September  17,  1896. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
277 
-  Begonias  at  Geeat  Bookham. — In  the  flower  gardens  of 
Eastwick  Park,  Bookham,  Surrey,  is  just  now  a  remarkably  fine  show  of 
tuberous  Begonias  that  have  come  from  the  famous  Forest  Hill  and  other 
fine  strains.  Mr.  Goff  has  them  now  in  colours  well  selected,  and  is 
working  to  obtain  stiff  erect  blooming  varieties,  the  special  need  of  these 
plants  whether  in  or  outdoors.  All  the  usual  colours  are  there,  the 
plants  are  fine,  and  the  flowers  also  fine,  as  they  well  can  be.  Whilst 
Zonal  Pelargoniums,  Petunias,  and  some  other  things  show  how  soon 
heavy  rains  demoralise  them,  these  Begonias  seem  to  revel  in  the  rains, 
although  no  doubt  could  very  well  do  without  more  at  present. — D. 
-  Crystal  Palace  Fruit  Show. — On  Thursday,  October  1st, 
and  the  two  following  days,  the  Eoyal  Horticultural  Society’s  great 
show  of  British  fruit  will  be  held  at  the  Crystal  Palace,  and  promises  to 
be  quite  up  to  the  usual  standard  of  excellence.  Entries  for  competi¬ 
tion  will  be  received  up  to  Saturday,  September  26th,  and  schedules  of 
prizes  may  in  the  meantime  be  obtained  from  the  E..H.S.  office,  117, 
Victoria  Street.  A  lecture  will  be  given  each  day  on  the  following 
subjects  : — October  1st,  “  The  Importance  of  British  Fruit  Growing  from 
a  Food  Point  of  View,”  by  Mr.  Edmund  J.  Baillie,  F.L.S.  October  2nd, 
“  The  Cider  and  Perry  Industry,”  by  Mr.  C.  W.  Kadcliffe  Cook,  M.P. 
October  3rd,  “  Gathering,  Storing,  and  Profitable  Utilisation  of  Apples 
and  Pears,”  by  Mr.  John  Watkins,  F.E.H.S.  It  is  hoped  that  practical 
fruit  growers  who  attend  the  conference  each  day  will  make  up  their 
minds  to  join  in  the  discussion. 
-  Noble  Trees. — It  is  a  matter  for  surprise  in  these  days  of 
literary  ventures  that  no  one  has  ever  written  a  book  on  the  noble  trees 
of  the  kingdom.  By  these  I  do  not  mean  the  old  pollards  or  ancient 
stems  that  here  and  there  exist,  and  evidence  great  age  and  once  former 
grandeur.  I  rather  mean  trees  that  are  still  grand  in  outline,  in 
size,  in  massiveness  of  stem  and  branches,  and  are  entitled  to  rank 
amongst  the  nobility  of  arboriculture.  Such  a  thought  came  into  my 
mind  the  other  day  when  looking  at  the  giant  Beech  at  Hack  wood, 
a  magnificent  tree  that  is  seldom  seen  or  visited  by  anyone.  It  has 
a  perfect  rounded  head  which  is  at  the  bottom  nearl^  100  feet  in 
diameter.  A  monster  stem,  3  feet,  from  the  ground,  25  feet  round, 
and  at  8  feet  up  must  be  quite  40  feet  round.  The  tree  is  entitled 
to  take  a  premier  place  amongst  Beeches,  although  there  are  some 
wonderfully  fine  ones  about. — D. 
-  New  York  Markets. — The  entire  fruit  and  produce  market 
is,  at  this  time,  in  a  very  stagnant  condition,  and  prices  are  ruling  very 
low.  Despite  the  reports  from  the  different  centres  regarding  the 
shortage  of  the  Peach  crop,  there  is  a  great  abundance  of  fruits  in  the 
market,  but  the  quality  is  wretched.  The  fruit  is  small,  worm-eaten, 
and  poorly  flavoured.  From  all  appearances  Grapes  will  make  but 
little  money  for  the  grower ;  quantities  are  being  sold  on  the  streets 
at  the  rate  of  10  cents  and  15  cents  per  large  basket.  Choice  fruit, 
carefully  packed,  and  baskets  shipped  in  crates  now  only  realise  10  cents 
per  basket.  The  best  possible  price  for  the  choicest  of  Apples  is  1.50  dol. 
per  barrel,  but  the  majority,  according  to  a  transatlantic  contemporary, 
realise  only  the  half  of  that.  Oswego  Co.,  N.Y.,  is  sending  in  some  very 
fine  Clapp’s  Favourite  Pears  put  up  in  what  is  perhaps  the  neatest 
package  coming  into  the  market — a  keg  holding  exactly  one  bushel. 
There  are  other  attempts  at  the  same  thing  from  other  growers — also 
half  barrels— but  none  have  the  neat,  clean,  and  attractive  appearance 
of  the  Oswego  article.  The  price  of  these  when  full  is  1  dol.  to 
1 .25  dol. 
-  AcoNiTuai  LYCOCTONUM.— This  is  a  desirable  border  plant 
that  thrives  and  blossoms  every  season.  A  thrifty,  stout,  angular- 
branched  perennial  about  4  feet  high,  it  has  showy  cream-yellow  flowers, 
which  are  produced  in  dense,  elongated  clusters  at  the  ends  of  the 
branches.  The  leaves  on  this  plant  have  long  stalks,  are  reniform  in 
outline,  and  are  deeply  incised  and  toothed.  A  writer  in  a  transatlantic 
contemporary  says  it  thrives  best  in  a  slightly  shaded  moist  position,  and 
if  it  has  a  favourable  situation  it  is  not  so  particular  about  the  kind  of 
soil  it  is  grown  in.  The  common  Monkshood,  Aconitum  napellus,  is 
also  in  bloom  in  the  border,  and  is  a  showy  plant  when  well  grown.  It 
is  some  4  feet  in  height,  with  dark  green  smooth  or  slightly  downy 
deeply  cut  leaves.  The  flowers  are  showy  and  curved  in  long  erect 
terminal  panicles  2  feet  in  length.  Another  Monkshood  which  blossomed 
this  summer  and  promises  to  make  a  showy  border  plant  is  A.  ranunculi- 
folium.  This  species  has  a  raceme  of  creamy  yellow  flowers  more  than  a 
yard  in  length.  Last  year  it  was  raised  from  seed  which  came  from  the 
Botanic  Garden  at  St.  Petersjiurg.  The  Monkshoods  are  all  more  or  less 
poisonous,  and  ought  to  be  kept  in  the  herbaceous  border  or  in  places 
away  from  the  kitchen  garden. 
-  Blackberries. — Whilst  in  an  elevated  Hampshire  district 
I  could  but  notice  on  the  roadside  what  very  fine  Blackberries  in  great 
abundance  were  produced  by  the  Brambles.  Here,  again,  is  a  wild  fruit  that 
has  some  marketable  value.  Surely  with  so  much  ground  rented  at  not 
more  than  Ss.  per  acre,  and  even  then  grossly  neglected  and  weedy,  might 
not  a  good  profit  be  made  were  these  fields  cleaned,  manured,  then  planted 
with  good  seedling  Blackberries,  such  as  thrive  so  well  on  the  poor,  hard 
roadsides  ?  Planted  in  rows  at  4  feet  apart,  so  as  to  enable  the  horse  hoe 
to  be  freely  worked  between  them,  the  annual  growths  being  removed 
after  fruiting  and  burnt,  the  new  ones  shortened  back  to  4  feet,  or  there¬ 
abouts,  it  does  seem  as  if  really  great,  as  well  as  most  profitable,  crops 
would  result.  Good  Blackberries  seem  always  to  find  a  market. 
—A.  D. 
-  Carpet  Bedding. — We  have  heard  little  of  the  bedding  in 
the  public  parks  and  gardens  of  the  metropolis  this  season,  probably 
because  necessarily  so  much  a  repetition  of  what  has  been  seen  during 
the  past  several  years.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  just  now  carpet 
beds  of  the  mosaic  order  are  the  most  popular,  and  giving  by  fai  the 
most  effective  features.  All  ordinary  flowering  plants  used  in  summer 
beds  have  been  entirely  rained  by  the  very  heavy  rain  storms  which 
have  so  recently  fallen.  They  are  quite  over  for  this  year.  It  is  only 
the  carpet  beds  that  look  so  bright  and  pleasing,  and  withstand  the  rains 
better  than  any  others.  It  is  such  results  in  bad  weather  that  help  to 
keep  these  beds,  though  not  in  fashion,  yet  so  popular.  Of  flowering 
plants,  the  best  probably  are  the  fibrous-rooted  Begonias  and  the  tall 
fine-leaved  and  small-flowered  tuberous  section,  such  as  Northiana,  that 
best  withstand  rain. — Old  Hand. 
-  Naming  Plants  at  Exhibitions.— It  is  not  the  first  time 
that  attention  has  been  drawn  to  the  illiterate  and  unpardonable  neglect 
respecting  the  proper  naming  of  plants  at  the  majority  of  shows  through¬ 
out  the  kingdom,  not  even  excluding  those  of  the  Royal  Horticultural 
Society,  and  from  which  a  better  state  of  things  should  be  expected. 
The  schedule  clause,  “  All  products  to  be  distinctly  and  correctly 
named,”  seems  to  be  oftener  honoured  in  the  breach  than  the  observance, 
and  my  latest  experience  of  the  same  did  not  terminate  at  the  recent 
grand  show  held  at  Shrewsbury,  where  frequent  inquiries  were  made  by 
visitors  as  to  the  names  of  some  of  the  exhibits,  owing  either  to  the 
absence  of  or  the  illegible  and  indistinctly  written  labels,  which  in 
some  instances  were  affixed  beyond  the  visage  of  spectators,  especially 
in  the  case  of  the  tall  specimen  Palms  staged  in  the  ”  collections  of 
plants.”  I  am  fully  cognisant,  however,  of  the  difficulty  of  insisting 
that  all  products  shall  be  correctly  or  even  named  at  all,  especially  at  a 
large  show,  and  perhaps  it  is  not  necessary  in  every  case.  A])ro])os  of 
the  correct  naming  of  plants  and  other  exhibits,  in  an  instructive  point 
of  view  it  would  be  well  were  the  framers  of  schedules  to  offer  either 
substantial  prizes  or  “  certificates  of  merit  ”  for  the  same,  and  giving  a 
point  for  legibility,  similar,  if  my  memory  is  not  at  fault,  to  the  system 
adopted  some  years  ago  at  the  Chiswick  shows,  but  unfortunately  of 
late  years  fallen  into  disuse,  I  believe. — W.  G. 
-  Palm  House  Heating. — Daring  the  past  year  the  renewal 
of  the  heating  apparatus  in  the  Palm  house  has  been  completed.  In 
the  "  Kew  Bulletin  ”  (pages  42,  43)  for  February,  1895,  an  account  was 
given  of  the  work  done  on  the  north  wing  in  1894,  at  a  cost  of  £1000. 
During  the  past  summer  the  south  wing  has  been  dealt  with  in  the  same 
way.  It  is  now  becoming  generally  understood,  that  the  heating 
of  large  structures  for  horticultural  purposes  requires  a  different 
treatment  to  that  which  is  suitable  in  other  cases.  It  is  necessary 
to  have  a  large  amount  of  piping  heated  to  a  comparatively  low 
temperature  rather  than  a  small  amount  at  a  much  higher.  At  first 
sight  this  looks  wasteful,  but  in  practice  it  does  not  prove  to  be 
so.  The  improvement  of  the  heating  arrangements  in  the  Palm 
house  have  resulted  in  a  considerable  economy  of  fuel,  though  there 
are  more  pipes  to  heat.  An  insufficient  amount  of  pipes  neces¬ 
sitates  the  furnaces  being  “driven,”  with  a  consequent  waste  of  fuel. 
The  atmosphere  in  the  house  is  heated  by  the  continuous  movement  of 
the  hot  air  in  contact  with  the  pipes,  which  in  turn  is  replaced  by 
cooler  (”  convection  ”).  The  hotter  the  pipes,  the  more  violent  are  the 
currents  and  draughts  set  up.  The  heated  air  absorbs  the  moisture  too 
rapidly  to  deposit  it  as  “drip”  on  the  cold  surface  of  the  glass.  In 
cold  weather  it  is  almost  impossible  to  maintain  the  humidity  neces¬ 
sary  for  the  welfare  of  the  plants.  These,  especially  when  tropica), 
suffer  almost  more  from  excessive  dryness  than  from  a  low  tempera¬ 
ture.  As  the  heated  air  ascends  from  the  pipes  below  it  cools,  and  a 
down  draught  is  set  up.  The  use  of  a  high  level  auxiliary  pipe  to  a 
large  extent  remedies  this.  Piping  is  now  carried  round  the  whole  of 
the  Palm  house  at  the  level  of  the  lantern. 
