444  JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER.  May  24,  1900. 
Recent  Weather  In  Iiondon. — The  latter  portion  of  last  week 
was  not  generally  so  cold  as  the  preceding  portion.  On  Saturday  it 
was  dull  and  threatening,  and  cultivators  were  hoping  for  a  warm  rain, 
which  is  much  needed  on  dry  soils.  Sunday  was  warm  with  dull  and 
bright  intervals.  On  Monday  it  was  decidedly  warmer,  but  a  rather 
high  wind  lifting  clouds  of  sharp  dust  made  walking  somewhat 
unpleasant.  During  the  small  hours  of  Tuesday  morning  rain  fell 
heavily,  and  continued  in  showers  throughout  the  day.  On  Wednesday 
the  showers  were  frequent  and  very  heavy. 
The  .Gardeners’  Royal  Benevolent  Institution. — The  com¬ 
mittee  has  great  gratification  in  informing  the  readers  of  the  Journal 
of  Horticulture  that  H.R.H.  the  Prince  of  Wales  has  graciously  consented 
to  succeed  the  late  Duke  of  Westminster  as  president  of  the  institution, 
and  that  H.R.H.  the  Princess  of  Wales  and  T.R.H.  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  York  have  graciously  consented  to  become  patrons. 
An  Indian  Hailstorm. — Darjeeling  would  seem  to  be  particu¬ 
larly  unfortunate  in  the  matter  of  meteorological  visitations.  The 
correspondent  of  “Indian  Gardening”  there,  writing  on  the  11th  ult., 
says  : — “  You  will  be  sorry  to  hear  that  we  have  had  another  disaster 
in  Darjeeling  ;  and  from  a  gardening  point  of  view,  worse  than  that  of 
September  last.  On  Monday  evening  (9th  ult.)  we  had  a  fearful 
hailstorm,  which,  although  it  did  not  last  ten  minutes,  did  an  incredible 
amount  of  damage  to  vegetation  and  glass.  The  annuals,  for  instance, 
are  battered  out  of  recognition,  while  even  Conifers  had  whole  shoots 
knocked  off.  The  Chrysarfthemums  and  other  perennials  are  mere 
sticks,  and  the  Roses  have  had  whole  shoots  taken  off.  The  houses 
in  Darjeeling  present  a  woebegone  appearance,  as  all  windows  with  a 
westerly  aspect  are  wrecked.  Not  in  the  memory  of  the  oldest 
inhabitant  has  such  a  severe  hailstorm  occurred.  Many  of  the  hail- 
•stones  were  as  large  as  eggs,  and  none  smaller  than  walnuts.  One  can 
estimate  the  force  with  which  the  hail  must  have  fallen,  from  the  fact 
ithat  over  thirty  panes  of  thick  glass  in  the  large  conservatory  at  the 
Hotanio  Gardens  are  smashed.  I  had  thought  of  sending  you  a  list  of 
plants  in  flower  here,  but — they  are  not  in  flower  now  !  ”  A  hailstorm 
such  as  this  visited  Simla  in  October,  1884,  and  the  hailstones  lay  on 
the  ground  in  some  of  the  sheltered  spots  for  nearly  three  weeks  after 
the  storm ! 
Carpet  Bedding. — I  observe  from  a  pamphlet  to  hand  fro™ 
those  enterprising  florists  Messrs.  Cannell  &  Sons  that  they  still 
believe  in  carpet  bedding,  as  not  only  does  the  little  book  give 
-numerous  designs,  but  instructions  as  to  what  plants  should  be 
utilised  in  the  filling  of  the  beds.  It  would  therefore  seem  as  if 
carpet  bedding  is  not  yet  quite  dead,  although  it  is  rapidly  becoming 
extinct.  I  notice  that  in  many  of  our  public  parks  and  gardens 
where  summer  bedding  is  so  admirably  displayed,  scarcely  a 
•single  carpet  bed  is  now  to  be  seen.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  beds  of  this  description  have  been  popular  in  the  past ;  but 
•they  absorb  an  immense  number  of  plants,  and  need  an  excessive 
amount  of  attention  compared  with  the  results  obtained  in  keeping 
these  plants  in  rigid  lines  and  quite  dwarf.  Practically  carpet 
•bedding  may  be  described  as  the  most  artificial  form  of  flower 
gardening  to  be  found  in  horticulture.  Certainly  it  is  on  a  par  with 
the  hard  formal  trimmed  hedges,  topiary  shrubs  and  trees,  hard  cold 
stone  steps,  and  walls,  statuary,  vases,  and  other  adjuncts  still  found  in 
gardens  modelled  on  the  Dutch  style.  But  there  has  been  during  the 
past  twenty  years  a  great  secession  from  this  description  of  gardening. 
Formality  and  stiffness  have  had  to  give  place  to  natural  formation  and 
growth,  and  the  beauty  which  Nature  furnishes  to  plants,  trees,  and 
shrubs  is  now  more  generally  encouraged  and  admired.  Almost  the 
only  absolute  element  of  formality  found  in  modern  flower  gardens  now 
is  the  smooth,  close-shaven  turf,  but  that  is  a  feature  that  will  never  be 
abj  ured.  Practically  it  constitutes  one  of  the  great  charms  of  our  lawn 
flower  gardens.  Even  those  who  favour  wild  or  grass  gardening 
enthusiastically,  yet  like  to  have  the  lawn  proper  kept  neat  and  close- 
mown.  But  the  summer  bedding  is  now  more  rugged  in  outline,  more 
natural  in  appearance,  and  generally  exhibits  a  great  advance  on  the 
old  carpet  bedding. — A.  D, 
Gardenlngr  Appointment. — Mr.  William  Coomber,  for  the  past 
two  years  and  nine  months  head  gardener  to  the  Earl  of  Wilton  at 
Houghton  Hall,  Kings  Lynn,  has  been  appointed  in  a  similar  capacity  to 
the  same  nobleman  at  Cockley  Cley  Hall,  S  waff  ham. 
lar.  or.  P.  Hudson,  IVI.A.— We  have  to  congratulate  Mr.  J.F.Hudson 
on  his  appointment  as  mathematical  lecturer  at  University  College 
Bristol.  This  clever  son  of  a  clever  father  has  for  three  years  been 
assistant  lecturer  at  Jesus  College,  Oxford,  and  assistant  demonstrator 
of  physics  in  the  Oxford  University  laboratory.  Mr.  Hudson  is  a  .  , 
scholar  of  Jesus  College,  Oxford ;  he  took  first  in  Mods,  in  1893,  and 
first  in  Greats  in  1895. 
The  Sleep  of  Plants. — Remarkable  experiments  were  reported  a  i 
short  time  back  to  the  Cambridge  Philosophical  Society  by  Miss  Pertz 
and  Francis  Darwin.  If  a  “sleeping”  plant  is  placed  in  a  dark  room  T  : 
after  its  leaves  have  assumed  the  nocturnal  position,  it  will  “  awake  ” 
next  morning — i.e.,  assume  the  diurnal  position,  in  spite  of  darkness.  , 
Still  more  remarkable,  if  one-sided  illumination  causes  the  leaves  to 
take  oblique  positions,  they  will  resume  such  positions  on  awaking  next  . . 
day,  though  in  darkness.  ' 
Jersey  Potatoes  Saved. — The  latest  news  from  Jersey  is  that  ^ 
after  all,  Jersey  Potatoes  will  not  be  so  dear  this  season  as  was  at  first  , 
feared.  The  supply  will  be  not  far  from  normal,  but  as  there  are 
indications  of  an  unusually  large  demand  prices  may  rule  high.  There  • 
have  been  extensive  importations  of  German  Potatoes  to  supplement  j 
the  expected  deficiency  in  the  British  product,  one  steamer  alone  | 
landing  between  12,000  and  13,000  bags  from  Hamburg  at  Goole.  1 
These  are,  of  course,  last  season’s  products.  ] 
■  j 
The  Uses  of  a  Churchyard.  —  Our  clever  contemporary  1 
“Truth,”  is  responsible  for  the  following: — Apropos  of  the  Ewelme 
Churchyard  case,  I  have  heard  a  rather  good  story  said  to  have  been  i 
told  by  a  former  Archdeacon  of  Suffolk  visiting  an  out-of-the-way 
parish  when  the  incnmbent  happened  to  be  away,  the  Archdeacon  was 
shown  round  by  the  clerk.  On  arriving  at  the  churchyard  he  found  a  i 
fine  crop  of  Wheat  growing  in  it.  “  Dear,  dear,”  said  the  Archdeacon, 
“  I  can’t  approve  of  this,  I  really  did  not  think  that  Mr. - would  ] 
have  planted  Wheat  in  the  churchyard.”  “  That’s  just  what  I  ^ 
told  parson,”  replied  the  clerk.  “I  says,  says  I,  ye  didn’t  ought  to  ! 
have  wheated  it.  Ye  ought  to  have  tatered  it.”  j 
Xlnneean  Society. — The  Flora  of  the  Andes  was  discussed  at  a  .j 
recent  meeting  of  the  Linnaean  Society  by  Mr.  H.  H.  W.  Pearson,  with  -  ’ 
special  reference  to  Sir  Martin  Conway’s  small  collection  of  plants  ' 
brought  from  Illimani,  in  the  Bolivian  AndeSj  in  1898.  In  consequence  ^ 
of  the  labours  of  D’Orbigny,  Pentland,  Meyen,  Weddell,  Mandon,  and  ;i 
other  botanists,  the  high-level  flora  of  the  mountains  of  Bolivia  is  better  -j 
known  than  that  of  any  other  equally  elevated  region  of  the  Andes.  1 
Many  collectors  have  obtained  plants  in  various  parts  of  the  Andes  at  ] 
elevations  stated  to  be  greater  than  17,000  feet.  Colonel  Hall  states 
that  he  saw  four  plants  on  Chimborazo  in  1831  at  “nearly  18,000  feet.” 
These  were  two  species  of  Draba,  one  of  which,  says  a  contemporary, 
was  D.  aretoides,  and  two  composites.  Mr.  Whymper  and  others  have  \ 
thrown  some  doubt  upon  the  determination  of  this  elevation,  and  it  is 
probable  that  it  was  over-estimated.  Of  forty-six  species  of  flowering  \ 
plants  obtained  by  Sir  Martin  Conway,  seven  are  from  18,000  feet  or  ? 
above  it,  two  being  as  high  as  18,700  feet.  These,  the  highest  Andine  ; 
plants  on  record,  are  Malvastrum  flabellatum  and  Deyeuxia  glacialis. 
Kidderminster  and  District  Horticultural  Society. — The  i 
above  society  held  its  monthly  meeting  on  the  9th  inst.,  under  the  - 
presidency  of  C.  N.  Barr,  Esq.  The  lecturer  was  Mr.  W.  H.  Wilson  of  ‘j 
Moor  Hall,  Stourport,  and  the  subject  of  the  lecture  was  “  The  Potato 
and  its  Cultivation.”  Mr.  Wilson  said  he  had  chosen  this  subject 
because  it  was  one  of  general  interest  to  all  members  of  the  society, 
the  Potato  plot  being  the  common  platform  of  gardeners.  He  traced 
the  progress  of  the  Potato  from  being  a  vegetable  curiosity  to  a  staple 
article  of  food.  He  advised  deep  cultivation  in  the  autumn,  giving  a  ' 
good  dressing  of  partially  decayed  farmyard  manure,  not  as  food  but  to 
keep  the  soil  in  a  good  condition.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  lecture,  on  the 
proposition  of  the  chairman,  seconded  by  Mr.  Coombs,  Hagley,  a  hearty  , 
vote  of  thanks  was  passed  to  Mr.  Wilson.  The  distribution  of  the  Tomato  i 
plants  (from  seed  supplied  by  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society,  with  ' 
which  the  above  society  is  affiliated),  and  raised  by  Mr.  Whicker, 
F.R.H.S.,  one  of  the  hon.  secs.,  took  place.  The  next  monthly  lecture  j 
will  be  on  “  Dahlia  Culture,”  by  Mr.  Hawkins  of  Mitton,  Stourport.  S 
