HORTICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8955, 12 August 1892, Page 6

HORTICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

CAFFEINE : NEW USE.

The active principle of coffee, known as caffeine, baa lately been recommended as an excellent local anaesthetic, and for many purposes may eventually supersede cocaine, which some medical men do not care for very much. If caffeine becomes popular, the trade in coca will be considerably affected.

GARDEN BAROMETER. Some time since La Nature published the following as a good garden barometer : One of the simplest barometers is a spider's web. When there is a prospect of rain or wind, the spider shortens the filaments from which its web is suspended, and leaves things in this state as long as the weather is variable. If the insect elongates its threads, it is a sign of fine, calm weather, the duration of which may be judged of by the length to which the threads are let out. If the spider remains inactive it is a sign of rain ; but if, on the contrary, it keeps at work during the rain, the latter will not last long, and will be followed by fine weather. Other observations have taught that the spider makes changes in its web every twenty four hours, and that if such changes are made in the evening, just before sunset, the night will be clear and beautiful. Whether these interesting details will apply to all varieties of spiders, and to 1 all countries, the writer in l*a Nature does not state.

THE CANARY ISLANDS. Writing from Teneriffe, a correspondent of the Standard states thatwith the practicaldisappearanceof the cochineal industry, killed as it was by the discovery of aniline dyes from coal tar, the commercial prosperity of the Canary Islands received a blow which for many long years it never recovered. The adaptability of the soil and climate to the growing of tomatoes, many hundreds of tons of which leave the islands every season, must have compensated largely for the loss occasioned by the failure of the cochineal trade. For a considerable time past, however, rumours have been rife concerning a disease which has attacked the plant, rendering its produce in many instances quite unfit for exportation. Every endeavour has been made to localise the mischief, but without success, and it is reported that crops in all parts of the Canary Islands have been seriously affected, and that growers view the prospect of the approaching season with considerable apprehension.

CLIMBING AND TRAILING PLANTS. At a recent meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society a paper by Mr. Leach on " Hardy Climbing Plants" was read. The writer of the paper complained that these plants had nob been made the most of in town or in country gardens, where we might expect to see them, and that although scorning to deprecate the ivy—which was rightly employed on some old castle or tower out of reach of the shears, and therefore able to assume its natural habit—it had been, and is, often used in places and under circumstances where other plants would be more suitable. Mr. Leach felt himself all the more unable to account for this, seeing the beautiful foliage and flowers that some of the species present. Even in the midst of a smoky town the Virginian creeper and Ampelopsis Veitchii would succeed as well as the Wistaria sinensis, clematises, and many others that were mentioned. Many people were accustomed to look. upon Aristolochia Sipho as a plant requiring a warm conservatory, but it would grow and flower well out of doors. The essayist said that roses were, and had been for a long time, most deservedly popular for covering .walls, bowers, and such like places, but they were usually pruned too hard, thus minimising their floriferoueness, as well as being cut out of shape v and form. Mr. Leach then proceeded to give names of those he would include in a general collection, and added that, with few exceptions, they would be content with almost any soil, and suitable situations could be easily found for them.