September 17, 1904. 
THE OAR DEN I NO WORLD. 
733 
he ^ardeniiigW/brld. 
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EDITORIAL NOTES. 
The Grouping of English 
Gardeners. 
Mr. Louis G until, a past Kawitei and now 
superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, 
Brussels, has been taking a deep interest in 
the doing® of the gardeners in this country 
since last spring, when the British .Gardeners’ 
Association was formed. Hei has practically 
given a brief account of those chiefly con¬ 
cerned in it, and also the motives which gar¬ 
deners had in forming the association.. Hisi 
account- of these doings of the British gar¬ 
deners are: written in French, and now pub¬ 
lished in the form of a pamphlet. In intro¬ 
ducing the subject to his compatriots on the 
Continent, he says that in England gardeners 
are exceedingly numerous, and horticulture 
flourishing. During several past years the 
horticultural industry has undergone con¬ 
siderable extension. When one visits certain 
establishments one cannot but marvel; 
these are veritable plant manufactories. 
Then, lie refers to the Temple Show held in 
London at the end of May, and this lie re¬ 
gards as the most profitable and valuable 
exhibition of horticultural products in the 
whole world. This was nlot merely his own 
opinion, but of all horticulturists and 
visitors who wished to ascertain and see the 
progress realised in. the course of a year. 
Then, he goes through the objects which the 
gardeners had in view ini organising such an 
association, and is in entire sympathy with 
it, considering that, many of the conditions 
under which gardeners labour require redress. 
The St. Louis Tornado and the 
Weather Plant. 
Professor Nowack contends that he fore¬ 
told or prophesied the tornado ait. St. Louis, 
7 America, isomei ten months ago by means of 
the weather plant. We may remind our 
readers that we referred to this plant some 
weeks a.goi, relating that it was Abrusi precar 
torius, on which the Professor had been 
making many experiments for years past. 
W-e referred to it a.s a. new weather plant, 
from the fact that the Telegraph Plant (Desr 
medium gyrans) had been employed some 
years previously for the purpose of foretell¬ 
ing meteorological -events. Public atten¬ 
tion was drawn, to Professor' Nowack and -his 
discoveries at the Vienna. Jubilee Exhibition 
in 1888. Later on he came to London, and 
some of his plants were kept under suitable- 
coiiditi-ons for him in. Kew Gardens. As in 
the case of the Telegraph Plant, which lxa.cl 
been previously experimented upon, the au¬ 
thorities at Kew remained sceptical of the 
abilities of such plants to predict rain, 
thunderstorms, earthquakes, and other 
phenomena., not only in. any part, of England, 
but. in other parts of the world. More re¬ 
cently, sa.y on August. 20th, the Professor 
had written the word cyclone in his record 
book, but- not having his plant 'at hand he 
was n-ot able to say where the cyclone was' 
going to take place. On Augus t 22nd it was 
reported at St. Louis. The Professor has 
now another earthquake-thunderstorm in 
view, which will occur somewhere between 
Lisbon, and Oporto in Portugal. He cannot 
give the exact date, hut very likely it will 
be next- year or not before 1907, but it must 
occur before 1918. From our point of view, 
the Professor is giving himself plenty of time 
for something to happen. Concerning his 
weather plant, we are also sceptical, and 
think that the plant is too directly influenced 
by its immediate surroundings and the state 
of the weather t>o> predict anything in the 
next glasshouse. 
Orchids for Ail. 
Wei hope the editor of one of our contem¬ 
poraries is not strictly in earnest when he 
discusses the question of British Orchids 
which anyone ma.y have for the gathering. 
Even those that- are considered rare or may 
oven be extinct in this country he would 
regard as the legitimate prizes of the lucky 
finder. A number are enumerated as grow- 
mg upon Box Hill, but within the last two 
decade® we know for certain that British 
Orchids there have become extremely rare, 
compared with what they were previous to 
that time. The. writer of thei article refers 
to our native Cypripedium Caloeolus as the 
most preciousi of our native Orchids, and 
then goes on to describe in, what parts of this 
country it is to be found., giving a certain 
part of Derbyshire as one of the districts in 
which it is to be found, together with a de¬ 
scription of the likely situations. It is also 
stated, however, that the inhabitants' have 
a habit of cutting off the flowers for fear that 
some tripper should cornel along and dig it 
up. by the roots. We hope., however, that 
trippers so inclined 1 will experience great 
difficulty in finding it. The object of pick¬ 
ing up* these interesting British Orchids is to 
transfer them toi the garden, but- that we 
consider a very foolish operation by an 
amateur cultivator, seeing that professionals 
have such- difficulty in keeping them alive. 
The New Winter Vegetable. 
It seems that the. market men of Paris are 
making a great fuss over the so-called new 
winter vegetable, which they lia-ve christened 
Ovidius, though why it was necessary to use 
such a classical name for a garden vegetable 
wei fail to disceiro. Crambo tartarica was 
originally introduced to this country from 
Eastern Europe in 1789. We are uncertain 
whether it is now in cultivation, as there is 
another -one with a closely similar name, C. 
Tataria. In any case, there are several 
species of Cra-mbe in this country, any one 
of which might be cultivated and used as a 
vegetable in, the same way as wei do our 
native Sea- Kale. Whether the other species 
would please the palate equally well is a 
matter for experiment-. Several of them are 
veiy much more rampant in their growth 
than our native species and would possibly 
require more space in the plantations. 
