52 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
September 26, 1896. 
we noted a large and splendid batch of 
Salvia splendens grandiflora, having numer¬ 
ous large spikes of bracts and flowers of a 
brilliant scarlet colour. The plants were 
summered in the open air, and have only 
recently been potted up. This system of 
culture makes them dwarf, bushy, and flori- 
ferous, with a succession of bloom that will 
keep on till November. The plants are 
now in 24-size pots. A large plant of the 
the orange-flowered Streptosolen Jamesoni 
covers a portion of the back wall and is 
blooming freely. A beautiful white Abutilon, 
named Cloche d’Argent (Silver-bell), is con¬ 
sidered by Mr. Bain to be superior to the 
old Boule de Neige, and gives every appear¬ 
ance of being so. 
Ever on the outlook for effecting improve¬ 
ments, Mr. Bain is always making experi¬ 
ments, and having planted out some young 
pieces of Exacum macranthum has found 
that the foliage puts on a healthier appear¬ 
ance than those kept indoors. They have 
recently been potted up and are now flower¬ 
ing. E. affine also finds a place here. A 
fine batch of hybrid Streptocarpus, in a 
great variety of beautiful colours, would be 
an ornament to any house. One of them 
having a yellow throat gives promise of a 
much desired break in colour. The ever 
beautiful Saintpaulia ionantha is also petted 
at Burford Lodge, and well repays the 
attention bestowed upon it, for the plants 
are a mass of rich blue flowers, not unlike 
those of a Violet. A collection of Sonerillas 
is equally as healthy and thriving as the 
Bertolonias, and exhibit a great variety of 
pearly markings and other colours. The 
relatively old and rare Leea amabilis also 
thrives well, and shows off its beautifully 
marked foliage to great advantage. How 
rich and varied are the colours of the flowers 
of Gesnera fulgens, even if we ignore the 
beautiful foliage. Some are scarlet extern¬ 
ally and yellow internally, speckled with 
crimson, while others are rosy and spotted, 
or self-coloured white or yellow. The 
pyramidal masses of bloom are gorgeous. 
Nor is the outdoor department neglected 
if we are to judge by the fine masses of 
bloom of various things to be seen even at 
this late period of the year. A bulb border 
in front of one of the houses is filled with a 
great variety of subjects that mostly bloom 
in autumn. The delicate pink of Amaryllis 
Belladonna contrasts beautifully with the 
profusion of white flowers arising from 
Zephyranthes Candida, the purple of the 
double autumn Colchicum, the white of 
Cyclamen neapolitanum album, and the 
rich feathery blue of Crocus speciosus. 
Large masses of the pink Crinum Powelli, 
have been here for the last dozen years, 
and have been flowering for weeks past. 
We have never seen Sternbergia lutea (like 
an autumn Crocus) flowering more profusely 
than it is at the present time. It has been 
undisturbed for a great many years. 
In another part of the garden we could 
not but admire the semi-double white 
flowers of the new and charming Anemone 
Lord Ardilaun, already a favourite on both 
sides of the Atlantic. Beside it is a clump 
of the Kansas Gay Feather (Liatris 
picnostachys), 4 ft. to 6 ft. high, and waving 
in the wind. Primula obconica, in a shady 
position, has been flowering all the summer 
out of doors and is so even yet. The 
bushy, branching Lobelia Carmine Gem, 
recently honoured with a First-class Certi¬ 
ficate, stands about 2% ft. high, but a clump 
of rooted cuttings put out in spring is only 
12 in. to 18 in. high. It seems destined to 
become a popular favourite. Some standard 
specimens of a yellow-flowered Abutilon, 
planted out in spring for the second season, 
are now a mass of bloom. They are 8 ft. 
to 9 ft. high, and present a subtropical 
appearance. They will be lifted and housed 
again for the winter. The new white one 
will also be tried outside next spring. 
A plantation of seedling Pentstemons of 
a splendid strain has been flowering grandly 
for a long time past, and looks as if it would 
continue the display for another month. 
The colours are numerous and the flowers 
of huge size. Already the fame of this 
magnificent strain is getting noised abroad. 
The seeds were sown on the 10th February 
last, so that Pentstemons may, in the near 
future, be classed amongst annuals. A 
plantation of the Gladiolus-flowered Cannas 
is making a grand display in the open 
ground. The greenhouse climber, Rhodo- 
chiton volubile, trained on wires and poles, 
is simply a mass of bloom such as we have 
never beheld under glass. The variegated 
Hop (Humulus japonicus variegatus) has 
thriven equally well, and has run up Bamboo 
rods to a great height, while the creamy- 
yellow and silvery variegation is excellent. 
Although considered out of season, a great 
variety of Orchids may be seen in bloom at 
the present time, and we must return to 
them on a future occasion. 
-- 
Jamaica Dogwood is described as a new hypnotic, 
the fluid extract of which has been found effica¬ 
cious in dentistry. 
The wood of a certain tree is used by the South Sea 
Islanders to catch fish. Pieces of the wood are 
thrown into the water, and in a short time the fishes 
get stupefied, and can then be caught by hand. 
Mr. Grant Allen says that the growth of an Apple 
or a Pear is one of the oddest things in vegetable 
physiology. The fruit of a Peach, Plum, or Cherry 
consists of the ovary variously modified ; but that of 
an Apple or Pear consists of a swollen and softened 
stalk. The true fruit is the core in the centre. 
The rascally sparrow again.—At Colnbrook, near 
Staines, Middlesex, sparrows have become a perfect 
nuisance, and all the ordinary means of keeping 
them down have proved a failure. The ripe corn has 
had to stand upon the ground for a longer period 
than usual, owing to the long continued rainy 
weather. The marauding birds have eaten or 
threshed out a field of Wheat, and are now extending 
their attentions to Oats and Barley. 
Potato Sorters are in common use in Australia and 
save a great amount of labour by doing away with 
the necessity for hand picking. They consist of a 
framework supporting a tray or sieve with openings 
of a certain width to allow Potatos below a given 
size to fall upon a tray beneath having smaller open¬ 
ings to allow the soil and sand to fall through leav¬ 
ing the Potatos relatively clean. Both sieves are on 
the slope so that they serve as a shoot as well as to 
sift the Potatos into sizes. Bags or baskets can be 
placed to catch the two sizes of Potatos as they fall 
from the machine. The sieves should be made of 
wooden laths with rounded edges, instead of iron so 
as to avoid bruising the Potatos. Any handy man 
could soon make one of these sorting machines. 
Selling Vegetables without a License. — Mr. Thomas 
Howard, a Lancashire farmer, was summoned at St. 
Helens, recently, for selling vegetables without a 
market permit. The evidence brought forward by 
the police officer, was that the defendant went round 
the town with a cart containing buttermilk, eggs, 
Potatos, and other commodities, without a market 
permit. The defence was that the defendant had 
been carrying on this sort of business for the last 
twenty years without molestation, supplying his 
regular customers. Such articles as fish, fruit, 
vegetables, and coal, were exempted by the Hawkers’ 
Act, of 1888, and the Legislature, it was submitted, 
while protecting the rights of a corporation to its 
market tolls, never contemplated interference with 
farmers delivering agricultural produce to their 
regular customers. The farmer and fruit grower’s 
friends have been advising them to do this sort of 
thing for years past, so as to come into immediate 
contact with the consumers. It is almost incredible 
that any corporation or its officers should attempt to 
stifle this highly desirable form of trading, which 
must be highly advantageous to the community at 
large. The magistrates who heard the case, showed 
their common sense by dismissing the summons. 
The tramp nuisance is being abated in the town 
of Madeline, Minnesota, by the wood-sawing test. 
The Cycling Craze.—I learn that even the anthero- 
zoids of a Fern take to bicycles in order to visit their 
stay-at-home sweethearts. For more than one 
obvious reason would it not be more correct to say 
that they take to their “ polycycles ? "— Snaggs. 
Lily Disease has been making its ravages felt in 
Canada and the United States. It commenced with 
Lilium candidum, but spread thence to L. superbum, 
L. japonicum, L. elegans and L. speciosum. The 
three latter suffer only to a slight extent, but L. 
superbum soon succumbs to the malady. 
Osci I latoria rubescens has the peculiarity of develop¬ 
ing to such an extent, two or three times in every 
ten years, on Lake Morat, Switzerland, that the water 
becomes of a strange red hue. The species of Oscilla- 
toria are very lowly organised vegetable matter, that 
is, plants, and increase with amazing rapidity during 
certain periods of the year. 
Behaviour of Crops —I think it would be very 
interesting if you, Mr. Editor, would allow a short 
space in your valuable paper and invite gardeners in 
the different counties to send you a report of their 
crops for the past season. With your permission I 
should be very pleased to send you a report stating 
how crops have behaved in this part.— Thos. Cockerill, 
W irksworth. [Please do.— Ed.] 
Plate-Glass Houses—One of the horticultural 
curiosities to be seen at Ghent, is a range of glass¬ 
houses, each 150 ft. long. The walls are very 
substantially built of bricks with massive buttresses 
of the same material. The glass used is even of a 
more uncommon character for this class of work, for 
the roof consists of plates of glass 9 ft. by 5 ft. The 
plants grown beneath have not been improved in 
health, and the design is not likely to be copied. 
Durability of material has been secured at the 
expense of utility. The framework of the roof 
consists of iron and is very heavy. 
Canadian Apples. —The Apple crop in this country 
is generally estimated at half an average one, the 
more is the pity. There will be no dearth of that 
valuable article of food in our markets, if report 
speaks the truth ; for the Canadian crop of Apples is 
said to be so great as to beat all previous records. 
The farmers are speculating as to what they shall do 
with this superabundance of which they find them¬ 
selves the perplexed possessors. What really 
troubles them is whether the prices realised will be 
sufficiently remunerative to pay for the labour and 
cost of putting them on the market. Early varieties 
of Apples have already been sold in London and 
Liveipool, but being soft and generally unattractive 
in appearance they have only been fetching 7s. to 9'. 
a barrel. There is an idea that the sending of eaily 
kinds should be discountenanced, on account of their 
bad effect on the market. The surplus of Apples for 
exportation from Canada is estimated at 3,500,000 
barrels, and the quality is said to be superb. 
Alimentary Value of White and Brown Bread —At 
the Paris Academy’s meeting of June 8th and 15th, 
M. A. Girard contended that white bread, made 
from pure flour, is quite as nourishing as brown 
bread containing all the bran of the wheat. " I have 
already pointed out,” he observed, “ that an identical 
proportion of gluten is present in white bread made 
from flour that has been bolted, so as to leave 40 per 
cent.behind, and in brown bread made from flour, from 
which only 25 per cent, has been rejected.” Another 
objection made to white bread is, that it does not 
furnish the human organism with sufficient phos¬ 
phoric acid; but M, Girard contends that the 
difference is unimportant in favour of brown bread, 
while, not even in the poorest countries, does bread 
now constitute the exclusive diet, eggs, milk, cheese, 
chestnuts, potatos, and other vegetables supplying 
a far more important contingent of phosphoric acid 
than the difference between the quantities contained 
in white and brown bread. While physiologists 
assert that the human organism requires 3.19 grains 
of phosphoric acid daily, M. Girard has weighed and 
analysed the daily food of labourers in the poorest 
districts, and found that it amounted to double the 
above quantity. He considers the normal bread to 
be that made from flour that has given up 30 per 
cent, of corticle, to serve as food for cattle, to be 
given back to men in the form of meat .—Journal of 
the Society of Arts. 
