266 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
October  6,  1898. 
Weather  in  London. — Though  we  have  not  had  much  rain  or 
frost  in  the  metropolis  during  the  past  seven  days,  but  the  cooler  nights 
and  mornings,  with  the  falling  leaves,  proclaim  the  advent  of  autumn, 
It  has  not  been  really  cold,  as  the  sun  at  midday  still  has  considerable 
power.  On  Saturday,  Sunday,  and  Monday  mornings  there  were  thick 
fogs  in  South  London,  but  Tuesday  was  clearer.  Towards  evening  of 
the  latter  day  the  wind  gained  strength,  but  though  a  few  drops  of  rain 
fell  there  had  not  been  any  to  speak  of  up  till  midday  Wednesday. 
-  Loyal  Horticultural  Society.— The  next  Fruit  and  Floral 
meeting  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  will  be  held  on  Tuesday, 
October  11th,  in  the  Drill  Hall,  James  Street,  Westminster,  1  to  5  P.M.  A 
lecture  on  “Some  of  the  Flants  Exhibited”  will  be  given  by  the  Rev.  Prof. 
Geo.  Henslow,  M.A.,  at  three  o’clock. 
-  The  Colouration  of  Apples. — Up  to  about  September  22nd 
my  Apples,  of  which  I  have  a  good  crop,  were  singularly  deficient  in  colour, 
in  spite  of  the  abundance  of  sun.  After  that  date  the  sunny  hot  days 
continued,  but  with  very  cold  nights,  often  below  40°,  and  once  an  actual 
frost.  Immediately  a  wonderful  change  came  over  the  Apples  ;  the  red 
flush  came  into  their  cheeks  with  unusual  rapidity,  and  now  they 
are  quite  as  well,  if  not  better  coloured  than  usual.  Has  anyone 
ever  noticed  that  cold  nights  have  added  to  the  colour  of  Apples  ? 
— W.  R.  RAILLEM. 
-  Potatoes  in  the  Midlands. — In  gardens  south  of  the 
Thames  most  of  the  maincrop  Potatoes  have  been  lifted  and  stored  several 
weeks  ago.  The  protracted  drought  has  doubtless  hastened  the  ripening 
of  the  tubers,  and  with  the  exception  of  those  in  the  fields  Potato  digging 
was  finished  early  in  September.  A  recent  visit  to  the  Midland  counties 
revealed  a  different  state  of  affairs.  tThere  at  the  end  of  September 
many  of  the  tops  of  maincrop  sorts  were  still  green,  and  digging  in  the 
gardens  had  barely  commenced.  Almost  everywhere  there  were  traces 
of  disease  in  the  haulm,  and  in  some  cases  the  attacks  were  very  bad. 
Tubers  are,  however,  plentiful  and  even  in  size.  Heavy  rains  would 
doubtless  cause  the  disease  to  spread  at  the  roots,  which  renders  it  advis¬ 
able  to  push  along  the  lifting  as  opportunity  occurs. — G. 
-  The  Plague  of  Wasps. — This  summer  appears  to  have  been 
rich  in  all  sorts  of  pests,  and  in  some  districts  wasps  have  been  a  perfect 
worry.  In  Kent  they  have  not  been  nearly  so  troublesome  as  in  some 
seasons,  but  in  the  Midlands  the  wasp  plague  has  been  a  nuisance.  In 
many  gardens  fruit  had  to  be  picked  before  it  was  properly  ripe,  or  the 
gathering  would  have  been  only  a  small  affair.  The  pests  have  played 
havoc  among  the  Plums  and  early  Apples,  and  in  vineries  Grapes 
have  suffered  through  the  rapacity  of  the  marauders.  Householders 
have  been  equally  disturbed,  and  a  continual  battle  has  had  to  be 
waged  against  numbers  of  wasps  that  threatened  to  take  sole  possession 
of  the  habitations.  Many  means  are  adopted  for  their  destruction,  but 
the  simplest,  and  at  the  same  time  most  effective,  is  that  of  going  to  the 
root  of  the  evil  by  making  diligent  search  for  the  nests  in  the  daytime, 
marking  the  positions,  and  then  in  the  evening  apply  a  serving  of  gas 
tar,  which  is  certain  destruction  to  the  colony. — H. 
-  A  Dry  September.— No  one  will  be  surprised  to  learn  that 
over  the  United  Kingdom,  a3  a  whole,  September  was  an  exceedingly 
dry  month.  Even  at  many  stations  in  the  west  and  north,  where  rains 
were  far  more  frequent  than  in  the  south,  the  total  amount  for  the  month 
was  less  than  half  the  average.  In  the  eastern  and  southern  counties  the 
proportion  was  much  smaller.  In  London,  where  the  total  amount  was 
only  0*31  inch,  the  rainfall  was  exactly  one-seventh  of  the  average,  and 
at  Oxford  very  little  more.  At  Yarmouth  there  was  about  a  fifteenth  of 
the  normal  quantity,  and  at  Shields  about  a  seventeenth.  So  far  as  the 
records  at  present  show,  the  driest  station  of  all  was  Cambridge,  the  only 
rainfall  at  this  station  being  one-hundredth  of  an  inch  on  the  18th.  The 
average  rainfall  in  September  at  this  place  is  2Y3  inches,  or  pretty  much 
the  same  as  in  London.  An  examination  of  records  going  back  to  the 
year  1866  shows  that  over  nearly  the  whole  of  our  eastern,  midland,  and 
southern  counties,  last  September  proved  the  driest  of  the  whole  series. 
In  Ireland  and  Scotland  the  deficiency  of  rain  last  month  was  far  less 
serious  than  in  England,  and  at  many  stations  in  the  extreme  north 
and  north-western  parts  of  the  kingdom  there  was  actually  an  excess. 
-  September  Weather  at  Driffield. — Mean  temperature 
59*22°  (corrected).  Wet  bulb,  55*65°.  Mean  maximum,  67T90  ;  mean 
minimum,  48 *2 1°.  Highest,  84*5°  on  the  17th;  lowest,  30*5  on  the  29th. 
Mean  of  maxima  and  minima,  57’70°.  Mean  radiation  temperature  on  the 
grass,  43*86°;  lowest,  26*5°  on  29th.  Rainfall,  0*33  inch.  Number  of 
rainy  days,  five.  Greatest  amount  on  one  day,  0*155  on  the  9th.  Mean 
amount  of  cloud  at  9  A.M.  (estimated),  5*9. — W.  E.  LOVEL,  Observer, 
York  Road,  Driffield. 
-  Outdoor  Tomatoes.  —  The  tropical  sunshine  experienced 
during  September  has  been  suitable  for  this  crop,  with  the  result  that 
Tomatoes  have  ripened  well  outdoors,  particularly  so  in  the  south  of 
England.  Outdoor  cultivation  of  the  Tomato  is  always  uncertain,  and  at 
one  period  this  year  prospects  were  anything  but  good.  Cold  weather 
after  the  plants  were  put  out  retarded  progress,  and  growth  was  slow 
and  weakly.  Warm  sunshine  brought  about  the  desired  change,  and  the 
glorious  September  has  been  just  what  the  crop  required.  Some  Kentish 
fruit  growers  are  making  experiments  with  outdoor  Tomatoes  as  a 
profitable  crop,  and  the  result  in  several  instances  I  know  has  been 
encouraging.  Earliest  of  All  and  Conference  are  favourite  varieties  for  the 
purpose,  and  after  the  all-important  weather,  the  incentives  to  success  are  a 
warm  sunny  position  and  strong  well-established  plants  to  begin  with. — G. 
-  Weather  and  Crops  in  Guernsey. — In  reviewing  the 
history  of  our  fruit  crop  in  Guernsey  for  the  present  season,  I  may  say 
growers,  with  some  few  exceptions,  have  had  a  fairly  good  time,  and, 
though  prices  for  Tomatoes  have  ruled  somewhat  low  since  the  end  of 
July,  yet,  on  the  whole,  have  kept  a  fair  average.  The  long  spell  of  grand 
weather  has  vastly  improved  the  quality  of  the  late  Grapes,  and  there  are 
now  to  be  seen  some  fine  houses  of  Black  Alicante  and  Gros  Colman. 
which  deserve  to  realise  something  better  than  the  present  meagre  average 
of  7d.  to  8d.  per  lb.  Tomatoes  have  varied  considerably  in  quality,  the 
abnormal  heat  having  induced  premature  ripening.  The  midseason 
Melon  crop  has  been  a  fairly  good  and  profitable  one,  as,  owing  to  the 
long  run  of  fine  dry  weather,  very  little  artificial  heat  has  been  needed  to 
grow  them.  Rain  is  badly  needed  for  the  Broccoli  plants,  a  good  many 
of  which  I  notice  are  beginning  to  bolt  for  lack  of  moisture.  Late  Potatoes 
are  coming  out  well,  though  on  the  more  retentive  soils  the  ground  has 
become  too  hard  for  digging.  All  root  crops  are  good. — X. 
-  Leonotis  dubia. — In  January  of  the  present  year  seeds  of 
this  were  sent  to  Kew  by  Mr.  Mahon,  from  British  Central  Africa,  and 
one  of  the  plants  which  were  raised  is  now  flowering  freely  in  the 
Mexican  house.  It  is  a  herbaceous  plant  which,  in  the  case  of  the  Kew 
specimen,  grows  to  a  height  of  8  feet,  and  branches  freely,  forming  a  bush 
4  to  5  feet  through.  The  leaves  are  thin  in  texture,  and  resemble  some¬ 
what,  in  size  and  shape,  those  of  the  common  Nettle.  The  flowers  are 
l^inch  long,  somewhat  pendulous,  orange  coloured,  and  covered  with  a 
large  quantity  of  silky  hairs  the  same  colour  as  the  corolla.  They  are 
produced  thickly  in  umbels,  which  surround  the  stem,  usually  from 
alternate  nodes,  on  the  upper  portions  of  each  branch.  Each  umbel 
contains  about  100  flowers  which,  when  fully  expanded,  form  an  orange 
ball  3J  to  4  inches  in  diameter.  It  grows  well  in  a  soil  of  loamy  nature. 
Frequent  stoppings  are  necessary  during  the  first  three  months  from  the 
seedling  state,  or  the  young  plants  soon  become  “  leggy.”  For  variety  a 
few  plants  of  this  would  be  found  acceptable  during  autumn  in  a  warm 
greenhouse,  its  method  of  flowering,  and  the  peculiar  hairy  corollas, 
making  it  a  conspicuous  object  among  other  plants. — W.  D. 
-  Birmingham  Gardeners’  Association. — The  initiatory 
meeting  of  the  autumn  series  was  on  the  26th  ult.,  when  Mr.  John 
Childs,  Acock's  Green,  a  locally  well  known  amateur  florist,  read  a 
paper  on  the  cultivation  and  varieties  of  the  Dahlia.  Mr.  W.  B. 
Latham,  Curator  of  the  Botanic  Garden,  Edgbaston,  occupied  the  chair. 
The  essayist  brought  a  collection  of  the  Cactus  forms  to  illustrate  the 
subject,  and  which  were  supplemented  by  collections  sent  by  Messrs. 
Perkins  &  Son,  Coventry ;  Pope,  King’s  Norton  ;  and  C.  R.  Bick,  gardener 
to  Walter  Chamberlain,  Esq.,  Harborne  Hall,  Harborne.  An  interesting 
collection  of  Michaelmas  Daisies,  consisting  of  twenty-five  varieties,  was 
contributed  by  Mr.  W.  B.  Childs,  Acocks  Green.  There  were  also  several 
other  miscellaneous  exhibits,  amongst  which  was  a  large  bunch  of  the 
Parsley-leaved  Bramble  (Rubus  coronarius  laciniatus)  from  Mr. 
W.  Gardiner,  Harborne  ;  also  a  small  bunch  of  the  St.  Joseph  Straw¬ 
berry  by  Mr.  John  Pope,  to  show  its  fruiting  precocity  from  “  runner  ” 
plants  of  the  current  year’s  production.  Mr.  Geo.  H.  Thompson,  Walsall, 
brought  a  medium  sized  and  well  flowered  plant  of  Odontoglossum  grande, 
and  to  which  was  unanimously  awarded  a  certificate  of  merit.  An 
interesting  discussion  amongst  several  of  the  members  took  place  on 
the  subjects  exhibited. 
