September  27,  1900. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
289 
Recent  Weather  In  Iiondon. — On  Saturday  and  Sunday 
despite  forecasts  to  the  contrary,  the  weather  in  the  metropolis 
Oontinu**d  warm  with  brilliant  sunshine  daring  the  midday  hours.  On 
Monday  rain  threatened  but  none  fell  until  late  in  the  afternoon,  and 
it  did  not  then  continue  very  long.  Tuesday  opened  clear  and  cold,  but 
became  warm  later.  At  the  time  of  going  to  press  on  Wednesday  it 
was  dull. 
The  Benjamin  Cant  Memorial  Fund. — The  following  contri¬ 
butions  have  been  promised  : — The  Very  Rev.  Dean  of  Rochester,  £5; 
Charlf  s  J.  Grahame,  £2  ;  Rev.  A.  Poster  Melliar,  £1 ;  Rev.  F.  R.  Burn¬ 
side,  £1  ;  Geo.  Prince,  £l  ;  Rev.  F.  Page-Roberts,  10s.;  Rev.  H.  H. 
D’Ombrain,  £1 ;  Edward  Mawley,  £1. 
Bee-keeplDg  In  Iiondon. — There  was  a  crowded  and  interested 
audience  at  the  Royal  Victoria  Hall,  Lambeth,  when  Mr.  W.  Jones 
Anstey  gave  a  lecture  on  “  Bees  and  Bee  Culture,”  with  special 
reference  to  London  as  a  suitable  spot  to  keep  the  honey-making 
insects.  After  tracing  the  natural  history  of  the  bee,  its  connection 
with  the  fertilisation  of  flowers,  and  the  modern  methods  of  bee-keeping, 
Mr.  Anstey  surprised  his  audience  by  producing  a  sample  of  fine  honey 
taken  from  a  hive  in  a  London  garden.  Under  the  lecturer’s  advice  a 
gentleman  at  Brixton  had  successfully  stocked  two  hives.  That  was 
last  j  ear,  and  up  to  the  present  he  has  obtained  over  60  lbs.  of  honey 
of  fine  quality,  while  he  still  has  his  original  outlay  intact  in  the 
value  of  the  hives  and  bees. 
The  Golden  Wedding  of  the  Baron  and  Baroness  Schroder. 
— Baion  and  Baroness  Schioder  of  The  Dell,  Bishopsgate,  near  Windsor 
Great  Park,  celebrated  their  golden  wedding  on  Wednesday.  The  Baron 
and  Baroness,  after  attending  a  service  in  the  German  chapel  at  Dalston 
in  the  morning,  returned  to  their  country  residence,  where  Mr.  Alfred 
Barber,  the  Mayor,  and  Mr.  Philip  Lovegrove,  town  clerk  of  Windsor, 
presented  a  congratulatory  address  from  the  Corporation.  In  com¬ 
memoration  of  the  event  the  Baron  has  received  from  the  Queen  th 
decoration  of  Commander  of  the  Royal  Victorian  Order,  accompanie 
by  an  autograph  letter  from  her  Majesty.  The  German  Emperor 
telegraphed  his  congratulations,  and  conferred  on  Baron  Schroder  the 
Crown  Order  of  the  First  Class,  and  the  German  Empress  presented  to 
the  Baron  and  Baroness  a  magnificently  bound  German  Bible,  with  an 
autograph  inscription  on  the  fly-leaf. 
Wblte  Boot  Rot. — The  Board  of  Agriculture  have  directed  the 
attention  of  the  public  to  a  disease  likely,  if  not  checked,  to  prove 
destructive  among  fruit  trees.  The  attack  is  found  to  be  caused  by  a 
fungus  belonging  to  the  genus  Rosellinia.  The  mycelium  first  attacks 
and  kills  the  yi  ungest  rootlets,  and  then  enters  into  the  larger  branches 
of  the  root,  finally  bursting  through  the  cortex  and  enveloping  the  roots 
in  a  snow-wbii  e  fl  .ffy  mycelium,  here  and  there  running  into  slender 
oord-like  strands,  which  traverse  the  soil,  and  by  this  means  spread 
from  one  tree  to  another.  Later  black  compact  masses  of  mycelium  or 
Bclerotia  are  formed  in  the  cortex  of  the  roots,  and  from  each  of  these 
spring  several  slender  spines.  In  addition  to  the  white  mycelium,  a 
very  characteristic  pale  brown  or  olive  mycelium  is  also  present  on  the 
surface  of  the  roots,  having  Pear-shaped  swellings  at  intervals,  which 
swollen  poriiotiS  finally  become  free.  A  good  method  of  isolating 
diseased  patches  is  to  cut  a  narrow  trench,  from  9  inches  to  a  foot  deep, 
round  each,  care  being  taken  to  throw  the  excavated  soil  on  the 
diseased  portion,  and  not  outside  of  it.  The  disease  may  be  spread  by 
the  spores  of  the  fungus,  by  infected  soil  carried  on  the  shoes  of 
labourers,  by  diity  tools,  wheels  of  carts,  and  animals  from  diseased 
centres.  Diseased  and  fallen  trees,  and  especially  stumps  and  roots, 
should  be  at  once  destroyed  by  burning.  The  soil  surrounding  diseased 
stumps  should  be  burneo  after  the  slumps  have  been  removed.  Quick¬ 
lime  should  be  mixed  with  the  soil  in  places  from  which  diseased  plants 
have  been  removed.  A  second  preventive  method,  which  has  proved  of 
service  in  France,  is  to  lay  bare  the  trunk  as  far  below  the  surface  of 
the  soil  as  can  be  done  without  injury  to  the  tree,  and  to  densely  coat 
the  exposed  trunk  and  adjoining  soil  with  powdered  sulphur.  Stagnant 
water  should  not  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  soil,  as  this  favours  the 
spread  of  the  fungus. 
MTew  York's  Flower  Market. — The  National  Convention  of 
Florists,  recently  held  in  New  York,  has  started  their  talk  of  the  need 
of  a  public  flower  market.  The  idea  is  certainly  a  good  one.  Flowers  are 
more  and  more  in  demand,  and  in  certain  cases  and  conditions  of  life 
fall  little  short  of  taking  rank  as  one  of  the  necessities.  A  large 
majority  of  people  in  big  cities  have  no  other  way  of  getting  flowers 
than  to  buy  them,  and  they  ought  to  have  the  same  facilities  in  this  as 
they  have  for  the  purchase  of  vegetables  and  similar  supplies.  If  a 
flower  market  would  lower  the  price,  as  is  to  be  hoped,  it  would  also 
still  further  increase  the  demand,  so  that  the  growers  would  probably 
have  nothing  of  which  to  complain. 
September  at  Kew, — Onr  incomparable  September  has  given 
quite  a  special  loveliness  to  the  parka  and  gardens  in  and  around 
London,  and  nowhere  can  this  be  seen  to  better  advantage  than  at 
Kew.  There  is  something  almost  unearthly  in  the  still  beauty  of  the 
whole  place.  The  autumn  gold  shines,  as  it  were,  just  through  the 
foliage  of  the  trees  and  shrubs ;  the  last  crop  of  Monthly  Roses  makes 
some  of  the  beds  masses  of  most  delicate  pink  and  pale  yellow  ;  the  air 
is  laden  with  the  fragrance  of  the  Heliotrope,  which  stands  in  full 
midsummer  beauty  and  without  so  much  as  a  crumpled  leaf ;  the  Sedge- 
bordered  lakes  are  smooth  sheets  of  clear  blue  crystal,  and  the  wooded 
parts,  with  their  wmlcome  shade  and  coolness,  suggest  the  middle  of 
July  instead  of  the  end  of  September.  It  is  only  when  just  before 
six  o’clock  the  primitive  mode  of  announcing  the  closing  the  gates  is 
resorted  to,  and  when  the  voice,  shrill  and  long-drawn  to  uncanniness, 
calls  in  the  distance  “  All  out !  All  out  !  ”  that  one  remembers  how 
short  the  days  are  getting  and  how  soon  another  summer  will  have 
fled.  But  for  the  time  being  no  pleasanter  day  or  afternoon  could  be 
spent  anywhere  than  in  that  finest  botanical  pleasure  ground,  Kew 
Garden. —  (“  Westminster  Gazette.”) 
Indian  Forest  Officers  and  Botany. — At  the  Dover  meeting 
of  the  British  Association  the  following  resolution  was  passed  :  “  That 
the  council  be  requested  to  represent  to  her  Majesty’s  Government 
the  importance  of  giving  more  prominence  to  botany  in  the  training 
of  Indian  forest  officers.”  A  committee,  consisting  of  Sir  W.  T. 
Thiselton-Dyer,  Sir  George  King,  Professor  Marshall  Ward,  and  the 
general  officers,  was  appointed  to  report  on  this  matter,  and,  as  a 
re-ult  to  their  deliberations,  a  letter  was  addressed  by  the  president 
to  the  Secretary  of  State  for  India.  According  to  the  annual  report 
presented  to  the  Bradford  meeting,  in  reply,  the  president  was 
informed  that  the  attention  of  the  Secretary  of  State  was  drawn  last 
autumn  to  the  remarks  in  Sir  George  King’s  address  at  the  Dover 
meeting,  and  that  he  has  asked  Sir  W.  Thiselton-Dyer  and  Sir  Dietrich 
Brandis  to  look  into  the  matter  and  advise  him  in  what  way  the 
botanical  teaching  at  Cooper’s  Hill  College  can  be  improved  and 
rendered  more  practical.  The  report  of  these  authorities  will  be 
f()r warded,  with  the  president’s  letter,  for  the  consideration  of  the 
Government  of  India. 
Buildings  at  Chiswick. — Visitors  to  the  old  garden  of  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society  cannot  fail  to  note  with  anything  but  pleasure, 
the  huge  square  and  singularly  ugly  block  of  buildings  which  has  been 
erected  on  the  north  side  of  the  garden,  and  which  towers  up  to  a  great 
height  above  all  other  buildings.  But  this  monster  erection  is  not  yet 
nrarly  complete,  and  when  it  is  entirely  back  to  the  garden  wall  it  will 
seem  then  to  tower  up  to  an  enormous  height,  dominating  and  crowding 
out  light  and  air  and  everything  that  is  conducive  to  health.  Very  soon 
just  such  monster  erections  as  these  will  be  seen  growing  up  on  the 
east  side,  the  once  pretty  arboretum,  since  known  as  Devonhurst,  having 
been  sold  for  building.  It  is  only  needful  for  anyone  to  take  stock 
of  these  surroundings,  and  then  realise  that  to  propose  to  retain 
this  area  thus  enclosed  as  a  suitable  garden  for  the  Royal  Horticultnral 
Society  is  a  complete  farce.  Really  as  a  garden  for  practical  worth 
the  place  is  doomed.  Whether  it  shall  also  come  into  the  grip  of  the 
building  octopus,  or  whether  it  may  be  by  the  local  authorities  saved  as 
an  open  space,  as  a  resort  for  nursemaids  and  a  playground  for  children, 
very  much  apart  from  its  present  purposes,  has  yet  to  be  determined. 
But  it  is  evident  that  the  place  cannot  too  soon  be  deserted  by  the 
Royal  Horticultural  Society.  This  because  of  the  old  sentimental 
associations  which  cling  to  the  gardens  may  seem  a  brutal 
pronouncement,  but  no  practical  and  impartial  person  can  come  to  any 
other  conclusion.  Should  a  new  garden  be  found  it  is  much  to  be  hoped 
that  a  real  national  garden  for  practical  horticulture,  one  of  which  the 
nation  may  be  proud,  will  be  formed.  As  it  is  wo  may  well  wish  to 
close  the  gates  of  Chiswick  against  intelligent  foreigners  just  now. 
