152 
'JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
August  13,  IBM, 
- JriiY  Weather  at  Hodsock  Priory,  Worksop. — Mean 
temperature,  G1  •4°.  Maximum  in  the  screen,  83-3°  on  the  2l8t ;  minimum 
in  the  screen,  41*3°  on  the  28th.  Minimum  on  the  grass,  32 ’3°  on  the 
28th.  Sunshine,  146  hours,  or  29  per  cent,  of  the  possible  duration. 
Rainfall,  I’HS  inch.  Rain  fell  on  twelve  days.  Maximum  fall,  0’95  inch 
on  the  2nth.  The  warmest  and  driest  July  since  1887. — J.  Mallendeb- 
-  The  Weather  Last  Mokth, — July  was  changeable  but  dry, 
with  the  exception  of  heavy  showers  on  7th  and  26th.  The  wind  was 
in  a  westerly  direction  seventeen  days.  Total  rainfall  1‘75  inch,  which 
fell  on  fifteen  days,  the  greatest  daily  fall  being  0'89  inch  on  7th, 
Barometer,  highest  reading  30T04  on  11th  at  9  a.m.  ;  lowest,  29'480  on 
26th  at  9  a.m.  Thermometer,  highest  in  shade  86°  on  2l8t ;  lowest,  42° 
on  6th.  Mean  of  daily  maxima,  73  29° ;  mean  of  daily  minima,  62‘06°. 
Mean  temperature  of  the  month,  62 ‘67°  ;  lowest  on  grass,  38°  on  23rd  ; 
highest  in  sun,  144°  on  9th.  Mean  of  earth  at  3  feet,  59‘87°.  Total 
sunshine,  193  hours  10  minntes.  We  had  two  sunless  days.  — 
W.  H.  Divers,  Belvoir  Castle  Gardens,  Grantham. 
-  The  Royal  Gardens,  Kew. — We  learn  from  a  contemporary 
that  these  gardens  were  visited  by  73,000  persons  on  August  3rd,  or  an 
increase  of  about  10,000  as  compared  with  the  August  Bank  Holiday  of 
last  year.  The  London  parks,  Hampstead  Heath,  Bpping  Forest,  and 
other  open  spaces  within  a  convenient  distance  were  thronged  throughout 
the  day,  a  fact  of  interest  as  indicating  an  increased  appreciation  of 
the  beauties  of  Nature  by  the  residents  within  the  metropolitan  area. 
What  appears  to  be  true  of  London  is  true  also  of  the  great  provincial 
towns,  for  full  advantage  appears  to  have  been  taken  of  the  opportunities 
afforded  for  visiting  places  in  the  respective  districts  remarkable  for 
the  beauty  of  their  scenery. 
-  New  Zealand  Plants. — The  “  Journal  of  Botany  ”  reprints 
some  very  interesting  extracts  from  Mr.  T.  Kirk’s  presidential  address 
to  the  Wellington  (New  Zealand)  Philosophical  Society  on  the  dis¬ 
placement  of  native  by  introduced  species  of  plants.  Next  to  man 
the  chief  agents  in  this  destructive  work  in  New  Zealand  are  sheep  and 
rabbits,  but  the  black  rat  has  also  had  his  share.  “  Some  districts  are 
eaten  almost  bare  by  these  close  feeders,  little  being  left  except  the 
tough  bases  of  Poa  coespitosa  and  the  wiry  ligneous  stems  of  Miihlen- 
beckia,  and  similar  plants.  Even  the  woolly  leaves  of  some  species  of 
Celmisia  are  often  closely  cropped,  the  result  being  that  the  more  delicate 
plants  are  all  but  extirpated  over  large  areas.”  Introduced  plants  like 
Silene  anglica,  Erigeron  canadensis,  Rumex  obtusifolius  and  crispus, 
Bromus  sterilis,  and  Holcus  lanatus  have  almost  driven  out  the  original 
littoral  vegetation  in  some  districts.  Even  more  destructive  are  the 
ravages  caused  by  the  parasites,  animal  and  vegetable,  which  some  of 
these  strangers  bring  with  them.  Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  this  inva¬ 
sion  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  the  first  catalogue  of  naturalised 
plants  in  New  Zealand,  published  in  1855,  comprised  forty-four  species  ; 
while  at  the  present  time  Mr.  Kirk  is  himself  acquainted  with  304 
species,  while  others  put  the  number  at  382. — (“  Nature.”) 
-  The  Potato  Disease. — In  getting  up  a  large  number  of  early 
varieties  of  Potatoes  recently  I  found  very  many  that  were  greatly 
affected  with  the  Peronospora,  though  only  skin  deep.  The  appearances 
were  precisely  similar  to  what  has  been  seen  elsewhere,  and  evidence  the 
presence  of  the  disease  spores  in  abundance  in  the  air,  and  doubt¬ 
less  on  the  leafage  where  the  leafage  existed.  But  in  this 
special  case,  whilst  the  tops  had  been  some  three  weeks  dead,  having 
literally  withered  up  through  lack  of  moisture,  the  tubers  seemed  to  have 
been  thus  attacked  later,  and  the  conclusion  would  be  that  either  the 
spores  had  been  previously  settled  on  the  tops  and  had  remained  in  a 
dormant  state,  or  had  been  floating  in  the  air  until  caught  by  recent 
light  showers  and  washed  into  contact  with  the  tubers  through  the  very 
dry  porous  soil.  It  may  be,  indeed,  that  as  the  resting  spores  hybernate 
in  the  soil  the  active  spores  come  into  contact  with  the  newly  formed 
tubers  without  coming  to  the  surface  at  all.  They  only  needed  moisture 
to  render  them  active,  and  that  moisture,  presumably,  some  recent 
showers  furnished.  But  I  refer  to  this  matter  to  show  how  very  difficult 
would  it  be  to  check  early  disease  of  this  description  through  the  agency 
of  sprayings  of  Bordeaux  mixture.  It  is  notoriously  the  first  and  second 
early  varieties  of  Potatoes  that  suffer  most  from  disease,  and  yet  if  the 
spores  be  active  in  the  soil  sprayings  cannot  be  antidotal,  or  if  even 
preserving  the  foliage  for  a  week  or  two  longer  from  harm  cannot 
prevent  the  washing  of  spores  into  the  soil  unless  the  spraying  of  the 
surface  soil  kills  the  spores.  So  far  as  experiments  with  the  copper 
solution  have  been  made,  they  seem  chiefly  to  have  been  with  strong 
main  crop  varieties.  We  want  to  learn  more  of  their  effects  on  early 
sorts.  Such  a  trial  could  be  admirably  conducted  at  Chiswick.— A.  D. 
-  The  Cost  of  Gardening.  —  Some  cynical  people  whose 
hearts  are  fixed  on  little  else  than  pleasure  and  mirth  and  fashionable 
calls,  sometimes  have  their  little  jokes  on  residents  of  the  suburbs  as  to 
the  cost  of  their  gardens,  flowers,  fruits,  and  vegetables.  It  may  be  true 
that  occasionally  the  results  to  an  amateur  gardener  may  cost  a  little 
more  than  if  he  had  to  buy  the  article  in  the  market,  but  amateur 
gardening  is  not  always  for  the  shillings  and  pence,  but  for  the  pleasure 
which  gardening  conveys.  There  is  infinitely  more  pleasure  in  raising 
a  few  crops  of  fruits  and  flowers  than  in  going  to  market  to  purchase 
them.  We  live  for  pleasure,  and  not  for  the  accumulation  of  a  little 
money  ;  in  fact,  the  only  value  of  money  is  for  the  pleasure  in  life  which 
we  can  get  out  of  it. — (“  Meehan’s  Monthly.”) 
-  Single  Hollyhocks. — These  are  all  the  rageun  Pittsburg, 
that  is  we  find  them  in  most  every  yard,  pretentious  as  well  as  neglected  ; 
they  fill  up  odd  and  neglected  corners  in  company  with  Sunflowers  and 
tawny  Day  Lilies,  as  well  as  belts  and  beds  in  well  trimmed  gardens. 
Apparently  they  are  healthy,  happy,  and  hardy,  and  good  perennials, 
and  really  they  are  handsome.  According  to  "  American  Gardening  ” 
Mr.  J.  R.  Mellon  has  one  of  the  finest  displays.  The  plants  are  in  a 
border  300  feet  long  by  4  feet  wide  along  the  boundary  line  of  his  lot, 
and  in  the  deep  rich  land  there  they  make  a  great  sight,  rising  7  or  8  feet 
high,  with  big  leaves  to  the  ground.  The  colours  comprise  yellow,  pink, 
cherry,  crimson,  white,  and  Intervening  shades.  In  winter  a  light  straw 
mulching  affords  their  crowns  protection,  also  it  saves  the  little  seedlings 
from  injury.  In  growing  single  Hollyhocks  avoid  the  purples.  They 
have  an  unpleasant  look  ;  clean,  clear  pinks,  blush,  white  and  yellows, 
are  the  favourite  shades. 
- Floating  Plants. — Among  the  aquatic  floating  plants — that 
is,  those  which  grow  with  their  foliage  lying  on  or  above  the  water  and 
their  roots  submerged — which  are  well  adapted  for  growing  in  company 
with  the  more  pretentious  Nymph. eas  and  Nelumbinms,  are  sever^ 
which  alter  their  appearance  according  to  their  surroundings  to  such  an 
extent  that  they  are  sometimes  taken  for  distinct  species.  The  leaves  of 
Salvinias,  for  example,  when  allowed  to  float  on  the  surface  of  a  large 
tank  or  pond,  have  a  flattened-out  appearance,  and  the  plants  are  weak 
compared  with  specimens  grown  in  the  full  sun  in  a  confined  space 
where  the  sun  does  not  reach  the  root-like  processes  in  the  water.  When 
grown  in  this  way,  says  a  writer  in  an  American  contemporary,  the 
leaves — that  is,  the  upper  ones — are  almost  folded  together  and  very 
large,  the  plants  crowding  each  other  in  some  cases  2  or  3  inches  above 
the  line  of  the  water.  In  a  confined  space  the  spore  capsules  are  pro¬ 
duced  most  abundantly,  while  they  are  seldom  seen  on  plants  which  float 
about  in  the  open  water.  Azolla  pinnata  is  another  plant  which  behaves 
much  in  the  same  way.  Pistia  stratiotes,  when  the  plants  are  crowded 
together  so  that  the  sun  does  not  reach  the  roots,  form  very  thick  leaves 
and  flower  abundantly  ;  but  if  the  plants  are  grown  singly  in  a  tank  so 
that  the  sun  has  access  to  the  roots  they  soon  turn  sickly. 
- Violas  at  the  East  End  op  London. — In  the  very 
admirable  paper  on  the  subject  of  Violas  for  bedding  purposes,  read  by 
Mr .  Moorman,  the  superintendent  of  Victoria  Park,  before  the  recent 
Viola  Conference,  at  the  Botanic  Gardens,  he  mentioned  the  fact  that 
such  was  the  nature  of  the  atmosphere  in  that  eastern  district,  so 
saturated  was  the  air  with  poisonous  gases,  that  such  hardy  things  as 
Violas  and  Aubrietias  were  in  the  winter,  and  especially  in  foggy  weather, 
killed  wholesale.  Mr.  Moorman  even  said  that  grass  edgings  on  the 
sides  on  which  the  wind  swept,  would  have  the  herbage  destroyed. 
Yet,  a  few  years  previously,  when  at  Dulwich  Park,  the  preservation  of 
thes^  hardy  things  gave  no  trouble.  The  fact  shows  under  what  adverse 
conditions  gardening  in  diverse  districts  has  to  be  carried  on  in  the  face 
of  adversities  indeed,  of  which  the  average  gardener  knows  nothing.  The 
reader  referred  to  the  valuable  uses  to  which  Violas  may  be  put  in  con¬ 
nection  with  other  bedding  plants,  and  said  that  so  employed  during  the 
summer,  beautiful  effects  were  produced.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  when 
a  light,  warm  atmosphere  prevails,  foul  gases  are  carried  high  away,  doing 
little  harm  to  vegetation.  It  is  when  a  cold,  heavy  atmosphere  prevails, 
that  they  are,  as  it  were,  borne  to  earth,  and  become  so  destructive. 
Even  so  far  from  London  as  Feltham,  which  is  some  thirteen  miles  west 
of  Hyde  Park  Corner,  fogs  are  most  destructive  to  the  foliage  of  Violets, 
though  doing  little  harm  apparently  to  that  of  Pansies  and  Violas.  It  is 
practically  impossible  to  keep  double  Violets  alive  outdoors  during 
average  winters,  though  last  winter  was,  because  of  its  mildness,  and 
comparative  absence  of  fogs,  less  harmful.  Even  the  hardy  single  Violets 
lose  nearly  every  leaf  in  foggy  weather,  so  that  their  blooming  powers 
are  greatly  weakened.  There  can  be  hardly  any  atmospheric  visitation 
so  injurious  to  vegetation  as  winter  fogs. — D. 
