firm as ever. The only theory as to 
how such a tree is perpetuated is that of a well- 
known botanist, who believes an intense forest fire, 
in which the parent trees are consumed, and the 
cones opened by great heat, is necessary. 
Fighting the Phylloxera.—In the districts lying 
around Cadiz the vineyards last year gave a worse 
crop than ever, says the Journal of the Society of Arts, 
owing to the attacks of the Phylloxera. Formerly, 
the only plants infested were those growing on white 
clay soil, but now those on sandy lands have fallen a 
prey to the scourge. The only preventive course to 
take is an expensive one, and it is, to graft American 
and the Spanish Vines together, Crops, of course, 
have to be waited for, but the character of the 
Spanish wine is unaltered, and the product is rather 
increased. It is now some years ago since we heard 
Dr. W. G. Smith, late of Edinburgh Botanic Gar¬ 
dens, and now at Leeds, lecturing on the use of 
American Vines as stocks for grafting on to when 
Vines were attacked by Phylloxera. 
Scottish Horticultural Association.—Clydesdale 
Orchards : Mr. Wilson, of Murdostoun Gardens, 
Newmains, expressed surprise and amazement at 
the vague and mistaken ideas existing even with 
intelligent people, as to the aspect of Nature, and 
the social and moral position of many of the 
inhabitants of that district of Scotland commonly 
styled the west, visions of towering chimneys, coal 
pits, fiery furnaces, rugged men, and grim visaged 
women arising before their vision, when a chance 
reference might be made to Central Lanarkshire. 
Mr. Wilson went on to say the people of the west 
rather gloried in their commercial enterprises ; but 
all the same the Clyde orchards were sufficiently 
removed from them. Some fruit-growing districts 
were strikingly rural, the people, their homes, habits, 
conversation, and styles of living, evidencing a 
primitive honesty and freedom from desire for more 
exciting circumstances than pure air, good health 
and merry hearts. This possibly was most pro¬ 
nounced in the Braidwood district. Mr. Wilson 
gave a glowing description of the Clyde scenery 
from its rise at the hills on to Stonebyres and 
Uddingstone, discussing the landlords, their tenants, 
soils, rentals, manures, fruits, and the various modes 
and appliances adopted to ensure success in fruit 
growing, dealing also with the questions of sewage, 
irrigation, and the various means adopted to supple¬ 
ment the incomes of the fruit grower, such as 
poultry farming, plant and Tomato growing. He 
concluded by paying a high compliment to the 
generous spirit of the occupants of the Clydesdale 
mansions and the high moral force, energy and skill 
of the average fruit grower of the Clyde. — Robert 
Laird, Secretary. 
