August  29,  1895. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
199 
-  Bocconia  cordata, — One  of  the  most  conspicuous  and 
effective  plants  growing;  in  the  new  hardy  herbaceous  garden  at 
Madresfield  Court  is  this  distinguished-looking  flower.  Its  Oak-shaped 
glaucous  green-hued  handsome  foliage  and  pinky-white  flowers  afford  a 
pleasing  contrast  to  the  general  appearance  of  the  rest  of  the  denizens 
of  this  border. — W.  G. 
-  The  Black  Eot  of  the  Grape  Vixe.  —  This  disease, 
scientifically  known  as  Lsestadia  Bidwelli,  is  spreading  so  rapidly  in  the 
vineyards  in  the  south  and  south-west  of  France  as  to  be  causing  con¬ 
siderable  anxiety  to  the  owners.  Already  much  damage  has  been  done, 
and,  apprehensive  of  still  more  serious  results  next  year,  M.  Gadaud, 
Minister  of  Agriculture,  has  issued  an  official  circular,  advising  the 
destruction  by  fire  of  Vines  that  are  suffering  from  the  disease. 
-  Preservatiox  of  Fruit. — Experiments  are  still  being  tried 
in  preserving  fresh  fruit  in  borax.  It  has  been  found  perfectly  successful 
with  Cherries,  and  is  now  being  tried  with  vegetables.  It  is  anticipated 
that  should  results  be  favourable  a  borax  bin  will  form  part  of  the  house¬ 
hold  equipment  of  every  family  in  which  fruit,  vegetables,  and  other 
perishable  forms  of  food  can  constantly  be  kept.  Borax  can  be  used 
over  and  over  again,  so  that  economy  is  secured  in  a  double  fashion. 
-  Cambridgeshire  Fruit. — The  Green  Gage  harvest,  which 
is  on  the  eve  of  commencing  in  Cambridgeshire,  is  said  to  promise 
well.  A  drive  through  some  plantations  a  day  or  two  ago  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Histon  revealed,  says  a  contemporary,  numbers 
of  heavily  laden  branches  bending  to  the  ground  with  their  weight  of 
fruit.  Fruit  growing  has  largely  increased  in  this  district  of  late  years, 
and  within  ten  miles  of  Histon  railway  station  there  are  now  some 
3000  acres  of  fruit,  about  2000  of  which  have  been  planted  within  the 
last  twenty  years.  Some  growers  boil  their  fruit  into  jam  on  the  spot, 
others  send  it  to  market. 
-  Shirley  Gardeners’  Association. —The  monthly  meeting 
of  this  Society  was  held  on  the  19th  inst.  at  the  Parish  Room,  Shirley, 
Southampton,  under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  B.  Ladhams,  F.R.H.S.,  the 
Lecturer  on  this  occasion  being  Mr.  J.  Miles,  gardener  to  W.  Perkins, 
Esq.,  J.P.,  Portswood  House.  Practical  hints  were  given  by  Mr.  Miles 
on  the  time  to  gather  fruit  and  the  most  convenient  methods  of  doing 
so.  The  Lecturer  gave  a  description  of  his  fruit  room,  40  feet  by  12, 
and  in  doing  so  remarked  on  the  ventilation  and  the  temperature,  which, 
he  said,  needed  to  be  kept  as  near  40°  as  possible.  He  touched  lightly 
on  the  debatable  matter  of  colouring,  but  said  he  had  this  year  colour 
on  specimens  of  Lord  Suffield.  There  was  a  lively  discussion  on  packing 
fruit  for  transit,  and  at  the  close  a  hearty  vote  of  thanks  was  accorded 
the  Lecturer. 
-  English  Fruit  Eaters.— Within  the  past  ten  years  English 
fruit  eaters  have  developed  an  enormous  appetite  for  Bananas.  Dr. 
Morris,  Assistant  Director  of  Kew,  in  a  very  interesting  and  valuable 
article  on  the  plants  and  gardens  of  the  Canary  Islands,  just  published, 
tells  us  that  the  Bananas  nearly  all  come  from  the  Canaries  or  from 
Madeira,  though  curiously  enough  the  variety  almost  exclusively  cultivated 
is  a  Chinese  plant.  This,  he  says,  is  a  shorter  and  stouter  plant  than  the 
tropical  Banana,  and  often  bears  from  150  to  200  “  fingers  ”  in  a  bunch. 
In  1893  no  less  than  217,095  bunches  were  exported  from  Grand  Canary 
alone.  Most  of  them  came  to  this  country,  and  no  inconsiderable 
portion  of  them  are  consumed  in  London,  where  they  sell  at  the  fruit 
shops  at  about  Id.  a  “  finger.”  So  that  a  single  bunch  of  fruit  in  the 
Canaries  may  often  represent  a  retail  value  of  20s.  or  21s.  in  the  London 
markets. 
- Tomatoes  in  the  Canaries. — In  the  same  article  Dr.  Morris 
gives  some  very  interesting  information  about  Tomatoes,  which  are  an 
even  more  important  export  from  the  Canary  Islands,  though  of  very 
recent  date.  The  total  exportation  is  supposed  to  be  now  about  150,000 
cases,  or  something  like  2700  tons  of  fruit.  It  is  grown,  packed, 
shipped,  and  delivered  in  London  at  an  actual  cost  of  2d.  a  pound,  and 
as  it  comes  into  the  market  at  a  time  where  there  are  no  English 
Tomatoes  to  be  had,  somebody  must  be  making  a  good  thing  out  of  it, 
though  from  Dr.  Morris’  account  of  the  business  it  probably  is  not  the 
Canarian  growers  who  are  making  rapid  fortunes.  Strange  to  say,  they 
get  their  seed  from  England.  It  is  distributed  among  them  on  their 
undertaking  to  sell  their  produce  at  a  certain  rate  per  cwt.  So  far 
from  the  enormous  imports  from  the  Canary  Islands  injuring  English 
growers,  it  is  considered  to  be  distinctly  advantageous  to  them  by 
fostering  and  sustaining  a  taste  for  the  fruit  at  a  time  of  year  when  it 
might  otherwise  die  down  and  be  supplanted  by  something  else. — 
(”  Daily  News.”) 
-  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  is  making  arrangements  for  a  very  large 
addition  to  the  number  of  allotment  gardens  on  his  estate  at  East  Bank 
Road,  Sheffield.  There  are  on  the  Duke’s  Sheffield  estate  about  1000 
allotments,  and  there  are  applicants  for  many  more.  The  tenants, 
needless  to  add,  take  a  great  interest  in  them. 
-  Death  of  Mons.  J.  Vesque. — We  regret  to  have  to  announce 
the  death  of  M.  Julien  Vesque,  one  of  the  most  accomplished  botanists 
of  France.  M.  Vesque  paid  great  attention  to  physiological  botany  in 
its  application  to  agriculture  and  gardening.  The  relation  of  minute 
structure  to  function  and  the  adaptations  to  altered  conditions  were 
studied  by  him  with  success. 
-  Hibiscus  syriacus. — At  the  present  time  this  plant  has  a  con¬ 
spicuous  effect  growing  in  one  of  the  mixed  shrub  borders  in  the  Wor¬ 
cester  Nurseries.  It  is  covered  with  a  profusion  of  rosy-purple  double 
flowers,  and  which  much  resemble  double  Balsams.  It  is  rendered 
additionally  interesting  and  useful  from  the  fact  that  at  this  season  of 
the  year  there  are  comparatively  few  hardy  shrubs  in  flower.  The 
plant  in  question  is  about  5  feet  high,  and  proportionately  bushy. — 
W.  G. 
-  The  Natural  History  of  Plants.— The  fifteenth  part  of 
this  monumental  work  appears  with  an  intimation  that  the  series  will 
be  completed  next  month,  and  that  the  work  will  then  be  issued  by 
Messrs.  Blackie  &  Son  as  a  whole  at  the  price  of  503.  in  cloth,  or  fiSs. 
in  half  morocco.  The  present  volume  treats  chiefly  of  the  distribution 
of  plants  and  the  various  methods  of  dispersal  of  their  seeds  by  wind, 
water,  or  animals.  The  same  popular  style  of  exposition  which 
characterised  the  earlier  number*  is  maintained,  and  a  mass  of  interest¬ 
ing  peculiarities  of  plants  in  this  particular  presented  such  as  are  not 
usually  to  be  found  in  the  ordinary  text  books  of  botany. 
-  Accident  to  Mr.  Elphinstone. — All  readers  of  the  Journal 
of  Horticulture  will  be  glad  to  learn  that  the  talented  gardener  at 
Shipley  Hall,  who  recently  met  with  a  sad  accident,  is  progressing 
favourably.  He  was  in  the  act  of  opening  a  large  bottle  of  liquid 
ammonia,  when  the  glass  stopper  gave  way,  and  the  contents  of  the 
bottle  spurted  up  into  his  face.  He  suffered  intense  agony  for  some 
days.  Fortunately  his  eyesight  will  not  be  permanently  injured  ;  he 
was  confined  to  a  dark  room  for  ten  days.  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  he 
got  out  on  Saturday,  under  a  large  umbrella,  for  a  few  miauteg,  and  I 
trust  he  may  soon  be  restored  to  his  usual  health  and  sight  again.  It 
was,  as  everyone  may  imagine,  a  dreadful  shock  to  his  system.  — 
William  Innes. 
-  Bougainvillea  splendens.— This  species  is  a  very  valuable 
greenhouse  climber,  superior  in  many  respects  to  the  old  and  well-known 
Bougainvillea  glabra.  It  is  of  a  bushier  and  more  compact  habit,  and 
the  foliage  is  a  richer  and  deeper  green.  The  inflorescence,  a  large, 
leafy  panicle,  is  larger  and  more  showy  than  that  of  the  B.  glabra,  with 
numerous  bright  crimson  bracts  and  tubular  yellowish  flowers.  Bougain¬ 
villeas  do  well  either  in  pots  or  when  planted  out  in  a  cool  greenhouse 
in  a  well-drained  border  in  rich  loam  of  open  texture.  Trained  under 
the  rafters  or  on  the  wall  of  a  conservatory,  they  are  very  floriferous  and 
beautiful.  Whether  planted  out  or  pot-grown,  a  partial  rest  should  be 
given  during  the  winter  months.  This,  says  a  writer  in  the  “  Garden 
and  Forest,’’  will  ripen  the  wood  and  insure  a  profusion  of  flowers  the 
following  season.  B.  splendens  is  easier  to  propagate  than  most  other 
species.  Cuttings  of  young  almost  ripe  shoots  will  root  in  about  three 
weeks  in  a  slight  bottom  heat. 
-  A  Curious  Seed  Trade  Case. — On  Wednesday  of  last  week 
a  Mr.  Shephard,  of  Stockbridge,  Hants,  summoned  the  well-known  seed 
firm  of  Toogood  &  Sons  before  the  Southampton  Justices,  on  a  charge  of 
infringing  the  Trade  Marks’  Act,  by  falsely  selling  certain  Kale  seed  as 
Shephard’s  Kale,  which  the  complainant  regards  as  his  trade  mark. 
Conflicting  evidence  was  given.  The  plaintiff  contended  that  the  Kale 
was  of  his  own  special  originating,  and  that  his  method  of  preparing  his 
seed  for  sale  was  a  secret  ;  also,  that  seed  labelled  Shephard’s  Kale, 
purchased  from  the  defendants,  was  of  inferior  quality.  The  latter 
pleaded,  in  relation  to  the  sale  under  defendant’s  name,  that  they  only 
acted  on  the  custom  of  the  trade,  which  sold  everywhere,  for  instance, 
Wheeler’s  Imperial  or  Ellam’s  Early  Cabbages,  &;c.,  under  those  well- 
known  appellations ;  also,  that  the  Kale  seed  was  what  it  was  repre¬ 
sented  to  be.  The  Justices  have  adjourned  farther  hearing  of  the  case 
to  September  11th,  when  it  is  expected  much  expert  evidence  will  be 
called.  The  matter  is  one  of  the  gravest  importance  to  the  seed  trade  at 
large,  and  it  is  no  matter  for  surprise  to  leirn,  should  the  decision  be 
adverse,  that  appeals  will  be  made  to  higher  Courts.— D. 
