280 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
March  31,  189b. 
-  Shirley  Gardeners’  Association. — The  annual  general 
meeting  was  held  at  the  Parish  Room,  Shirley,  Southampton,  on  Monday, 
the  21st  inst.,  the  President,  Mr.  W.  F.  G.  Spranger,  presiding  over  an 
average  attendance  of  members.  The  report  showed  that  twelve  meetings 
had  been  held  during  the  past  year,  516  members  attending,  giving  an 
average  of  forty-three.  The  attendance,  it  was  felt,  should  average  more 
with  a  membership  of  about  140.  The  accounts  showed  a  balance  of  £3 
odd  in  favour  of  the  Association,  and  there  is  still  a  number  of  subscrip¬ 
tions  unpaid.  The  President,  Vice-Presidents,  Treasurer,  and  Secretary 
were  re-elected.  Votes  of  thanks  were  accorded  to  the  President  and  also 
to  the  horticultural  and  local  Press,  Some  of  the  members  and  their 
friends  afterwards  gave  a  vocal  and  instrumental  entertainment,  which 
was  much  appreciated. 
-  Growing  Violets, — The  method  of  propagation  recommended 
by  Mr.  G.  Hart,  on  page  236,  has  doubtless  been  proved  by  him  to  be  a 
good  one,  as  he  j)refers  it  to  raising  fresh  plants  from  cuttings.  I  gather 
from  his  remarks,  however,  that  it  is  necessary  to  allow  the  old  plants 
to  remain  in  the  frames  till  the  middle  of  April  before  they  are  lifted,  and 
here  arises  a  difficulty.  Where  frame  room  can  be  spared  for  this 
purpose  all  is  well,  but  ray  experience  of  growing  Violets  is  that  the 
urgent  need  of  the  frames  for  the  raising  of  early  vegetables,  annuals,  and 
so  forth  does  away  with  any  possibility  of  leaving  the  Violets  in  them  till 
the  middle  of  April.  Frequently  the  plants  have  to  be  lifted  from  the 
frames  on  this  account  early  in  March,  and  finish  their  blooming  under 
the  protection  of  a  wall.  It  appears  to  be  a  matter  of  circumstances 
whether  your  correspondent’s  method  is  preferable  to  propagation  by 
cuttings  or  divisions. — V.  T. 
-  Thibaudia  macrantha. — Although  there*  is  a  large  and 
varied  collection  of  plants  in  the  conservatories  at  the  Birmingham 
Botanical  Gardens,  none  that  I  saw  there  interested  me  so  much  as  the 
hardwooded  plant  from  the  Himalayas  above  named.  It  is  so  rare 
that  it  is  known  to  very  few  gardeners.  The  plant  at  Edgbaston,  now 
in  a  10-inch  pot,  is  of  bush  form,  and  has  thin  or  meagre  leafage.  Its 
habit  is  loose,  and  by  no  means  of  dense  growth.  Out  of  bloom  it  would 
bear  an  insignificant  appearance,  but  in  bloom,  as  I  saw  it  the  other  day, 
it  was  singularly  pleasing.  The  flowers  are  produced  singly  and  in 
clusters  from  the  old  leafless  wood.  They  are  mitre  shaped,  having  fine 
segments  at  the  mouth  and  ribs  on  the  tube.  They  are  about  inch  in 
length,  are  pendant,  and  reddish-white  in  colour  or  veined.  Altogether 
when  in  bloom  the  plant  is  a  charming  one.  It  requires  conservatory 
temperature,  and  may  be  propagated  by  inserting  tops  of  half-ripe  shoots' 
in  sand  under  a  bell-glass  in  good  heat. — A.  D. 
-  The  Mild  Winter  and  a  Strange  Insect  at  Torquay. — 
Mr.  Alfred  Chandler,  F.R.Met.Soc.,  the  Meteorological  Observer  for  the 
borough  of  Torquay,  sends  us  the  following  from  the  “Western  Morning 
News”: — Amongst  horticulturists  in  South  Devon  curiosity  has  been 
excited  in  the  appearance  of  an  insect  supposed  to  be  new  to  the  present 
generation  of  horticulturists,  and  the  product  of  the  past  abnormally 
warm  winter — the  mildest,  perhaps,  for  the  last  twenty-five  or  thirty 
years.  It  should  be  stated  that  the  infestation  was  discovered  on  a 
Cedrus  Deodara  tree  in  the  garden  of  Mr.  Dundee  Hooper,  Ardvar^ 
Torquay.  There  was  sbme  difficulty  at  the  first  in  finding  an  insecti¬ 
cide  which  would  effectively  destroy  these  insects.  A  few  degrees  of 
frost  or  a  cold  wind  seems,  however,  to  destroy  them  immediately.  In 
connection  with  the  excessively  mild  winter  now  just  passed,  we  have 
had  here  in  Torquay,  which  I  see  has  also  occurred  in  other  parts  of 
Devon,  the  Blackberry  (Rubus  vulgaris)  in  bloom  in  January,  and 
setting  for  fruit  in  February.  The  high  mean  temperature  during 
October  and  November  of  1897,  and  December.  January,  and  February 
last,  was  quite  phenomenal.  The  mean  temperature  of  the  five  months 
was  48'2°,  or  14'8°  of  accumulated  heat  above  the  average  of  twenty-two 
years’  observations  at  Torquay.  Specimens  of  the  insects  were  sent  to 
Miss  Eleanor  A.  Ormerod,  who  said  they  belonged  to  the  genus  Lachnus, 
known  as  the  Pine  aphis,  possibly  Lachnus  pinicola,  an  English  species, 
only  more  than  usually  noticeable,  consequent  on  the  mild  season.  For 
preventive  measures  kerosine  emulsion  was  pronounced  the  best  of  all. 
Specimens  were  also  forwarded  to  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  and  Mr. 
Charles  Whitehead  wrote  : — “  It  is  undoubtedly  Lachnus  pini  from  which 
your  Deodars  are  suffering.  It  is  unusual  to  find  these  aphides  so  active 
at  this  time  of  the  year,  but  it  is  due  to  the  mild  abnormal  season.” 
W.  F.  H.  Blandford,  of  the  Entomological  Society  of  London,  wrote  to 
Mr.  Dundee  Hooper  : — “It  is  certainly  an  aphid,  and  has  nothing  whatever 
to  do  with  the  American  blight,  usually  so  called,  of  Apple  trees,  or  with 
the  San  Jose  scale,  which  has  lately  created  a  scare  in  Germany,  and 
appears  to  be  in  a  fair  way  to  do  so  in  this  country.” 
-  Biiimingham  Gardeners’ Association. — At  a  recent  meeting 
of  this  Society,  Mr.  W.  B.  Latham  presiding,  a  very  interesting  and 
comprehensive  paper,  illustrated  with  coloured  plates,  on  the  genus  Iris, 
was  read  by  Mr.  James  Deans.  The  essayist’s  familiarity  with  the  cultiva¬ 
tion  and  study  of  the  iris  specially  qualified  him  to  deal  with  the  subject 
in  an  entertaining  and  instructive  manner.  A  hearty  vote  of  thanks  was 
unanimously  passed  to  the  essayist. 
-  Dodecatheon  Hendersoni. — A  pretty  “  American  Cow¬ 
slip,”  or  “  Shooting  Star,”  bearing  the  above  name,  has  been  introduced 
from  California  within  the  last  few  years.  It  occurs  in  the  Ukiah  Valley, 
as  I  gather  from  a  note  in  a  contemporary.  It  is  a  charming  little  plant, 
with  crimson  or  rose-purple  flowers,  with  a  yellow  ring  at  the  base.  Like 
the  other  Shooting  Stars,  the  petals  are  reflexed  like  those  of  the 
Cyclamen,  and  this  adds  much  to  the  interest  of  the  plant  in  the  eyes  of 
many.  It  is  dwarfer  than  several  of  the  genus,  and  here  has  only  grown 
about  6  inches  high. — S.  Arnott. 
-  Mushrooms  in  Railway  Tunnels.— It  may  not  be  generally 
known  that  the  cultivation  of  Mushrooms  is  carried  out  most  successfully 
in  a  disused  railway  tunnel  at  Edinburgh,  known  as  the  Waterloo 
Tunnel.  In  the  course  of  a  discussion  on  the  proposed  new  Brixton  and 
City  Electric  Railway,  with  stations  at  Brixton  Hill,  Lorn  Road,  Kenning- 
ton  Oval,  Kennington  Cross,  Lambeth,  St.  George’s  Circus,  and  London 
Bridge,  the  construction  of  which  was  sanctioned  recently  by  a  Committee 
of  the  House  of  (’ommons,  it  was  stated  incidentally  by  Mr.  Littler,  Q.*^., 
that  although  there  might  be  Mushroom  companies  springing  up  on  all 
sides,  it  was  hardly  the  business  of  a  railway  company  to  engage  in  the 
cultivation  of  the  succulent  fungus.  At  the  same  time  the  City  and  South 
London  Company,  who  will  work  the  new  Brixton  line,  are  open  to  offers 
for  the  use  of  their  disused  tunnel  at  London  Bridge  for  that  purpose,  as 
the  new  tunnel  under  the  Thames  which  is  now  in  course  of  construction 
will  be  utilised  for  the  conveyance  of  their  passenger  and  other  traffic  to 
Merrie  Islington. 
-  Leap  Variation. — The  varying  forms  of  leaves  on  the  same 
plant  always  attract  the  attention  of  the  curious.  On  the  Mulberry  and 
others  some  leaves  will  be  quite  entire  ;  others  are  deeply  lobed.  In  none 
of  our  text-books  does  there  seem  to  be  any  explanation  of  this.  From 
what  we  read  in  elementary  works  one  might  almost  believe  that  the  tree 
first  formed  the  nerves  of  the  leaves,  as  if  a  sort  of  skeleton  frame,  and 
then  spread  the  green  matter  of  the  leaves  over  it.  But  it  would  seem 
that  these  veins  are  to  support  the  leaf — that  is  to  say,  to  give  strength  to 
it.  If  this  be  granted,  the  leaves  will  not  make  veins  or  ribs  when  it  has 
no  green  blade  that  needs  this  strengthening.  When,  therefore,  there  is 
a  low  degree  of  vital  energy,  and  not  much  leaf-blade  material  formed, 
there  would  be  no  need  of  these  supporting  ribs.  May  we  not,  therefore, 
say  that  it  is  from  some  local  weakness  in  not  producing  material  to 
warrant  the  production  of  leaf- blade  that  accounts  for  the  absence  of  the 
ribs,  and  which  then  results  necessarily  in  a  lobe,  where  otherwise  the 
leaf  would  be  entire  ?— Lester  Bernstein  (in  “Meehan’s  Monthly’’). 
-  Vases  or  Cups  for  Cut  Flowers.— When  insiiecting  the 
collections  of  cut  Narcissi  at  the  recent  show  held  at  the  Botanical 
Gardens,  Edgbaston,  my  attention  was  drawn  to  what  appeared  to  be  a 
very  suitable  kind  of  vessel  for  the  arrangement  of  such  flowers  as 
Daffodils.  It  is  an  invention  by  the  Rev.  J.  Jacob,  Whitchurch,  whose 
collection  of  these  flowers  was  arranged  in  them,  and  evidently  they  proved 
most  suitable  for  the  purpose  indicated.  The  vessel  is  cylindrical,  made 
of  tin,  about  4  inches  in  depth,  and  less  in  diameter.  Some  were  painted 
green,  and  the  remainder  a  chocolate  brown— the  latter,  however,  being 
the  more  appropriate  in  contrast  with  the  green  foliage  of  the  flowers. 
At  about  half  an  inch  from  the  bottom  of  the  interior  of  the  vessel  is 
soldered  a  wire  ring  to  form  the  base  for  a  holder,  and  which  consists  to 
two  disks  of  tin  perforated  with  at  least  a  dozen  holes  for  the  reception 
of  the  stalks  of  the  flowers  and  foliage,  each  hole  being  no  larger  than  for 
allowing  the  ready  insertion  of  the  flower  stems — the  insertion  being 
specially  suitable  for  the  purpose,  or  indeed  for  any  other  kind  of  flower 
with  no  larger  stems.  The  two  disks  are  attached  to  the  ends  of  a  hoUow 
tubular  standard,  also  composed  of  tin,  and  of  sufficient  length  to  reach 
from  the  top  of  the  inside  of  the  vase  to  the  ring  below,  thus  affording  a 
ready  means  of  inserting  the  flower  stems  through  the  pair  of  disks,  and 
holding  them  in  the  required  position.  As  the  standard  or  holdfast  is 
moveable  and  fits  easily  inside  the  vase,  either  end  of  the  former  can  be 
used,  top  or  bottom.  A  small  portion  of  dried  moss  was  placed  amongst 
the  stems  of  the  flowers  and  foliage  to  hide  the  inside  of  the  vase. 
Altogether  the  arrangement  seemed  to  be  perfect,  and  Mr.  Jacob  intends 
to  have  it  patented. — W.  G. 
