January 23, 1904. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
67 
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EDITORIAL NOTES. 
Rainfall in London for 1903 . 
A record of the rainfall in the county of 
iondon must necessarily vary slightly 
ceording to the station a.t which the records 
eie taken. The variation, however, would 
ard enincjA fybrld. 
not be great, so that an account, of the rain¬ 
fall for the- whole of the past year, kept, at 
Holland House, Kensington, Middlesex, by 
Mr. Charles Dixon, the gardener, would be 
fairly illustrative of the' chief facts of the 
case. We know that in some places a greater 
rainfall has been recorded, but in others a 
slightly smaller figure, the fact being that 
local showers, especially during thunder¬ 
storms, would slightly affect the general 
average. At Holland House during January 
2.01 in. of rain fell; in February 0.70; in 
March 2.10; April 1.67; May 2.55; June 
6.27 ; July 4.85 ; August 4.05 ; September 
3.56; October 5.51 ; November 1.83; and 
December 1.26. It will thus be seen that 
June was the wettest mouth in. the year, and 
was also rather cold. For the amount of 
rainfall October came second, July third, and 
August fourth. The summer was therefore 
the wettest on record within living memory. 
The average rainfall for London taken over 
a great number of year's is 24 in. Last year 
it was 36.36 in. At some of the other 
stations we believe it. was 2 in. higher. There 
was half as much rain again as we get in 
average seasons! and what should have been 
dry months were decidedly wet ones. In 
this respect the winter was much drier than 
summer, February being the driest month 
and December coming next. Holland House 
is in latitude 55.30 N. and longitude 0.5 W. 
The observation was taken at 9 a.m. each day 
with a rain gauge of 5 in. diameter and stand¬ 
ing at 4 ft. 6 in. above the ground. Hol¬ 
land House is 68 ft. above sea level. 
A Novice to Grow Orchids. 
Many of our readers have no doubt either 
heard or read of the writings of Mr. H. Rider 
Haggard, the celebrated novelist. He is also 
a practical farmer, a.nd admits that he knows 
something about gardening. During the 
past years lie lias written a good deal on 
the subject of farming, and now he has under¬ 
taken the subject of gardening in one of our 
contemporaries. - In his introductory article 
he says that lie has never yet met the man or 
woman who knew “ everything about garden¬ 
ing,' least cf all amongst those who followed 
it by profession. He has a, good word for 
most, people who' are either able cultivators 
•of flowers, vegetables, or fruits, but. be draws 
the line at the man whose speciality is 
Orchids. Speaking a,s an amateur himself, 
he says lie would rather hire a man who has 
never seen an Orchid than employ a new head 
gardener who “ understands Orchids.” He 
states that it, is better to* take a novice who 
is willing to learn and train] him. We must, 
my that, we fail to see the force of his lan¬ 
guage. If a man really knew Orchids 1 , surely 
such a mam must he of more service to any 
employer than one who knows nothing at all 
about them. He can find plenty of men who 
say they understand Orchids, but can also 
find men who say they understand any other 
class of plants. At least, they will say so, 
even if their knowledge does not extend far. 
A fair price would bring a man that could 
certainly grow Orchids without every-day in¬ 
structions from the employer. Really good 
gardeners in every branch are now suffi¬ 
ciently numerous to take up any or all 
branches cf gardening in a private establish¬ 
ment, and we have no doubt that Mr. Hag¬ 
gard would find his man if he offers the price. 
The Largest Century Plant. 
Cultivators in this country are perfectly 
satisfied if they get a Century Plant (Agave 
americana) to throw up a flower stem 18 ft. 
to 20 ft. in height. That is no doubt very 
fair for our climate, hut the Century Plant 
of Porto Rioo>, described as Fourcroea foetida 
or Fourcroya gigamtea, is said by a writer n 
the “ American Botanist, ” to be probably the 
tallest erect plant which is neither a. tree, 
shrub, nor Bamboo. He says the plant grows 
wild on the hillsides in the poorest of soil and 
dry, rocky situations, and forms a striking 
feature of the landscape that may he detected 
a -mile off or more. The seedling grows 
slowly at first, and several years ma.y elapse 
before it gets a good start, but, as soon as a, 
good crown of leaves is formed, it grows away 
rapidly. When the leaves attain a height of 
6 ft. or thereby the flower stalk shoots up 
rapidly to a height of 30, 40, or 50 ft., with 
a diameter of 6 in. or 9 in. at the base. This 
is certainly a, splendid scape or flower stalk, 
botanically termed a peduncle, and which 
may be compared to the flower stalk of a 
Hyacinth, with its flowers and bracts. The 
individual flowers are tubular, over 2 in. hi 
length, and greenish-yellow, but rather dis¬ 
agreeably scented. Commercially, it seems 
to be a, plant of considerable value for ; ts 
fibre, used as a, textile, while other portions 
of the plant are put to other purposes. 
Ground Nuts from Gambia. 
The colony and protectorate of Gambia 
feel more than satisfied with the business 
done in this small article of food for the pasD 
year. It is said that the record was beaten 
by nearly 10,000 tons. “ The West African 
Mail ” gives an account of the export and 
value of Ground Nuts (Arachis hypogaea) 
from the commencement. In 1830 four 
bushels, valued at £1, were sent off to the 
West Indies. In some of the years no record 
has been made of the export, but the omis¬ 
sions are few by comparison with the returns. 
The first lot that came to Great Britain was 
in 1836, which amounted to 130 tons, valued 
a,t, £1,558. Since then the amounts have 
gradually crept up, and it would seem that 
all the nuts have been sent to Great Britain. 
In 1903 the quantity was 45,480 tons, valued 
at £262,710, estimated at £6 a ton. This 
will give an idea of the growth of the Ground 
Nut trade from the colony of Gambia, in West 
Africa,. 
