The Horticultural Congress held at Oxford in connection with the provincial show of the Royal Horticultural Society appears to have been very successful. Some good and interesting papers were read, and a little discussion was indulged in at the termination of one or two of them. The quality of the papers was generally high, the men deputed to read them unexceptionable; they were also varied in character, and full of interest. The one most likely to create discussion is that by Dr Hogg on "Judging Fruits." In order that our readers may have an opportunity of learning Dr Hogg's opinions on this matter, we print his paper in another page. The idea of a horticultural congress is a thoroughly good one, and when judiciously managed, as this appears to have been, may be made productive of certain practical good. Scarcely enough prominence is given to it, and so a somewhat scanty attendance results. On general grounds it would be best that a large tent be erected close by those containing the plants, as a place in which the Congress is to assemble. Placards should be posted about the show-ground announcing the time at which it is intended to hold the meeting, the papers to be read, and the readers thereof: by such means a greater degree of popular interest would be enlisted.

At Manchester, and again at Oxford, the Congress appeared - though never intended to assume such an aspect - to be an affair of the few, and not one of the many, no doubt through lack of publicity. On these occasions horticulturists come from distant parts, and there are old friends to meet and new acquaintances to be made, and general fraternal greetings to be exchanged, and the somewhat sparingly-announced Congress gets overlooked. If, another season, the arrangements of the Congress could be so made beforehand as to admit of their being announced in the schedule of prizes as a part and parcel of the engagements of the Society, a knowledge of them would be much more widely diffused.

The unusual productiveness of the Walnut-trees this season is a matter of frequent remark. Is this fructiferous quality in any way traceable to the drought of the previous two years 1 A correspondent writes from Northamptonshire: "Never in the memory of man has there been such a crop of Walnuts as there is this year in this neighbourhood; the trees are weighed down with them, and the fact deserves record in your pages. I heard a loud crack the other day, and found a branch of one of my Walnut-trees had broken down with the weight; and I know another instance of a large arm coming down from the same cause. Bunches of six and eight are common on my trees, and I have gathered one of nine, and believe that I could find others still larger. Can any correspondent cap this from their trees 1 I presume this remarkable crop is owing to the wood being well ripened last year, and to the backward spring of the present year, which retarded the trees till the frosts were over. All fruit is here very abundant".

A French nobleman has just discovered an original manner for forcing Mushrooms - so we learn from the Continent - and by so doing procuring a constant harvest. He places a number of little boxes in his stable, about 3 feet long and 10 inches wide, and arranges them like the shelves of a bookcase, before which a thick curtain slides in order to keep light out. He sows the spawn in a bed composed of horse-dung, or dead leaves and vegetable earth well manured, and the Baron has Mushrooms all the year round. As for the horses, they are none the worse for the forcing, and no unhealthy emanations have been remarked in the stables.

An announcement has just appeared in the columns of the ' Gardener's Magazine' to the effect that the proprietors and editor of that journal offer a prize of twenty guineas for the best "Essay on Irrigation, with especial reference to the Utilisation of Sewage." The following are the conditions of the competition: -

"The essays may be of any length, and may be written on one or both sides of any sized paper; but the adjudicators will give preference to the one which deals with the subject most comprehensively, practically, and briefly; the object being to obtain useful information on the sources of water-supply for farm and garden purposes, and the best means of storiug, lifting, and distributing, with a view to economical cultural results. The essays are not in any case to have the names of the writers attached to them, but each essay must be marked with monogram or motto, and be accompanied with a sealed envelope bearing a corresponding monogram or motto, and enclosing the real name and address of the writer. When the adjudicators have selected what they consider the best essay, the envelopes will be opened, and the unsuccessful manuscripts returned to their owners. The essay to which the prize is awarded is to be the property of the editor of the 'Gardener's Magazine.' The 1st of October will be the latest date on which competing essays can be received.

The adjudicators are Mr William Haywood, engineer to the Commissioners of Sewers of the city of London; Mr Alexander M'Kenzie, landscape-gardener, and director of gardening to the Metropolitan Board of Works; and Mr Shirley Hibberd, editor of the 'Gardener's Magazine.'"

The sura was originally stated at ten guineas, but considering the great importance of the subject, and its varied bearings in relation to the drainage of towns, the donors have determined to double the amount.

What constitutes a Nosegay Pelargonium appears to be just now a pertinent question. At the Pelargonium Show at South Kensington on the 3d of August several Nosegay Pelargoniums were staged, but so much like the zonal kinds, both in habit and size and shape of the flowers, that the judges were puzzled, and in one instance submitted a variety to the Floral Committee for their opinion. The large truss, with its profuse succession of pips, is still retained; but the windmill petals, and the somewhat lank habit of growth, have, in what is now termed hybrid nosegays, given place to rounded well-formed flowers of fine substance, allied to close-growing compact habits in the plants. The florist has directed his attention to the production of form in the nosegay varieties, and succeeded to such an extent, by crossing them with finely-formed zonal varieties, as to impress the character of the latter on both flowers and habit; hence the reason for asking, "What constitutes a Nosegay Pelargonium?" Would it not be better to abandon such a purely artificial and arbitrary distinction, and class them all in the general category of green-leaved bedding Pelargoniums'?

Messrs Veitch & Son, Exotic Nurseries, Chelsea, have just bloomed a magnificent specimen of Dendrobium MacCarthiae, which had at one time more than 100 expanded flowers ! A truly noble sight.

A remarkable hybrid Lily has just been exhibited by Mr George Thomson, The Gardens, Stan stead Park, Emsworth, the result of a cross between L. auratum and L. lancifolium speciosum. A bloom of it was produced at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on the 3d of August, white in colour, and handsomely spotted with crimson; in build it resembled L. lancifolium, but with rather broader petals and a flatter surface, and while richly perfumed, yet not so powerfully as L. auratum; the foliage partook more of the character of L. auratum. No particulars were furnished as to how and when the cross was effected, and how long a time expired before the seedling plant bloomed.

From the 'Gardeners' Chronicle' we learn that "AFrench gardener has adopted a newmethod of grafting and buddingPear-trees. The wild stocks, he says, succeed best when budded, as their branches then continue to grow as if no operation had been performed; while in the case of grafting, the stock, being cut down to the ground wastes vitality, which the graft is not able to supply for a long time, so that during the first year progress is very slow. In order to remedy this he leaves two shoots on each side of the stock, which he splits half-way down, and then shaving away the sides of the lower end of the scion, he inserts the latter in the cleft and binds up in the usual way. If the operation is performed in the opening spring, you pinch off the shoots in order to prevent the stem from growing too fast, and cut back at the end of the year; if the grafting is performed in the autumn, the cutting is executed at the end of the winter. The graft having then taken well, it has force enough to excite the action of the spongioles, so that much trouble and loss of time are saved. He has a like plan for budding.

It is well known that this operation cannot be adopted after the rise of the sap has ceased; he therefore cuts his bud with a small portion of wood attached to it, so that the lower part of the eye is, of course, not only uninjured but supported by the ligneous matter; the budding piece is then inserted, either in a slit in the top of the stock, or into an opening made in the middle of the stock with a knife, and into which the bud, or rather the small piece of wood attached to it, is inserted. The operation may be regarded, in fact, as grafting with a single eye. The grand advantage is that the operation succeeds as well in October or November as in August or September".

Another gap in the horticultural world is created by the death of Mr John Gould Veitch, F.L.S., eldest son of the late Mr James Veitch, of the Royal Exotic Nurseries, Chelsea, who died at his residence, Coombe Wood, Kingston Hill, on the 13th of August, at the early age of thirty-one years and a few months. Keenly devoted to his profession, favoured with an education of no common order, gifted with much energy of character, genial and intelligent, he had before him a future that might have raised to even a higher level of estimation the honoured name of Veitch. Fate willed otherwise, and in the fulness of a promising life he fell a victim to a serious affection of the lungs, that for a few years past had necessitated his retirement during the winter to a warm southerly clime. In the year 1860 he started on a journey of exploration to China, Japan, and the Philippine Isles, and from these he obtained some very valuable new plants and trees, "among which the lovely Primula cortusoides amoena would of itself form no mean monument to his memory." In 1864 he visited Australia and the South Sea Islands, returning home in February 1866, bringing with him valuable horticultural treasures. "During this journey, Cape York in Northern Australia was visited, and here was obtained a new Palm, which has since been dedicated to his honour under the name of Veitchia Johannis. The 'Gardeners' Chronicle' of August 20th contains a touching tribute to his worth and memory from the pen of his attached friend Mr Thomas Moore, to which we are indebted for a few of the circumstances herein narrated.

Ingenio stat sine morte decus - The honours of genius are eternal.