December 29, 1900. 
THH GARDENING WORLD 
277 
Great quantities of Holly, Spruce, Mistleto. Ivy, 
Laurels and Bays, are now pouring into Covent 
Garden Market. 
Araucaria excelsa, also called the Norfolk Island 
Pine, has been increasingly grown for the purpose of 
Christmas trees for some years past. 
Christmas Wreaths —The smooth leaves of a 
species of Holly (Ilex Aquifolium Hendersonii), and 
the scarlet fruit clusters of Crataegus Pyracantha 
Lelandii, have been used this season in the making of 
bright Christmas wreaths. 
Trade Notes.—Messrs. Alex Dickson. & Sons 
(Ltd.) have been registered with a capital of 
£25,000 in £t shares, to acquire and carry on the 
well-known nurserymen and seedsmen's business at 
Newtownards, Co. Down, Belfast and Ledbury. 
Eurya latifolia, a slow growing shrubby, varie¬ 
gated plant; and Funkia ovata marginata, a herbace¬ 
ous plant, are two of the most popular subjects 
grown by market men for decorative uses. Thou¬ 
sands are disposed of by retail trade, to be used in 
fancy bowls in town dwelling-houses. 
Weather in London —Thursday and Friday of 
last week were mild and dull; Saturday gave us 6° of 
frost ; and Sunday brought the first inky-black fog 
of the season. Midday in London on Sunday was 
as dark as a moonless night. Monday, as we go 
to press, is again very foggy. 
Premonitory ! 
Old Sol looked down ; the birds began to sing, 
And flowers to bloom. The bees are on the wing : 
All Nature smiles—there’s joy in everything. 
The Jasmine’s gold ; the Fiery Thorn is king ; 
The Roses bud and bloom, and fragrance bring. 
Sweet zephyrs blow ; Oh ! joy, ’tis spring, 'tis spring! 
—C.B.G. 
December 16th, 1900. 
Freesias.—In answer to Mr. J. Mayne, I am 
pleased to say that the early forced Freesias referred 
to by me, carry from three to five blooms on each 
raceme. The flowers are individually of average 
size and are fragrant, but naturally one cannot expect 
the standard quality of substance. The foliage 
reaches from six to nine inches. The mere desire 
to have these sweetly fragrant flowers before Christ¬ 
mas is the only reason for the special effort put forth 
in forcing.— D. 
Worms in Potatos.—A correspondent mentions a 
case where a lea field was ploughed after a rest of 
fifty years, and was planted with Potatos. The 
crop, however, has been unsaleable because each 
tuber was full of worm holes. The ground had a 
slight dressing with hot lime after the Potatos were 
planted. The poor farmer wonders what he should 
do. As the " worms ’’ appear to be wireworms, a 
good dressing of fresh gas lime to be ploughed in 
now is the best preventive. Crushed rock salt at 
the rate of 10 cwt. per acre is also beneficial. A 
liberal dressing of kainit should always form part of 
the artificial mixture when there is danger of infesta¬ 
tion from wireworms. 
Dried Prunes.—All of us who live in or near by 
thie% can see boxful after boxful of dried and pressed 
Prunes or Plums in grocers' windows. These fetch 
a profitable price. Tbe growing of these Plums and 
all tbe work in connection with the evaporation and 
packing of the fruits, furnishes quite an industry in 
parts of the Continent. In our Islands manufactures 
outweigh the agricultural, bo-ticultural, and the 
fruit growing industries (though we could do much 
more in the latter), leaving us to be supplied by 
countries where manufactures are of minor import¬ 
ance. The countries that give themselves up to 
what may be called raw production, are presumably 
adapted for the purpose. Our own country on the 
other hand, having such extensive coal fields and 
iron deposits, is naturally fitted for its chief business 
of working up the raw materials. So the question 
of division of labour and free trade is illustrated. 
But to hark back to the Plums or Prunes—these are 
imported from the Austrian-Hungarian Kingdom, 
and the various subject kingdoms or dependencies. 
A great deal comes from Servia, which, however, 
is under Turkish dominance. The Plum orchards 
are chiefly along the banks of the rivers. Vast 
qu nt ties of the fruits are also converted into jam. 
Crosses for use in cemeteries are readily made by 
using small branches of young Birch trees, Betula 
alba. These should be cut to lengths of 2 ft. to ft. 
for the perpendicular piece, and shorter for the 
cross piece. Bunches of evergreens can be arranged 
on the cross by way of " make up.” The branches 
are sawn along their length, the silvery bark being 
retained on the rounded side. Branches of about 
4 in. thickness are used. 
A Russian Inspection at Eynsford.—Mr. Nicholas 
Schawroff, government director of the Silk Industry 
in the Caucasus, visited the Swanley and Eynsford 
districts of Kent, on Monday, December 4th. His 
object was to ascertain all he could about the rural 
industries of Kent. He applied to Mr. E. D. Till for 
information on bee keeping,poultry ^keeping, and cider 
making. On being interrogated as to how the Mul¬ 
berry trees are treated in the Caucasus, he answered 
that they are denuded by cutting off about 3 ft. of 
the shoots to feed the silkworms. The Vines are 
then trained up the bare trunks. Enormous 
Quinces are grown in the Caucasus of a different 
shape to ours, and single fruits weigh as much as 
lbs. It is a favourite fruit there, and is cooked like 
Apples. Mr. Schawroff was conducted to cider 
works, a jam factory, the Horticultural College, and 
to Messrs. H. Cannell & Sons’ nursery. He found 
a good deal to interest him, and in return was able 
to impart some useful information to those who 
accompanied him. 
Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland —The 
annual general meeting of the R.H.S. of Ireland was 
held on Monday, December 10th, in the Central 
Lecture Hall, Westmoreland Street, Mr. Greenwood 
Pim, M.A., presiding. The committee have decided 
to omit the spring show, as this has been for a num¬ 
ber of years a source of great loss to the society 
owing to lack of public support. The membership 
has increased considerably during the year, and the 
committee hope that all possible endeavours will be 
made to further augment the numbers. The thanks 
of the society were tendered to all who had offered 
special prizes. Various suggestions were made as to 
whal should and could be done to place the finances 
of the society on a sound basis. Several members 
threw out proposals in favour of personal guaran¬ 
tees to the amount of, say £50, so as to insure the 
continuance of the shows. The secretary took note 
of all the suggestions, and these will receive the 
careful consideration of the council. 
Sevenoaks Gardeners’ Society.—The Sevenoaks 
gardeners met at the “ Rose and Crown " Hotel, on 
Tuesday evening, December 18th, and enjoyed a 
very interesting and practical paper on the culture 
of that important Lily—Lilium auratum. The 
essayist was Mr. Fox, gardener to Mr. Sowerby, 
Solefields, Sevenoaks, who passed over the descrip¬ 
tion of the flower and proceeded at once to give 
cultural instructions. He advised a start to be 
made at the latter end of November or early in 
December, at which time they should be potted-up. 
This applies both to new bulbs and to those which 
may have been grown in pots previously. The 
proper time to repot was when the stems had begun 
to die down. The bulbs should then be turned out, 
and if in a crowded state they should be shaken out 
of the old soil and sorted ; the small ones being kept 
apart to be grown by themselves. Single bulbs 
should be repotted into pots one size larger than 
before. A suitable compost consists of about equal 
parts of fibrous peat and loam, with the addition of 
some crushed charcoal and coarse sand. Moderately 
firm potting is advisable, but in no case give the 
bulbs too much space—but rather confine them. 
The bulbs should be kept well down to allow of 
three or four inches of top-dressing when the stems 
begin to throw up. There are two root systems—- 
one belonging to the bulb, and the othir springing 
from the lower part of the stem and which draws 
nourishment for the flowers. Seven or eight-inch 
pots are quite large enough for a moderate sized 
bulb. Provided the soil was fairly most, as is neces¬ 
sary for potting, no water need be given until the 
bulbs start to grow. They could be placed in a 
frame, an outhouse, or even under the stage of a 
cool house, but they must be free from drip. A 
brisk discussion ensued, in which Messrs. Huntly, 
Westcott, Heath, Potter, Edwards, Turner and 
Elliott and other members took part and a pleasant 
evening was concluded by a vote of thanks to Mr. 
Fox and the chairman. 
Liability for Damage caused by Hedge Clip¬ 
pings—A farmer was lately sued by a neighbour for 
the loss of a heifer, which had died from the effects 
of Yew poisoning, the animal having eaten clippings 
which had fallen and been allowed to lie on the 
public highway, from a hedge that had been cut by 
the defendant. The judge who gave decision held 
that the clippings constituted a "public nuisance,” 
and it was quite immaterial whether the person who 
put the " nuisance ” on the highway knew it was a 
danger to persons, cattle, or other animals, or not. 
Just as everyone is “ supposed to know the law,” so 
it would seem everyone is supposed to know what 
will do damage and what will not. We think, how¬ 
ever, that all farmers, to say nothing of labourers and 
others, ought by this time to know that Yew clip¬ 
pings, partly dried, are very poisonous to cattle. As 
it was, in this case, the pursuer received £7 as 
damages. 
» ■ » 
CHRISTCHURCH PARK, IPSWICH. 
Since 1894 the town of Ipswich, which stands upon 
the river Orwell, in the east of Suffolkshire, and is 
renowned for its manufactures of machinery, was 
fortunate enough to secure a splendid public park. 
This public area, amounting to considerably over 
fifty acres, iorms what is called Christchurch Park. 
The purchase of this ground was certainly one of 
the wisest deals the corporation could have made. 
The park is situated on the north part of the town 
where its outer limits on this side furnishes some of 
the most elevated views to be obtained. In its 
superficial conformation the park is charmingly 
undulating and has as many natural variations as 
any park could be deserved to have. The park used 
to be an old family residence. " The name of 
Christchurch is derived from a Priory of Canons of 
St. Augustine, founded in the church of the Holy 
Trinity, prior to the year 1177,” or over 700 years 
ago. Some of the excavations which have been 
executed during recent years on the spot where the 
Priory stood, have brought to light at least one old 
relic, a curious and enormously clumsy stone coffin. 
The sides and bottom of the coffin are about 3 in. 
thick, the kind of stone being probably some variety 
of sandstone. This antiquarian treasure is now in 
the Ipswich Museum. After various changes, the 
Priory just mentioned became the property of Powle 
Withipoll, a London merchant of the Tailors’ Guild, 
who represented the City of London in three parlia¬ 
ments. The Withipoll family came originally from 
Italy, and to-day this name, with a few other names 
of pure Norman and Italian extraction, are quite 
familiar in this region of Suffolk. It should have 
been mentioned that within the grounds of Christ¬ 
church Park, there is a mansion which now also, 
through the munificence of Felix T. Cobbold, Esq., 
an influential gentleman who lives in the neighbour¬ 
hood, forms a part of the public property. This 
mansion was erected by a son of the London 
merchant referred to. Those who are interested in 
historical story, and who visit Ipswich, can have a 
legend spun to them which would glorify every room 
of the old Christchurch Mansion. The powerful 
Queen Elizabeth slept here, and of course that fact 
is duly chronicled. The uses or supposed uses of 
certain mysterious secret passages and rooms, 
furnish material for other stories of strange trend— 
and there are fifty-six rooms ! The estate passed 
into the hands of the Hereford family, and was 
owned by them till the middle of last century. Then 
from ihe time of the Herefords relinquishing it, till 
it was put in the market a few years ago, it was in 
possession of a family named Fonnereau, another 
Norman name. The Fonnereaus were of the 
merchant and clergy class. So these few lines 
(from a sketch by Mr. Frank Woolnough, curator of 
Ipswich Museum) briefly outlines the story of change 
which has so satisfactorily culminated in providing 
the 70,000 inhabitants of Ipswich with a healthy, 
enjoyable, and lovely public park. 
There are numerous fine old Elm, Oak, and Spanish 
Chestnut trees throughout tbe park. Other belts of 
plantation have been recently planted. There is an 
abundanoe of roadways, paths, seats, and stretches 
of ornamental water stocked with water fowls. In 
the park itself there are few or no flower beds, but 
in Clarke’s Arboretum, which consists of 1,005 rods 
of the sunniest and loveliest grounds imaginable, 
and which adjoins the park, there is quite a pro- 
