which Professor Reichenbach has given the name of Cypripedium vexillarium. It is dwarf in habit, with ligulate leaves, marked with few dark hieroglyphic reticulations, and comparatively large flowers, the latter having the back sepal broad, whitish, a little green at the base, washed with purple, and traversed by winecoloured veins, which are feathered upwards; the ligulate petals are deflexed, wavy, hairy at the margin, the inner veins green, and the outer purple; and the lip has a broad hollow claw, with transverse staminodia, and is brownish-green, with purple reticulations.

The plant was raised by Mr. Dominy in the Royal Exotic Nursery, Chelsea, between C. barbatum and C. Fairrieanum, which latter was the father.

It received the award of a Firstclass Certificate from the Floral Committee at South Kensington in January, 1871.

THE ECKLINVILLE SEEDLING APPLE.

B

EFORE the planting season passes away,

I should like to draw attention to the superior merits of this excellent Autumn culinary Apple. It originated in Ireland, where it is extensively grown and highly appreciated, as it is alike good for boiling, cooking whole, or for exhibition. At the autumn shows, its great size, handsome appearance, and superior quality make it the leading fruit in its class on the exhibition table, in the same way as Lord Suffield is shown in this country. Upon my return from Ireland twenty years ago, I obtained trees, and have grown it ever since; and when nearly all other kinds have failed, this has produced heavy crops of clean fine fruit, in fact I have never known it to miss a crop.

In the sister Isle I have seen large standard trees carrying many bushels of fruit, but owing to its great size-when grown in this way-it should be planted in a sheltered situation. It makes a handsome and most prolific pyramid on the free stock, and does well on the Paradise as a bush, in which form it is well adapted for small gardens, as owing to its fruitful propensity it makes but moderate growth, and requires little more than thinning or spurpruning. Like all large Apples that are fit for use direct from the tree, it has a tender skin, and requires careful hand-picking and

storing, when it may be had in use from the early part of September until the middle of December.-W. COLEMAN, Eastnor Castle.

NOTES ON BOOKS.

MONGST the new books lying before us awaiting a record, there is none more welcome than the ROSE ANNUAL for 1879-80, by Mr. William Paul, which is published by him at Waltham Cross. It gives us a variety of information on the Rose, which is all the more valuable for being in this collected form; and it presents us with portraits of some of the new flowers, whose acquaintance we are glad to make, as well among the leaves of the Rose-bush, as on the leaves of a Rose book. The varieties figured in the present annual are H.P. Pride of Waltham, a charming picture, if we mistake not from Mr. Fitch's pencil, of a lovely flower, which, we are told, will probably prove one of the most beautiful of light roses, the colour a delicate flesh, shaded with bright rose, with the habit of Countess of Oxford. H.P. Masterpiece, a seedling from Beauty of Waltham, which has proved itself during the past unfavourable season entitled to rank amongst the best of its class, but of which the portrait is rather hard and heavy. Little Gem, or Crimson Moss de Meaux, a tiny gem, which will be courted and planted by every lover of a garden, but of which the figure, again, is not altogether a happy one. These three are raised by Messrs. W. Paul and Son. H.P. Jules Chrétien, a fine, large, deep red, shaded with purple, raised by M. Joseph Schwartz. The literary portion of the Annual comprises the following articles, which we commend to the notice of rosarians and all lovers of roses :The Current Year, New Roses, The Best Roses, Rose Synonyms, Correspondence, and the Rose Shows.

CORRESPONDANCE BOTANIQUE: Liste des Jardins, des Chaires, des Musées, des Revues, et des Sociétés de Botanique du Monde. Septième édition, Novembre, 1879. (Liége, a la Boverie No. 1.) A most useful list to all who are concerned in botanical correspondence, and for which they owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Morren, who charges himself with the task of keeping it au courant with the times. Each successive issue shows manifest improvements.-T. M.

1880. ]

15

GARDEN GOSSIP.

HE Annual Meeting of the NATIONAL
AURICULA and the NATIONAL CAR

NATION and PICOTEE SOCIETIES (Sou thern Section) took place on the 16th ult., at South Kensington, G. F. Wilson, Esq., President of the N. C. and P. Society in the chair. The Report of the Committee referring to the success of last season's work, and the accounts of the year, were submitted and adopted, and the energetic labours of the Honorary Secretaries were properly acknowledged. The accounts of the Auricula Society showed a balance in hand of £12 48. 7d.; those of the Carnation and Picotee Society a balance in hand of £21 8s. 10d. The exhibitions of 1880 were fixed to be held in the garden of the Royal Horticultural Society, on April 20, for the Auricula, and on July 27 for the Carnation and Picotee. The Schedules of last year were in the main adopted, some slight additions being made to the number of classes. A special fund for Seedling Prizes had been raised by those specially interested, and the manner in which this was proposed to be dispensed was set forth in the Schedules of the respective Societies, which were approved by the meeting. These Seedling Prizes will doubtless add very much to the interest of the shows. With the view of extending the area covered by the earlier show, the Committee offer prizes for a collection of 12 Hardy Primulas, to consist of species not included in other parts of the Schedule, six at least to be distinct species. Mr. G. Smith offers prizes for the best plants of his gold-laced Polyanthus Duke of Wellington. The Report and Schedules will be printed forthwith, and may be had of the Honorary Secretaries,-Mr. E. S. Dodwell, 11 Chatham Terrace, Larkhall Rise, Clapham, S.W.; or Mr. J. Douglas, Loxford Hall Gardens, Ilford, Essex. We may hope that these interesting exhibitions of two of the most notable of the older florists' flowers will go on developing as they have hitherto done, thanks to an intelligent Secretariat, and eventually meet with that full measure of success which they honestly deserve.

THE Annual General Meeting of the NATIONAL ROSE SOCIETY was held on the 11th ult., at the Horticultural Club, Arundel Street, Strand, the Rev. J. M. Fuller in the chair. The proposal of the committee to hold the Metropolitan Show at the Crystal Palace on July 3, was adopted, and the Secretary stated that an arrangement had been made by which members' tickets (not transferable) should be admitted to a private view half-anhour before the general public. After some discus. sion, the Provincial Show was fixed to take place at Manchester, on July 17. The balance-sheet showed the total receipts to have been £495 7s. 4d., including a subsidy of £105 from the Crystal Palace Company, and £100 from the Royal Botanical and Horticultural Society of Manchester; while the expenditure had been £138 Ss. 3d., including £151 13s. for prizes in London, and £135 15s. for prizes in Manchester, leaving a balance in hand of £56 19s. 1d. necting was well attended.

The

THE WINTER of 1879-80 has commenced with unaccustomed severity, since we have already experienced more than a month of severe frost, itself making a noteworthy winter. As pointed out by Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., at a recent meeting of the Royal Botanic Society, there has not been a warm month for two years, every month since August,

1878, having been colder than the average; the period had also been characterised until the end of September, 1879, by a most unusual deficiency of sunshine and excess of rain. The mean temperatures of December, 1878, and January, 1879, were remarkably low, and yet the winter of 1879-80 has begun with lower temperature than its precursor. The actual minimum temperatures in the neighbourhood of London have been surpassed in intensity on some previous occasions; for instance, on Christmas Day, 1860, and again on January 4, 1867, the temperature of the air at Camden Square fell to 69.7, and on Christmas Day, 1870, to 14°, while this year the lowest point was 16.1 on the morning of December 7. The greatest severity of the late frost was, however, felt further north than London, and temperatures below zero-i.e., more than 32° below freezing-have been reported from accurate instruments in many parts of the country.

THE monster bunches of GROS GUILLAUME GRAPES shown at South Kensington on the 16th ult., by Mr. Roberts, gardener to the Countess of Charleville, at Charleville Forest, Tullamore, were worth a journey to see. The famous vine at Charleville which produced the bunches in question has already borne one weighing 23 lb. 5 oz., and in four seasons has produced seven bunches of the aggregate weight of 126 lb. 11 oz. The two bunches shown on this occasion weighed 20 lb. and 22 lb. respectively a very remarkable performance, though, as might have been expected, neither of them was well finished either as regards size or colour. They were, however, shown in exceedingly good condition, considering the risks incidental to travel by land and Mr. Roberts well deserved the Cultural Commendation of the Committee and the Bronze Medal, which the Council of the Society was recommended to award to him.

sea.

THE GONIOPHLEBIUM LACHNOPUS, which has been recently introduced to cultivation. amongst orchids from North India, is a very elegant stove-fern, with narrow pinnate fronds of delicate texture, bearing abundant and conspicuous sori. It is of deciduous habit, losing its fronds in winter; but it makes a very pretty and useful basket Fern. The numerous fronds grow a foot long or more from a rather small and hairy rhizome. In the spring, when the young fronds first appear, it has a very interesting aspect. It was introduced about three years since to the gardens at Oakley, Fallowfield, Manchester.

WRITER in the Gardeners' Magazine, in search of the BEST LATE PEA, writes as follows: Having to supply late peas during the month of October, I have given all the reputedly best sorts for late crops a fair trial, and now, after three years' experience, a very old pea-Hairs' Dwarf Mammoth-stands first on my list. I have never quite lost sight of this pea, but for several years I allowed some of the newer kinds to take its place, especially for late crops; but the result was that they could not be depended upon. We gathered our last dish of this old pea on November 8, while Omega, the next best late pea, ceased to bear after the middle of October. These were sown about the middle of June, both on the same day."

THE new DAHLIA JUAREZI was shown at one of the recent meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society by Mr. Cannell, under the

name of the Cactus Dahlia. In the ordinary florist's Dahlia the florets are rolled up so as to resemble so many short quills open at the ends, but in D. Juarezii the florets are all flat, or nearly so, strap-shaped, like the outer florets of the original species (ray florets), and of a rich crimson colour. The appearance is, therefore, very striking, and suggestive of a new race in Dahlias analogous, in some respects, to the Japanese Chrysanthemums. The roots of this Dahlia had been received from Messrs. Ant. Roozen and Son, of Overween, near Haarlem, under the name of D. Juarezii. It was imported from Mexico in 1872 by Mr. Van der Berg, of Juxphaas, near Utrecht, and named by him after the President of Mexico. It forms a dwarf compact-growing plant, the flowers being produced among the foliage.

Its con

MR. W. INGRAM. of Belvoir, writing of the DOUBLE VIOLET MARIE LOUISE, remarks (Gard. Chron.):-I do not think too much can be said in praise of this Violet. stitutional vigour is as remarkable as the freedom with which it produces its large and highly-perfumed double flowers; in colour, it is of a darker blue than Neapolitan, and with a distinct and well-defined white centre. It is of a hardier nature than the old variety, and blooms with the greatest profusion in the autumn and throughout the winter and spring. It was planted out in beds in the spring garden last year, and stood well through the trying winter of 1878-9, and formed a most attractive mass in the Violet garden. Those who describe it as only differing from the Neapolitan in its darker flowers, cannot have the true, or at least the variety I am fortunate enough to possess."

THE new hybrid GLADIOLUS LEMOINEI, shown during the past summer by M. Lemoine. of Nancy, and certified by the Floral Committee, is the offspring of G. purpurea-auratus fertilised by one of the garden varieties of the gandavensis type. It is distinct in form, approaching that of the old G. viperatus,-that is, with the three upper segments projected over the stamens and pistil (the middle one here broader) and the three lower ones smaller and spreading. The colour is pale creamy, with a flush of salmony-red, the lower segments having a narrow maroon crimson patch at the base and another of yellow beyond. The plant is of rather slender habit, and has stood in the open ground without injury for three years.

ONE simple fertilising agent valuable. for flower-garden use is CHARRED REFUSE. There is always in large gardens a great accumulation of rubbish of various kinds, including the clippings of hedges, rotten wood, spray from timbertrees, weeds, &c., to utilise which a fire should be started with dry wood, so as to get a good body of live embers, and the accumulated rubbish gradually throw on to this, taking care to mix the less inflammable with the woody material, so as to keep the fire smouldering the object in view being, not cremation, or reducing the mass to white ashes, but simply to submit it to the action of heat and the percolation of smoke, in order to destroy the germinating power of whatever seeds of weeds may be present, and at the same time to maintain as great a bulk of the material as possible. Indeed, to increase this when there is a good body of fire, a layer of earth,-any rubbish, even clay will do, may be spread over it. Thus, with a little attention, the time for which may well be afforded during the winter season, a fine heap of material, which Mr.

MR. JOHN THOMAS WILLMER, an old celebrity in the floricultural world, and for forty years proprietor of the Sunbury Nursery, died on November 20th, at the advanced age of 93 years. He was a true lover of florists' flowers, and did more perhaps than any other man in his time to advance and extend the taste for these beautiful objects. He was not only the successful raiser of many new Dahlias, Tulips, Auriculas, Carnations, Picotees, and Pinks, but a most successful exhibitor, having during his career won at various exhibitions nearly 400 prizes in plate and money. In 1817 he obtained her present Majesty's Royal warrant as florist. Mr. Willmer was one of the founders of the first Gardeners' Benevolent Institution.

-R. THOMAS KETTLES, gardener to Lady M. C. Nisbet Hamilton, at Archerfield, died on December 2nd. He was a gardener of first-class attainments, and under him Archerfield maintained the reputation it had long held, especially in the flower-garden department.

---

MR. SERJEANT Cox died on November 24th, in his 70th year. He claims a record here as a true lover of horticulture, who had latterly greatly interested himself in the collection and cultivation of Orchids. Mr. Serjeant Cox took the chair at the last anniversary dinner of the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Institution.

-WILLIAM FARNELL WATSON, Esq., J.P., of Redlees, Isleworth, died on November 30th, aged 53. He was a well-known patron of horticulture, and his garden has long been famous for its fine strains of Calceolarias and Cinerarias, strains that are almost unique for massiveness and beauty, in the cultivation of which, his gardener, Mr. James, has unfailingly received from his late employer all the assistance and encouragement that wealth and a love for flowers could give. The exhi bition plants from Redlees were always amongst the foremost at the metropolitan shows.