September  24,  189e. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
301 
-  Hobsforth  Gardeners’  Improvement  Society.— At  tbe 
ordinar/  weekly  meeting  of  this  Society,  held  on  Monday  evening  the 
14th  inst.,  Mr.  Pratt  Clark  rend  a  paper  on  the  “  Dahlia,”  treating  his 
anbject  in  an  Interesting,  and,  from  the  grower’s  point  of  view,  an 
exhaustive  manner.  Mr.  Clark  was  listened  to  with  great  attention 
as  he  pointed  out  the  merits  first  of  one  variety  then  of  another,  he 
having  a  large  number  of  excellent  blooms  with  which  he  illustrated 
his  paper.  A  good  discussion  followed  the  reading  of  the  paper,  after 
which  a  hearty  vote  of  thanks  was  accorded  to  Mr.  Clark. 
- -  Chrysanthemum  Queen  of  the  Eablies. — Mr.  W.  J. 
Godfrey,  the  well-known  grower  of  Exmonth,  has  forwarded  to  us 
specimens  of  the  above  new  variety— one  that  is  of  decided  merit.  The 
flowers  were  of  capital  size,  and  had  been  taken  from  plants  carrying 
six  to  eight  blooms  each.  The  following  is  a  description  of  the  flower : — 
The  blooms  are  pure  white,  the  florets  incurve  and  twist  in  a  very 
pretty  manner.  It  may  be  specially  recommended  for  decorative 
purposes  or  cut  flowers  for  market,  allowing  the  plant  to  produce  from 
six  to  twenty  blooms,  according  to  the  size  of  blooms  required. 
- Aponogetum  distachyon  (Cape  Pond  Flower). — In  the 
spring  of  this  year  we  naturalised  this  beautiful  sweet-scented  aquatic 
plant  in  a  ditch  which  intersects  one  of  the  woodland  walks.  The  water 
is  about'  2  feet  deep  and  almost  stagnant,  the  mud  bottom  being  well 
enriched  with  fallen  leaves.  Shortly  after  being  planted  it  commenced 
to  grow  quickly  and  flower.  The  several  clumps  are  now  strong  and 
flowering  freely,  and  scores  of  seedlings  have  sprung  up.  We  have  also 
the  Aponogeton  in  a  water  tank  in  the  centre  of  the  garden,  where  it 
grows  and  flowers  well,  never  getting  any  protection.  It  is  an  aquatic 
which  ought  to  be  put  in  water  about  2  feet  deep. — D.  S.  Melville 
Poltalloch  Gardens,  N.B. 
-  The  Potato  was  the  subject  of  the  lecture  given  to  the 
members  of  the  Wormley,  Cheshunt  and  Broxbourne  Gardeners’  Associa¬ 
tion  on  the  evening  of  the  17th  inst.,  by  Mr.  A.  Dean,  of  Kingston-on- 
Thames.  Mr.  Neil  Mackenzie  presided,  and  there  was  a  large  attend¬ 
ance.  The  lecture  was  illustrated  by  diagrams  as  used  in  the  Surrey 
County  Council  lectures,  a  .d  by  some  capital  tubers  in  variety,  kindly 
sent  by  Messrs,  Sutton  &  Sons,  of  Reading,  who  also  sent  for  distribu¬ 
tion  several  copies  of  Mr.  A,  W.  Sutton’s  illustrated  lecture  on  the  same 
subject.  Dealing  cursorily  with  the  history  and  habitat  of  the  original 
species,  the  subject  of  propagation  by  seed,  and  by  tubers,  selection,  and 
preservation  of  seed  tubers,  of  preparation  of  soil,  of  planting,  after 
cultivation,  varieties,  and  finally  treatment  to  minimise  the  effects  of 
the  disease,  the  nature  and  operations  of  which  were  also  fully  described. 
A  hearty  vote  of  thanks  was  awarded  at  the  close  of  the  lecture. 
-  Education  in  Russia. — A  very  interesting  feature  of 
primary  education  in  Russia  is  the  establishment  and  rapid  develop¬ 
ment  of  small  farms,  orchards,  and  kitchen  gardens  in  connection 
with  many  primary  schools,  especially  in  the  villages.  The  land  for 
such  model  gardens,  or  farms  on  a  small  scale,  was  mostly  obtained 
through  free  grants  from  the  village  communes,  and  occasionally  from 
the  neighbouring  landlords,  while  the  expenses  are  covered  by  very 
small  money  grants  from  the  country  and  district  councils  (zemstvos). 
To  take  one  province  in  South  Russia — namely,  Ekaterinoslav,  we 
see  from  the  biennial  report  just  issued  that  not  only  has  almost 
every  school  an  orchard  and  kitchen  garden  for  tbe  use  of  the 
schoolmaster,  but  that  nearly  one-half  of  the  schools  in  the  province 
(227  out  of  504)  are  already  in  possession  of  small  model  kitchen 
gardens,  orchards,  tree  plantations,  or  farms,  at  which  gardening, 
sylviculture,  and  sericulture  are  regularly  taught.  The  teaching 
is  mostly  given  by  the  schoolmasters,  who  themselves  receive 
instruction  in  these  respective  branches  at  courses  voluntarily  attended 
in  the  summer,  or  occasionally  by  some  practical  specialist  of  tbe 
neighbourhood.  The  province  of  Ekaterinoslav  being  mostly  treeless, 
special  attention  is  given  to  tree  plantations,  and,  next,  to  silkworm 
culture.  The  aggregate  area  of  the  227  school  farms  or  gardens  attains 
283  acres,  and  they  contained,  in  1895,  111,000  fruit  trees  and 
238,300  planted  forest  trees,  nearly  14,000  of  the  former  and  42,000 
of  the  latter  having  been  diitribntefl  free  among  the  pupils  during 
the  same  year.  The  money  grants  for  these  227  gardens  were  very 
small— *.e.,  a  little  over  three  hundred  pounds  (£314).  Besides,  over  a 
thousand  bee  hives  are  kept,  partly  by  the  schoolmasters  and  partly 
by  the  children,  and  some  schools  had  vineyards  in  connection  with 
them.  This  movement  has  widely  spread  over  different  provinces  of 
Central  Russia,  where  the  culture  of  cereals  dominates  at  the  school 
farms,  while  in  Caucasia  attention  is  especially  given  to  the  silkworm 
culture  and  the  culture  of  the  Vine. — (“Nature.”) 
-  Phyoelius  capensis.— Mr.  Arnott  (page  245)  refers  to  this 
“  Cape  Figwort.”  I  have  grown  it  for  the  last  seventeen  years  in 
the  open  border  in  a  variety  of  situations,  and  it  always  succeeds 
without  any  trouble,  giving  a  full  crop  of  its  bright  looking  blossoms  in 
August  and  September.  Propagation  is  easily  effected  by  division  of 
the  roots.  I  may  add  that  this  plant  is  somewhat  partial  to  shade» 
especially  during  such  a  summer  as  that  experienced  this  year. — E.  M. 
-  A  Curious  Dahlia.— a  triple  Show  Dahlia  of  uncommon 
appearance  was  exhibited  a  few  days  ago  by  Mr.  W.  B.  Carr  of  Croydon. 
The  inflorescence  consisted  of  three  large  blooms,  placed  back  to  back, 
and  thoroughly  joined  at  the  apex  of  a  single  stout  footstalk  which 
rendered  the  flower  the  appearance  of  an  owl’s  head,  which  could  be 
readily  distinguished.  The  flowers  were  vertical  instead  of  horizontal, 
and  together  they  presented  a  curious  appearance,  as  no  involucre  could 
be  detected  until  the  flower  began  to  fall  to  pieces.— H.  C. 
- Bramlky's  Seedling  Apple.  —  Three  young  trees  of  this 
useful  Apple  have  borne  fruit  freely  this  year.  They  were  grafted  a  few 
years  ago  on  stocks  raised  from  pips  of  the  Keswick  Codlin.  A  pruned 
bush  tree  a  few  years  older  than  the  above,  and  worked  on  the  Crab 
stock,  although  healthy  and  making  good  growth,  has  not  borne  much 
fruit.  I  consider  this  variety  one  of  the  best  for  winter  use.  With  me 
it  comes  clean  and  bright,  and  a  useful  kitchen  size.  It  will  do  well  as 
standards.  The  soil  is  a  fertile  loam  resting  on  gravel.— A.  Harding. 
- Begonia  Basing  Park.— This  is  used  largely  for  bedding  at 
Basing  Park,  Hants,  and  was  raised  several  years  since  by  the  gardener, 
Mr.  W.  Smythe,  who  crossed  the  fibrous  rooted  weltoniensis  with  one  of 
the  smaller  flowered  tuberous  rooted  section.  It  has  narrow  leafage  and 
smallish  fine  petalled  flowers  of  a  bright  magenta  hue.  Its  height  out¬ 
doors  in  the  beds  is  about  16  inches.  As  a  mass  or  bedding  plant 
beautiful,  persistent,  and  withstanding  drought  or  rain  equally  well, 
it  can  hardly  be  excelled.  It  is,  I  think,  even  more  effective  than  is  the 
well-known  Worthiana,  to  which  in  habit  and  floriferousneiB  it  bears 
some  resemblance.  Propagation  is  done  in  the  spring  entirely  by 
division  of  the  tubers  after  they  have  broken  growth  in  warmth,  but  of 
course  it  could  be,  if  desired,  much  more  rapid.  When  Geraniums  and 
other  bedding  plants  were  under  the  heavy  rains  looking  miserable,  this 
beautiful  Begonia  was  unhurt. — A, 
_  Relief  House. — One  of  the  great  difficulties  in  maintaining  a 
collection  of  plants  under  glass  is  the  necessity  from  time  to  time  of 
repairing  and  repainting  the  houses  in  which  they  are  grown.  For  this 
purpose  the  houses  have  to  be  emptied  and  the  plants  removed.  They 
inevitably  suffer  severely  from  being  crowded  and  stowed  away  in  places 
quite  unsuitable  to  their  cultivation.  To  remedy  this  difficulty,  H.M. 
Office  of  Works  built  last  year  in  one  of  the  private  cultural  departments 
of  the  establishment  (“  Melon  Yard  ’’)  a  “  relief  house.”  This  structure 
is  66  feet  long,  23  feet  wide,  and  13  feet  7  inches  in  height  at  the  ridge. 
It  is  constructed  of  iron,  and  in  order  to  admit  as  much  light  as 
possible,  copper  glazing  by  Messrs.  Rendle  was  adopted  for  the  lights* 
Any  collection  can  now  be  transferred  at  short  notice  to  the  “  relief 
house,”  where  it  will  be,  though  not  accessible  to  the  public,  safe  from 
injury  till  its  original  quarters  are  again  available  for  occupation,— 
(“  Kew  Bulletin.”) 
_  Conveyance  op  Farm  Produce.— When  tbe  Great  Eastern 
Railway  last  December  commenced  their  cheap  conveyance  of  farm 
produce,  their  previous  arrangements  with  other  companies  competing — 
or  supposed  to  be  competing — with  them  precluded  their  extending  the 
system  to  several  important  places  on  their  lines.  Aylsham,  Cromer, 
Fakenham,  Hertford,  Lynn,  North  Walsham,  Norwich,  Reepham,  South- 
end,  Wisbech,  and  Yarmouth  were  all  excluded.  Arrangements  have 
now,  however,  been  made  with  other  companies,  and  on  the  Ist  of 
October  these  limitations  will  be  removed,  and  their  spirited  policy, 
which  has  met  with  great  success,  will  embrace  the  whole  of  the  Great 
Eastern  system.  One  step  in  this  direction  has  led  to  others.  Not  only 
have  the  Company  issued  lists  of  producers  willing  to  deal  directly  with 
consumers,  but  they  have  now  made  a  move  beyond  this.  In  many  cases 
small  farmers  and  other  poultry  breeders  have  had  luch  a  demand  for 
fowls  and  eggs  from  would-be  customers  that  they  have  found  it  quite 
impossible  to  meet  it.  In  order  to  help  them  keep  pace  with  the 
demand,  the  Company  have  reproduced  in  the  form  of  an  illustrated 
pamphlet  certain  valuable  “Hints  on  Poultry-keeping”  from  an  agri¬ 
cultural  piper.  These  are  being  distributed  extensively  over  the 
agricultural  districts  served  by  their  lines  as  a  means  of  increasing 
production.  They  organise  a  system  of  specially  cheap  conveyance  for 
produce,  they  sell  the  boxes  to  pack  it  in,  and  now  they  are  showing  the 
cottagers  and  small  farmers  how  to  raise  the  produce. 
