or can we here do more than allude to his esearches into the manners and customs, the veapons and tools of prehistoric man; inleed, his position as an archæologist is an Issured one,, and his published works on these ubjects are permanent assets in the library of the student.

There is one feature of Mr. Smith's chaacter well known to his friends, but peraps not so generally recognised by those hose knowledge of him is less intimate. We llude to his sense of humour. This finds xpression at all sorts of times and on all ccasions. By way of example, we repeat an lustration showing the difficulties under hich our artist sometimes had to labour then adequate facilities for the execution of is task were not forthcoming, and another howing the device adopted by the late G. F. Vilson to preserve his Peas from the too sistent attentions of the sparrows, which is eferred to again in this column in a letter ow reproduced) purporting to have been ritten by the cat.

We refrain from saying more of our colagues and friends, as such publicity might e unwelcome to them, and who knows how he artist would avenge himself at our exense! Let us conclude by congratulating em on the honour conferred on them and y expressing the hope that our columns may ng continue to be enriched by their prouctions.

ROYAL BOTANIC SOCIETY.-The first of the special monthly exhibitions of plants and flowers in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park, London, will take place on Wednesday next, March 27.

THE NATIONAL CARNATION AND PICOTEE SOCIETY (Southern section) has issued its thirtieth

This rough scratch explains better than any. ords how I clear a bed,' and daily practice the

t of forcing' and 'striking.' I also teach the rds the equally useful art of cutting.' The catn tribe are known always to be well up to the ratch' in a garden; so I may say as a conuding claws that I never encourage any pussymimous feelings towards sparing sparrows, or rrtecting small birds. May such felines always fur from yours truly, Mr. W-'s Cat."

OUR SUPPLEMENTARY ILLUSTRATION.-The arming view of the lake in the Royal Gardens, Kew, shown in the supplementary illustration the present issue, affords an instance of the Fect produced amongst other vegetation by stigiate or upright growing trees. The picture ay appropriately be studied in connection with r. BEAN'S article on this subject, and the companying illustrations on another page.

the artificial formality dear to specialists of the old school. Fortunately there is scope for both groups of Carnation lovers, and as the society endeavours to cater for all there is no reason for complaint on this score. It is, we think, to be regretted that a similar catholic spirit was not manifested in the case of the tree or winter-flower

report, containing a list of prize winners in last year's exhibit and the schedule of prizes to be competed for in the R.H. Hall, Vincent Square, on July 24 of the present year. The society shows signs of progress in providing for the exhibition of flowers in their natural state and in gradually abandoning the childish practice of exhibiting the flowers with cardboard collars. The increased and increasing popularity of the flower is the best evidence that the great bulk of flower lovers dislike

ing Carnations; that an "extra special" society should have to be formed to include the devotees of these very popular flowers, because the "special" society was too limited in its scope to admit them, is one of those mysteries that no outsider can comprehend. With fortnightly meetings and special committees of the R. H.S. which could be multiplied if thought requisite the use for special societies save for commercial purposes seems less than ever.

AMERICAN WINTER FLOWERING CARNATIONS. A grower of these varieties states in 'Möller's Deutsche Gartner-Zeitung, No. 10 of the present year, that, contrary to the usual prac with ordinary winter-flowering varieties, of taking cuttings in late summer and autumn, keeping the young plants in cold houses and pits during the winter, and planting them out in the spring, the American winter-flowerers are struck from cuttings taken in the following seasons for flowering in the greatest quantity: in autumn, winter, and spring. Those plants that are struck in the interval between January and March are generally cut back twice, and those struck in April only once. American varieties develop much more rapidly than the European ones, and flowering, according to varieties, begins in September and October. The best shoots for taking as cuttings are those that appear at the base of the flower stems, and care is taken to remove only a few of these, as those that are left soon throw up flower shoots after the first flower shoots are removed. One of the evils which accrue when the American varieties are kept cool in the winter season is that the growth is unnaturally checked, the base of the stems becomes woody, which is the first stage of the dreaded decay of the stems-a disease that has brought these Carnations into some degree of disrepute. The right kind of culture is that which aims at maintaining the plants in full growth. When cuttings are taken in the autumn and much warmth afforded the plants, they become weak, and the tissues soft, and the germ of many evils laid.

SALE OF ORCHIDS AT WEST POINT.-A sale of 122 lots of duplicate plants from the collection of S. GRATRIX, Esq., West Point, Whalley Range, Manchester, was held at West Point by Mr. HAROLD G. MORRIS, of the firm of PROTHEROE & MORRIS, 67 and 68, Cheapside, London, on Thursday, March 14. The sale realised a total of £2,203.

The highest price for a lot was 300 guineas, the plant being Odontoglossum crispum Britannia"; a small plant of O. crispum Mundyanum, with two pseudo-bulbs, realised 150 guineas, and other high prices were O. crispum Luciani, 180 guineas; O. crispum" Mrs. A. Warburton," 38 guineas; O, crispum Lindenii, 50 guineas; O. crispum Mary Gratrix," a charming white form, 36 guineas. Among Cypripediums C. The Baron secured 120 guineas; four plants of C. Minos Youngii realised from 17 to 33 guineas each; C. Leoniæ, Gratrix's variety, 55 guineas; two plants of Cypripedium Emperor of India, 20 and 22 guineas respectively, and upwards of 20 guineas were obtained for other Cypripediums; the older favourites, such as good forms of C. euryades, appearing to have increased in value; a plant of C. euryades magnificum, New Hall Hey variety, reaching 46 guineas. White Cattleyas were also in favour, and of these C. Hardyana albens réalised 70 guineas. A small plant of Lycaste Skinneri armeniaca fetched 21 guineas, and small plants of L. Samuel Gratrix and Mary Gratrix 10 and 10 guineas respectively.

RETIREMENT OF MR. H. J. CLAYTON.-" An Old Pupil" writes: "I am sure I shall express the feelings of many horticulturists in stating how sorry I am to learn that Mr. CLAYTON'S connection with Grimston Park Gardens, Tadcaster, Yorkshire, is about to cease. He has been head gardener there for 35 years, and his retirement will take place on April 16. Having spent several years of my life under him there I can testify that a more considerate man to his fellow helpers in keeping up the well-known reputation of the gardens could not be, but he was also strictly just to his employers. I know it will be a great wrench for him to leave his work at Grimston, having often heard him remark that he thinks he has held close communion with every bough and

twig in the beautiful, well-stocked gardens and grounds. As a practical gardener, to use his own expression, he did not care to put his garden soil into a few small flower pots, but delighted in the trees and shrubs. Mr. CLAYTON'S long sustained interest in the garden charities is well known. I was living at Grimston in 1887 and well remember with what keen interest he followed the inception of the Royal Gardeners' Orphan Fund. He has been, on and off, churchwarden, &c., for nearly 30 years, having also managed a small Sunday school on one side of the parish during the whole time. Being in his 65th year it is out of the question his securing another situation, although fairly well in health. He has taken a house in the village of Ulleskelf, which is a township, like Grimston, in the parish of Kirkby Wharfe, and hopes to get some employment as a horticultural adviser, &c., &c. I am sure he will have the good wishes of all who have known him.” Mr. CLAYTON is an old and valued correspondent of this journal, and on many occasions he has kindly sent us specimens from the Grimston Gardens that have proved his cultural skill. Our correspondent, "An Old Pupil," mentions that Mr. CLAYTON "followed the inception of the Royal Gardeners' Orphan Fund, but it should be remembered that he and the late Mr. PENNY were the first to suggest simultaneously the formation of the fund.

"

LONDON'S, TOBACCO CROP. -"In spite of frosty nights and sunless days London's tobacco crop under glass at the Royal Botanic Society's gardens in Regent's Park is getting on apace. The crop is not large; it is purely experimental. But to make it more interesting a large number of the best known varieties of the tobaccos of commerce are included. Mr. HAWES, the society's head gardener, reports that all the plants, whether from Kentucky, Virginia, Havana, or from Turkish, German or Dutch seed, are doing well, the adverse weather notwithstanding. Some of the seedlings: are picked out in separate flower pots in which they will get individual treatment and the maximum of light. In another five or six weeks it is confidently asserted that the growing tobacco will show the distinctive characteristics of the various sorts included in the experiment. The public will have a chance of seeing this novel crop at the Royal Horticultural Hall in April on the occasion of the 3rd International Tobacco Trades Exhibition. Tobacco.

get

SPECIAL SPRING NUMBERS. As winter gives place to spring, so the garden-periodicals bud out and manifest signs of increasing energy and progress pleasant to witness. The Scottish Gar. dener is one of the youngest of the fraternity, and, as becomes its age, is fresh and vigorous. The spring number is full of good, sound, practical articles, and is adorned with numerous portraits of practitioners who, as we know, well maintain the reputation of Scotch gardeners. A note informs us that this is "the first attempt at a special number." A glance at its pages is sufficient to show that the attempt has been a highly successful one. The Gardeners' Magazine has slightly altered its size, improved its up," and in various ways proves its determination to keep abreast of the times. The Journal of Horticulture caters for the professional gardener, whose requirements are well looked after. It is doing good work in stimulating and encouraging the rising generation. The Gardener is bright and lively, and full of information for the benefit of the amateur. The amateur is indeed well provided for, as among the number of inexpensive journals intended for his benefit are included Amateur Gardening, an excellent pennyworth; Gardening Illustrated, crammed with information; Garden Life, well illustrated; the Gardening World, replete with trustworthy information; and others, all good in their way, whether they issue special spring numbers or

not.

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CAN PLANTS OBTAIN NITROGEN FROM THE AIR P-When it is remembered in how very large a proportion nitrogen enters into the composi tion of the atmosphere, it is not to be wondered at that the idea should be entertained that plants must be able to avail themselves of the supply by which they are so copiously surrounded. The resea.ches and experiments of BoUSSINGAULT and of LAWES and GILBERT, however, are almost universally accepted as proving that the plant does not absorb free nitrogen from the atmosphere. Lately, however, Mr. THOMAS JAMIESON, the "Director of Research" of the Agricultural Research Association of Aberdeenshire, whose report for the year 1906 is before us, has strenuously advocated the opposite opinion, and asserts positively that the nitrogen of the air is "directly absorbed and fixed by plants" by means of specialised organs adapted for the absorption of nitrogen. Demonstration of these statements is, says he, afforded by strictly controlled culture of plants of a gain in weight of nitrogen due to absorption from the atmosphere." How and by what means the nitrogen is dissociated from the oxygen is not explained. This matter is one for the chemist t> determine.. The. physiologist will require further proof than is offered by Mr. JAMIESON, that sundry hairs which are common to a very large variety of plants have anything to do with the absorption of nitrogen. That Mr. JAMIESON should find nitrogenous compounds in those hairs is not remarkable, seeing that they must contain in their active state' a' considerable amount of protoplasm, whence that nitrogen came, is not to be proved by mere assertion that it entered the plant by means of these hairs, nor do we imagine that the "main work of Rothamsted" (mis-spelt throughout Mr. JAMIESON's report as Rothamstead) is likely to be overturned by the new doctrine.". There are other statements in former reports and repeated in this one, such as that an "aperture exists at the extremity of the root hairs," and that "the three feathery-like structures in the flowers of cereals and grasses are not parts of the female organ of the plant (as formerly supposed), but are brushes that serve to expel the male organs to the air for diffusion of the pollen all around. "We find it difficult to accept these statements as correct, though we are aware that an aperture has occasionally been seen at the end of a root-hair, as by GASPARINNI. We must remain, till further evidence is afforded, in the position of those teachers "who have to receive the material for instruction from the results of investigation properly established, and als that, if they fail to do so, by assuming greater knowledge than the investigators themselves, r from other improper reasons, the result is—that their students suffer." In view of the great prac tical importance of the subject, we could wish Mr. JAMIESON's observations and inductions

could be confirmed.

BOUNTY FOR THE STUDY OF SOILS.-The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths has made s donation of £10,000 to the Lawes Agricultural Trust (Rothamsted Experimental Station) to be devoted to research in connection with the sol and to be known as the Goldsmiths' Company's Fund for Soil Investigation.

THE DECIMAL SYSTEM.-At the private view on March 13 of the new premises in Kingsway Messrs. J. GRIFFIN & SONS, LTD., displayed a their vestibule a memorial in favour of the univers adoption of the decimal system, which is signed by such a diverse section of the communityincluding physicians, journalists, clergyme educational authorities, barristers, solicitors an photographers-as to encourage us to think that this system will eventually be adopted in 2 country.

POLEMONIACEAE.-A family to which the Phlox, the Cobæa, the Cantua, the Gilias, and various other garden flowers belong, is naturally one which has a special interest for botanist-gardeners. On this account it is of interest to note the publication in the Pflanzenreich of a special monograph by Mr. A. BRAND, of the Polemoniaceæ. The text is mainly in German, but the descriptions of the genera and species are in botanical Latin understood by specialists everywhere, and illustrated by woodcuts which appeal to all and sundry whatever their nationality may be. The work is mainly of potanical interest, but as we have said, owing to he large number of cultivated forms it appeals to horticulturists also. Thus six species of Cobæa are mentioned, three of which are figured. Polemonium includes 18 species, many of which are ritically analysed so that various sub-species and arieties are enumerated. Forty-eight species of Phlox are described and tabulated; of P. paniculata hree garden varieties are enumerated. As the result of crossing Phlox maculata and P. paniculata a whole host of garden forms are enumerated, includ

BRAZILIAN ORCHIDS.-M. COGNIAUX, whose ability is only equalled by his industry, has published in the Bulletin of the Royal Botanical Society of Belgium some notes additional to his monumental enumeration of the Brazilian Orchids in the Flora Brasiliensis recently completed. During the progress of that work and since its publication much further information has been obtained, a digest of which is given in M. COGNIAUX'S memoir. Many additional newly discovered Brazilian species are described, and an enumeration of the species found in neighbouring countries such as the Guianas, Paraguay, Uruguay, and the Argentine Republic is afforded. notes on the geographical distribution of the species is given from which it appears that the entire number of species known up to this time in Brazil is 1,795, 172 of which are described by M. COGNIAUX as new, 1,476 are Brazilian, and 319 extra Brazilian. Of the 1,476 species recorded from Brazil 1,188 are exclusively Brazilian, 288 being found also beyond the confines of that country. Pleurothallis, Epidendrum, and Onci

g P. decussata and 51 varieties mentioned in the urnal of the R.H.S. 1902, p. 649. Phlox pilosa is entioned as the first of the genus to be cultivated England under the name of trumpet-flower at e end of the 17th or the beginning of the 18th ntury. A large number of garden forms of Drummondi is also tabulated. Gilia, including ptosiphon, is treated in the same way, the author ing comprehensive in his definition of genera It analytic în his treatment of species. A very mprehensive index is added, so that the book 11 be most serviceable to the student of this mily who is interested in the cultivated forms as ell as in the mild types.

DILLENIUS.-The Oxford University Press has blished the Dillenian Herbaria: an account the Dillenian collections in the Herbarium the University, together with a biographical etch of Dillenius, selections from his corresndence; notes, &c., by G. CLARIDGE DRUCE, on. M.A., Curator of the Fielding Herbarium, ited, with an introduction by S. H. VINES, A., F.R.S., Sherardian Professor of Botany the University.

Some

dium have each over 100 representatives in Brazil, while there are 44 species of Catasetum and 33 species of Cattleya. Brazil is so vast, equal to 5-6ths of the area of Europe or fifteen times larger than France, that extensive districts are still botanically unexplored. This is particularly the case in the provinces of the centre, the west, and the north, so that no doubt many additions have yet to be made to our knowledge of its Flora. In the meanwhile the gratitude of botanists has been more than amply earned by M. COGNIAUX, who modestly speaks of his 15 years' labours as being as little incomplete as he could make them.

GARDENERS IN THE UNITED STATES.- At this season of the year and far into the spring, there is a continued demand for young men as foremen and assistants on private estates. Unfortunately there are more positions than there are young men to fill them. [How different to the conditions here. -ED.] While it is against the contract labour law of the United States to employ any one from foreign countries direct, any young man coming to New York at this season of the year would have no difficulty in securing a position and obtaining

wages from $50.00 to $60.00 per month. Should any young men care to venture to the United States and come to New York they would find that almost any seedsman would have upon his books openings for young men as above, or if they should communicate with the Chronicle you could put them in communication with me, and I should be pleased to furnish them with further information. Harry O. Bunyard, 342, West 14th Street, New York. [We should not care to undertake the responsibility of advising anyone to seek work in a foreign country, but we will give such information as we can. Our own colonies are im many ways preferable to the United States. -ED.]

THE FLOWERING OF THE ALMOND.-The first flowers on an Almond tree in a favourable position in Wandsworth, south-west of London, expanded fully on Wednesday last, March 20, as against February 28 last year, March 7 in 1905, and March 21 in 1904.

How ENGLISH WORDS CREEP INTO USE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES.-It is a curious thing to note the adoption of English words in languages allied to our own, and possessing their counterparts, although not so convenient or expressive. Especially is this the case with things connected with sport, with horses, horse racing and dogs. The latest that has come under our notice is Poney-Rasenmäher (mowing machine of a size suitable for being drawn by a pony). The proper German word for pony is klepper, or kleine pferd; but the advertiser, LUDWIG MÖLLER, of Erfurt, adopts the word pony to make his advertisement intelligible to his countrymen.

MANUAL OF FORESTRY. Dr. SCHLICH'S Manual of Forestry has, we are glad to see, rapidly attained to the dignity of a "classic." The fourth volume of the manual devoted to forest-protection is now before us in a second edition (BRADBURY, AGNEW & Co). This is the work of Mr. FISHER, and consists mainly in a free translation of Dr. HESS' German work entitled Der Forstschutz. Mr. FISHER is more than competent to have given us an original work suited especially to British requirements, but in any case those interested in forestry are under great obligations to him for what he has done. The subject matter deals with the necessary protection of forests, and it is humiliating to find that "protection against man" occupies so large a portion of the volume. The protection of the forest against animals of all kinds also fills a large portion of the book. The description of the various insects and fungi destructive to forests is very valuable and should be in every forester's office for reference. Atmospheric and climatal influences are also discussed, so that the whole forms a treatise which will be of the greatest service to every practitioner. The fact that it is in a second edition confirms our assertion and absolves us from the necessity of alluding in further detail to its contents.

Publications Received.-Notes sur les Orchidées du Brésil et des Regions Voisines, par Alfred CogniauxEtat Independant du Congo. Enumeration des plantes récoltées par Emile Laurent, par E. de Wildeman. Fascicule IV., pages IX.-CXX., and 355-450; pl. CVII.-CXLII.-Bulletin du Jardin Impérial Botanique de St. Petersbourg. Tome VI., Livraison 5-6.-Life and Flowers, by Maurice Maeterlinck. George Allen. -Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, Leaflet No. 180. Dodder.-Leaflet No. 182. Crimson Clover,-Agricultural Statistics, 1906. Return of Produce of Crops in Great Britain. "Judging by the yield per acre, 1906 ranks as one of the most satisfactory years on record for the principal farm crops. Every crop, with the exception of meadow Hay and Hops, was returned as above the average.' - Photographic Monthly. March. An article herein by Mr. Crabtree suggests that panchromatic photography may be widely used in the future for flower-photography.-The Garden City. March. Includes a highly satisfactory report of the association during 1906.-Schedule of Prizes and Rules of Southend-on-Sea and District Horticultural Society. Summer show, 10th July, Chrysanthemum show, 5th and 6th November.

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