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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
May  9,  1901. 
Wallingford  (Berks)  Horticulturists. — A  public  meeting,  under 
the  presidency  of  the  mayor,  was  lately  convened  at  Wallingford  for  the 
purpose  of  considering  the  best  means  of  enlarging  and  extending  the 
operations  of  the  horticultural  society  there.  Two  committees  were 
elected,  an  organising  and  an  executive  committee,  the  latter  to  arrange 
the  shows. 
Forthcoming  Flower  Show  at  Ore,  Sussex. — It  has  been 
decided  to  hold  the  Ore  annual  flower  show  on  July  17th  at  Fairlight 
Place,  by  the  kind  permission  of  the  Rev.  W.  C.  Sayer-Milward. 
Attractions  will  be  provided  in  the  shape  of  sports’for  children  and 
adults,  and  the  band  of  the  Ore  Volunteers  will  be  engaged.  The  Rev. 
W.  C.  Sayer-Milward  and  Mrs.  Sayer-Milward  have  promised  to  help 
the  committee  in  every  possible  way,  and  half  of  the  £20  required  for 
the  guarantee  fund  has  already  been  promised. 
liondon’s  Cedar  Tree  Park. — Walpole  Park,  lately  purchased  by 
the  Ealing  and  District  Counoil  for  the  perpetual  use  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Ealing,  was  opened  on  Wednesday,  May  2nd,  by  Lord  Geo.  Hamilton. 
It  is  situated  nearly  in  the  centre  of  the  town,  and  consists  of  about 
thirty  acres  of  land,  with  the  Manor  House.  It  is  beautifully  wooded, 
and  the  Cedar  trees  on  the  lawn  at  the  rear  of  the  house  are  probably 
over  300  years  old,  and  are  said  to  have  been  among  the  very  first 
planted  in  England.  The  estate  forms  part  of  the  Manor  of  Pitshanger, 
and  was  the  property  of  the  Gurnells,  for  whom  Dance,  the  architect, 
erected  a  residence  on  the  west  side  of  Ealing  Green.  Subsequently  it 
came  into  the  hands  of  Sir  John  Soane,  the  architect,  who  took  down 
the  greater  portion  of  it  and  built  the  present  mansion. 
“  Fruits,  Huts,  and  Vegetables.” — Vegetarianism  gains  ground, 
if  but  slowly.  There  are  numerous  publications  devoted  to  the  interests 
of  the  upholders  of  this  school,  and  booklets  are  continually  appearing. 
“Fruits,  Nuts,  and  Vegetables:  their  Uses  as  Food  and  Medicine,”  is 
one  of  the  most  recently  published,  and  deals  with  the  properties  and 
actions  of  vegetables  upon  the  human  system.  The  author  (Mr.  Albert 
Broadbent)  also  treats  at  length  on  how  to  cook  all  those  vegetable 
subjects  usually  (and  unusually)  placed  on  the  dinner  or  luncheon  table. 
He  has  a  few  lines  on  Mushrooms,  though  under  this  heading  he  might 
very  well  have  added  further  notes  on  other  edible  fungi.  Even  the 
Stinging  Nettle  has  its  properties  and  values  detailed.  The  booklet 
ought  to  be  of  worth  to  those  who  affect  the  old  rural  cures  by  means 
of  natural  herbs.  The  printing,  paper,  and  general  arrangement  is  neat, 
pleasing,  and  good.  The  price  is  6d.  nett. 
Our  Debt  to  the  IWfcrobe. — Perhaps  we  have  been  rather  unjust 
to  the  little  microbes.  It  takes  all  sorts  to  make  a  world,  and  just  as 
there  are  good  angels  and  bad,  so  there  are  beneficent  as  well  as  noxious 
microbes.  If  the  microbe  is  responsible  for  the  torture  of  our  sick  bed, 
to  him  also  must  we  refer  the  delights  of  our  banquets.  So,  at  least 
a  German  professor  has  discovered,  says  “  The  Morning  Leader.’’  I 
is  a  particular  microbe  that  gives  its  aroma  to  a  Havana  cigar,  just 
as  it  is  a  native  microbe  which  makes  the  fortune  of  the  Bordeaux 
wine-grower.  It  seems  that  one  may  even  ennoble  the  flavour  of  the 
common  weed  from  which  our  cheap  tobacoos  are  made  by  inoculating 
it  with  the  Cuban  bacillus.  The  day  will  come  when  we  shall  all  select 
our  wines  with  complete  indifference,  and  fill  our  cupboards  with  the 
cheapest  cigars,  secure  in  the  knowledge  that  we  need  only  open  the 
magic  phial  in  our  cellar  and  let  loose  the  proper  microbe  in  our  closets 
in  order  to  have  the  wine  or  tobacco  we  desire.  When  that  day  arrives 
the  microbe  will  have  justice. 
Beech  Seedling's  as  a  Salad. — A  gentleman  from  Bognor,  says 
the  “  Daily  Telegraph,”  bids  fair  to  become  as  great  a  benefactor  to 
mankind  as  he  who  makes  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  only  one 
grew  before.  He  has  discovered  nothing  less  than  a  new  vegetable. 
His  story  had  better  be  told  in  his  own  words  :  “  While  walking  along 
the  border  of  a  Beech  plantation  on  top  of  the  Sussex  Downs,  the 
appearance  on  the  turf  of  thousands  of  tiny  Beech  trees,  with  their  two 
beautiful  rounded  leaves  peeping  above  ground,  arrested  my  attention. 
At  the  moment  I  was  eating  a  sandwich,  and  as  there  was  no  other 
*  salad  stuff  ’  near  at  hand  I  stooped  and  filled  my  mouth  with  a  few  of 
the  succulent  green  morsels.  I  afterwards  gathered  a  few  hundreds  of 
the  more  tender-looking  heads,  and  determined  to  have  them  oooked 
and  served  at  home  as  spring  greens  !  My  wishes  in  this  direction  were 
carried  out,  and  I  thoroughly  enjoyed  my  new  vegetable.  The  flavour 
■was,  perhaps,  not  so  pronounced  as  Asparagus  or  stewed  Celery,  but  in 
the  absence  of  suoh  like  delicacies  I  found  ‘  Beech  greens  ’  an  excellent 
makeshift.” 
Botanists  on  Tour. — The  Brussels  Royal  Linnean  Society  is 
organising  a  party  to  visit  Kew  Gardens,  Richmond  Park,  Hampton 
Court,  Slough,  and  Broxbourne  on  the  25th  inst. 
Excerpta.  —  In  the  fire  at  Messrs.  Smith  &  Son’s  nurseries  at 
Darley  Dale,  Derbyshire,  last  week,  no  fewer  than  30,000,000  young 
plants  were  destroyed.  *  *  Although  there  are  214,000  acres  of 
orchards  in  England,  yet  we  buy  100,000  tons  of  Apples  abroad  in  a 
year.  #  *  The  Grape  has  more  sugar  in  it  than  any  other  fruit, 
nearly  fifteen  parts  in  100  being  sugar.  The  Peaoh  has  least,  only 
lj  per  cent. 
What  Beer  Forests  Cost. — Some  interesting  particulars  of  the 
amounts  spent  on  Highland  deer  forests  come  from  Invergarry.  An 
estate  agent  (factor)  there  said  he  had  obtained  returns  of  the 
expenditure  on  fifty-two  deer  forests  for  the  period  of  forty  years 
previous  to  1883,  and  they  showed  that  £2,224,625  had  been  expended. 
Since  then  the  rate  of  expenditure  had  gone  on  increasing.  During 
the  last  ten  years  Sir  John  Ramsden  had  been  spending  at  the  rate 
of  £15,000  a  year  on  his  Highland  estate,  and  the  Duke  of  Portland 
from  £10,000  to  £12,000. 
Road  Trimming'  by  machinery. — A  new  maohine  for  trimming 
and  edging  the  sides  of  public  highways  has  lately  been  tried  in  the 
North.  The  machine  was  attached  to  the  hub  of  a  steam  road  roller, 
and  a  feature  of  its  work  was  that  it  made  a  channel  of  the  roadside 
of  the  same  relative  level  as  the  road  itself,  no  matter  whether  the 
ground  was  hard  or  soft.  The  paring  of  the  edge  is  done  by  a  revolving 
steel  cutting  disc,  and  the  bottom  of  the  channel  is  cleaned  out  by 
adjustable  plough-like  shares,  whioh  leave  a  smooth  bottom,  and  place 
all  waste  material  in  a  row,  with  the  turf  cut  into  15-inch  lengths 
ready  for  removal. 
Of  Interest  to  Ornithologists. — The  following  pleasant  bird  tale 
appeared  in  the  ”  Evesham  Standard  ” — “  An  Evesham  gardener  has  a 
hovel  on  the  Worcester  Road,  where  a  remarkable  domestic  drama  of 
bird  life  is  being  enacted.  About  a  fortnight  ago  the  gardener  saw  a 
thrush’s  nest  in  a  conspicuous  position  on  a  crate  in  the  hovel,  and 
found  that  it  contained  a  thrush’s  egg  and  a  blackbird’s  egg.  Since 
then  six  other  eggs  have  been  deposited,  and  the  nest  now  contains 
four  thrush’s  eggs  and  four  blackbird’s.  .The  hen  thrush  and  hen 
blackbird  have  been  seen  sitting  on  the  eggs  at  different  times,  and 
they  are  apparently  very  friendly.”  It  will  be  interesting  to  hear 
what  happens  when  the  young  birds  appear. 
French  Horticultural  Students’  Tour. — Under  the  guidance 
of  their  director,  M.  Potier,  the  students  of  the  school  of  Le  N6tre 
recently  enjoyed  their  annual  tour  along  the  coast  of  Azur  in  Provence, 
France.  They  were  en  voyage  from  the  2nd  till  the  13th  of  April,  and 
visited  the  public  and  private  gardens  at  Hyeres,  Cannes,  Golfe  Juan, 
Antibes,  Nice,  Mentone,  and  San  Remo.  They  were  allowed  to  visit 
the  most  renowned  villa  and  hotel  gardens  of  the  littoral.  The  exotic 
flora,  whioh  is  now  perfectly  acclimatised  along  this  part  of  the 
Mediterranean,  was  greatly  admired,  and  of  much  interest  to  the 
budding  horticulturists.  The  party  were,  furthermore,  fortunate  in 
reaching  Nice  and  Toulon  respectively  at  a  time  when  horticultural 
exhibitions  were  being  held,  so  that  they  had  a  splendid  opportunity  of 
studying  the  principal  products  of  the  regions  around  these  towns. 
Phytopathology. — “  As  a  distinct  and  systematised  branch  of 
botany,”  says  Professor  Marshall  Ward  in  his  “  Diseases  in  Plants,” 
“  phytopathology  (from  Greek  words  which  signify  to  treat  of  diseases 
of  plants)  is  a  modern  study.  The  history  of  it  only  dates  from  about 
1850,  though  the  subject  had  been  treated  more  or  less  disjointedly 
by  several  authors  during  the  preceding  century,  and  isolated  reoords 
of  diseased  crops,  fruit  trees,  &o.,  exist  far  baok  in  the  history  of 
Europe.  The  existence  of  mildews  and  blights  on  cereal ',  indeed,  was 
observed  and  recorded  by  the  writers  of  the  older  books  of  the  Bible, 
as  well  as  references  to  blasted  Fig  trees  in  the  New  Testament.  But, 
as  a  rule,  we  only  find  disjointed  notes  by  writers  on  the  subjeot  of 
plant  diseases  during  the  early  and  middle  ages,  and  downwards.  With 
the  nineteenth  century,  and  the  founding  of  the  modern  theories  of 
nutrition  by  Ingenhousz,  Priestley,  and  De  Saussure,  we  find  a  pew  era 
started.  As  the  discoveries  of  the  microscopists  continued  to  build  up 
our  knowledge  of  the  anatomy  of  plants,  and  began  to  elucidate  the 
biology  of  the  fungi  and  other  cryptogams,  while  the  chemists  and 
physiologists  laid  the  foundations  of  our  modern  science  of  plant  life, 
it  gradually  became  possible  to  tabulate  and  classify  plant  diseases,  and 
|  discuss  their  symptoms  and  causes  in  a  more  scientific  manner.” 
