186 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
September  8,  1898. 
-  Gardening  Appointment. — Mr.  Geo.  Grimmer,  late  general 
foreman  in  The  Grove  Gardens,  Stanmore,  has  been  appointed  head 
gardener  to  W.  G.  Phillips,  Esq.,  Berwick  House,  Shrewsbury. 
-  August  Weather  at  Driffield.  —  Mean  temperature  at 
9  A.M.  (corrected),  G0-87°  ;  wet  bulb,  57-31°  ;  mean  maximum,  68"12°  ; 
mean  minimum,  51-45°;  highest,  79°  on  the  12th;  lowest,  41*8°  on  the 
29th.  Mean  of  maxima  and  minima,  59-78°.  Mean  radiation  tempera¬ 
ture  on  the  grass,  48-82°  ;  lowest,  40°  on  the  29th.  Rainfall,  3-535  inches. 
Number  of  rainy  days,  eighteen.  Greatest  amount  on  one  day,  0-8  inch  on 
the  27th. — W.  E.  Lovel,  Observer ,  York  Road,  Driffield. 
-  Sussex  Rainfall. — The  total  rainfall  at  Stonehurst,  Ardingly, 
for  August,  was  1*44  inch,  being  0  86  inch  below  the  average.  The 
heaviest  fall  was  0-59  inch  on  the  7th.  Rain  fell  on  ten  days.  The 
maximum  temperature  was  86°  on  the  14th  ;  the  minimum,  47°  on  the 
8th.  Mean  maximum,  75-13°;  mean  minimum,  54-21°;  mean  tempera¬ 
ture,  64-67,  which  is  3'72°  above  the  average  ;  80’  and  above  it  was 
recorded  on  eleven  days.  A  hot  trying  month  for  garden  crops,  but 
glorious  for  the  harvest,  now  mostly  safe  in  the  stack.  Welcome  showers 
came  during  last  week,  bnt  not  sufficient  to  go  far  into  the  ground,  and 
September  has  come  in  hot  and  dry  with  a  high  barometer. — R.  I. 
-  August  Weather  in  South  Wales.  —  Total  rainfall 
4-82  inches,  which  fell  on  seventeen  days  ;  greatest  fall  1-64  inch  on 
the  18th.  Mean  temperature  for  the  month  59-21°.  Mean  maximum 
72-13°  ;  mean  minimum  46*29°.  Highest  reading  85°  on  the  14th  and 
three  following  days  ;  lowest  reading  38°  on  the  6th  and  on  four  other 
occasions.  The  wind  was  in  the  W.  and  S.W.  on  twenty-one  days, 
and  in  the  N.  and  N.W.  on  seven  days.  There  were  eight  sunless 
days.  The  wind  during  the  early  part  of  the  month  was  very  strong, 
at  times  blowing  quite  a  gale.  A  few  days  previous  to  the  18th  we 
had  very  hot  weather,  then  on  that  date  a  terrible  thunderstorm  broke 
over  the  district  at  11.30  a.m.,  and  rain  fell  in  torrents,  with  hail  of  an 
extraordinary  size  ;  it  was  the  most  remarkable  storm  ever  remembered  in 
the  district.  Another  storm  followed  on  the  21st,  with  the  most  brilliant 
display  of  lightning  1  have  ever  watched.  —  Wm.  Matibott,  Dowlais. 
-  CALCEOLARIA  ALBA. — In  favoured  localities,  when  planted 
against  a  warm  wall,  this  Chilian  species  will  stand  through  mild  winters 
practically  uninjured,  but  in  the  majority  of  places  it  is  more  a  plant  for 
the  greenhouse  than  outside.  To  grow  it  well,  seeds  should  be  sown,  or 
cuttings  inserted  early  in  August.  When  the  cuttings  are  well  rooted,  or 
seedlings  large  enough  to  handle,  they  should  be  placed  separately  in 
2j-inch  pots,  a  mixture  of  loam,  decayed  leaves,  and  sand  being  used. 
As  soon  as  they  are  well  established  they  should  be  put  into  a  cold  frame, 
where  they  will  remain  until  they  flower.  Before  winter  they  should  be 
potted  once  again,  and  after  February  they  should  be  transferred  to  6-inch 
pots — their  flowering  size.  At  this  potting  some  decayed  manure  should 
be  added  to  the  compost.  Between  August  and  the  beginning  of  April 
they  will  require  stepping  about  three  times.  By  this  treatment  bushy 
plants  foot  high  smothered hvith  pretty  white  flowers  can  be  had  for 
six  or  eight  weeks  during  July  and  August.  By  grouping  in  conjunction 
with  some  bright-coloured  foliage  or  flowering  plants  very  pretty  effects 
are  obtained.— W.  K. 
-  Aromatic  Plants. — The  impression  made  on  the  organs  o  1 
smell  and  taste,  and  the  peculiar  influence  exercised  over  the  digestive 
powers  by  those  agents  obtained  from  the  vegetable  kingdom,  are  very 
singular.  Scarcely  anyone  is  insensible  to  the  odour  of  particular  flowers 
and  some  are  affected  by  them  to  an  extraordinary  degree.  The  approach 
to  Ceylon  can  be  determined  by  the  fragrance  of  the  air  at  the  distance 
of  many  miles.  The  Magnolia  glauca  diffuses  an  odour  by  which  it  can 
be  recognised  at  the  distance  of  three  miles  among  the  swampy  districts 
in  which  it  grows.  This  powerfully  affects  many  persons  while  travelling 
or  hunting,  and  the  Magnolia  tripetala  causes  sickness,  headache,  and  an 
aggravation  of  fevers  and  rheumatism  among  those  near  it  who  are 
labouring  under  these  complaints.  The  odour  of  the  Jonquils  and  other 
fragrant  plants  raised  in  Holland  is  so  great  when  brought  into  a  close 
room  as  to  be  quite  overpowering.  In  such  countries  or  places  as  have 
a  very  humid  atmosphere  the  odour  of  plants  is  most  readily  diffused,  as 
well  as  most  potent ;  of  this  we  may  satisfy  ourselves  by  calling  to  mind 
the  greater  fragrance  of  flowers  early  in  the  morning,  in  the  evening,  or 
after  a  shower.  This  accounts  for  the  violent  action  of  the  plants  in  the 
countries  just  mentioned  ;  but  even  many  plants  of  our  own  country 
affect  some  individuals  endowed  with  a  peculiar  and  excessive  sensibility 
to  an  extreme  degree.  The  sweet-scented  Violet  has  such  an  effect  on 
certain  persons  as  to  occasion  headache,  convulsions,  and  apoplexy. _ 
(“  Irish  Farmers’  Gazette.”) 
-  The  Decrease  in  Our  Swallow  Visitors. — The  alleged 
decrease  in  the  number  of  swallows  and  martins  visiting  England,  which 
h  is  been  the  ornithological  feature  of  the  past  few  years,  is  to  be  the 
subject  of  special  discussion  at  the  October  conference  of  the  Society  for 
the  Protection  of  Wild  Birds.  We  should  be  in  a  very  bad  plight  without 
our  swallows.  They  are  our  most  effective  aerial  police  against  the 
ravages  of  aphides  and  other  destructive  insects.  The  blight  of  the  Hop 
plants  during  the  past  year  or  two  has  been  ascribed  directly  to  the 
increase  of  aphides  due  to  the  decrease  of  swallows,  and  many  other  crops 
have  suffered  in  no  slight  degree  from  the  same  cause. 
-  Gardeners’  Reading  Room. — The  ‘*Ivew  Bulletin”  says, 
“  Kew  is,  amongst  its  other  functions,  a  school  of  advanced  horticulture. 
In  1848  the  Office  of  Works  devoted  to  the  use  of  the  young  gardeners 
as  a  reading  room  in  the  evening  a  portion  of  the  building  now  used  as 
a  Director’s  office.  In  1860  a  new  room  for  this  purpose  was  added, 
which  has  remained  in  use  till  the  present  year.  The  accommodation 
had,  however,  long  become  altogether  insufficient  for  the  number  of 
gardeners  employed,  which  now  amounts  to  some  fifty.  Fortunately  a 
large  room  adjoining  Descanso  House  was  available,  and  this  the  Office 
of  Works  has  adapted  to  the  purpose.  Two  small  rooms  adjoining  serve 
as  a  cloak-room  and  lavatory.” 
-  Disappointment  with  Stocks. — I  have  heard  many  com¬ 
plaints  this  season  on  account  of  a  large  majority  of  the  summer-flowering 
Stocks  coming  single  when  doubles  were  naturally  expected.  It  is  very 
disappointing  when,  after  obtaining  seeds  of  a  good  strain,  raising  plants, 
and  expecting  the  beds  to  be  a  show  of  many-coloured  double  flowers,  to 
find  out  afterwards  that  most  of  them  are  single.  I  do  not  know  whether 
many  of  your  readers  have  been  troubled  in  the  same  way,  but  it  would 
be  interesting  to  know.  The  other  day  I  saw  a  large  border  of  Stocks, 
the  greater  part  of  which  were  single,  and  yet  the  grower  informed  me 
that  the  seeds  were  supposed  to  be  of  the  best  ;  he  had  obtained  them 
from  a  reliable  source,  and  had  never  had  the  same  trouble  before. — G. 
-  The  Driest  Year  Since  1813. — An  examination  of  London 
rainfall  records,  extending  back  as  far  as  the  year  1813,  shows  that  the 
present  year  so  far  has  been  the  driest  of  the  whole  series.  Up  to  the 
end  of  August  the  total  rainfall  this  year  amounted  to  only  9-3  inches, 
or  60  per  cent,  of  the  average.  The  nearest  approach  to  so  small  an 
aggregate  occurred  in  1893  and  abo  in  1847,  in  each  of  which  years  the 
total  fall  for  the  eight  months  amounted  to  about  9"9  inches,  or  G4  per 
cent,  of  the  average.  Next  to  these,  in  point  of  drying,  came  1896  with 
10-2  inches,  or  66  per  cent,  of  the  average  ;  1870  and  1864  with  10"5 
inches,  or  G8  per  cent.,  and  1884  with  10-7  inches,  or  69  per  cent.  The 
wettest  year  of  the  whole  series  appears  to  have  been  1879.  In  the  first 
eight  months  of  that  distressful  year  the  total  rainfall  in  London  was  as 
much  as  27-3  inches,  or  77  per  cent,  more  than  the  average,  and  nearly 
three  times  as  much  as  we  have  had  this  year. 
-  The  Mango. — The  smallest  of  the  two  examples  of  Mangifera 
indica  growing  in  the  Mexican  house  at  Kew,  is  at  the  present  time 
bearing  several  heads  of  flowers.  Owing  to  the  lack  of  bright  sunshine 
early  in  the  year,  it  is  some  two  months  later  than  last  year,  and  the 
flower  heads  are  fewer  in  number,  growth  appearing  to  have  taken  the 
place  of  flowers  on  some  branches.  The  flowers  themselves  are  small, 
greenish  yellow,  and  insignificant,  but  as  they  are  borne  in  large  numbers 
in  many-branched  panicles  from  the  points  of  the  first  of  the  current 
year's  growth,  they  show  to  advantage  against  the  dark  green  foliage. 
On  first  sight  the  inflorescences  bear  some  resemblance  to  those  of  the 
Vine,  but  are  upright  instead  of  pendulous.  Last  year  thirty  fruits 
were  set,  which  were  eventually  thinned  to  eight,  which  attained  the 
size  of  duck’s  eggs,  and  ripened  during  the  autumn.  When  ripe  they 
were  yellow,  streaked  and  spotted  with  brown. — D.  K. 
-  What  Drought  in  Australia  Means.— There  has  been 
great  drought  at  the  Antipodes,  but  the  Australasian  “  Review  of 
Reviews”  announces  a  copious  fall  of  rain  over  the  whole  country,  and 
says  :  -  “  The  parched  inland  plains  will  soon  be  covered  with  lush  green 
grass,  leafy  orchards,  and  the  yellowing  corn.  How  cruel  in  intensity, 
how  costly  in  results,  the  long- sustained  drought  has  been  is  hardly 
realised.  Sir  William  Zeal,  at  the  annual  meeting  of  Goldsbrough, 
Mort,  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  held  in  Melbourne  on  June  29th,  tried  to  express  in 
arithmetic  the  cost  of  the  drought.  The  loss  in  Wheat,  hay,  and  Oats 
to  Victoria  during  the  three  years  of  drought  he  reckoned  at  over 
£5,000,000  ;  the  loss  in  wool  for  the  same  period  was  at  least  another 
£5,000,000.  Thus  the  three  years’  drought  cost  Victoria  alone  some¬ 
thing  like  £10,000,000.”  If  that  loss  is  multiplied  over  the  whole  area  of 
Australia  it  will  give  some  idea  of  what  a  drought  when  translated  into 
money  terms  means. 
