September  19, 1895. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENEIL 
281 
axe  of  good  size,  and  when  ripe  the  colour  is  a  rich  blue-black.  The 
leaves  are  of  remarkably  stout  texture,  and  as  large  as  many  Vines  that 
are  grown  under  glass.  The  plants  grow  to  a  height  of  between  4  and 
6  feet,  and  are  each  supported  with  a  good  stout  stake.  That  the  treat¬ 
ment  they  receive,  and  the  soil  they  are  grown  in,  are  in  every  way 
suitable  is  plainly  apparent  from  the  splendid  health  and  condition  of 
the  plants.  The  whole  undertaking  reflects  the  greatest  credit  on  every¬ 
one  concerned  with  it,  and  eventually  when  the  whole  of  the  Swanbridge 
field  is  stocked  one  will  be  able,  when  in  the  middle  thereof,  to  fancy 
■oneself  in  Italy  or  France  withont  any  trouble. 
From  Swanbridge  we  drove  back,  a  distance  of  about  seven  miles, 
partly  by  the  seashore  and  the  remainder  by  road,  at  the  sides  of 
which  were  growing  trees  that  had  been  planted  by  our  host.  Soon 
Cardiff  was  sighted,  and  shortly  afterwards  we  were  seated  in  Mr. 
Pettigrew’s  charming  home,  resting  after  our  long  afternoon’s  work. 
Before  bidding  adieu  to  Cardiff  we  had  a  hasty  look  over  Roath  Park 
and  other  of  the  open  spaces,  but  notes  of  these  must  be  reserved  for  a 
future  occasion. — Momad. 
ATHANASIA  ANNUA. 
Several  shrubby  evergreen  species  of  the  genus  Athanasia,  natives 
of  South  Africa,  are  known,  and  occasionally  but  rarely  they  are  seen 
in  greenhouses  where  collections  of  scarce  or  interesting  plants  are 
grown.  One  Athanasia,  however  (fig.  47),  is  of  annual  duration  only, 
and  was  at  one  time  a  rather  familiar  occupant  of  English  gardens. 
It  is  a  native  of  North  Africa,  chiefly  in  Barbary,  and  succeeds  out  of 
doors  in  this  climate  during  the  spring  and  summer  months.  The 
■whole  plant  is  rather  fleshy  in  structure,  like  many  other  members  of 
the  CompositEe.  The  leaves  are  pinnatifid,  and  the  florets  tubular  in 
close  fleshy  heads,  these  again  being  clustered  in  dense  corymbs  sugges¬ 
tive  of  some  of  the  4chilleas,  especially  A.  aegyptiaca,  but  the  individual 
beads  are  more  prominent,  and  the  corymbs  are  consequently  not  so  flat. 
When  cut  the  flower  heads  last  for  a  great  time  in  water,  and  even  when 
cut  and  placed  in  a  cool  position  they  remain  fresh  for  more  than  a 
week  out  of  water.  The  plant  succeeds  in  any  light  well-drained  soil 
and  is  raised  from  seed  sown  in  early  spring. 
A  FAMOUS  METEOROLOGIST  AT  HOME. 
A  Chat  with  Mr.  G.  J.  Symons,  F.R.S. 
No  meteorological  event  of  any  importance,  from  a  drought  to  a 
hurricane,  is  considered  quite  complete  until  Mr.  G.  J.  Symons  has  been 
heard  on  the  matter.  But  few  would  suspect  the  amount  of  interest  to 
be  derived  by  the  mere  layman  from  a  visit  to  the  famous  meteorologist 
in  his  modest  quarters  in  Camden  Square.  It  was  a  propos  the  recent 
big  storm  that  a  representative  of  the  “  Westminster  Gazette  ”  called  on 
Mr.  Symons,  though,  as  it  proved,  Mr.  Symons  had  nothing  very 
exceptional  to  report  concerning  that  particular  downpour. 
A  Famous  Thunderstorm. 
“It  was  a  good  average  thunderstorm,’’  he  observed  “but  nothing 
like  some  of  the  storms  which  we  have  had  in  former  years — nothing 
like  that  of  1878,  for  instance.  That  was  on  June  23rd  of  that  year, 
and,  luckily  enough,  I  happened  to  be  able  to  obtain  an  absolutely 
perfect  record  of  it  from  beginning  to  end.  It  began  about  one  o’clock 
in  the  day  with  thunder  and  rain.  1  scarcely  know  why,  but  I  started 
at  once  recording  the  indication  of  the  storm-gauge  ;  and  the  rain 
becoming  torrential,  I  continued  it  every  half  minute  until  the  fall 
■ceased.  It  is  an  unusual  thing  in  London  for  an  inch  of  rain  (which  I 
may  tell  you  represents  101  tons  weight  per  acre)  to  fall  in  twenty-four 
hours  ;  but  in  this  case  we  had  a  fall  of  3^  inches,  and  it  all  fell  in  an 
hour  and  a  half.  That  was  something  like  a  thunderstorm.  As  to  the 
■one  the  other  day,  I  was  out  of  town  myself  at  the  time,  but  of  course  our 
recording  gauges  tell  us  exactly  what  happened.”  And  Mr.  Symons 
produced  a  chart  showing  in  pencilled  curves  the  duration  and  volume 
of  the  rainfall  over  the  Camden  Square  area  throughout  the  storm. 
How  the  Recording  is  Done. 
“  How  is  that  produced  ?”  “  The  simplest  thing  in  the  world.  You 
can  have  a  look  at  the  instruments  out  in  the  garden  presently.  You 
have  a  cup  or  vessel  arranged  underneath  an  ordinary  rain-gauge,  so 
that  the  fuller  it  gets  the  lower  it  sinks,  thus  actuating  a  lever,  which 
in  its  turn  moves  the  pencil  over  the  surface  of  the  chart.  That  is  to 
saj,  as  the  vessel  increases  in  weight  it  pulls  the  lever  or  arm  with  the 
pencil  attached  farther  and  farther  from  its  normal  position,  and  as  the 
paper  at  the  same  time  turns  round  by  clockwork  on  a  cylinder,  it  is 
obvious  that  you  get  in  this  way  a  complete  record  at  once  of  the  time 
and  of  the  intensity  at  which  the  rain  fell.” 
A  visit  to  the  garden  in  due  course  confirmed  the  truth  of  Mr.  Symons’ 
words  as  to  the  simplicity  of  the  apparatus,  difficult  as  it  is  to  describe  it 
on  paper. 
Even  more  remarkable  is  another  machine  numbered  among  Mr. 
Symons’  treasures,  by  means  of  which,  in  the  course  of  a  thunderstorm, 
not  merely  the  rainfall,  but  the  thunder,  the  lightning,  the  successive 
movements  of  the  barometer,  and  the  hail  (if  there  be  any)  are  all 
recorded  with  absolute  exactness  by  separate  indicators  in  the  form  of 
one  chart,  the  paper  again  revolving  continuously  on  a  cylinder  by 
means  of  clockwork. 
3000  Correspondents  and  Their  Work. 
Other  instruments  set  up  and  silently  discharging  their  duties  in 
various  parts  of  the  garden — it  is  just  an  ordinary  suburban  back 
garden  with  a  small  office  at  the  end  of  it — are  barometers,  thermo¬ 
meters — “  dry,”  “  wet,”  “  maximum,”  “  minimum,”  and  the  rest  of  it, 
ground  thermometers  (giving  the  temperature  at  12  inches,  4  feet,  and 
10  feet  below  the  surface),  rain  gauges  without  number  (for  Mr.  Symons, 
most  cautious  of  statisticians,  will  not  trust  even  his  own  machines 
unless  they  corroborate  one  another),  snow  gauges,  thermographs,  and 
evaporation  tanks  —  the  inspection  of  which,  at  any  rate  under  the 
FIG.  47.— ATHANASIA  ANNUA. 
guidance  of  such  a  capable  cicerone  as  Mr.  H.  Sowerby  Wallis,  Mr. 
Symons’  trusted  colleague  and  assistant,  is  nothing  less  than  a  liberal 
education  to  the  layman  in  the  meteorologist’s  science. 
But,  as  Mr.  Symons  explained,  strictly  speaking,  a  good  deal  of  this  is 
not  what  he  considers  his  work  proper  at  all.  It  is  with  the  results  of 
other  men’s  observations  rather  than  his  own  in  particular  that  he  is 
chiefly  concerned.  “  Strictly  speaking,  my  business  is  with  the  rainfall 
over  the  British  Isles,”  he  observed  on  this  point,  “  and  with  nothing 
else.  I  myself  am  not  so  much  an  observer  as  a  collector  and  compiler  of 
the  observations  of  others,  and,  considering  that  our  staff  of  observers 
scattered  all  over  the  United  Kingdom  now  exceeds  3000,  I  think  you 
will  realise  that  I  have  quite  enough  to  do  in  this  way.  As  you  probably 
know,  the  results  of  our  labours  here  are  published  annually  in  a  volume 
— ‘  Symons’  British  Rainfall  ’ — the  size  of  which  to-day  compares  strik¬ 
ingly  enough  with  the  original  slender  little  pamphlet  from  which  it  has 
grown.” 
“  How  did  I  come  to  start  my  rainfall  records?  I  was  engaged  in 
the  Meteorological  Department  of  the  Board  of  Trade  at  the  time,  and 
as  it  seemed  to  me  the  work  needed  doing,  I  began  keeping  observations 
on  my  own  account.  That  was  in  1860,  when  I  got  together  and  printed 
in  the  ‘Builder’  a  summary  of  the  rainfall  of  1859.  I  have  forgotten 
the  exact  number  of  records  dealt  with,  but  it  was  very  small — perhaps 
