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Gray “Herbarium Harvard | University
Vol. II.)
NEW SERIES. VOLUME IL.
Ty
ETY, AT . [EIR OFFICE, ; 4 hh
GRAND HORTICULTURAL EXIIBITION
AT LEICESTER, IN CONNEXION WITH THE
SHOW
OF THE
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, JULY 16 to 21, 1868.
Amongst various Special Prizes,
TWO FIRST PRIZES onaite
VALUE OF £10 10s, EACH,
WILL BE OFFERED BY |
THE PROPRIETORS OF THE
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE,
FOR THE
TWO BEST DESSERTS, CONSISTING OF NOT LESS THAN SEVEN KINDS OF FRUITS OF 1865, —
ARRANGED AS FOR THE TABLE,
COMBINING QUALITY OF FRUIT WITH TASTE OF ARRANGEMENT. k
N.B, These Prizes are to be competed for by Gentlemen’s Gardeners and Amateurs only, and but one Prize to be taken by the same person.
GRAND HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION
AT LEICESTER,
IN CONNEXION WITH THE
SHOW
OF THE Behe
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, | JULY 16 to 21, 1868. Amongst various Special Prites: A SILVER CUP
" (roku ee ie erase Coen Ce), VALUE £21, will be offered by the Proprietors of the _ GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE AND AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE for the best | COLLECTION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES, . to be made up as follows :—
Of FRUITS, any Five of the following Eight kinds, one Dish of each :—
Grapes, Melons (2 fruits), Strawberries, Gooseberries, Currants, Cherries, Raspberries, or Apples (of the crop of 1867).
Of VEGETABLES, any Eight of the following Fourteen kinds, one basket or bundle of each :—
Peas, French Beans (or Scarlet Runners), Broad Beans, Cauliflowers, Cucumbers _ (brace), Summer Cabbages, Early Carrots, Turnips, Artichokes, Onions, Spinach Rhubarb, Potatoes, or Mixed Salading.
This Prize wil be open to Competition amongst Amateurs or Professional Gardeners, of ki grades, with Fruit and Vegetables of their own growing ; any article otherwise obtained will disqualify the exhibitor.
3
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REPORT on the FINAL EXAMINATION at the Staff College, held in Dec. 1867.
In One Volume, 8vo, with Three Plates, price 15s. cloth. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES IN CHEMISTRY AND PEYSICS.
By Mrcnatr Farapay, -D.C.L., F.R.S. . Fullerian Professor of Chemistry i in the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
Vol. ITI., with Four Plates, price 18s. FARADAY’S EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY. ?
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2
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Pcdes ie Ds ORV EM: BOK:
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Leicester.
PATENT CONCRETE STONE CO. (Limited), _
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Peer e sree eer eeeee
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DESCRIPTION OF OBJECTS.
Iron. and Terra-Cotta Works, Garden Chairs, Vases, Fountains, &c. &e. _
Vases, Fountains, Garden Edging, &c., in Artificial Stone, Flower-Boxes for Windowsand Balconies, and Ornamental Tile Pavements.
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Heating-Apparatus, Tubular Boilers, Strawberry House, Conservatories, &e.
New Patent Wrought-iron Multitubular Hot-water Boilers, &c., to be seen in the Garden, Chiswick; also Drawings of Horticultural Building.
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and Hot-water Apparatus Manufacturers. Bronzed Figures, Vases, Fountains seen in Ac- tion—all for Decoration of Parks and Gardens. Seedsmen, &c. Horticwtural Builder, Mosaic Tiles. Branch Orchid-Pots. Vases, Chairs, Flower-Stands. Horticultural Builder. Hydraulic Engineer.
Terra-Cotta-W orks. Terra-Cotta Works. Gas Boilers,
Horticultural Builder,
“WHEELERS 2 ae GLOUCESTERSHIRE KIDNEY.
A most excellent and very Early Potato.
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\ Qn AN WN
MAAS SSQV“Qv“ K\\ \ AGG \\ “ . WN SN
3s. per Peck, 12s. per Bushel.
J. 0. WHEELER & SON, SEED GROWERS, ©
| GLOUCESTER, ©
Strongly recommend the “ Gloucestershire Kidney” for earliness, favour, size, and crop. In comparison with the Ashleaf, it is as early, if not carlier, whilst it produces nearly
double the crop, and is altogether superior to that variety in flavour and appearance. J. C. Wheeler & Son have received letters without number from all parts of the kingdom, speaking in the very highest terms of the ‘‘ Gloucestershire Kidney” as being the best early variety in cultivation, and of the ‘ Milky White” as being the best of al! potatoes for a general crop. Many of these letters are printed in
‘WHEELERS’ LITTLE BOOK FOR 1868.’
WHEELERS’) MILKY WHITE POTATO. A New Potato, Milky White, price 5s. per Peck (14 lbs.), 20s. per Bushel (56,155, ). es oe :
J. C. Wurrrer & Son have very considerable pleasure in calling attention to this extra- ordinary Potato, which they introduced two seasons since, and which has now proved to be the best Potato in cultivation. Tt is a second early, ripening in August, whenit is perfectly white and floury, of fine flavour, and, in fact, everything that can be desired in Me
the way of potatoes. Its peculiar merits will introduce it into every garden in the kingdom.
post free. Gratis to customers.
J.C. Wheeler & Son, Seed Growers, Gloucester.
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Pe wh’ <a “3
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It is fully described in ‘WHEELERS’ LITTLE BOOK FOR 1868, price Sixpence, —
JOURNAL
OF THE
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
I. New Observations on some Artificial Agents which promote the ripening of Figs. By G. Gasparrini. Extracted from Vol. ii. of the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Physica_ and Mathematical Science. Naples, 1865.
T nAveat various times published several memoirs on the Fig ana Wild Fig, two individuals, male and female, of the same species. My researches related principally to the structure and formation, as well of the receptacle as of the different constituent parts ot the flower and fruit, to the insect which lives and is propagated in the ovary of the Wild Fig, to the practice and effect of caprifi- cation in this country, and to the origin of the germinal embryo, &e. No other tree, perhaps, whether indigenous or exotic, offers, at least as far as my experience extends, equal or greater diffi- culties. The process of ripening also has its own peculiarities. Two years ago, therefore, I read before the Pontanian Academy a certain number of observations on these subjects, which were printed*.
In that memoir, as far as it related to the mere process of ripening, I treated on the nature and variety of colouring which the fruit acquired as it approached maturity, the organic modifi- cations which take place in the different tissues, on the origin of
* “On the Ripening and Quality of the Figs in the Neighbourhood of Naptes ” (1863), printed in the 9th volume of the Transactions of that Academy. VOU. IT, B
2 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
the sugar*, and on an infusorium of the genus Angwillula, which infested the cynips of the Wild Fig in the eatable varieties. I touched also on the agents which, under given circumstances, are capable of accelerating the ripening, distinguishing the natural from the artificial. The natural agents are heat, light, water, soil, with the functions which depend upon them, as exhalation, respiration, and nutrition in general—in a word, those agents which sustain life—according to the intensity with which they operate, and. the time during which their action lasts, influencing or retarding the maturity, and making it more or less perfect. The Neapolitan cultivators, and those in other parts of Italy, hasten artificially the ripening of the figs by the process called, improperly, “puncturation,” which consists in anointing the mouth of the fig witha very small quantity of oil when it has arrived at a certain size, when the flowers contained in it have become pink, and the scales are a little raised. The maturation is advanced by it about ten days. No one has found out how the olive-oil operates in this case, as far as I am aware; whilst on other parts of the same tree, and especially on the leaves, it operates as a poison. Twenty years ago, when treating on caprification, in dis- tinguishing the effect of the cynips from that of the oil, I came to this conclusion, “the oil operates on the fig in a manner unknown to me; placed on the mouth of the fruit, it contracts as the oil gradually spreads, and the green colour changes. It appeared to me that such a substance could not alter the latex, but might impede the exhalation and the other functions of the cuticle, as well with respect to the light as to the air, and that by these means the anointed fig begins to ripen from the base, and the taste is In consequence not so good as that of those which
* With regard to the origin of the sugar, I stated that the principal source of that substance is the starch in the parenchyma, not in the latex, as appears at first sight, since the latex is found in the receptacles as well at perfect maturity as in the same figs when dry. The new researches do not contradict this asser- tion ; but sugar is found, in small quantities, inthe latex of many plants, and abounds in Urostigma Saussurianwin ; there isa little in that of the common fig, as appears from Trommer’s reagent. Sugar being soluble in water, the milk which is mixed with it forms a deposit at the bottom of the cup, and the liquid part, passed through a filter, and treated with the above reagent, after being boiled a short tin§e, shows the presence of sugar, which exists in the fluid part in the organic composition of the milk, not in the sediment, which remains unaltered at perfect maturity. But that small proportion of sugar could never represent the enormous quantity in the ripe fig.
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G. GASPARRINI ON THE RIPENING OF FIGS. 3
ripen naturally.’ This explanation was reproduced two years ago in the memoir cited above, with additional reasons. I denied that this liquid could act as a ferment by communicating to the cellular mass a special excitement or decomposition from which a precocious maturity might be derived. I was inclined to recog- nize in what followed, on anointing the mouth of the fig, a cer- tain relation to that of the effect of the pollen on the stigma. This part, having come into contact with the pollen, becomes tender and dies in a short time—a circumstance which conduces, at least in some measure, to the increase of the subjacent ovary.
The particulars were given of some experiments undertaken with a view of ascertaining whether other substances had the pro- perty of promoting in the same manner the maturation of figs. The result was, that oil of almonds, train-oil, nut-oil, linseed-oil, castor-oil, codliver-oil, lard, and butter operated in the same way as oil of olives. Finally, the milk of the Caper-Spurge (Huphorbia Lathyris), applied to the mouth of the Sardinian Fig, gave more or less the same result. ~
Vinegar and turpentine were without effect. The almost uniform efficacy of the fatty materials above mentioned appears clear, on estimating these experiments, when applied, not to the body of the fruit, but only to the mouth. It appears, there- fore, that this part is more sensitive to the agents adopted; and this sensitiveness resides in the little leaves or scales with which the mouth is furnished. Some experiments made on melons, pears, and pomegranates with some of the above sub- stances were without effect.
Having published the memoir, and not being satisfied with these observations with respect to the operation of the oil and other fatty materials, on thinking over the subject, I perceived that I had not taken into consideration an important circumstance, viz. that the first effect of the application being the augmentation of the volume of the receptacle, this could not really happen if, as I suspected, the oil disturbed or impeded the functions, especially those of exhalation or respiration—and that, if this were the case, the phenomenon would take place more easily if the substance which promoted the maturation were applied to the whole surface.
In consequence I repeated the experiments last year, with the addition of certain variations. On the 22nd of August I anointed with olive-oil the body of some fruit of the Sardinian Fig, the Tintore, the Winter fig, and others, leaving the mouth
B 2
A ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
untouched ; and they underwent no change, nor ripened prema- turely; while fruit of the same trees, in a similar condition, anointed at the mouth, first increased in size, and then became ripe in ten days. Oil spread over the whole upper surface of the leaves, or over a certain portion of it, caused them to die in a few days; and some drops of the same fluid, sprinkled here and there, altered sensibly the corresponding parenchyma, which turned brown and then dried up. The experiments repeated on the 8th of August with the same oils and fatty matters which were used in 1863, anointing only the mouth of the more developed figs at the base of the shoots of the current year (pedagnuoli),
gave the same result in the space of from eight to ten days; -
that is to say, all (or some portion at least) attained twice the size, or more, became tender, and in some instances arrived at perfect maturity. Goat’s milk and turpentine were without effect, exactly as tincture of iodine and solution of potash. Pure alcohol had little or no effect, perhaps because of its volatility. Other experiments, made on the 19th of August, on the White Fig, gave the same result. Of three fruits anointed with castor- oil, two ripened prematurely, as did two out of four anointed with hog’s lard, two of five with fat, all anointed with butter, one only out of three anointed with linseed-oil, three out of six with oil of almonds, one only out of five with nut-oil, five out of six with oil of olive. Of the Brogiotto Fig, a single one out of five treated with tincture of iodine attained double the size, and split when beginning to become tender ; the same effect was pro- duced by pure alcohol anda solution of potash, on the same num- ber of receptacles; of four treated with goat’s milk, two, which had increased to double the size, remained green and hard. Am- monia was without effect. Of four receptacles slightly touched with azotic acid at the mouth, one only increased in size and split; the remainder, with the scales shrivelled by the acid, pre- sented no change. ‘The facts, therefore, observed in 1863 on the more or less active power of certain oils and fatty matters to promote the increase and hasten the maturity of figs within the term of about ten days, were confirmed in the current year.
On the 21st of August, on different branches of the same tree, belonging to the variety Imperial Brogiotto, eight receptacles were anointed at the mouth with mineral tar amalgamated with oil of almonds, the same number with petroleum, four with a mixture of sugar and flowers of sulphur, all which, after four days, were
G. GASPARRINI ON TH"! RIPENING OF FIGS. 5
advancing to maturity. The variety of mineral tar known in commerce under the name of “black” had the same effect _ In three fruits out of four. Some, however, were unaffected by the olive-oil, of whose agency in promoting maturation there is no doubt. Of six bathed with sugar and water, and five with carbonate of ammonia, a single fruit of each was a little increased in size within the same period. Five anointed with plaster mixed with lard were in like manner a little enlarged ; of four anointed with honey, a single one became ripe, and another made some progress; five treated with sulphate of am- monia, and the same number with nitrate of copper, remained in the same state in which they were on the 21st of August, when I began the experiment. On the same day I bathed the mouth of six fruits from the base of the current year’s wood of the Winter Fig with a little hydrochloric acid; and on the fourth day all were twice as large, and began to get soft and ripen.
The hike action of sulphuric acid was recognized by repeated ex- periments in the course of August and part of September. The sul- phuric acid of commerce, lowered with two parts of water, brought a certain number of the Tintore and Paradise Fig to perfect ma- turity, with little variation, in the space of eight days; and out of five Winter Figs, after three days, three were enlarged and approached maturity. With four parts of water the acid gave the same result, in the Paradise Fig, in two receptacles, as if they had been greatly excited; but two others, after enlarging a little, split without changing colour or becoming tender in any part. In consequence, I wished to proceed with more precision when employing the same acid lowered with three, six, and nine parts of water. The mouth of four receptacles of the Sardinian, White, and Brogiotto Fig was anointed with each of these liquids, thirty-six in all; and in about three days they became double the size and approached maturity. The mouth of five unripe figs of the Imperial Brogiotto variety was touched with the sulphuric acid of commerce lowered with two parts of water; and three of these on the eighth day were twice as large, and split at the base into two or three parts; their cuticle had become violet, their flowers deep red, the pulp tender, but with little flavour, as is the case also with receptacles which split naturally. The scales of the mouth, moreover, became tender, and, as it were, sodden with the acid, A fourth, without enlarging or changing, also split into two parts at the apex; the fifth became three times as large, was
6 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
sound, with the skin violet inclining to green, the mouth closed, while the scales in like manner became tender and dead. At the end of eleven days, one of the three first (which was split) showed signs of decomposition, and was covered with mould belonging to the genus Ascophora; the other two were still sound, but very dry, with some more tender spots, accompanied by a small quantity of sweet liquid. The fourth, with respect to size and colour, remained unaltered, only the fissure had become deeper ; the fifth, sound and without lesion, became tenderand perfectly ripe, had the mouth closed, and above it was a large drop of sweet liquid. All the pulp had become tender, soft, and delicate, and abounded with sweet moisture down to the very stalk. The taste did not differ in any respect from that of a fig naturally ripened; the latex was in such abundance in its proper vessels that they ap- peared swollen, and quite full of spherical and large but irregular granules. It did not appear that the sugar, or any part of it, was derived from the milky fluid; no particular matter appeared in the cells of the pulp; and the contents of the vessels of the latex became of a reddish yellow with tincture of iodine. The sulphuric acid had killed, but had not decomposed, the scales. Finally, all the mass of the fruit appeared more juicy than in others in the same state of ripeness.
With the same quantity of acid, the experiment was repeated on many green receptacles of the Paradise Fig and of the Im- perial Brogiotto, in a fit condition for trial, and the result was the same as before: after two days they became more than twice as large, and split nearly halfway down, or sometimes at length to the base. The peduncle, the perigonium, and the carpel of each internal flower was red, but more so in the Brogiotto, the skin of which, being greatly extended, was coloured of a greenish violet ; the pulp, always white, when open, gave out here and there drops of milk, which were observed again along the margin of the deep and irregular fissure, which remained quite ereen. In these two open receptacles, the solidity of the pulp and of the flowers, the absence of sweetness, and the shortness of time in which the increase took place, were especially remark- able. The splitting was the final effect on the night before August 20, when the examination took place. There is clearly a rankness of vegetation in all the constituent parts of the recep- tacle, especially those which are imternal, whose force the cuticle is unable to resist, and im consequence splits.
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G. GASPARRINI ON THE RIPENING OF FIGS. fe
On the 18th of August, the mouth of similar green fruit, in a proper condition for experiment, of the Tintore, was washed with sulphuric acid lowered with about four parts of water. On the morning of the 20th they were about double the size (some more, some less), without any fissure, the pulp firm and milky, the flowers red, the seeds with perfect embryos, and no sugary moisture in any part. Granules of a sugary appearance were seen here and there on the withered scales and within the rim of the mouth, which I noticed before in the split receptacles of the Brogiotto and Paradise Figs above described. This substance came out in the form of a liquid, when the mouth was first touched with the acid, and then condensed in the form of sugar ; but it has no sweet taste, it 1s hot soluble in water, and is rather viscid to the touch. It is derived probably from the action of the sulphuric acid on the globular matter of the latex. It appears, therefore, that the sulphuric acid, more or less lowered, must be regarded as capable of exciting the vegetation of the fruit of the Fig.
‘This unexpected effect of the sulphuric acid and hydrochloric acid, the action of the oils and fatty matters used in the experi ments (which, acted upon by the air, easily became acid), and the inefliciency of the solution of potash and the turpentine have demanded new proofs in the current year. With a view to see comparatively and with greater precision the operation of cer- tain acids and neutral substances, and also of some alkaline matters, I began with sulphuric acid lowered with a definite quantity of water—5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 500 parts to one part of acid.
Taking three varieties of figs, the Brogiotto, Sarnese, and An- dreone, I anointed the mouth of twenty receptacles with acid lowered with five parts of water ; and all on the ninth day were in various states of maturity; six were split, and the rest entire. The action of the acid appeared clear on the second day, as the fruit was nearly twice as large, and some had already begun to split.
Sixteen figs treated with acid lowered with ten parts of water gave almost the same results, with slightly diminished energy, which may have depended on the small quantity of the liquid remaining on the mouth, in consequence of the hanging down of the branches or some other cause. With twenty parts of water, out of sixteen, thirteen arrived at perfect maturity, two of which split in the course of ripening: in the other three no action was
8 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
manifested. The acid, with twenty-five parts of water, gave nearly the same result; for of sixteen figs, ten ripened, one of which split, three increased in size, and three remained in statu quo. With fifty parts of water, eight figs ripened without splitting, one split, and seven were more or less near ripening. With one hundred parts of water, out of eighteen unripe fruit, in a week or a little more, six ripened perfectly, eight increased and approached maturity, while four remained as at first. With one hundred and fifty parts of water, out of three fruit of the Sarnese and four of the Brogiotto, no effect was produced; while, on the contrary, three of the Andreone ripened, one of the Papa figs split, three others ripened, and one remained in- active, fifteen in all. Out of nineteen figs treated with acid lowered with two hundred parts of water, one ripened, three approached maturity, and the rest remained unaltered. With three hundred parts of water, two ripened, four almost ripened, and nine showed no change. With five hundred parts of water, the acid had no effect on twelve of the Sarnese and Brogiotto Figs ; but three of the Papa Fig ripened, and another almost ripened: but the vegetative condition of the Andreone, rank, young, and full of life, and, in a word, sensitive to every little stimulus, was not proportionate to that of the other two, which were old and almost exhausted. This second series of experiments on the action of sulphuric acid always proved, with more or less precision, its exciting power in promoting the anticipation of maturity in the fig.
Carbolic acid operates so fatally on the receptacle of the fig that, wherever it is applied or is spilled, the green colour in a very short time disappears, the subjacent tissue dries up, and becomes of a yellowish white, and then blackish; the scales of the mouth become hard, and afterwards acquire a reddish-brown colour. All this takes place in two or three days; but fre- quently, when the acid has been able to remain for some time, generally about the third day, moulds begin to appear on the decayed part, amongst which is a conidiferous form, very near Alternaria tenuis, belonging perhaps to Pleospora herbarum, but very fragile. In the meanwhile the portion of the receptacle which is free from the immediate action of the acid, increases, becomes tender, acquires its own natural colour of maturity, in short, ripens prematurely at least ten days earlier than it would have done by natural means only. Out of twenty fruit, fourteen were
vs
»
A
G. GASPARRINI ON THE RIPENING OF FIGS. 9
perfectly ripe, some split, the others imereased greatly and ap- proached maturity. We are quite ignorant how the carbolic acid acts, whether all is the result of the mere act of growth, or the ripening of the free part is owing to its immediate action. If we take a thin slice of the receptacle, commencing with the cuticle, and expose it upon glass to the action of the acid in question, it attacks and destroys suddenly the contents of the innermost cells, which are the most tender, dilates them, and forms a mucous stratum, so as to make it appear that they are decom- posed; but on washing them we see that they are still entire. The effect is gradually less towards the cuticle, which becomes more rigid. A little lamina, taken from the parenchyma of the inferior surface of the leaf, having hairs or nervelets, submitted to the action of the carbolic acid, undergoes the following change :—The contents of the more tender cells become more or less decomposed, the chlorophyll resists, but changes its green tint into a yellowish red ; the younger cellular membrane becomes puffed up; the cuticle remains unaltered ; the hairs swell a little, without bursting. The crystals (cystoliths) at first appear more distinct, then by degrees, but after many hours, are dissolved. No notable action takes place on the membrane of the spiral or fibro-cellular vessels.
Formic acid is less active than earbolic; it likewise dries up the part on which it is spilled, and makes it brown, though slowly ; the scales become rigid; but the dead part does not become mouldy in the course of ten days. Out of twenty-four re- ceptacles, on the tenth day, three were ripe, seven nearly so, seven had increased in size, the others remained as they were at the commencement of the experiment.
Tartaric acid brought to perfect maturity twenty-five fruits, be- longing to four varieties, when applied to the mouth; and in a short time (that is to say, within the space of a week) five among them were split. The efficacy and speed of the operation of this acid does not admit of any doubt, the experiment having been repeated many times with the same effect. Lowered with a very little water, and apphed to the mouth of the fruit, it first softens the seales and then dries them, promotes, for some distance from the place where it spreads, the issue of some little drops of milk, which afterwards condense into globules of a gummy aspect, on which a little mould frequently springs up. Among the many substances which promote the ripening of the fig, this acid alone
10 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
appears to us preferable to common oil, from the certainty and speed of its operation.
I cannot assert anything with certainty respecting the action of stearic acid, as it is not soluble in water. Dissolved in ether it had no effect on four receptacles; and out of sixteen others, when mixed with water, it promoted in some premature ripeness.
Four receptacles anointed with collodium, as many with petro- leum, four others with benzoic acid, were all ripe on the ninth day. Beer-yeast brought two out of four to maturity ; and pep- sine did the same. Gallic acid ripened two out of three, acetic acid three out of four, oxalic acid four out of five, acetate of 1ron two out of four.
Sulphate of iron showed little effect on five fruits bathed at the mouth; three of these in the course of ten days were near ma- turity, two only increased in size; but in another experiment on three receptacles, on the fifteenth day they wereover ripe and, as it were, decomposed. Still less effect was produced by sulphate of copper, which, in the same space of time, was reduced to the mere enlargement of the few fruits to which it was applied. A single fruit out of four ripened with sulphate of potash ; and with chloride of calcium four ripened out of seven.
Chloride of potassium had a very weak effect on three fruits, one of which only increased in size ; iodide of potassium, tincture of iodine, and lime-water, applied to various figs, gave more or less the same result. Azotic and hydrochloric acid, repeatedly applied, always promoted ripening, although with less speed and efficacy than sulphuric acid. Also arsenious acid in seven days caused two fruits out of three to ripen, and caustic ammonia one out of the samenumber. Flowers of sulphur applied to the mouth of the fig did not adhere, and therefore had not time to manifest its efficacy, supposing it had any; but when mixed with glycerine, an inert substance as regards this subject, out of four fruits anointed at the mouth, after ten days one was ripe and two nearly so. I bathed the mouth of twenty figs with pancreatic juice ; and on the tenth day one only was ripe, eight were enlarged and nearly ripe, the rest remained im statw quo. This very weak effect is apparently not attributable to pure pancreatic juice, but rather to a very small quantity of hydrochloric acid, which is mixed with it, though only in the proportion of a thousand to one, according to the authority of Professor Schiff, from whom I procured the liquid. Last year I wished to see if burning or scalding the scales by introducing a red hot iron into the
Pats
G. GASPARRINI ON THE RIPENING OF FIGS. 1}
mouth would promote the ripening. The three fruit which were submitted to the experiment remained unaltered. But the same experiment repeated this year had the contrary effect.
‘The following substances were inefficacious in such fruit as were submitted to their action :—glycerine in twenty-two parts of sulphate of soda, eight of English salt, nine of sulphite of carbon, six of galtpetre, seven of solution of tannin, nine of common salt or chloride of sodium, nine of carbonate_of ammonia, and three of solution of potash in four parts of glycerine.
Such is the result of the new experiments made in two succes- sive years, In August and the first half of September. The best time, however, in the climate of Naples is from the end of July through the whole of August, which is the time in which, for the most part, the fruit of the Fig is, as it were, stationary, or, so to speak, in the act of growing, while in September they ripen succes- sively in great numbers—so that the criterion is not to be trusted whether they ripen naturally, or whether the maturation is pro- moted by other agents. If, considering their variety and their almost uniform effect, we wish to arrive at a certain or probable explanation of the intrinsic manner of their action, it would be necessary above all to ascertain the most important circumstances which take place in the short period in which artificial ripening is completed, in distinction from the natural maturation. The more notable points, in my opinion, and the most tangible, are few, and reducible to four.
1. In natural maturation, while the fruit grows and softens, no material alteration appears to the eye in the scales which close the mouth, nor do they become hard, or tender, or change colour; they remain fresh and perfect till decomposition takes place.
2. On the contrary the oily fatty liquids, fat, unctuous, solid matters, the acids, almost everything which has the power to ac- eelerate maturation, induces at firsta sensible alteration inthe scales, making them tender, causing them to become brown, from green to become reddish, then to dry up and wither,—effects which are not produced by the neutral substances, as glycerine, chloride of sodium, nitrate of potash, and the others above mentioned.
3. The effects of acids are manifested only when applied to the © mouth of the fig; they are quite inert on any other part of the receptacle.
4, In the same manner, the oils and fatty matters produce a premature ripening only when applied to the mouth, being inert
12 ROYAL TLORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
in every other part of the fruit. And since such substances are changed more or less easily by the contact of air, as has been already noticed, and thus become acid, we may at any rate assume, at least in general terms, that a certain number of acids, if not all, and those fatty matters which can become acid, promote in the fig an anticipation of maturity.
But how does this act commence ? With the increase of the fruit. This increase indicates an excitement in all the organs, communicated by the scales impressed with the potential agent. The most apparent specialities which accompany it are the form, the volume, the colour, the weight which the fruit acquires in the course of ten days. We have said enough, in the memoir published two years since, of the change of colour and the most palpable changes in the elementary organs; and on some speciali- ties we have hinted not long since that we have nothing to bring forward,—the form, for example, in which there is little difference between the anointed fruit when it is unripe and when it is mature. We have not, however, asserted that, under uniform conditions of soil, exposure, age, and the vegetative state of the tree, one va- riety of Fig is more or less inclined to experience an unnatural promotion of maturity than another.
Heat, light, the nature of the soil, moisture, and the agitation of the air influence the time which the anointed fruit takes to in- crease and become ripe; but, on an average, maturation occurs in ten days during August and part of September. The early figs also (fioront) at the end of June, anointed with oil at the mouth, ripen prematurely in the same space of time. With respect to volume, it being premised that the fruit increases to double the size, either a little more or less, the ordinary increase begins to appear on the fourth day, and on the tenth frequently exceeds what has been mentioned. I have but one observation respecting the greater weight which attends the increase of volume. In the Brogiotto Fig, on the eighth of August, som fruits of this year’s wood, green and unripe, as far as possible equal in size and like each other, in the form of a top, were 4 centimetres (1:57 inch) high, and three (1:2 inch) in the larger diameter. One of them weighed 15°542 grammes (240 Troy grains). Several were then anointed, and were perfectly ripe at the end of twelve days, with little difference of size: the larger, which had become almost round, measuring in length and breadth 6 centimetres (2°4 inches), weighed 71:75 grammes (1107 grains)—
G. GASPARRINI ON THE RIPENING OF FIGS. 13
that is to say, four times as much as in an unripe state, when the oil was applied. The others, to which oil was not applied, had only increased a few millimetres, and were still green, hard, sour, and milky. ‘Thetree, moreover, had no ripe fruit, but a few only slowly increasing in size and advancing to natural maturity. Consequently the oil and other exciting substances manifested their power sensibly in the increase both of size and weight ; and, it being granted with respect to weight, after the example adduced, that the ratio of 1:5 cannot be considered constant, there remains a great difference of weight at.the state of maturity. Difference of weight, whether in natural maturation, or under the excite- ment of the agents above mentioned, arises only, in great part, from the lymph which flows to the fruit and remains there. It dilates the cells, fills up the cavities, facilitating the transformation of starch into sugar, the development of the chlorophyll into two colouring-matters, yellow and blue, &c.: during these processes there is an exhalation of much carbonic acid at all hours of the day. This appears clear by comparing under the microscope the analo- gous cells of the different organs and tissues of the unripe fig, when it has been anointed, and in the ripe fig. In the second state they are at least three times as large as they were at the time of anointing. Ifit be asked whether natural maturation or the excitement of artificial agents has any relation to the forma- tion or increase of the seminal embryo, I must answer negatively. The truth is, that in the height of summer the pedagnuoli quite unripe, green, and full of milk, with the luxuriant ruddy florets, possess already the embryo well formed, though tender and ready to be affected by the action of the substances which promote ma- turation. But they produce the same effect on the froront, which are always sterile (that is to say, without any seminal embryo), and on the latest fruit (cimaruolt), which are likewise sterile.
In conclusion, the experiments of the past year, with respect to the way in which the oil of olive, in the first place, and in the second the other oils and fatty matters, not to mention the sul- phuric acid and petroleum, promote maturation, put us in the way of approximating more nearly to the explanation of the phenome- non, establishing, as they do, two important facts. The one is, that the oil does not operate by disturbing on the one hand the respi- ration, and on the other the normal and free action of light and air on the cuticle, and consequently the aqueous exhalation, blocking up, as it were, the cortical pores (which has not yet been shown by
14 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
experiment),and, by penetrating into the subjacent tissue, inducing an alteration in the contents of the cellules and milk-vessels, as is supposed; for the inefficacy of the same oil on the whole body of the fruit, where the alleged functions principally take place, con- tradicts irrefragably this notion. And since the effect is obtained by anointing with oil the mouth of the fig alone, and this liquid spreads around for a short distance only, we must naturally re- cognize in the assemblage of the little scales with which this part is furnished, a special organ capable by itself of feeling the ac- tion, the first effect of which, as we have said above, is the in- crease of the entire receptacle. Not being able to attribute this to any material nutrition which the oil can induce, we must agree that it excites the vegetation of the unripe fruit, always then sta- tionary, by making the lymph flow to it.
The other important fact consists in the faculty of some acids (not to say all), some fatty matters, and certain liquid or semiliquid resinous substances, as mineral tar and petroleum, to produce the same effect as the oil in similar conditions, when they come in contact with the scales which surround the mouth of the fig. Such agents as these and others are quite inefficacious on any other part, in consequence of the local alteration of the subjacent tissues which any of them (as, for example, sulphuric, azotic, and hydrochloric acid) may effect, in which case, instead of increase and premature ripening, the fall of the fruit in an unripe state easily ensues.
No one certainly will maintain that this substance brings, by means of the scales, a nutritive moisture to the quite unripe fruit: on the contrary, the mcrease may rather appear a natural consequence of the drying up of the scales, by means of which the moisture which arrives continually from the branch, stagnates in the body of the organ. This opinion cannot, I think, be ac- cepted, as it does not correspond with the very small quantity of moisture which would have passed to the scales without any agent, and the great quantity which enters in a few days in con- sequence of its action. The followimg considerations may be adduced in confirmation of my views. The scales in question vary more or less in number in the fruit of the same tree; in the Tintore there are not less than a hundred in a fruit of the mean mag- nitude. Their surface on an average measuring two square milli- metres, they have together a surface of 200 square millimetres, equal to 2 of a square inch; and there being two faces to each
*
G. GASPARRINI ON THE RIPENING OF FIGS. 15
scale, a hundred of these scales will represent altogether a surface of + of a square inch, equal to the fifth part of the entire superficies of the receptacle, which amounts to 8 square inches. This being premised, since the scales, like other organs, have the power of attracting much sap, it would necessarily follow that they would increase in size and would exhale abundantly,—two functions which accompany each other wherever there is growth in contact with the air, but which fail when we anoint the scales, al- ready arrived at their perfect growth, and in which the exhalation ceases entirely, or is very weak, the place which they occupy being for the most part free from the influence of light and air.
As regards the sulphuric acid, this observation must be made,— that, as it has a great affinity for water, it would attract the sap to the body of the fig at the end of the branch. But so many other acids and fatty matters do the same without possessing the faculty of attracting water. Besides, the sulphuric acid, after the manner and under the conditions before stated, by altering the tis- sue of the scales, kills them, while it excites on the other hand the vegetation of the entire receptacle more strongly than any other substance which has been tried hitherto, promoting the increase and maturation in less time. The exciting-power of this acid on certain vegetables, especially lucern, has been known for many years, whether used alone, diluted with water in the ratio of one to a thousand, or combined with lime. But I wish to give another illustration of its bearing on the present subject. At the end of the year1845, when treating of caprification, I noted that the pollen of the Wild Fig, kept in water, seldom or never protruded the pollen-tube, and that this took place easily by slightly acidulating the water with azotic acid. In the present year I have confirmed this observation, and obtained in like manner the pollen-tube in a few hours in water scarcely acidulated with sulphuric acid, while from the pollen kept in common water not a single pollen- tube was protruded 1 in the course of three days.
It appearing, on the other hand, that the scales at the te of the fig are sensitive to the action of sulphuric acid and the other substances above mentioned, it remains to ascertain what relation this sensibility inherent in the scales bears to similar functions in other plants. But we must first shortly call to mind the origin, formation, and structure of the fruit of the fig, known to science at various times under the name of “ sicono,”’ “anfanto,’’ and more generally under thatof “receptacle.” It springs
16 ROYAL WORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
up in the axil of the leaf, at the time when it is young and erowing, and, as the bud on the branch, corresponds especially with the small portion of cellular tissue which divides at the articulation into two merithals, a superior and inferior, and is continuous with the outermost part of the medullary tissue. The cellular stratum, which is at first green, which afterwards appears dotted, containing starch-grains, is altogether conformable with the tissue which constitutes the dissepiment between the two merithals. But the receptacles appear at first in the form of very minute cellular promimences on the liber and albumen, just opposite to the dissepiment and on its outer part; and then on the apex the margin of a slight depression begins to put forth several scarcely discernible processes, which are de- stined to form the scales; and the florets shortly afterwards grow in the centre of the depression. At the same time a very delicate vascular tissue is formed at the base, which is united to that of the two merithals. In the course of vegetation, the re- ceptacle increasing becomes concave, aud the aperture contracting remains closed by the scales. Subsequently the vascular fibres, which are accompanied by the lacteal cells, enter the scales, and, distributed under the cuticle of the receptacle, are united by means of lateral branchlets to those of the florets.
This being the case, if we consider the scales as the tips of so many leaves whose bases, fused and incorporated into a single mass, constitute the body of the fig, a strong impression made on the scales, which are the extremities of the organic elements of which it is composed, must promote the flow of the sap from the branch to which it is attached.
The pollen serves essentially to form the seminal embryo, and, notwithstanding the destructive effect which it produces on the stigma, on the style, and finally on the collecting hairs, as has been observed in the hemp, promotes in certain plants the flow of moisture, the softening and maturation of the pericarp. The peduncles of Hovenia dulcis increase after flowering, become tender, juicy, and sweet. The receptacle of the strawberry, in consequence of fecundation, increases into that juicy tender pulp which we call the fruit. "We have many similar examples in the vegetable kingdom. I do not pretend to assimilate the fact of the early ripening of the fig by the operation of the above-men- tioned agents to that of fecundation : that hag for its object the growth of the embryo, the presence of which, while forming, at-
-_
MR. T. SHORTT ON TERRESTRIAL ORCHIDS, 17
tracts the moisture to the part with which it is connected, which is the cause of the formation of the Strawberry, of the Hovenia just mentioned, and of the maturation of some other pericarps. It may be objected that the pollen, especially its contents, has nothing to do with oils, sulphuric acid, or petroleum. But still the nature of the fovilla in different plants is not clearly known with respect to other secretions; and admitting its great dif- ference as regards the substances mentioned, it is not the less true that the final effect of the pollen on the stigma, and that of the oil on the scales of the fig, with what follows it, present such an analogy as to justify the opinion expressed by me two years ago in the following words :—‘‘ I incline to believe that there is a certain relation between the effect of the pollen on the stigma and what is induced by anointing the mouth of the fig. That part coming in contact with the other softens and perishes in a short time, which may conduce, at least in a small degree, to the in- crease of the subjacent ovary’’*.
Il. On the Cultivation of some Genera of Terrestrial Orchids. By Mr. Tuomas Suortr.
Many of the most beautiful and delicate of Terrestrial Orchids are seldom seen in cultivation. This cannot be from want of in- terest ; for what can be more gorgeous than Disa grandiflora and macrantha? or more beautiful than Oypripediwm macranthum, The- lymitra ixioides, and Lissochilus speciosa? or curious than Ptero- stylis nutans, Aceras anthropophora, and Ophrys apifera?
The delicate habits of some species make them rather difficult to manage; at the same time they are of sufficiently robust growth and of such beauty as to make them worthy of more general cultivation.
As they require different treatment according to their various habitats, I propose dividing them into European and North-A me- rican, African and Australian. As the European and North-Ameri- can species require similar treatment, I will take them first. These will comprise the genera Cypripedium, Platanthera, Gymnadenia,
* [A translation of Gasparrini’s paper on Caprification appeared in the former series of this Journal, vol. ui. p.185. Pedagnuoli are the fruit at the base of this year’s wood, cémaruoli the fruit at the tips, and foroni the new spring fruit from last year’s wood.—Eb. |
VOL, II. C
18 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Habenaria, Aceras, Serapias, Goodyera, Pogonia, Liparis, Calypso, Orchis, and Ophrys. Cypripedium must take the first rank; C. macranthum, C. pubescens, and CO. spectabile are the most showy, and (©. calceolus particularly interesting as being British. The whole of them, with the exception of C. calceolus, delight in a rich fibrous peat. If grown in the open ground, the foot of an east wall is the best situation to make the bed. The ground must be ex- cavated two feet deep, a layer of brickbats or other rough material placed at the bottom to ensure good drainage (as the plants re- quire much water when in a growing state, but not stagnant), over which must be placed 18 inches of fibrous peat. The plants should be set 4 to 6 inches deep and 12 inches apart, as it must be kept in mind that the whole family are very impatient of being removed or divided when once established; and I would advise any one who has these plants doing well to let well alone, as I have seen fine plants destroyed from taking a piece off for a friend. The protection of a cold frame in winter is very beneficial, parti- cularly if filled with dried fern—as the plants, in their native home, are for the most part covered with snow in winter, so as to exclude the frost.
If well advanced they will require water daily during the erowing-season ; but when at rest they should merely be kept moist. Cypripedium calceolus differs from the others of the genus in its dislike to peat or any soil except good strong loam well im- pregnated with lime, and prefers an eastern or north-eastern aspect, as it is invariably found in its native home in situations facing the east.
I have gathered this plant more than once in one of the northern localities of Castle Eden Dean, or, more correctly, in Shotton Dean, Durham, and have also seen it in a wood in Cleveland, York- shire, and have had specimens sent from Lancashire.
I believe it is not generally known that, when the seed of Cypri- peduun calceolus falls from the capsules, it seldom vegetates, if it reaches the ground, but prefers the axils of the leaves of grass or other plants to perform the process of germination, assuming in the first instance the habit of an epiphyte, after which it falls to the ground and becomes a terrestrial plant.
When grown in pots, large pots in proportion to the plants should be used, so that they may notrequire shifting for several ‘years. The pots should be half-filled with crocks, and the peat full of fibre, if possible.
a
MR. T. SHORTT ON TERRESTRIAL ORCHIDS. 19
The genera Orchis, Ophrys, and many other European and American Orchids are generally of easy cultivation; at the same time, some are very refractory. Ophrys apifera and O. aranifera, as well as Orchis maculata superba, are very curious and of easy cultivation, requiring a strong calcareous soil. The best time to remove them is when the flowers are on the decay, the tubers for the following year being then fully grown. The tubers should be carefully lifted and divested of all soil, and planted in strong loam passed through a fine sieve in a rather dry. state, after which they should be deluged with water, by which the soil becomes firm and compact, a condition in which the plants delight.
Orchis bifolia and foliosa succeed with the same treatment, sub- stituting peat for loam.
African Species.—Africa is rich in Terrestrial Orchids, promi- nent among which is Disa grandiflora with its crimson flowers of great beauty ; Disa macrantha has larger flowers, of a pure white, and is perhaps the finest of the genus ; D. secunda is a small edition of D. grandiflora ; D. barbata has a twiggy habit. Lissochilus speci- osa 18 very fine, attaining a height of from 4 to 6 feet, and pro- ducing magnificent loose spikes or thyrses of yellow butterfly- flowers. Eulophia Dregiana, the flowers of which resemble a little dove hanging by its beak, is white, with chocolate sepals. Some of the Satyria also are worthy of notice.
The whole of the African species succeed best in fibrous sandy loam, the pots being well drained and large in proportion to the plants. The Dise are very impatient of heat or a confined at- mosphere. A pit with a north-east aspect suits them best for summer, and a cool greenhouse in winter.
In potting Dise great care should be taken not to injure the roots; for a loss of leaves, more or less in proportion to injury, will certainly follow. During the growing-season a liberal supply of water is required, keeping them much drier when dormant. They are, however, seldom completely at rest. They cannot en- dure the least frost, though a very cool treatment must be followed.
Australian.—Many of the Orchids from this extensive country are beautiful, curious, and interesting. Thelymitra takes the first rank, producing bright-blue flowers in spikes from 1 to 2 feet high, and generally grows among dwarf bushes. Diwrides, with their yellow and brown flowers, luxuriate in open glades in the full sun. The curious Pterostylis cryptostylis and Prasophyllum and others delight in the shade of Eucalypti and other trees.
C2
20 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
The whole of the Australian species succeed in smaller pots than the species previously named. Dzuris prefers a rather strong loam, Vhelymitra a sandy fibrous soil, and Plerostylis soil off a basaltic formation, if attainable. A brick pit with a south- eastern aspect, free from frost, suits them well. They do not re- quire so much water as many other terrestrial orchids.
There are many other very beautiful genera found in Australia ; but, as many have proved almost uncultivable, 1 have not noticed them. Nothing can be more interesting than a collection of these beautiful plants; they are easy of introduction, and with little attention will well repay the cultivator for the trouble bestowed upon them.
III. Note on one of the Hybrids between the Muscat of Alex- andria and the Trouvéren Muscat, which promises a supply of grapes all the year round. By Joun StanpisuH, Royal Nursery Ascot, Berks.
Wuen my “ Hints on Hybridizing Fruits’? were published in the first volume of the New Series of this Journal, page 135, I had not witnessed the extraordinary fertility of one of the hybrids there mentioned, and which has now received the name of the Royal Ascot, It has proved itself a perpetual bearer, forming bunches on every branch and lateral branch that it throws out, and can be made with the greatest ease to have ripe fruit all the year round. If, for example, a house filled entirely with this variety were started the first week in December, and, when the shoots were of sufficient length, thinned out so as to leave only enough for half a crop, they would break again, or throw out a quantity of laterals, when some more branches might be left, and, so vigorous is the plant, in six weeks again some more. These three partial crops would swell, so as to prolong the fruiting till the end of October, by which time the vines would want pruning in for forcing the next season ; and what then remained could be cut, with a piece of the wood, and placed in bottles of water on the French plan. This house would give grapes from the beginning of June until Christmas. Another house might be started in the middle of July, leaving again only half a crop, and so on as before, which would give grapes from January until the end of July. By adopting this plan, in two houses, grapes could be had all the year round with- out any difficulty ; and should extra grapes be wanted for some
99
MR. W. EARLEY ON LILIES OF THE VALLEY. yA
special purpose in any of the spring or winter months, it would “merely be necessary to give the proper notice to the gardener before March in one year, to have any quantity of grapes in the winter or spring of the following year, without much trouble and at very little expense, as grapes grown from July until midwinter can be grown with half the expense of those produced from De- cember to June. Young cuttings struck from this vine any time before March can be made to bear a good crop of fruit the fol- lowing January, February, and March. Last May I planted a house with little plants not a foot high, out of four-inch pots ; and they are now, at the beginning of December, bearing a nice crop of beautiful fruit, which will be ripe the second week in January— and these grown amongst pines under very disadvantageous cir- cumstances.
It is curious that this grape, which is large, oval, and the blackest of all grapes, was raised from two white grapes, the female parent, the Muscat of Alexandria, having oval berries, while the male parent, the Trouvéren, has globose berries. It is still more curious that, when grafted on its male parent with globose berries, and on Graham’s Muscat Muscadine, which has similar fruit, the berries have in both cases undergone a complete change of form in correspondence with that of the male parent, but without the slightest difference of colour.
This curious effect of the stock on the graft confirms some other reports of a similar nature, one of the most singular being one which has lately been recorded by Dr. Hogg, where the Marie Louise pear, grafted on three different stocks, gave three very dif- ferent forms of fruit, one of which only could have been referred by the most practised pomologist to the parent plant*. The subject is one of extreme interest, and deserves a set of carefully conducted experiments by some one who has time and patience to follow it out.
IV. Preparing Lilies of the Valley for Forcing. By Mr. W. Eartey. As it may not be very generally known that by a very simple mode of procedure the forcing-capabilities of this most deservedly
* [Dr. Hogg has kindly shown us the specimens, which he brought from the Rev. W. Kingsley’s.—Eb. |
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popular plant may be materially enhanced, no excuse will be necessary in introducing a few remarks upon the subject in this Journal, more especially when it is considered that it is next to impossible to have a too large supply of them in flower, from the earliest months of the year onward until it may be possible to gather them from outdoor beds. As a British plant, it should be essentially within the province of our craft to push the “ Lily of the Valley ” to its utmost cultural limits, without the aid or in- tervention of foreign ingenuity, or even more favourable climate. Yet true it is, nevertheless, that the Dutch, or others, are now making a profit by growing patches of these suitable for forcing, and then sending them to this country by many tons’ weight an- nually, in company with bulbs which we are obliged to look to them for. There are two distinct features, in the cultivation of this plant, operating antagonistically to the simple efforts hitherto expended in its culture, namely :—a great dislike of being uprooted and separated into smaller portions, which do not very readily attach themselves to the fresh soil; and, when once they haye taken possession of the same, such an extraordinary power of mul- tiplication of all parts that they very quickly become very densely packed together, each thereby neutralizing the efforts of the others to attain a fine crown likely to flower in the ensuing spring, and, even should it flower, operating prejudicially as to its fineness. Hence the want of greater success in forcing plants grown after the ordinary method.
With the above suggestions as a basis to our subsequent ope- rations, a piece of ground should be prepared by making a trench a foot and a half in depth, adding abundance of manure, and working it to the necessary space which may be required, ac- cording to the quantity needed. When finished, the soil should be trodden firmly over its whole surface. Forming little bundles of from two to five individuals, and with all the roots possible at- tached and uninjured, dibble the bundles firmly in rows, some 20 inches apart. Fix them firmly in the soil, putting a thick layer of leaf-mould over all when finished. With proper attention and keeping them free of weeds &c., they will be fit for forcing in three years. Hence it will simply be necessary to plant a small space annually, to ensure after the above date a constant succession of excellent patches. A west aspect is the most suitable.
REV. M. J. BERKELEY ON VARIOUS FORMS OF CANKER. 28
V. On Various Forms of Canker. By the Rev. M. J. Brerxetery, M.A., F.R.HS.
Iv is scarcely possible to give much attention to the subject of Vegetable Pathology without recognizing the fact that diseases apparently very closely connected with each other may be due to entirely different causes. This is especially true of the vari- ous affections which pass under the name of Canker, than which few are more injurious to the cultivator, and which are so fre- quent in some localities as to make the cultivation of particular varieties a labour, if not entirely hopeless, at least full of vexa- tion and comparative disappointment.
Many forms of this formidable disease were indicated in the series of articles which appeared some years since in the ‘ Gar- deners’ Chronicle,’ on Vegetable Pathology, but which, from various causes, though many applications have been made with a view to their publication in a separate volume, have never passed beyond the pages of that journal. The subject of Canker is, however, of such importance to the cultivator, that, with the sanction of the highest authority in this country on pomology, I have been induced to reconsider the various forms which it as- sumes, and to publish the results in this Journal.
Every one on hearing. the name will call to mind the ravages which he has witnessed amongst his apple-trees, insomuch that, after a year or two, the most promising young plants either lose whole branches or the trunk exhibits unsightly cavities which at length, by their confluence, become so extensive as to impair materially their fertility and ultimately to cause death. But these are far from being the only cases; and, unless I am greatly mistaken, some affections which at first sight seem of a very dif- ferent character are referable to the same group. Nor is the disease confined to trees or the harder structures ; a very com- mon form occurs on the fruit itself; and such diseases as the Ta- con, which is so fatal to the Saffron-growers in France, and has lately done so much mischief amongst the cultivators of the fine varieties of Gladiolus, appear to belong justly to the same ca- tegory.
In some cases, the Canker-patches affect at once the whole circumference of the branch; but far more frequently they are scattered here and there, without one being able to give any reason why one portion of the tree should be affected rather
24: ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
than another. This, however, is merely what we observe in many forms of disease, both in the animal and vegetable king- dom—and, indeed, in various cases where it is clear that the whole system is affected, but where it breaks out only in iso- lated spots. Doubtless there is some special organic weakness or predisposition to change in those parts, which makes them more liable to attack, where there are no especial organisms at various distances which are alone affected-—as, for example, in cancerous changes in the glands, which, in aggravated cases, are sometimes attacked almost indiscriminately. We see something of the kind occasionally where there is no question of vitality. A piece of paper, for example, as the page of a printed book, which has been kept in a damp room, undergoes a slow process of decomposition somewhat similar in character to that which is called by chemists eremocausis; in general, however, the dis- coloration is not general], but appears in the form of brown spots scattered over the surface. Again, in that very curious form of ~ decay to which wood is subject, in which the medullary rays disap- pear, and the wood-eells are here and there bleached and contracted so as to form little cavities in the wood, the intermediate tissue remains sound and unaltered. In that form of canker, for ex- ample, to return to living organisms, which is so common in the fruit of certain varieties of Apples, the whole fruit is not cankered, but the soft tissue is decomposed here and there, so as to present a speckled appearance; and the same may be said of other va- rieties of Canker to which the fleshy parts of plants are subject.
In other cases, however, the evil is confined to especial spots, as in the affection called gumming, which is really a form of Can- ker, the cause of the local disease being sometimes distinctly trace- able without any general constitutional tendency to disease,— though undoubtedly this is sometimes the case ; and, indeed, forms of the same affection occur where almost every fruit-bearing twig is simultaneously diseased, and where it is very difficult to assign a cause. ‘The disease in these cases 1s modified by the exudation large quantities of gum, as in Conifers it is by the presence of of resin. |
In a single rare case which has fallen within my notice, the Canker appeared under the form of a deep broad annular pit sur- rounding the whole trunk near the base, and penetrating deeply into the wood, and of course inducing death.
In a few cases Canker may be induced by insects; but where
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MISCELLANEOUS MATTER.
August 7.-—Mr. Hodge, gardener to E. Wright, Esq., sent a fine eut specimen of Vanda Lowii or, as it is now called by some authorities, Renanthera Lowi. This magnificent and remarkable species is a native of Borneo, where it was found by Mr. Low, jun., in compliment to whom it was first named. It grows to a con- siderable height, and from near the top of its stem it sends out several long, slender, pendulous flower-spikes, often 10 or 12 feet in length, clothed with numerous yellow and rich reddish-brown blossoms of considerable size. The spike exhibited was some 7 or 8 feet in length, and it was ornamented with thirty handsome fully developed flowers. The first two or three blossoms at the base of the spike differ from the rest not only in colour but also in texture, and are much less handsome than the others. This Renanthera has been in the country many years, but it was long before it produced flowers. A plant of it in Mr. Rucker’s garden at Wands- worth, has borne no fewer than twelve flower-spikes at one time, which, owing to their great length, had to be festooned over the pathway, a position in which they had a very striking appearance. Messrs. Veitch and Sons exhibited Vanda Bensonii, so named in compliment to Lieut.-Col. Benson, Deputy Adjutant-General at Rangoon, an enthusiastic collector of plants. This blossoms freely, and is a truly beautiful species, in the way of V. Roxburghii, but haying the yellowish sepals and petals spotted, rather than tes- selated, and the less rose-coloured. They had also a remarkable Bolbophyllum, called reticulatwm, from Borneo, the leaves of which looked as if they were covered all over with beautiful network, and
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the flowers were chocolate-striped; an Acineta, provisionally named A. Arcei, from Central America, bearing large pendulous racemes of showy yellow flowers, different from those of any species yet in cultivation ; well-bloomed examples of Disa grandiflora, one of the handsomest of terrestrial Cape Orchids; a pinkish-lilac variety of Lonopsis paniculata; Fittonia, or, as it also called, Gymnostachywm Verschaffeltti, and a variety of the same from Equador, with leaves veined with even brighter red than itself; and Zrichomanes concinnum, a handsome Fern, with finely cut elegant fronds. From Mr. Bull came a variety of Broussonetia papyrifera, with leaves beautifully variegated with white; this was stated to be as hardy as the common Paper Mulberry, which is so called on account of its fibrous inner bark being used by the Japanese and Chinese for making paper; the natives also in Otaheite and other South-Sea Islands manufacture a large portion of their clothing from its bark: with it came a basket of cut blooms of Allamanda Hendersoni ; Tradescantia vittata, a creeping stove-plant resem- bling Cyanotis vittata in habit, but with pretty white and green leaves ; and Sarcoglottis zebrina, with white-striped foliage. Mr. Parker showed on this occasion -Pleopeltis ineurvata, a noble- looking evergreen stove-Fern from Java, in which the fronds are pinnatifid and the fertile ones remarkably contracted as compared with the broad coriaceous sterile ones; Nothochlena cretacea, a beautiful dwarf silver Fern; the white-blossomed variety of Agapanthus wnbellatus; anda prettily marked Goodyera pubescens, called intermedia. From Messrs. E. G. Henderson and Son came Allamanda Schottii Hendersoni ; Christine, a Nosegay Pelargonium, a variety with fine trusses of rosy pink, white-eyed flowers, and nearly plain leaves; and the tricolor-leaved varieties called Lucy Grieve, Lady Cullum, and Countess of Tyrconnel. Mr. Henderson, Sion Nursery, Thornton Heath, contributed a remarkably strong shoot of the climbing variety of Rosa devomensis, which bore twenty-seven flowers and buds. Mr. Chater, of Saffron Walden, contributed various Hollyhocks, both in a cut state and in the form of spikes ; among the latter were beautiful examples of H. Speed, white flushed with red; Chater, fine yellow; and speciosa, buff suffused with rose. Messrs. Cutbush had a noble variety of Lilium auratum, called splendidum, remarkable for the great amount of reddish brown which had replaced the yellow in the upper part of the band. Mr. Turner furnished basketfuls of Nosegay Pelargoniumg, the best of which were Duchess of Suther-
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land, bearing fine heads of bright deep rose-coloured flowers of great beauty, and Lady Constance Grosvenor, a scarlet kind in the way of Stella, but brighter. rica Marnockiana, with red flowers tipped with white, one of the best of recent varieties of the aristate type, was shown by Messrs. Jackson, of Kingston ; and from Mr. George Smith, of Hornsey, came a Pelargonium, named Princess Alexandra, with the leaves boldly edged with white. Messrs. Carter and Co. exhibited specimens of a pretty free-flowering dwarf bedding Lobelia, called Beauty of Ravens- bourne ; it has rosy-lilac flowers with white centre, and will be an acquisition for the flower-garden.
August 21.—At this Meeting some interesting subjects were shown by Mr. Cripps, of Tunbridge Wells. These were:—Sorsythia viridissima variegata, the leaves of which have a broad edge of yellow ; Hydrangea japonica elegantissima, also handsomely varie- gated, the leaves being heavily blotched and mottled with yellow ; Pteris serrulata polydactyla, a pretty fingered form of this well- known and most useful dwarf evergreen greenhouse Fern; and two fine large-flowered hybrid forms of Clematis (selected out of several), raised from lanuginosa. One of these, named C. tun- bridgiensis, has the flowers of a reddish purple with blue bars; the other, called Lady Caroline Nevile, is of a pale ashy grey with deeper-tinted bars. Mr. Bartleman had a Nosegay Pelargonium, Emmeline, a deep rose-pink with white eye, and bearing a fine truss; but being a yearling plant, it was sent back for proving.
Mr. Keeler produced a Pelargonium, Sambo, which was highly ad-
mired; it is a zonale, with fine trusses of smallish well-shaped flowers of a rich velvety scarlet. In a group from Mr. Bull, the most noticeable objects were Discorea discolor variegata, adding to the rich colouring of the old form the further ornamentation of longitudinal silvery bands; Adiantum velutinwm, a noble Maiden- hair from Columbia, remarkable for its ample decompound fronds and velvety rachides; and Yuweca hystrix, a species with stiff narrow leaves, resembling Dracena australis. From Messrs. Low and Co. came Oncidiwm cruentum, a bright yellow species having two spots at the base of the lip. Gladioli were sent by Mr. Standish and Mr. J. Stevens of Solihull. The former. had in his group Basil (a very large pale salmon-tinted flower with carmine streaks) and Dr. Hogg (a rich crimson with purple throat), both first-class sorts: the latter sent, among others, Exhibitor, a bold flower of a rich carmine-crimson, with a white throat splashed b 2
1V ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
with deep crimson. Mr. W. Paul exhibited a beautiful group of Nosegay Pelargoniums, which attracted much notice. From Messrs. Veitch and Sons came Cattleya Manglesii, a cross between Harri- soni@ and Mossie, with broad deep lilac-rose petals and a small fringed lip with a yellowish centre; it is an acquisition. Dahlias were shown by Mr. Keynes and Mr. Rawlings. Of those pro- duced by the former, Clare Simons (blush-white with purple tips) and Butterfly (dull bronze with purple stripes) were regarded as first-class sorts ; and John Sladden, evenly formed, deep maroon, from Mr. Rawlings, was adjudged second-class. Mr. Todman showed Verbena, King of the Bedders, a free-flowering crimson, of good habit for beds, and likely to be useful; and two other Verbenas, named respectively Earl of Radnor (orange-scarlet with yellow eye) and Fanny Martin (large rosy pink), were selected for approval from a group shown by Mr. Kckford.
September 4.—One of the most remarkable plants exhibited, Amaryllis Josephine, came from Mr. Bull. From the crown of the bulb had risen a stout thick stem, about 25 feet in height surounded by a noble candelabrum-like head of not very showy flowers ; but the general appearance of the plant was so striking, as to render it well worth cultivation. Mr. Bull likewise exhi- bited Caladium annihilator, with leaves prettily marbled with red and white. Mr. Smith, gardener to 8. H. Norris, Esq., Altrm- cham, showed a spike of Renanthera coccinea, cut from a plant which was in full flower in the spring of last year, and which bids fair to blossom again in 1867. Messrs. Osborn sent a magnificent specimen of Statice Frostii, a noble variety in the way of Holfordit, but deeper-coloured. From Mr. Hartland, Lough Nurseries, Cork, came a small plant and cut twigs of the yellow variegated variety of Wellingtonia gigantea awreo-variegata; it is a hand- somely marked golden variegation and appears to be thoroughly fixed. Messrs. Veitch and Sons contributed, among other things, the handsome MMaranta Lindent and JL. roseo-picta; Huonymus macrophyllus, with handsome glossy green leaves; and examples of the charming Letinospora obtusa aurea. Mr. Cripps furnished Des- modium penduliflorum, a purplish pink-flowered hardy shrub, be- longing to the Pea family, and remarkable for its graceful habit. From Mr. Cunningham, Burton-on-Trent, came a compact-growing variety of Ivy-leaved Pelargonium, with creamy-edged foliage, named L’élégante. Messrs. H. G. Henderson and Son contributed a well-grown fine-flowered example of Agalmyla staminea, a creeping
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plant nearly related to Mschynanthus; and a beautiful tricolor-leaved Pelargonium, named Sophia Dumaresq, a decided improvement on Sunset. Mr. Mann, Brentwood, also showed a good tricolor-leaved Pelargonium, called Melona, together with Mimas, a zonal va- riety with good trusses of large bright scarlet flowers. Mr. George, Stamford Hill, showed a useful dwarf variety of Tropeo- lum compactum, called King of Scarlets. Mr. Keynes exhibited several Dahlias, of which the following were accepted as desirable sorts, namely, Paradise Williams, a medium-sized, finely formed, deep maroon crimson (first-class), and Gazelle, a large violet- shaded bronzy salmon; Vice-President, a golden-yellow, or amber- coloured kind, and Harriet Tetterell, a light-ground variety heavily tipped and flushed with purplish crimson (second-class). Mr. Eckford produced a pretty rosy-tipped light-ground Dahlia, named Lady Jane Ellice, and a first-class Coleshill, a large- flowered scarlet. From Messrs. Carter and Co. came various showy Lobelias of the fulgens section; and examples of the same class of Lobelias were also furnished by Mr. Kinghorn, from whose group Rose Queen and Crimson King, names sufi- ciently denoting their respective colours, were selected as ac- quisitions.
Messrs. Veitch contributed interesting illustrations of the dif- ferent sections of Asters, both in the shape of plants and cut blooms. Among them were Giant, or Emperor, tall showy kinds ; Chrysanthemum-flowered, large-blossomed sorts, very suitable for pot-culture; Hedgehog, slightly quilled, tall-growing kinds ; Dwarf Pyramid, each plant of which forms quite a bouquet of flowers in itself; Truffant’s Peony Perfection, varieties with the merits of which most cultivators of Asters are familiar; the ori- ginal China Aster, a tall straggling kind, which few now would care to grow ; the Victoria, which, like the dwarf Chrysanthemum- flowered, is one of the best sorts either for outdoor display or for pot-culture ; Ranunculus-flowered, with compact, hard, flat, button- like blossoms, each about the size of a crown-piece; Globe- flowered, with blossoms well raised in the centre ; Peony-flowered Globe, like Truffant’s varieties; Imbricated Pompon, a broad- petalled kind; Reid’s New Quilled in various colours, ranged round a light centre, but, as shown, not so compact as the Ger- man Quilled; Cocardeau, or Crown, a class of Asters comprising some of the handsomest of all varieties, the centre of the flower being white, surrounded by crimson, rose, violet, purple, plum, and
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other shades; Dwarf Pyramid Bouquets, so compact and free- flowering as to want thinning; Pyramidal-flowering, good, showy, slightly quilled kinds ; and Double Dwarf Bouquets, with medium- sized, extremely pretty, Carnation-striped flowers.
From Messrs. Downie, Laird, and Laing came an interesting collection of subtropical plants, conspicuous among which were Wigandia caracasana, Solanwn auriculatum, 8. robustwm, 8. ver- bascifoliwm, and Polymnia grandis, all stately large-leaved plants ; Ferula nodiflora, with much-divided Fennel-like foliage; Solanwm pyracantha and decurrens, both handsome-foliaged plants, orna- mented with orange-coloured spines; S. Fontanesianwm, a crumpled, comparatively small-leaved sort, with yellow blossoms; Solanum amazonicum atropurpurewm, a very spiny dark-coloured sort ; Uhdea bipinnatifida, a Mexican undershrub, with deeply cleft hairy foliage; the white-striped Japanese Maize; and the following silvery-leaved plants, viz. Eucalyptus globosa, Solanum marginatum argenteum, S. glaucophyllum, &c.
September 18.—A very interesting feature at this meeting was a group of about forty seedling Aucubas, raised from the true or green-leaved forms of A. himalaica and <A. japonica fertilized with variegated males. The progeny showed all va- rieties of blotching and marking; but those produced from himalaica, having darker-green leaves and paler or brighter markings, were most promising and desirable. Mr. Eckford sent Saccolabium Blumei, bearing two beautiful spikes of flowers ; and from Mr. Anderson, gardener to T. Dawson, Esq., Meadow Bank, came cut blossoms of Odontoglossum grande, which for size and brightness of colour have seldom or never been equalled ; the spike bore eleven blossoms. The pale yellow-flowered Oncidiwm cruen- tum was shown by Mr. Ward, gardener to A. Berrington, Esq., Abergavenny. Mr. Turner, Slough, contributed a charming basketful of the new bright orange-scarlet Nosegay Pelargonium, Lady Constance Grosvenor. Mr. Cruikshanks, gardener to W. Jones Loyd, Esq., produced cut blooms of a beautiful lilac and white-striped Verbena, called Lady of Langleybury, which was stated to have been obtained from Purple King; if it prove to be equally good in habit with that variety, it will, doubtless, be a valuable sort for beds. Mr. Mann, Brentwood, exhibited various tricolor-leaved Pelargoniums, among which was one named Phidias, which, being nearly related to Golden Harkaway, a very dwarf kind, may prove useful for small beds or edgings.
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Conspicuous among seedling Dahlias, of which several were shown, was Gem, shown by Mr. Pope, a neat purplish crimson heavily tipped with white ; this was considered first-class. Lord Lyon, a good deep purple, like a pure Lord Derby; Valentine, white tipped with purple; Flambeau, yellow, heavily edged with warm brownish red, all from Mr. Turner; Hon. Mrs. Gerald Wellesley, white, heavily edged with purplish crimson, from Mr. Bragg; Mrs. Burgess, violet shaded crimson, from Mr. Burgess ; a kind called Salmon; Aurora, rosy lilac, from Mr. Rawlings ; and Vanguard, maroon tinged in the centre with violet, from Mr. Wheeler, were all regarded as second-class.
September 22.—Mr. Young, gardener to R. Barclay, Esq., and Mr. Bartlett, showed groups of miscellaneous plants, amongst which were fine examples of Sedwm Fabaria, a most useful plant for the decoration of the greenhouse and conservatory in autumn.
October 2.—The most remarkable subject exhibited at this meeting was a cut specimen, from J. Bateman, Esq., of the mag- nificent Cattleya Doviana from Costa Rica. This is a plant of wondrous beauty, with large flowers like C. labiata, the sepals buff, the petals straw-colour, and the lip throughout of a rich mulberry-purple veined all over with golden lines. Mr. Bull ex- hibited Cypripedium Schlimii, a singular and rather pretty kind, with branched inflorescence and white blossoms mottled and flushed with rose. Mr. Bull also showed a beautiful variety of the tall herbaceous group of Lobelias called Ruby, with broad seoments to the flower, which are of a deep rich ruby-colour, and quite novel. Messrs. Veitch and Sons had a fine specimen of Lapageria rosea, together with Sarracenia purpurea and its highly coloured reddish-brown variety called S. atropurpurea; also a collection of Orchids, among which were various beautiful varieties of Cattleya, chiefly hybrids raised by Mr. Dominy. Messrs. Francis and Co., of Hertford, produced a variety of common Jasmine, hand- somely variegated with gold; it was stated to be a seedling, which had not only variegated leaves, but alsoa variegated stem. It was mentioned that a similar form of the same Jasmine, with the same description of variegation, was grown twenty years ago in the garden of the late Mr. J. C. Loudon, at Bayswater, where a bud of the variegated sort had been inserted in a common Jasmine; and although the bud did not take, the stock, by inoculation of the sap, afterwards broke out into the form of variegation the bud was intended to supply. Mr. Batley, of Rugby, exhibited a Pelargo-
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nium, Salmon King, a zonale variety, of second-class merit. Messrs. E. G. Henderson furnished Crocus nudiflorus, violet purple. and C. speciosus, bluish purple, now in flower ; together with a collection of zonale Pelargoniumg, illustrative of the way in which they break into a variegated form.
October 138.—C. Leach, Esq., of Clapham, showed a very interest- ing group of Nerines, including the following sorts :—V. wndulata, with small pink narrow-petalled flowers ; V. humilis, also narrow- petalled, but with larger and deeper pink flowers ; WV. Hothergilliz, with broader segments, deeper orange-red, with a darker centre to each and plane margin; JV. rosea, with broader petals of a deep lake-rose and as large as Fothergillui; N. corusca major, a pale orange-red, large-flowered, and slightly wavy. ‘These three haye broader leaves than those previously named, and blunt at the apex. With the above was a seedling Nerine with broader segments than humilis, but of the same colour and general character. These Nerines form a very desirable set of plants for autumn flowering.
October 16.—From the Garden of the Society at Chiswick came a fine collection of Zonale Pelargoniums, whose showy blossoms even at this season make a small greenhouse in that establish- ment quite brilliant. Mittona (Hranthemum) argyroneura, with leaves beautitully veined with white, was shown by Mr. Bull, who had also a pale yellow-flowered Gesnera called G. chromatella, and other plants, among which was Zvllandsia argentea, an interesting new Bromeliad, with round rush-like leaves, covered so thickly over with short white hairs as to have the appearance of being loaded with hoar frost. Mr. William Paul sent a bright scarlet seedling Zonale Pelargonium called Ossian, which is remarkable not only for its compactness of growth, but also for the closeness of its heads of bloom. Mr. Morgan, Torquay, exhibited a variety of Scolopendrium vulgare, called Morganii, a beautiful crested kind in the way of Cousensi, but larger. Messrs. Veitch produced a beautiful new Sarracenia, S. psittacina, with red-veined pale green pitchers about 4 inches in length, spreading out horizontally from a common centre, in the form of a star, all over the surface of the pot in which the plant was growing. Mr. Leach again showed his various beautiful examples of WVerine, one of the most showy of which was LV. corusca major, with light and peculiarly bright orange-scarlet flowers.
November 3.—A few well-managed Ohrysanthemums were sent by Mr. Forsyth, of Stoke Newington, who exhibited six neat dwarf
EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS. ix
bushy Pompons, about a foot in height and 23 feet across, and six neatly grown standard Pompons, on stems of about 23 feet high. The dwarfs consisted of General Canrobert, Cedo Nulli, Darufict, White Trevenna, Lilac Cedo Null, and a bronze seedling ; the standards were Andromeda, Hélene, Cedo Nulli, White Trevenna, Bob, and Golden Cedo Nulli. <A stand of six tolerably good cut blooms of Chrysanthemums came from Mr. F. C. Dickens, of Flood Street, Chelsea. In a group of British Ferns from Mr. W. Earley of Digswell, was the curious dimorphous Lady-Fern Athyrium Filix-femina Parsonsie. The old Justicea speciosa, some of the new hybrid Bonvardias, and Libonia floribunda, from the Society’s Garden, were sent as useful decorative objects for the season of the year. : November 20.—Mr. Salter, of Hammersmith, produced three beautiful Chrysanthemums, namely Countess of Warwick, a de- licate lemon-tinted white, Lady Talfourd, a purplish lilac, and Faust, a coppery brown, all first-class, full, incurved flowers. Messrs. Backhouse, of York, sent the pretty little Ecuador We- sospinidium sanguineum, an elegant Orchid with a slender droop- ing spike of rosy-pink flowers. From Mr. Shortt, gardener at Heckfield, came the yellow-berried Butcher’s Broom (Ruscus aculeatus fructuluteo), of which a considerable patch had been found in the woods at Heckfield; and from Mr. Earley, of Digs- well, a curious phyllomania Begonia, which had been raised be- tween B. incarnata and B. ricinifolia. J. A. Turner, Esq., of Manchester, exhibited Odontoglossum Hallii; and A. D. Berring- ton, Esq., of Abergavenny, the pretty Burlingtonia decora picta. December 4.—The most striking object at this meeting was Messrs. Veitch and Sons’ plant of Saccolabiwm giganteum, a species with broad, short leaves and dense spikes of white flowers, the lip of which is tipped with deep bright purple-rose. From the garden of W. Marshall, Esq., of Enfield, came the pure white Lyecaste Skinneri alba, which was also sent by Mr. Anderson from the garden of T. Dawson, Esq., of Meadow Bank. From the latter collection came also a remarkably fine spike of Odonto- glossum Alexandre, bearing a dozen flowers. Mr. Standish, Royal Nursery, Ascot, exhibited Taxus adpressa stricta, a free-growing, erect, evergreen shrub of the first order, and an hermapbrodite plant of Aucuba japonica. From G. Cooper, Esq., Old Kent Road, came Hpidendrum Cooperianum, a species with dull brownish sepals and a rosy lip, the flowers growing in drooping spikes.
x ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
January 15, 1867.—Owing to the severity of the weather very few plants were shown. Messrs. Backhouse and Son, of York, sent cut examples of an Oncidium allied to O. serratwm, with large brownish-green flowers of unusual construction, especially as regards the lip, which is small and unattractive; Messrs H. G. Henderson furnished Sophronitis grandiflora, and a variety of it with rosy-crimson flowers, called Alexandrina; and from Mr. Mann, of Brentwood, came a promising zonale Pelargonium named Mimas, of a soft pleasing shade of rosy scarlet, which had received a Second-class Certificate in September last, and was reproduced to show that very small plants of it flower freely, even in midwinter.
February 19.—This was a very full meeting, and many subjects of great interest were shown. ‘The most noticeable feature was the display of Lycaste Skinneri, sent as a mournful tribute to the memory of the late G. W. Skinner, Esq. These were exhibited by Messrs Veitch and Sons, Mr Penny, gardener to H. Gibbs, Esq., St. Dunstans, Regent’s Park, Mr. Anderson, gardener to T. Dawson, Esq., Meadow Bank, Dr. Pattison, and others. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Penny sent some remarkably fine varieties. Mr. Wilson, gardener to W. Marshall, Esq., of Enfield, contri- buted one of the finest series of Catleya Warscewiczii ever seen in public, and seeming to afford evidence that the plants fre- quently designated C. pallida, Trianei, quadricolor, Wagneri, and Warscewiczti are all one and the same kind, varying somewhat in colour. Mr. Anderson contributed, besides the Lycastes, a fine sroup of cut Orchids, among which were Oncidiwm nubigenun, a not very showy kind, but which grows at a higher elevation than any other Oncid, nearly 14,000 feet above the sea, Batemannia Beaumontii, Warrtea discolor, Vanda gigantea, Lelia superbiens, and Epidendrum Cooperianwm, an erect-stemmed plant, with fragrant rosy-tipped flowers. W. W. Buller, Esy., showed a good specimen of Dendrobium speciosum, and also a small plant of the new Den- drobium Bullerianum, which has some resemblance in form and colour to D. Devonianum, but is without the fringes which im- part so much additional beauty to the lip of that species. Messrs. Low and Co., of Clapton, sent Lelia furfuracea in great beauty, anda group of the interesting Odontoglossum maculatwm, whose brown-sepalled yellow-lipped flowers, spotted with brownish red, are rather deficient in brilliancy. One of them, however, called superbum, with large flowers, and having the lip notched at the edge
EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS. xi
and the spotting more distinctly marked, was selected for a First- class Certificate. J. Day, Esq., of Tottenham, produced a pretty new Odontoglossum with white flowers, allied to O. nebuloswm. Dr. Pattison, of St. John’s Wood, contributed a collection of Orchids, among which was the pretty Odontoglosswm Warnerianwm, some- what in the way of O. Cervantesit. Messrs. HE. G. Henderson & Son, of St. John’s Wood, exhibited Grifinia Blumenavia, a rather pretty dwarf bulb, a most beautiful collection of Cyelamens of various colours, and also the sweet-smelling Gardenia citriodora and a curious yellowish-leaved Fuchsia, called Golden Fleece, raised between Cloth of Silver and Enoch Arden. Messrs. Gara- way & Co., of Durdham Down, Bristol, sent the followimg beau- tiful varieties of Amaryllis of the Hippeastrum group, viz.:— Olivia, rich scarlet and crimson-shaded, pure light throat; Cleo- petra, bright orange-scarlet, shaded and veined with glossy crimson, the colour reaching to the base of the segments; ZH. Gibbs, carmine crimson, with white stripe and margin; Helena, orange-scarlet, with slight shading of crimson; Juliet, bright orange-scarlet, shaded with purplish crimson; and a group of six plants of the splendid A. Ackermanni pulcherrima. Messrs. Veitch & Sons showed Asplenium difforme, a New-Holland and Norfolk- Island Fern, with remarkably coriaceous bipinnate fronds and ever- ereen habit, and likely to be a good basket-Fern for a greenhouse. Mr. Harley, gardener to F. Pryor, Esq., of Digswell, showed a curious Trichosanthes, 1. cucwmerina, which has fragrant white blossoms, margined by a thread-like fringe, and flowering freely in the stove during winter, and was considered as an acquisition for winter bouquets.
March 5.—The supply of Orchids was excellent, and among other interesting plants were some wonderfully fine specimens of large-flowering Miqnonette, exhibited by the Rev. G. Cheere, Papworth Hall, St. Ives; these consisted of single plants in 48-pots, literally masses of bloom. The seeds were sown last August; they were sown in pans, the seedlings being potted off into thumb-pots, and then transferred to 5-inch pots, a little bone- dust being mixed with the soil at the time of potting. From Messrs. Veitch & Sons came Lelia Pilcheri, a beautiful hybrid, with white sepals and petals and a narrow acuminate fringed lip of rich venous purple edged with white, also a splendid specimen of Celogyne cristata, 1 most meritorious example of good culti- vation, being two feet across and quite a cascade of white and
Xil ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
gold flowers, and only requiring to be kept cool to induce it to flower well. Mr. Parks, gardener to G. Cooper, Esq., Old Kent Road, received a Special Certificate for three beautiful specimens of Phalenopsis Schilleriana with unusually large flowers; these were recommended for the Lindley medal. Mr. Bull contributed the beautiful and interesting Dalechampia Rezliana rosea, a Huphor- biaceous plant whose rose-coloured floral leaves remain bright in colour for six weeks, and after the flowers have died away still give a cheerful appearance to the plant. Like some other plants belonging to the same family, the beauty of this plant is in its bracts, which in this case consist of two rather large ovate bright- rosy organs, which overlap the blossoms, the most conspicuous parts of which are confused trusses of abortive stamens, consti- tuting bright-yellow, spongy masses. It comes from Vera Cruz, one of the hottest districts of Mexico, and will therefore require stove treatment. A magnificent head of flowers of Brownea grandiceps was shown, from the garden of Sir Hugh Williams, at Bodelwyddan. The tree which produced it was stated to be of considerable age and size, so much so, indeed, that the house in which it is growing has had to be enlarged once or twice, in order to give it sufficient room. The terminal bright-crimson flower- heads are 6 or 8 inches in diameter; the flowers are very nume- rous and arranged in tiers, as it were, round a conical axis, the outer ones expanding first. It is nearly related to Amherstia and Jonesia. Messrs. H. G. Henderson and Son sent a collection of Cyclamens of great beauty, one of them producing both rose- coloured and white blossoms from the same root, the former ap- proaching the Persicum, the latter the Coum type. Skimmia oblata came from Mr. Standish; this plant formerly produced hermaphrodite flowers and an abundant crop of berries, which latter had yielded plants, of which about one-half were females, approaching near to the mother plant, which had latterly borne less perfectly developed stamens, and the other half were exactly like S. fragrantissima, of which only the male had been known, thus confirming the opinion that S. oblata and S. fragrantissima were the two sexes of one dicecious species.
March 19.—This was the first Spring Show, and notwith- standing the occurrence of a snow-storm in the morning, and cold north-easterly winds and showers of sleet during the after- noon, the display was most satisfactory; Hyacinths, Narcissi, Cyclamens, Primulas, Lilly of the Valley, and Roses were
EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS. Xi
wonderfully fine, considering the season, and there were large and gay exhibitions of miscellaneous plants. Hyacinths formed the most important feature of the show; and of these Mr. W. Paul, of Waltham Cross, furnished most beautiful specimens, greatly superior to those of any of his competitors. His principal collec- tion contained magnificent spikes of King of the Blues, Princess Mary of Cambridge, Blondin, Charles Dickens, Van Speyk, Baron von Tuyll, General Havelock, Feruck Khan, Solfaterre, Koh-i- Noor, Macaulay, Vuurbaak, Prince Albert Victor, Sir Henry Havelock, Grandeur a Merveille, Snowball, Mont Blane, and La Grandesse. Messrs. Cutbush, of Highgate, showed against these a collection in which were Baron von Tuyll, Charles Dickens, Grand Lilas, General Havelock, Cavaignac, Von Schiller, Gigantea, Princess Clothilde, Florence Nightingale, Le Prophéte, Grand Vainqueur, Macaulay, Duc de Malakoff, Mrs. James Cutbush, Mont Blane, Snowball, Princess Helena, and Haydn. Among New Hyacinths, the only exhibitor was Mr. W. Paul, whose varieties consisted of Lord Shaftesbury, a kind with very large single white bells arranged in a somewhat loose spike; Blondin, a variety in the way of Princess Mary of Cambridge, but paler, fine spike, large bells; Prince Albert Victor, a dark purplish-red, single flower, of great beauty ; Linneus, a brilliant, deep, single crimson flower; Bird of Paradise, a fine yellow; and Sir Henry Havelock, a charming plum-coloured kind, which cannot fail to be a favourite. In addition to his other collections, Mr. W. Paul exhibited in the Miscellaneous class upwards of a hundred pots of Hyacinths.
Tulips made a fine display, some of the best being Proserpine, violet shaded rose; Keizer Kroon, deep red, edged with yellow ; Couleur Cardinal, deep scarlet shaded with violet, small but effective ; Fabiola, rosy purple and white; White Pottebakker ; Van der Neer, violet shaded rose; and the old Tournsol, Duke of York, red edged with creamy white, and Vermilon Brillant. Narcissi were less numerous. Among them were Bazelman Major and Lord Canning, white, with a yellow cup, both fine large flowers; Gloriosa, a fine white, with a deep yellow cup; Cleopatra, with an orange cup; and in the same way, but with smaller flowers, Jocrisse, Parfaite, and Regulus.
Crocuses formed a beautiful group. Conspicuous among the different kinds were Sir Walter Scott, a large variety, lilac striped with white; Cloth of Silver; Mammoth, large-flowered, white ;
XIV ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Princess of Wales, a fine pure white; Princess Alexandra, white pencilled with purple; Prince of Wales, bluish violet; David Rizzio, and Sir John Franklin, purple; and Golden Yellow.
Messrs. I’. and A. Smith sent Azalea Hector, a very dark-red kind with spotted upper petals. Mr. Fairbairn, gardener to the Duke of Northumberland, sent a seedling Cineraria, Duke of Northumberland, which appeared to be an acquisition in point of colour. Messrs. H. G. Henderson and Son exhibited a nice plant of Ludgea leucocephala, which also came from Mr. Bull, under the name of Psychotria macrophylla. The last-named exhibitor also sent Agave Verschaffeltu macracantha, a curious new dwarf form of American Aloes, with short thick leaves furnished with sharp teeth, and tipped by a sharp needle-like spme. Messrs. Veitch and Sons exhibited Hippeastrwm pardinum, a beautiful new form of Amaryllid, which has expanded flowers, with a pale creamy ground- colour, thickly spotted with confluent dots of crimson-red. It is one of the gems of the season.
April 2.—In a collection of plants shown by Mr. Bull, there occurred Litobrochia undulata, a pretty-looking robust-growing compound Stove-Fern, from the Feejees, and the charming Camellia Lavinia Maggi rosea, whose flowers are self-coloured, of the richest carmine rose. W. Wentworth Buller, Esq., sent Dendrobiwn thyrsiflorum, a handsome new species with clavate bulbs and drooping spikes of pale-yellow flowers with an apricot- coloured lip. Mr. Anderson, gardener to T. Dawson, Esq., Meadow Bank, Glasgow, furnished two forms of Lycaste Skinneri, namely, Andersom, with rosy petals and pure white lip, and Dawson, with deep-crimson lip, marked with white blotches. Mr. Anderson also sent Odontoglossum luteo-purpureum, which includes as varieties both O. radiatum and O. hystrix. Mr. Jones, Whalley Range, Manchester, sent a monstrous Cattleya with two lips. Mr. Wilson, gardener to W. Marshall, Esq., Enfield, had a nice plant of Odontoglossum triwnphans, a fine species, with an abruptly acuminate white lip, having yellow crests at the base and brown blotches in the upper half. He also showed a hand- some variety of Oncidiwm carthaginense.
Among Orchids exhibited for the first time were Oncidiwm amictum, already noticed, and a pretty white Dendrobiwm from Japan, which must decidedly be considered a cool Orchid. It would produce a large mass of flowers and would doubtless succeed in a mild greenhouse. Mr. Bateman next directed atten-
«s
oe ahs
EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS. XV
tion to an experiment made by his gardener, Mr. Sherratt, the results of which were exemplified in two stems of Dendrobiwn anosmum. From one all the flowers had been stripped off but two, on the other all were allowed to remain, and the result was, that the flowers on the former were much larger than those on the latter—a result for which Mr. Bateman said he was hardly prepared ; for though he knew that the flowers varied in number according to the health and strength of the plants, he was not aware that they could be thus increased in size.
April 16.—This second Spring Show was in all respects an excellent exhibition, being made up of brilliant Azaleas, Roses, Rhododendrons, Cinerarias, and other plants. The weather was, however, wet and cold. The prize group of Azaleas, consisted of Gem, Chelsoni, Advance, Elegantissima, Stella, and finely bloomed plants of Roi Leopold, Sir Charles Napier, Magnificent, and lyeryana; and that of Rhododendrons contained Augustum, deli- cate pink; Nero, dark rosy purple; Illuminator, with large trusses of rose-coloured flowers; Vervaeanum, semidouble, bluish hlae; Griswoodianum, blush; and Hrectum, deep rose—all in ex- cellent condition, contributed by Messrs. Lane and Son, of Berk- hempstead.
Among novelties Messrs. Veitch and Sons produced the follow- ing amongst others :—Coleus Veitchii, a species from New Cale- donia, with handsome leaves, chocolate-coloured in the centre and edged with bright lively green ; Hypocyrta brevicalyx (since named Gloxinia hypocyrtifiora) from Ecuador, with singular-looking glo- bular orange blossoms and small obovate leaves, veined with white ; Panicum variegatum, a South-Sea Island plant, forming a dense mass of slender branches furnished with pretty red, white, and green-striped lanceolate foliage; and the charming purple- ' blossomed Primula cortusoides umena, a Japan species, stated to have proved hardy in this country. Mr. William Paul contri- buted a yellowish-leaved Elm named Ulmus aurea ; and the double- flowered Crimson Thorn (Crategus Oxyacantha coccinea flore- pleno), a brilliant variety which cannot be too highly praised. It is a sport from the old Double Pink Hawthorn. Mr. Turner, of
Slough, showed quite a large group of Seedling Alpine Auriculas, the majority having dark ground-colours. Generally they were very attractive. The darkest hues were represented by Brutus, a bold and striking purplish violet; Vero, glossy maroon-crimson, with bright sulphur paste, bold and showy; Mabel, dark glossy
XV1 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
velvet edge, smooth sulphur paste, bold and striking; and Poten- tate, bright maroon-crimson, yellow paste, large and striking pip. With a brighter ground-colour were :—Sparkler, glossy claret- erimgon, yellow paste, bright and striking ; Fredrika, dull maroon- crimson, with bright yellow paste, bold and showy; and Alfred Mellon, dark-brown chocolate, with bright-yellow paste, pips large. Another group had violet, lilac, and claret grounds, and comprised, popularly speaking, some of the most striking flowers, as Hisie, dark ground, margined with lilac, sulphur paste; Con- spicua, something like Hsze, but not so smooth; and Pauline, one of the very best, pale sulphur paste, circled by a velvety ring and margined with violet, very pretty indeed.
May 7.—Owing to the number and striking beauty of some of the novelties produced on this occasion, this was an unusually in- teresting exhibition, which was also well supported in other de- partments. The day, too, was most brilliant. New plants con- stituted the most important feature of the show. For the best six sent out in 1865 and 1866, Messrs. Veitch and Sons were first, with Primula cortusoides amena, bearing rich magenta white-eyed flowers as large as a florin; the beautiful Alaranta roseo-picta and Veitchit, Verschaffeltia splendida, Dieffenbachia Weirit, and Bego- nia Pearcei, the latter with rich velvety dark-green leaves veined with pale green. Mr. Bull was second, with Maranta roseo-picta, Verschaffeltia splendida, a beautiful Palm, the silvery-veined 2i#- tonia argyroneura, the rose-spotted Bertolonia guttata, Zamia vil- losa, an elegant species, and Anthurium regale, resembling magnt- jicum, with leaves of a bronzy-green colour prominently veined with pale green. With new plants of the present year, Messrs. Veitch were again first, with Sanchezia nobilis variegata, a stove Acanthad with large elliptic leaves having yellow bands radiating from a yellow midrib; Coleus Veitchiz, with dark-chocolate leaves edged with bright green ; the slender Panicum variegatum, also from New Caledonia, with rose, white, and green foliage ; Dieffenbachia Pearcet; Hypocyrta brevicalyx, from Kecuador, with nearly orbi- cular silvery-veined leaves ; and Lomaria ciliata, from New Cale- donia. Mr. Bull was second, with two Peruvian Dichorisandras, named D. mosaica, with dark-green leaves, lined transversely with pale green and brownish purple on the underside, and D. wndata, with undulated dark-green leaves, ornamented longitudinally with pale-green bands; Agave macracantha, with glaucous pale-green leayes edged with bold brown spines; the elegant Adiantum
EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS. Xv
Lindeni, Maranta illustris, and Bignonia ornata from Rio Negro, . the latter with broad lanceolate leaves, which when young are of a bronzy hue, with a rosy variegation along the midrib, but which
become silvery in older foliage. For the best new plant shown
for the first time in flower, the Medal was won by Mr. Bull with
Dalechampia Roezliana rosea. The scarlet-flowered Begonia bol-
viensis, from Messrs. Veitch, whose showy flowers differ both in
_ shape and colour from anything of the kind previously in: culti-
vation, competed with it. The best new plant with ornamental
foliage was Messrs. Veitch’s Alocasia Jenningsii, from the Hast
Indies, a remarkably distinct and handsome plant, having nearly
heart-shaped bright-green leaves, marked with dark chocolate in
sections between the veins. Mr. Bull showed Ptychosperma
regale, a handsome East-Indian Palm. The best new garden
seedling was shown by Messrs. Veitch, in the form of a pretty
hybrid Cattleya. Of a more miscellaneous character were Hpiden-
drum cnemidophorum, contributed by Mr. Muir, gardener to Sir _ P. de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P.; this had three spikes
of gracefully drooping flowers borne at the end of long slender stems. Messrs. Low, of Clapton, exhibited a whole bank of the beautiful Cattleya citrina, and a white variety of Odontoglosswm citrosmwm. Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting, produced a very pretty Seedling Heath, Hrica tintinnabula, a variety raised between odorata and diemalis. Messrs. Downie, Laird, and Laing sent Nosegay Pe- largonium Rose Stella, a variety of great merit, which will be a useful bedding-plant. Mr. William Paul sent a large collection of seedling Zonale Nosegay Pelargoniums, among which Waltham Nosegay and Dr. Hogg were most conspicuous. ILberis carnosa, a very dwarf plant for rockwork, came from Messrs. Backhouse, of York.
The Auricula bloom, so far as regards the London shows, culminated at this exhibition. Mr. Turner staged a fine lot of the show varieties, the trusses being generally of good average size, the pips large, smooth, and clean. There were a few flowers among them of extra fine quality, such as Lancashire Hero (Cheetham), the paste of which was very smooth, and the pips large and stout ; Smiling Beauty (Heap), the dark ground-colour of which was thrown up very strikingly ; Apollo (Hudson), very fine ; Sophia (Chapman), ground-colour purplish violet, well de- fined, and smooth white paste; Belisarius, green-edged variety, form- ing a good pure truss, but the pips a little rough; Great Eastern
VOL. II. c
XV1il ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCTETY.
(Smith), distinct pure-yellow eye, remarkably well shouldered, fine pips; Earl Grosvenor (Lee), a very fine white-edged variety, the ground-colour dark violet crimson, with pure white smooth paste and greenish-yellow eye, fine pip and truss; Lycurgus (Smith), ground-colour bright claret-crimson, pips very bold and striking ; Sir William Peel (Lightbody), fine and bold truss; and Star of Bethleham (Lightbody), eye good and well shouldered, ground-colour purplish crimson, though somewhat running into the green edge, a very distinct variety, possessing a great deal of merit. Mr. Turner also produced Alpine Auriculas, so rich and varied as to be well worthy a close inspection, especially such as Bertha, pure greenish-yellow paste, with dark-crimson ground, distinctly margined on each segment of the pip with pale violet ; and Novelty, having a pale-yellow paste, with a dark blotch at the base of each segment, with broad margin of pale violet, changing to buff with age. One of the most conspicuous flowers was Landseer, the ground-colour of which was a bright claret-crimson, with pale-yellow paste, somewhat rough, but
having large and showy trusses freely produced, and the habit
excellent.
May 21.—This was a very magnificent show of the new class of Variegated Zonale Pelargoniums. Among the novelties to which Certificates were awarded were Sunshine, which has a yellow edge and a showy flamed deep-crimson zone. This came from Messrs. E. G. Henderson & Son. Mr. Wills, gardener at Huntroyde Park, Burnley, had a very fine collection of new sorts, having for the most part large bold leaves, broadly zoned with reddish brown. Of these, Beauty of Ribbledale was very conspicuous, with its large leaves having a showy vandyked reddish-bronze zone on a yellow ground; also Her Majesty, a vigorous-growing kind, of a yel- lowish brown, with a very broad even deep-brown zone. Messrs. Garaway & Co., of Bristol, had Mrs. Allen, which has nearly circular leaves, with a narrow golden edge and a regular crimson zone, which in the young leaves is very bright. Mr. Grieve had a very fine collection, the gem of which was a variety called Victoria Regina. Mr. Groom, of Ipswich, sent a beautiful tri- color, named Lord Stanley; and Messrs. Saltmarsh & Co. showed Sunrise, the latter having a compact neat habit, and otherwise a variety of first-class merit. Of other plants, Messrs. Veitch & Sons exhibited a fine collection, in which were Dichorisandra mosaica, Dracena regina, Adiantum concinnum latum, Maranta illustris, and.
' t
EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS. X1x
Dichorisandra wndata. Mr. Bull had also a good collection. <A pretty Golden Elm, Ulmus aurea, was shown by Mr. W. Paul and Messrs. E. G. Henderson. Messrs. Osborn & Sons pro- duced a new variety of the Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis acuti- loba). A little tree of what is call Silver-variegated Deodar was exhibited by Messrs. Maule & Son, of Bristol. Mr. Standish exhibited his Retinospora filifera, a most remarkable Conifer, with _ long whipcord-like drooping branches. Finally, Mr. Kinghorn produced his beautiful new Azalea, Lizzie, the flowers of which are large, bold, stout, and of fine form, the colour white, flaked with rosy carmine, a very free-blooming kind; and Messrs. Osborn & Sons, of Fulham, sent the pretty little North-American Viola pedata, which had all the attractions of a new plant, because so very rarely seen, though introduced upwards of a century ago. The flowers are deep lilac, which becomes paler with age; it is very dwarf, and blooms profusely, but does not continue long in flower. It is, however, a pretty and effective plant for rockwork.
June 4 to 8.—This five days’ great exhibition was held in the astern Annex, in the large Rhododendron-tent, which was literally crammed with gay flowers and fine foliage, here and there relieved by stately Tree Ferns and other subjects of a similar description. The weather proved showery. A good many seed- ling florists’ flowers were present, as usual, at the show, and among them some fine Pelargoniums raised by the Rev. E. Foster and Mr. Hoyle. Besides these, Sclene pennsylvanica, a dwarf rock plant, covered with bright pink flowers, came from Messrs. Backhouse. Messrs. Ivery exhibited Polystichum angulare oxy- phyllum and the following forms of Athyriwm Milix-foemina, namely, plumosum multifidum, the Axminster variety of plwmosum, and Girdlestonit. Messrs. Salter produced Coprosma Bauerianum varie- gatum, a pretty greenhouse shrub, with green leaves edged with pale yellow. Mr. Robert Veitch, Exeter, sent two fine specimens of the seedlings raised from Adiantum Furleyense. Mr. Stone, gardener to J. Day, Esq., sent a magnificent variety of Cypripe- dium Stonet, called Platytenium, with much broader petals than those of C. Stonet, which it otherwise resembles; he also exhibited Cattleya Dowiana, a grand species with buff sepals and petals and large violet-purple lip veined with gold. Messrs. Veitch & Sons showed, in a somewhat undeveloped state, the lovely Dendrobium Bensonie from Moulmein, and also Alocasia intermedia, a fine grey-leaved plant, raised between dA. Veitchit and A. longiloba.
c2
XX ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Mr. Bull exhibited a most interesting specimen of Amorphophallus nobilis, the singular fungus-like growth of which appeared to excite much interest amongst the visitors.
June 18.—The most remarkable subject shown at this meet ing came from Mr. Anderson, gardener to T. Dawson, Esq., at Meadow Bank, and consisted of a splendid cut spike of Odontoglosswm Pescatoret, which, however, only represented a fraction of the blossom on the plant from which it was cut, and on which no less than three hundred flowers were counted. It was wonderfully fine; as also from the same source was a plant of Lelia majalis, growing on thin flat tiles, whose flowers were as much as a span across. Mr. Anderson also sent the little carmine-coloured Peruvian Odontoglosswm rosewn, which, though beautiful in minimis, as now exhibited for the first time, was likely to be still more attractive when larger speci- mens were obtained. Another remarkably fine Orchid con- sisted of a cut specimen of Aerides Fieldingii, from Lord Eger- ton of Tatton, the most magnificent example of that species which had ever been exhibited, and to which, on the recommendation of the Committee, the Lindley Medal was awarded. This spike had 8 branches at its base. Mr. Shortt exhibited a cut specimen of the trne Pentstemon Cobea, a now nearly forgotten plant, with large blush-white flowers. Messrs. J. & C. Lee sent Hypericum (chinense) monogynum, and Carex pilulifera folis aureis. Messrs. Veitch sent Dendrobium Bensonie, with a roundish orange-coloured lip bordered with white, and two blood-red spots, which is very lovely. Mr. Sherratt, gardener to James Bateman, Esq., Knypersley, sent Jiltonia spectabilis, var. yosea, a very beautiful plant, with the lp marked with bars of rich deep rose. Some further examples of Messrs. Downie, Laird, & Laing’s fine hybrid Nosegay Pelargoniums were produced. They were seedlings from a fertilized Stella, but all were of a different shade of colour to that of the parent plant. Among these were Hon. G. Hardy, having immense and well-rounded trusses of vivid orange-scarlet flowers, a fine shade of colour, excellent habit, foliage pale zonate, and free-blooming ; also Flori- bundum, clear pale orange-scarlet, and Comet, bright cherry-crim- son, which are two remarkably good varieties ; the shade of colour of the former is very striking, and the trusses of great size; the flowers of the latter were stout and smooth, and the habit excel- lent. Mr. Whitehorn had plants and cut flowers of two varie-
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ties of oak-leaved Pelargoniums, raised from Rollisson’s Unique ; they were decided improvements, in point of colour, on the parent variety. The flowers of the former, named Crimson King, were of a bright and yet deep rosy-crimson colour; those of the latter, named Constellation, were of larger size, of a vivid rosy-crimson shade, suffused with violet. When well grown, these two varie- ties will be great acquisitions in point of colour. Mr. W. Lee, of Hammersmith, produced a dwarf-growing Lobelia, of the Erinus section, named Lee’s Dwarf Blue, the habit of which is very short and dense, like L. pumila elegans, and having a profusion of azure-blue flowers, with a small white spot on the centre of the flowers. It promises to be a most effective bedder.
July 2.—This was the great Rose Show, on which occasion the blooms were numerous, and shown in excellent condition, con- sidering the unfavourable weather to which they had been sub- jected. We can only record here some of the more strikingly beautiful flowers in the several collections. The following were particularly good :—Jules Margottin, Sénateur Vaisse, Prince Camille de Rohan, Maurice Bernardin, Pierre Notting, Souvenir de la Malmaison, Comtesse de Chabrilliant, Madame Vidot, Général Jacqueminot, Madame Victor Verdier, Maréchal Niel, Scour des Anges, John Hopper, Centifolia rosea, Baron A. de Rothschild, Céline Forestier, Devoniensis, Alfred Colomb, Prince de Porcia, Louise Magnan (white), Marie Baumann, Duc de Rohan, Gloire de Dijon, Duke of Edinburgh (dark shaded scarlet), L’élégante (velvety dark red), Xavier Olibo, Beauty of Waltham, Le Rhone, Charles Lawson, Niphetos, Charles Lefebvre, Queen Victoria (one of the prettiest of the white Hybrid Perpetuals), Triomphe de Rennes (a very beautiful yellow), Lord Macaulay, Prince de Porcia, Madame Plantier (a free-blooming Hybrid China), Comte Alphonse de Serenye (beautiful clear crimson), Prince Henri des Pays- Bas (crimson, shaded with purple), Madame — Moreau (also beautiful in the bud state), Duchesse de Caylus (very good), Gloire de Santenay, La Brillante (very bright), Cloth of Gold, L’Enfant Trouvé, Comtesse de Kergolay (fine deep crim- son) Madame Hector Jacquin, Souvenir d’Elise Vardon, Madame Bravy, Frangois Lacharme. Among the new Roses of 1864 or 1865, the most striking kinds were Marie Baumann and Alfred Colomb (both very fine), Exposition de Brie, Mdlle. Marie Rady, Pierre Notting, Madame Victor Verdier, Marguerite de St. Amand, Mdlle. Marguerite Dombrain, Abel Grand, and Princess
Xxil ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Mary of Cambridge, the last four somewhat alike as regards colour, and Miss Ingram. Messrs. Veitch & Sons sent on this occasion a fine collection of new and rare plants, among which were the following :—Croton irreqgulare, a little standard, with narrow green leaves, having a yellow stripe up the midrib; C. maximum, With broad pale-green leaves veined with yellow; and C. interruptum, narrow leaves, having yellow midribs changing to red; Dracena Mooret, with broad olive-brown leaves; the slender Selaginella Poultert, with minute foliage; and Begonia Veitchii, a beautiful dwarf perennial, said to be hardy, the flowers large and of a vivid orange-scarlet, with a cluster of yellow stamens. It is remarkably showy. Mr. Edwards, of Nottingham, showed the following new and interesting British Ferns, and had First-Class Certificates for them, viz.:—<Athyrium Filix-femina EHdwardsi, Footii, Polystichum angulare diversilobium Padleyi, and Scolopen- drium vulgare Edwardsii. From Mr. W. Paul, of Waltham Cross, came two very pretty and striking varieties of the summer-flower- ing herbaceous Phloxv,—one, named Beautiful, had stout, smooth, round flowers of a pure white colour, with a rosy-violet centre ; and the other, Conqueror, was pure white, the centre rosy purple, the base of the petals round the centre being suffused with the same ; they were masses of bloom, and highly attractive. Mr. Wills, gardener, Huntroyde Park, exhibited a group of gold and bronze zonale Pelargoniwms, on which the popular interest centred. Some of these were very fine plants, of vigorous and yet compact habit, the leaf-marking enduring well as the leaves increase with age. The two darkest-zoned kinds in the group were Model, which opens a pale green-leaf ground, changing to gold with age, having a dark-chestnut zone and narrow margin of golden green, a large plant and very showy; and Beauty of Calderdale, bright reddish broad chestnut zone on a golden-leaf ground, and having a broader- leafed margin than the foregoing, very fine and effective. Some good forms of the common Foxglove were shown by Messrs. Ivery & Son, of Dorking. The two ground-colours, purple and white, are still retained, the variation occurring in the marking found on the interior of the tube; some of the white flowers were heavily and handsomely spotted with rosy crimson, and would make very showy plants for shrubbery borders. Mr. Fraser, Lea Bridge Road, contributed Gloxinia Rose d’ Amour, a large and bold flower of the drooping section, with pure white throat and edged with bright rose, the colour being brighter and
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deeper on the lower part of the flower; and Messrs. Veitch & Sons sent Gloxinia Madame de Smet, a very showy flower with a waxy-white tube and violet-purple lobes; and Vlaanderen, rich rosy purple, the lobes slightly edged with violet, a fine hue of colour, and a good flower. Mr. Richards, gardener to Lord Lon- desborough, Grimston Park, Tadcaster, hada very fine specimen of the variety of .Vanda teres called Andersoni, which was growing on a block in a pot, and bore 11 flowering spikes. G. F’. Wilson, Esq., Weybridge, exhibited a magnificent specimen of Liliwm longiflorwm, with nine pure white blooms, each about 7 inches in length and about 54 inches in diameter at the mouth.
July 15-19.—The Society’s first Great County Show was held at Bury St. Edmund’s, and was of a most gratifying character, having been really good throughout.
Of the prizes for Stove and Greenhouse Plants, the Society’s _ 20-guinea Cup was won by Messrs. Lee, of Hammersmith, with a very fine lot of plants, among which occurred Allamanda Hender- sont, beautifully bloomed; Erica Permentieri rosea, quite smothered in its lovely blossoms of a delicate roseate hue; Jxvora javanica, full of bloom and brilliantly coloured, and a splendid bush of Ka- losanthes coccinea. Scarcely,if at all, inferior was the collection of Mr. Baines, gardener to H. L. Nichols, Esq., Bowdon, near Man- chester, in which were two such plants of Sarracenia as were never before seen—one, S. purpurea, a dense mass 3 feet over, and with enormous pitchers, and the other, S. flava, fully a yard high, with the mouth of the pitchers 34 inches across, and the broad leafy lid 43 inches. Mr. Baines had also a splendid plant of Anecto- chilus Lowi, and a remarkably fine mass of Dionea muscipula. Fine-foliage plants were numerous and effective, but very few Orchids were shown. Palms and Ferns, the latter especially, formed considerable features. A beautiful group of Sarracenias, in addition to those shown in his large collection, came from Mr. Baines, of Bowdon. They consisted of S. Drummond: alba, nearly 5 feet high, with the lid of the pitcher mottled with white and wavy at the margin; two plants of S. flava, 4 feet high, with the lid ovate and plane; S. rubra, 13 foot high, with a red-veined ovate plane lid; 8. variolaris, with the upper part of the tube mottled with white and the head recurved like a parrot’s bill; and S. purpurea, very highly coloured. They formed a group such as is rarely seen at exhibitions.
A. very interesting feature of the exhibition was presented by
XXIV ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
a class for Bedding Plants shown in honour of the late Donald Beaton, in which there were several competitors. The Cup of- fered for this (Suffolk Gardeners’ Cup) was taken by Mr. Grieve, who showed forty-eight groups of well-grown plants, each kind occupying a small square box, of about 12 inches by 12. Another good feature was presented in the class for cut flowers of twenty- four Hardy Herbaceous Plants, which, when shown in good-sized neat bunches, as were those of the 1st prize lot for Mr. Gilbert, St. Margaret’s Nursery, Ipswich, are really effective.
An interesting group of New Plants was shown by Messrs. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, but they consisted entirely of subjects which are already familiar at London exhibitions. * The show of Cut Roses was very good, and there was a sharp competition for the Silver Cup given by the Suffolk gardeners for the best twelve Cut Roses shown by a Suffolk amateur. This was won by Mr. W. Nichol, gardener to J. H. Powell, Esq., Drinkstone Park, Bury St. Edmunds, who had excellent blooms of Madame C. Crapelet, John Hopper, La Ville de St. Denis, Jean Gougon, Charles Le- febvre, Maréchal Vaillant, Duc de Rohan, Princess of Wales. Sé- nateur de Vaisse, Lord Macaulay, Maréchal Niel, and Cloth of Gold.
The Town of Bury Silver Cup for the best nine Fuchsias was awarded to Mr. D. T. Fish, who had some splendid plants, averaging from 7 to 8 feet in height, well grown and bloomed ; and the Rev. I’. Cheere’s Prize for twelve Pelargoniums, Show or French, was taken by Mr. D. T. Fish, with some large and finely- erown plants, having some good heads of bloom. In the Class for twelve Scarlet Pelargoniums, distinct kinds, the Rey. F. Cheere was 1st with some excellent plants, well grown and flowered, and in no way disfigured by being tied out of shape. The sorts were Culford Rose, Clipper, Rose Rendatler, Sir William Wallace, Ma- dame Leomine, Roi d’ltalie, Rose Perfection, Dr. Lindley, Virgo Maria, Dr. Newnham, Madame Riidersdorff, and Robert Fish.
Mr. Grieve was the winner of the County Cup for twelve seed- ling Variegated Pelargoniums of 1866-1867, all yearlings, some of which were only just breaking into character. The sorts were Fanny Newnham, Bride of Dandelot, Victor Galbraith, Lizzie Paget, Black Adder, Hiawatha, Isabella Clay, Clemmy, Eva Fish, Rothley, Allanton, and Victoria Regina.
There was a very good display of fruit, of good quality. The 1st prize for Pine-Apples was taken by Mr. Ward, gardener to F.
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N. Miller, Esq., Bishop’s Stortford, who had a handsome Queen, weighing 5lb.60z. Some plants of Thoresby Queen, stocky and well grown, with large but unripe lumpy fruit unequally swelled, which seemed characteristic of the variety, came from Mr. A. Henderson, gardener to Earl Manvers, Thoresby Park, Ollerton.
Grapes formed an excellent exhibition. For black sorts, Mr. Squibs, Ickworth Park, was first with moderate-sized bunches, remarkable for their fine berries and dense black colour. Mr. Standish, Ascot, received a well-merited First-Class Certificate for nicely ripened samples of his new Grape, Royal Ascot, which deserves all that has been said in commendation of it. The finest sample of Grapes, however, consisted of three bunches of Ham- burghs, shown for the Stowmarket Medal by Mr. Meads, gardener to Raikes Currie, Esq., Minley Manor, Farnborough, Hants. These were large, irregular clusters of fine berries, pretty well co- loured, and weighed together 263 1b.
The Cup offered by the ‘Gardeners’ Chronicle’ for a col- lection of fruit and vegetables was awarded to Mr. Pottle, gardener to B. D. Colvin, Esq. ; and the prizes offered by the ‘Journal of Horticulture’ for two desserts, were taken by Mr. Carmichael, gardener to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Sandringham, and Mr. Blair, gardener to Sir G. N. Middleton, Bart., Shrubland Park.
The show of Implements was not extensive; but some very good articles were produced in several of the classes, especially among garden-seats, engines, suction-pumps, lawn-mowers, and models of greenhouses.
August 6—Mr. Shaw, of Manchester, and Mr. Williams, of Holloway, each exhibited some very curious dwarf varieties of Athyrium Filix-femina, raised by Mr. Glover; they were severally named, Glovert, Glomeratuim ramosum, Frizellie ramo- sum, and Frizellie cristatum. Messrs. Jackman & Son, of Wok- ing, contributed a boxful of magnificent blooms of Clematis, in- cluding the following new kinds :—Zady Bovill, lavender; Is. Bateman, violet, a variety which in general produces blossoms haying six petals instead of four or five; and Thomas Moore, a fine kind, having reddish-purple blossoms shaded with violet and white stamens. C. lanuginosa candida, in the same collection, found to be a fine white sort, which, when intermixed with the charming varieties just named and others of the Woking hybrids, must produce a striking and beautiful effect. G. F. Wilson, Esq., furnished a beautiful Japanese Lily, Lilium Thunbergianum
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aureum nigro-maculatwn, bearing large erect flowers of a bright orange-red colour thickly ornamented with dark mulberry-coloured spots ; itis a most profuse flowerer, and possibly hardy. Mr. Green, gardener to W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., brought an interesting group of plants, among which occurred the slender-growing African Pelargonium alchemilloides, with small roundish pale-green leaves, on which is stamped a well-defined deep-brown-coloured horse- shoe. Messrs. Lee sent the prettily cut-leaved Rhus glabra laci- niata, a handsome form of this useful species. Mr. C. J. Perry, of Birmingham, contributed a stand of splendid new Verbenas among which were diss Turner, white, with rosy-lilac centre, a beauti- ful and pleasing flower, of great substance, circular, and smooth, and a splendid exhibition variety ; G. P. Tye, one of the finest- formed flowers yet produced, the colour blush suffused with pink, with a violet-rose centre; Hercules, violet-rose, richly shaded, and having a striking crimson centre round a white eye, very fine quality; and Zhomas Harris, a rich plum-colour, shaded with a glossy darker hue, and having a pure-white centre. Messrs. H. G. Henderson & Son exhibited Fuchsia Golden Fleece, which looked as if it would make an effective bedding variety, being dwarf and of a close bushy habit, and at the Wellington Road Nursery makes a very beautiful display. They also sent Pink Napoleon ITI., an improved form of the rose-coloured Dianthus hybridus multifiorus, the flowers of which are bright crimson-scar- let. Mr. G. Smith, Islington, produced two splendid hybrid Nosegay Pelargoniums, viz. Eclat, a rich shade of magenta, suf- fused with purple, the flowers of extra fine quality, the trusses of an enormous size, freely developed, and the foliage slightly zonate, a great acquisition; and Grand Duke, colour brilliant orange-scar- let, a very showy and effective variety, with the foliage also slightly zonate. Messrs. Downie, Laird, & Laing, had a golden- fohaged Pelargonium named Countess of Kellie, having a distinct chestnut zone ; its habit is vigorous and yet close, and it promises to make a very effective and durable bedder.
August 20.—In an interesting collection of plants from Mr. Bull were produced Calamus javanicus and CO. adspersus, two small- erowing elegant pinnate-leaved species of Palms, well adapted for decorative purposes. Messrs. EH. G. Henderson & Son had a variety of Zora crocata, called rutilans, which was deeper in colour and better habited than the older kind. ‘Mr. Parsons, gardener to W. Blake, Esq., Danesbury, showed an interesting variety
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of Lady-Fern, called Athyrium Lilivfeemina ceratophyllum, which has the fronds finely cut. A boxful of blooms of Maréchal Niel Rose was shown in admirable condition by Mr. Keynes, of Salis- bury. The most interesting feature, however, of this Meeting was formed by some seedling Hollyhocks, from the Rev. E. Hawke and Mr. Chater, of Saffron Walden, the latter contribu- ting a fine lot of spikes as well as cut blooms. Mr. Hawke’s flowers were Ruby Queen, brilliant ruby-red, large and full; and Gem, deep saimon-rose, large, and of full substance, both remarkably fine. Mr. Chater’s varieties were :—Alba superba, pure white, large, and full; Walden Queen, pinkish salmon, the flowers some- what small and loosely: set on the spike; Whitley King, not so good as Hawke’s Gem; Queen of Yellows, a very good shade of colour, but wanting colour in the guard petal, which was also too large; and Moonlight, a glossy, dark kind, wanting quality. Among seedling Dahlias, Mr. Keynes showed dis. Dodds, white ground, tipped with lilac, the centre deeper in colour, good form and outline, and high close centre; and Caroline Tetterell, some- thing like the foregoing in character, the lilac being, however, of a deeper hue and distributed more over the ground, good form, and high close centre. Mr. Standish, Ascot, brought a free- blooming perpetual Picotee, Ascot Yellow, bright-yellow ground, edged with rosy red, the habit excellent, a capital variety for eut flowers. Mr. Eckford, Coleshill, showed a Verbena, The Cure, rose suffused with purple, having a well-defined centre of bright crimson ; pips stout and large, and very attractive.
September 3.—Foremost among the subjects exhibited at this meeting were seedling Dahlias. The most remarkable were the following :—From Mr. Turner, Yellow Perfection, a good stride in the improvement of the yellow flowers, the colour rich golden yellow, of a beautiful hue, centre close and high, good outline, plenty of substance, and said to be very constant. From Mr. Rawlings, of Rumford, Hebe, a light-ground flower, very regularly and evenly tipped with rosy lilac, deepening to purple, the blooms of medium size, centre close and high, good outline, and fine form of petal. From Mr. Keynes, Sir Greville Smythe, a bright orange-red, the centre suffused with purple, a flower of good properties, but not perfect in form, the centre petals being ico upright: Lady Derby, a very pleasing popular flower, though not perfectly first-class from the florist’s strict point of view; the colour pale ground, heayily tipped with bright rosy purple; good
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petal and outline: Viceroy of Hyypt, a1 somewhat large and flat flower, yet of good qualities as a fancy kind, the ground-colour suffused rosy-lilac, with crimson stripes; a fine exhibition variety : Leopardess, a large and bold fancy flower, of the same build as the previous one; the ground-colour lilac, spotted and striped with bright crimson, the petals of fine form; a bold and showy flower. ‘The foregoing were the very cream of the new flowers shown on this occasion. Messrs. Veitch & Sons exhibited the new and rare Aerides Huttoni (since called Saccolabium Hutton), from Java, with rosy-violet flowers, standing erect on a pendent stalk, a small plant, but of free-blooming properties. Mr. W. Paul, Waltham Cross, showed a golden-foliaged Hwonymus, named jflavescens, having four shoots, some 3 or 4 inches of each of which was of a clear golden hue, the other leaves mottled with green and gold. It was considered a great acquisition if it could be perpetuated.
September 17.—The show of Variegated Zonale Pelargoniums held on this occasion was a most excellent one, and both exbihi- tors and visitors appeared to take a lively interest therein. We can only here notice the best novelties. Among Golden Varie- gated Zonales, the Countess of Craven, from Messrs. Perkins, of Coventry, stood first; it has medium-sized leaves, with a fine golden edge and a red and mulberry zone. Messrs. F. & A. Smith’s Jetty Lacy, a2 handsome variety, came second; and Mr. Watson’s Mrs. Dix third. Certificates were given to Messrs. Saltmarsh for Orown Jewel; to Messrs. E. G. Henderson for Beauty of Culford, a very fine kind, with a broad bright zone having an unusuala mount of red init; and to Messrs. F. & A. Smith for Retaliater. In the Class for the best Gold-and-Bronze Zonale variety, Messrs. Carter & Co. were first, with Hgyptian Queen, which has a broad reddish-bronze zone with a golden centre and edge, altogether very beautiful. Messrs. Downie, Laird, & Laing were second, with Countess of Kellie, a sort having a handsome light-coloured zone and a bright golden ground. Messrs. Carter were third with Cleopatra, which is something like Hgyptian Queen. Mr. Uphill, Moreton, Dorchester, re- ceived a Certificate for Drs. Frampton. In the Class for the best Golden Self, Mr. Tirebuck, of Luton, was first, with Golden Drop; Messrs. Saltmarsh second, with Golden Queen; and Mr. Tirebuck third, with a variety which was also shown under the name of Golden Queen. In the Class for the best Silver Varie-
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gated Zonale, the first prize was awarded to Messrs. F. & A. Smith for Wiss Burdett Coutts, « variety having a large bold leaf with a broad edge and zone, the latter with much pink in it; Messrs. E. G. Henderson were second, with Italian Sunshine, hav- ing similar leaves, less red; and F. & A. Smith third, with Per, white edge and a broad green centre. Messrs. Veitch & Sons exhibited some very beautiful plants, including Alocasia Jen- ningsit, with black foliage edged and banded with green. Mr. Bull contributed also a highly interesting collection, among them Oreodowa regia, an elegant Palm, Cyathea canaliculata, a handsome tree Fern, and Araucaria elegans, an elegant species, of smaller growth than 4. Rulei. Mr. W. Paul exhibited Cupres- sus Lawsoniana ochroleuca, a handsomely variegated sort, with the young spray blotched with creamy white. A few Dahlias were shown: Buttercup, from Mr. Turner, and Golden King, from Mr. G. Rawlings, are two fine high-coloured yellow flowers, something similar in build, though distinct in colour; the latter were smaller than Mr. Turner’s flowers, though equally pure in colour, and of as fine a petal and outline. Rosamond, also from Mr. Turner, has grown into a fine flower, the colour a clear pinkish lilac, very bright and pleasing ; it will render good service as an exhibition variety. Jfemorandum, from Mr. Church, is a light-ground flower, tipped with rosy lilac, very pretty, of good substance, and smooth in the florets; and President, from Mr. Legge, of Edmonton, is a fine addition to the lively crimson flowers, of a very rich hue of colour, with a remarkably full and high centre, good petal and substance, and possesses first-class properties.
October 1.—From the Society’s Garden came a collection of beautifully flowered small plants of Odontoglossum grande. Among them were one or two large-blossomed and highly coloured varieties. It may be mentioned that this Odontoglot is pre- eminently a cool Orchid, and that, as such, it is well worth the attention of amateur cultivators. Dendrobium cumulatum was furnished on this occasion by Messrs. Veitch; it produces droop- ing spikes of white flowers, fiushed with hlac, and when better established will probably be a showy and interesting species. Mr. Bull contributed a fine group of plants, in which were Ptychosperma regale, a handsome Palm, with leaves which, when young, have a coppery tinge on the upper surface, and are ribbed with red on the lower side; and Aspidistra elatior angustifolia
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variegata, with narrow leaves striped with cream-colour. Messrs, Carter & Co. had three good plants of Phalenopsis amabilis in fine bloom. Mr. Stevens, of Ealing, showed Variegated Zonale Pe- largonum Achievement, a kind with smooth leaves, having a broad bright crimson and black zone on a yellow ground. Mr. Cripps, Tunbridge Wells, sent a beautiful collection of cut blooms of Clematises, including Star of India, violet purple, striped with rosy purple; Aarie Lefebvre, very large, delicate French white, striped with deep lilac; MWadame Van Houtte, very large, pure white; and Sensation, also large, pale blue. Mr. Cripps likewise exhibited Cupressus Lawsoniana flava, a variety with a golden tinge on the young growth. Mr. Standish, Royal Nurseries, Ascot, sent a collection of seedling Gladioli, which included the following novelties :— William Menzies, rosy carmine, with faint flakes of white, the throat pencilled with purplish crimson, and forming a close and effective spike, having sixteen expanded flowers at one time; Lady Alice Hill, a novel-looking flower, - haying a pale ground marked and feathered with bright deep lilac, the throat stained with rosy violet ; and Lord Kenlis, bright orange-red, with conspicuous lemon throat, and a light stripe up each segment of the flower, a fine and attractive exhibition variety. Messrs. E. G. Henderson & Son exhibited some finely flowered Standard Veronicas, among which V. purpurea violacea was conspicuous, being apparently a robust free-growing kind, with strong spikes of flowers of a beautiful violet-purple colour. The other Veronicas exhibited were Aladame Boucharlat, Azurea superba, Delfossiana, and Meldensis. Messrs. Henderson also had a collection of Lantanas, of which We plus ultra, Alba lutea grandi- flora, Julius Cesar, and Madame Dufoy were the best.
October 15.—Mr. Bull contributed on this occasion an in- teresting collection of plants, among which were Hncephalartos gracilis, a graceful-looking species, with long, slender, downy stems, on which the narrow leaves are arranged in a somewhat pectinate form; dAueuba japonica mascula marmorata, a mottled variety, bearing considerable resemblance to the ordinary Aucuba, but having the colours more intense and therefore better con- trasted; A. japonica feemina grandis, a noble species, with large, broad, green, glossy foliage. Mr. Bowie, gardener, Chillingham Castle, sent a new Lobelia, named Litile Gem, a compact-growing kind, with white blossoms broadly edged with blue, which was much admired.
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November 5,—Messrs. Veitch & Sons exhibited a charming col- lection of flowering plants, consisting chiefly of Orchids, among which were the beautiful Vanda cerulea, Cattleya maxima, as well as some unusually beautiful varieties, the ever-flowering Lycaste Skinneri, Dendrobium bigibbum, and Lelia prestans; Dracena Macleayit, a beautiful plant with deep greenish-olivaceous or bronzy-silvery leaves, and Aphelandra Roezli, a showy species with briliant orange-scarlet blossoms and broad silvery foliage, with a twisted petiole. Messrs. F. & A. Smith produced a deep crimson- scarlet Zropeolwm, called Mrs. Treadwell.
December 3.—One of the most interesting features of this meeting was a collection of Japanese Chrysanthemums, from Mr. Salter, of Hammersmith: Red Dragon, Aurantium, Comet, and Wizard, were especially and deservedly admired. Of these the first has thread-like petals of a warm red colour, tinged with gold; the second, on the contrary, is remarkable for the breadth of its massive yellow petals; while in Comet, again, occurs the thread-like form, fringed with reddish brown; and Wizard is a dark crimson, with a small yellow eye. Tarantula, a yellow sort, also deserves notice, on account of its hard button-like centre, and long, narrow, sprawling florets which surround it. These varieties, though so different in colour, are said to have been all raised from Chrysanthemum rosewm punctatum; and from them others possessing more merit may doubtless soon be expected to be obtained. They cannot be called florist’s flowers, but for ordi- nary conservatory decoration they will be found invaluable. Mr. | Green, gardener to W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., brought a charm- ingly rose-spotted variety of Odontoglossum Alexandre, called Bowmanii ; it was the finest variety which has yet been shown. Messrs. E. G. Henderson sent blooms of a finely formed white sport from the Princess of Wales Chrysanthemum, named Beauty of St. John’s Wood. From the same firm, as well as from Mr. Forsyth and Mr. George, came a collection of cut blooms of Chrysanthemums.
XXXil ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
The Floral Committee, at a Meeting held at Chiswick on the 19th of August, awarded Certificates to the following varieties of bed- ding Pelargoniums, these being either absolute novelties or sorts which had not previously been tried out of doors at Chiswick :—
First-Ciass CERTIFICATES.
Madame Martha Vincent, free blooming good white, the white a little tinted and the flowers in good trusses.
Purity, free and bearing good trusses, the flowers pure white. This and the foregoing are the two best of the many white- flowered sorts in the collection, the first having slightly the ad- vantage in freeness and size of truss, and the latter in pureness of colour.
Madame Werle, free bleoming, fine shape, white, with deli- cately tinted rosy-pink eye ; leaf zoned.
Fairy Queen, a free and useful sort, with bright rosy-crimson flowers and lobed leaves.
Dr. Hogg, very showy, a seminosegay with large broad petals of a rosy-crimson hue, the lower petals, especially in some stages, being more strongly suffused with rose.
Rebecca, a seminosegay, with zoned leaves and fine trusses of large rosy-red flowers, having glowing upper petals.
Crystal Palace Gem, a large, red, and very showy flower with small white eye, something in the way of Roi d’Italie, and with dark-zoned leaves.
Warrior, a strong growing sort, with plain green leaves and large trusses of finely shaped bright scarlet flowers.
Sambo, dwarf compact habit and faintly zoned leaves; the flowers rather small but of a very rich crimson-scarlet.
Lady Constance Grosvenor, a very effective flower, and probably the best, as far as yet developed, of the present season; the leaves are of a peculiarly lively green and elegantly marked with a dark zone, and the flowers (of the Nosegay class) are of a very bright scarlet and produced in large trusses: it is a decided beat upon Cybister.
“iolet Hill Nosegay, which had formerly been voted a Second- class Certificate, was now given a First ; it is remarkably dwarf and compact, with a full head of salmon-red flowers, and has lobed leaves ; and if a continuous bloomer, will make a pretty edging variety.
oa
ys
EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS. XXXill
Gloire de Nancy, with large plain green leaves and rose-tinted flowers, was selected for reward as the best of the double-flowered varieties yet obtainable.
Princess Alexandra, a silver-variegated sort, of compact growth, with large flat leaves, broadly edged with white.
Castlemilk, a white-edged variety, of rather erect free growth, with the leaves inclined to cup.
Snowdrop, the counterpart of Princess Alexandra as to com- pactness and flatness of leaf, but with the broad margin of a creamy tint.
Srconp-CLass CERTIFICATES.
Albion’s Cliffs, a silver-edged, much in the way of Castlemilk, but more vigorous in growth, and somewhat less white in appear- ance; a good useful sort, nevertheless.
Oberon Nosegay, with yellowish-green leaves, marked by a dull zone, and large scarlet seminosegay flowers; it is bright in colour, but thin.
Emily Morland, a zonate scarlet.
Vulcan, a free-growing sort, with green-lobed leaves and semi- nosegay flowers of a clear scarlet.
In addition to the foregoing, First-class Certificates were given to the Golden-leaved Pyrethrum Golden Feather, from Messrs. E. G. Henderson & Son, and to Zropcolum Advancer, a dwarf, compact-growing, orange-scarlet, from Mr. Chater; and at a subsequent meeting, a Iirst-class Certificate to Lobelia Little Gem, a dwarf bedding kind, with white eye, from Mr. Bowie, of Chilingham.
Report of Meetings of Fruit and Vegetable Committee.— January 15, 1867.—Messrs. Lucombe, Pince, and Co., of the Exeter Nursery, exhibited a bunch of Mrs. Pince’s Black Muscat Grape, to snow how well it maintained its flavour and keeping- qualities. It was a little shrivelled, but still of excellent flavour, which was slightly musky. The Committee considered it a most excellent late Grape, and confirmed the judgment given upon it at a previous meeting, when it was awarded a First-Class Certi- ficate.
Mr. J. B. Whiting, The Deepdene, Dorking, received a Special Certificate for a very handsome collection of eight sorts of Apples in excellent preservation ; amongst them Sudbury Beauty
XXXIV ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
was found exceedingly sweet and good; likewise Boston Russet and Mickleham Pearmain, which last is very tender-fleshed and rich,
Henry Wentworth, Buller, Hsq., exhibited a dish of Apples unnamed. It was a smallround sort, apparently a good keeper ; but the Committee considered it too small for kitchen use, and not rich enough for dessert.
Mr. John Marshall, Riseholme, Lincoln, and Messrs. J. Slater & Sons, The Nurseries, Malton, likewise exhibited Apples.
February 19, 1867.—Thomas Laxton, Esq., Stamford, exhi- bited two sorts of Apples, viz. Stamford Pippin and Welland Pippin. The Stamford Pippin was sent, Mr. Laxton stated, merely to show that its keeping-qualities and flavour would bear comparison with the best apples then in season. The Welland Pippin is a seedling, the parentage of which is unknown. The fruits sent, Mr. Laxton stated, were from the original tree, and the past was the third year of its fruiting: the tree, which is healthy, is a good bearer; it is growing there in a town garden, on the Lower Oolite soil, shallow, and nearly artificial. The fruit ripens rather late, but always thoroughly. It is roundish in form, about the size of Dumelow’s Seedling, and has, like it, a trans- lucence round the eye; skin smooth, yellowish, tinged faintly with red next the sun, and streaked; the flesh soft, somewhat mealy; the flavour is pleasant, but not sufficiently rich to merit distinction as a first-rate dessert fruit, but being extremely hand- some, Mr. Laxton was requested to send it again.
Mr. J. B. Whiting exhibited a collection of Apples, among which the Blenheim Orange was remarkably handsome and of excellent quality. Adams’s Pearmain was also unusually fine. A Special Certificate was awarded.
Mr. Parsons, gardener, Danesbury, Welwyn, Herts, exhibited a collection of nineteen sorts of Apples in excellent condition. Among these the Blenheim Orange was remarkably fine and highly coloured. A Special Certificate was awarded.
Mr, Harley, gardener to I’. Pryor, Esq., Digswell, Welwyn, Herts, exhibited several varieties of Apples, among which Dredge’s Fame was conspicuous. It is a medium-sized kitchen Apple, the flesh greenish-white, with a brisk acidity, excellent for cooking.
Mr, Earley likewise exhibited a large collection of Potatos of good appearance, also a punnet of Mushrooms, Amongst the
A
EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS, XXXV¥
latter, which sprung from spawn purchased for that of the com- mon Mushroom (Agaricus campestris), was a variety of which a section of the stalk exhibited a yellow tinge, very different from the true Mushroom. Mr, Berkeley, who examined them, decided that it was Agaricus arvensis, a very inferior variety.
Mr. Sherrat, gardener to James Bateman, Esq., Knypersley Hall, Congleton, exhibited fruit of the Citrus Japonica (the Kum- quat, or Cumquat, of the Chinese) from a tree grown in a warm greenhouse, The fruit was likeasmall oval yellow Plum. Speci- mens of the preserved fruit, as sold by the confectioners, were also exhibited. Mr. Fortune stated that the Citrus Japonica was largely cultivated in China and Japan, and that it was hardier than the common orange, and would probably prove sufficiently hardy to succeed out of doors in the warmer parts of the south of England. The bushes, 3 to 4 feet in height (in China), are very beautiful in November and December, when loaded with ripe fruit. It must be grafted on Limonia trifoliata.
Mr. kh. Dean, Haling, exhibited examples of Fearnought Cab- bages, a hybrid between the Dwarf Cabbage and Hearting Kall. it resembles an open-hearted Cabbage, the outside leaves green tinged with brown, the heart white, as if blanched. It was stated to be very hardy, tender, and good.
March 5.—Mr. J. B. Whiting was awarded the First Prize for the best three dishes of Dessert Apples, and also for the best three dishes of Kitchen Apples.
Mr. Sherrat, gardener to J. Bateman, Hsq., exhibited a bunch of the Ahbee Grape. It is a variety much admired for the beautiful rosy-blush which it acquires when well ripened. It is in flavour, however, very inferior. It was originally sent by Col. Sykes to the Society from the Deccan, India.
Mr, Stanton, gardener to James Bateman, Hyq., Biddulph Grange, exhibited very fine examples of home-grown Oranges and Lemons.
Mr. Lee, Cliveden, Bristol, exhibited two very distinct-looking Apples, both grown on the same tree; one was the true Orange Pearmain, smooth, glossy, streaked with bright red on a pale orange ground; the other was completely russeted.
March 19.—Messrs. Cutbush & Sons exhibited some fine examples of an Onion, called Nuneham Park, which the Com-
mittee decided was not distinct, but simply a well-selected stock of the White Spanish.
XXXVI ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Mr. Holliday, gardener to H. B. Walmsley, Esq., Acton, exhi- bited a remarkably handsome and beautiful fruit of the Ripley Queen Pine-Apple, to which a Special Certificate was awarded.
Mr. Johnson, gardener to the Marquis of Aylesbury, Savernake, exhibited Lady Downe’s Seedling Grape, in good condition. These were sent by Mr. Johnson merely to show the Committee what an excellent keeping variety it is.
Mr. R. Holliday, wireworker, 2.4 Portobello Terrace, Notting Hill Gate, exhibited a piece of wirework, called Paxton’s “ Straw- berry Crinoline,” described as follows in a note which accom- panied it :—“ The Strawberry Crinoline is a circular piece of wire- work in two halves, galvanized ; 1t supports the berries 4 inches from the ground, preserving them from contact with the earth, slugs, &c. They will last at least ten years with care.” The Committee thought they would prove rather expensive for gene- ral use, but suggested that they might be desirable for small orowers.
April 2.—Mr. George Curd, gardener to M. G. Thoyts, Esq., Sulhampstead, Reading, was awarded a First Prize for the best three dishes of Dessert Apples.
Mr. John Cox, of Redleaf, and Mr. W. Lynn, gardener to Lord Boston, Hedsor, Maidenhead, were placed equal second for the same. The varieties exhibited included Royal Pearmain, Old Nonpareil, Scarlet Nonpareil, Besspool, Ribston Pippin, &c.
For the best two dishes of Aitchen Apples Mr. J. Cox was awarded the First Prize. Sorts, Royal Russet, Norfolk Beefing, Bedfordshire Foundling. The second was awarded to Mr. Ear- ley for Dredge’s Fame, Norfolk Beefing, Bedfordshire Found- ling.
Mr. Middleton, gardener to Sir W. W. Wynne, Wynustay Hall, Ruabon, exhibited a collection of thirty varieties of Apples, for which a Special Certificate was awarded.
Mr. Carmichael, gardener to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, at Sandringham, exhibited a very nice dish of “ Little Gem”? Peas, which had been grown in pots under glass, showing what an excellent variety it 1s for that purpose where space can be afforded. Mr. Carmichael mentioned, in the letter accom- panying them, that he made the first sowing (in 8-inch pots, eight or ten peas in a pot) in the middle of September, from which he gathered on the 9th of December. They continued bearing till the end of February. He made a second sowing in the middle of
EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS. “XXXVii
November, from which he gathered, first, on the 9th of March, and, secondly, the dish exhibited before the meeting. A Special Certificate awarded.
April 16.—Mr. Lydiard, of Batheaston, Bath, exhibited a very good dish of Princess Alice Maude Strawberries, several sorts of Cucumbers, and a Seedling Potato, in appearance like the Ashleaf, which was considered very good for the season of the year. Special Certificate awarded.
Mr. Wm. Melville, gardener to the Earl of Roseberry, Dalmeny Park, Edinburgh, exhibited some heads of “ Melville’s Imperial Early Cauliflower Brocoli.’ Mr. Melville stated that it had stood uninjured by the frost during the late severe winter. It was commended by the Committee as a very good late protecting variety, allied to Knight’s Protecting, but dwarfer. The Com- mittee were, however, of opinion, that the designation of “ Early Cauliflower” was misapplied in this instance, it being now Jate in the Brocoli season.
May 7.—My. Gardiner, gardener to Sir George Phillips, Weston House, Warwickshire, exhibited two dishes of Bellegarde Peaches. They were very fine and quite ripe. Special Certificate awarded.
Mr. Fairbairn, gardener to His Grace the Duke of Northum- berland, Syon, exhibited several pots of Keen’s Seedling Straw- berries, excellent examples of good pot cultivation. It was re- marked that this variety, although one of the best for forcing generally, does not bear carriage well, being somewhat tender- fleshed. Special Certificate awarded.
Mr. Merret, gardener to Henry Whiting, Esq., Battersea Rise, exhibited excellent examples of Sir Charles Napier Strawberry ; those in pots showed very good cultivation, the crop abundant, berries of fair size and finely coloured. Special Certificate awarded.
Mr. Earley, gardener to F. Pryor, Esq., Digswell, Welwyn, Herts, exhibited six heads of Williams’s Alexandra Brocoli. They were large, forming a close, white head, which was protected by the leaves, the stalks of which were stout and curved inwards, like Knight’s Protecting. Mr. Earley stated that it was a very hardy variety. The Committee considered it an exceedingly good late Brocoli, and worthy of all commendation. First-Class Cer- tificate awarded.
Mr. Turner, Slough, exhibited three bunches of White Muscat of Alexandria Grapes and three bunches of Black Hamburgh.
XXXVill ROYAL HWORTICULTURAT SOCIETY.
Both of these exhibitions were remarkably fine and beautiful, and to each a Special Certificate was awarded, the Committee re- eretting that it was not in their power to bestow a higher award for such beautiful grapes at this early season.
May 21.—-At this meeting, for the best three dishes of Dessert Apples, Mr. J. B. Whiting, The Deepdene, was awarded the First Prize, for Adams’s Pearmain, Mickleham Pearmain, and a sort unnamed. ‘The Second Prize being awarded to Mr. Lynn, gar- dener to Lord Boston.
For the best three dishes of Strawberries, Mr. Curd, gardener to M. G. Thoyts, Esq., was awarded the First Prize, the sorts being Eclipse, Sir Harry, and Marguerite.
For the best dish of Cherries, the First Prize was awarded to Mr. Lynn for Frogmore Early.
For the best dish of Peaches, the First Prize was awarded to Mr. Tegg, gardener to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, Clumber, for Bellegarde.
Mr. Cox, of Redleaf, exhibited a collection of six sorts of well- preserved itchen Apples, to which a Special Certificate was awarded.
Mr. Pearson, Chilwell, exhibited some Walnuts of the growth of 1864 (23 years old), in very excellent condition. They had been kept by Mrs. Hetley, of Orton Longueville, Peterborough, — who allows them to fall naturally from the tree, dries them well in the open air, then keeps them in bags in a dry attic. A Special Certificate was awarded.
Mr. Shortt, gardener to Viscount Eversley, Heckfield, exhibited fruit of Cerasus Pseudo-cerasus. Jt is a small species of cherry, of a pale amber-colour, almost transparent, with a hooked point at the apex. It is pretty, but not fit for dessert, being mawk- ishly acid. It might, however, make a tolerable preserve.
June 4.—Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, exhibited ripe fruit of seven varieties of Cherries, grown in an orchard-house in pots. They proved a very interesting exhibition, and consisted of the following, viz.:—-1. Guigne Native de Lyons, bright mottled red ; 2. Guigne trés-précoce, dark red; 3. Noire précoce de Strasse, small black; 4. Early Purple Guigne, considered the best ; 5. Early Strasse, or Bigarreau de Strasse, like a small White Heart; G. Belle d’Orléans, large, pale; 7. Guigne Marbrée, small, dark maroon. Special Certificate awarded.
June 18.—Mr. Tillery, gardener to His Grace the Duke of
EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS. XXXIX
Portland, Welbeck, exhibited three dishes of Strawberries, viz. :— Ingram’s Prince of Wales, Reeves’s Eclipse, and Empress Eugénie. Special Certificate awarded.
Messrs. Lee exhibited fruit of “ The Lady” Strawberry, also several plants, in pots, laden with fruit. It is a very productive variety; berries large, pale, nearly white. It was found very deficient in flavour.
Mr. Shortt, gardener to Viscount Eversley, Heckfield, exhibited a fruit of Passiflora macrocarpa, which proved the same as P. qua- drangularis. Myr. Shortt also exhibited a fruit of Golden Lversley Melon, a variety of inferior flavour.
From the Garden of the Society, Chiswick, came a collection of thirty-three sorts of Strawberries, many of which were very large and fine, particularly Sir Joseph Paxton, Dr. Hogg, Sir Harry, Premier President, No. 8 Nicholson, Seedling H. Nicholson (very large), Napoléon III., Ambrosia, Prince Im- perial, Vicomtesse Hericart de Thurg, &c. &e.
July 2.—Mr. Dancer, Little Sutton, Chiswick, exhibited seve- ral branches of Led and White Dutch Currants; they were very heavily laden with splendid bunches of unusually large and fine fruit. Mr. Dancer stated that he had several distinct varieties growing in his grounds. The currant-crop being a very impor- tant one, and much confusion existing as to the respective varieties with their names, the Committee recommended that a collection be made of all the varieties in the Garden at Chiswick, with a view to their proper classification.
July 16.—Bury St. Edmunds. Mr. Standish, of the Royal Nurseries, Ascot, exhibited several bunches of the Royal Ascot Grape; it is a new seedling of great excellence. Bunches of medium size, tapering; berries large, roundish oval, jet-black, with a beautiful bloom; flesh firm, crackling, with a slight Muscat flavour, rich and excellent. It was awarded a First-Class Cer- tificate.
Mr. R. Fenn exhibited a collection of Wines made from out- door Grapes. The Committee considered many of them were of very superior quality, and awarded them a Special Certificate.
August 6.—At this meeting, for the best dish of the newer varieties of Cherries, Mr. Cox, Redleaf, was awarded the First Prize for Bigarreau monstreuse de Mezel, a very fine late cherry.
For the best Green-fleshed Melon, Mr. Harley, Digswell, was
xl ROYAL NORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
awarded the First Prize for a Melon, Dr. Hogg, which was of very good quality. /
Mr. Standish, of the Royal Nurseries, Ascot, again exhibited the Royal Ascot Grape, which received a First-Class Certificate at the Meeting at Bury St. Edmunds. Mr. Standish stated that it was obtained by crossing two white ones, viz. the Muscat of Alexandria with Muscat Trovéren. The Committee confirmed the award it had received at Bury, stating that it fully maintains the high character it has received.
Mr. J. Beach, gardener to C. J. Harris, Esq., St. Juliens, Sevenoaks, exhibited a very excellent dish of Morello Cherries, for which he was awarded a Special Certificate.
Mr. Rivers, Sawbridgeworth, exhibited fruit of the late Black Bigarreau Cherry (Bigarreau noire de Strasse), which Mr. Rivers states hangs well on the trees till the end of August, later than any of the other black cherries. The fruit is of medium size, deep black, and shining; flesh dark, juicy, and rich. It was awarded a First-Class Certificate. ;
Mr. Rivers also exhibited two Peaches, a -scedling from the Early York, with glandular leaves, which on that account may not be so liable to mildew as the parent Early York, which has no glands, it being a somewhat singular and remarkable fact that those peaches with glands are always less subject to mildew and much more robust than these without. The fruit resembles in every way the Early York. It was awarded a First-Class Cer- tificate.
August 20—At this meeting, for the best dish of Peaches grown on the open wall, Mr. Lynn, gardener to Lord Boston, was awarded the First Prize, Mr. Cox gaining the Second Prize.
For the best dish of Wectarines from open wall, Mr. Lynn was awarded a Second Prize.
For the best dish of Apricots from open wall, Mr. Earley, of Digswell, was awarded the First Prize, and Mr. Cox, of Redleaf, the Second.
For the best dish of Peaches from orchard-house, Mr. Douglass, gardener, Loxford Hall, was awarded the First Prize, with very beautiful Harly Yorks.
For the best dish of MNectarines from orchard-house, Mr. Douglass was awarded the First Prize.
For the best three dishes of Plums, Mr. Cox was awarded the First Prize, with Jefferson, Reine Claude, and Hulings’s Superb.
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Aiport ee ae = , i A
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Sd | I. New Observations on some Artificial Agents which promote the = ripening of Figs. By G. Gasparrini. Extracted from Vol. ii, of the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Physical and Mathe- matical Science. Naples, 1865............+44 AERA eS. 1
II. On the Cultivation of some Genera of Terrestrial Orchids, By Mr. THOMAS SHORTT, 65.7... cue > o 0's + bike wre ee ee ee 17
III. Note on one of the Hybrids between the Muscat of Alexandria and the Trouvéren Muscat, which promises a supply of grapes all the year round. By Joun StanpisH, Royal Nursery, Ascot, Berks.. 20
1V. Preparing Lilies of the Valley for Forcing. By Mr. W. Eartey .. 21 V. On Various Forms of Canker. By the Rey. M. J. Berxetzy,
MAGERES: SSeS WHEN Extracts from Proceedings of the Royal Horticultural Society, and Miscellaneous Matter.) 00. '2.)2 Jct cot at eee pe stay, tage |
ADVERTISEMENT.
Eacu Number, to be published quarterly, will in future consist of sixty-four of Letterpress, and two or more Woodcuts or Lithographs ; and the Vo ee which =D will consist-of four Numbers, will be sold to Subseribers for 6s. Te To Non-Subseribers the price of the Volume will be 8s. ai a All Subscriptions are to be paid in advance, to the Assistant Secretary at South Kensington. ae
Fellows and Correspondents of the Society are invited to communicate materials for this Journal, under cover, to the Rey. M. J. Berkeley, King’s Cliffe, > aa
Printed by TAYLOR and FRANcIs, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. : oe ae
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‘March 1, 1869. :
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ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
OF LONDON.
NEW SERIES. VOLUME II. —
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EDITED BY Tm Rev. M. J. BERKELEY, M.A., FLL. S. + PGES
. ATE TEE EY SPN POD ia Ryne anne
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New Patent Wrought-iron Multitubular Hot-water Boilers, &c., to be seen in the Garden, Chiswick ; also Drawings of Horticultural Building.
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Patent Expanding Canopy for Carriages, Boats, Garden Seats, Lawns, &c.
Etruscan Pottery, Flower-Pots, Vases for Hya- cinths and Cut Flowers, &c.
Horticultural Elegancies.
Weather-Indicators and Meteorological Instru- ments for Gardens, &c.
Corrugated Bricks for Garden Walls.
(pate Metallic Tileries and Ornamental Brick- work.
pit: Vases, Fountains, Garden Edging, Ballus- trades.
Portable Folding Ground Vinery.
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Kamptulicon, Garden-Pumps, Tubing, &c. &c.
Practical Wire-Worker, Suspending Wire Baskets, Wirework for Gardens, Conservatories, Parks, &c.
Glass for Table Decoration, Hyacinth Vases, Fern- Cases, and Window Conservatories.
Articles for Table Decoration, Flower-Stands,China Flower-Pots, &c.
Glass for Table Decoration.
Minton’s Majolica Flower-Pots,Garden Seats, Glass for Table Decoration, &c.
Decorative Florist, Estimates for Furnishing Con- servatories, Dinners, and Balls, &c.
Swiss Carvings, Flower-Boxes, China Flower- Stands, Pots, Jardiniéres, &e.
Conservatory Architects, Horticultural Builders, and Hot-water Apparatus Manufacturers.
Bronzed Figures, Vases, Fountains seen in Ac- tion—all for Decoration of Parks and Gardens.
Seedsmen, &c.
Horticultural Builder.
Mosaic Tiles.
Branch Orchid-Pots.
Horticultural Builder.
Hydraulic Engineer.
Terra-Cotta W avks
ARDENER (HEAD) OR SUPERINTENDENT TO A PUBLIC
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The Advertiser is about leaving a large plece where he has served twelve years, and is now at liberty to engage with any Nobleman or Gentleman requiring the services of a First-class Practical Gardener. He has had great experience in Planting and the manage- ment of Woods and Forests; can measure timber, ground, and brickwork, and is well qualified to fill a position similar to the above.
Testimonials of the highest class as to Character and Ability can be had from present and late Employers. References to James Ricnarps, Esq., Assistant-Secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, W.; Mr. Grorcr Hexrzs, Superintendent,
Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, W.; Mr. A. F. Barron, Royal Horticul- tural Gardens, Chiswick, W.
— To
roe ne ee OM AS; PADDINGTON WIRE-WORKS, 285 ann 362 EDGEWARE ROAD, LONDON, W.;
AND AT THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S GARDENS, SOUTH KENSINGTON. First-Class Certificates awarded at the International Exhibition, South Kensington, 1866.
NEW AND IMPROVED AVIARIES, SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE DRAWING-ROOM.
These Aviaries are a great improvement upon those usually made, being so constructed that the seed, gravel, &c. is entirely confined within the Aviary. Strips of clear glass, 3 inches deep, are fitted above the mahogany to the front and back, easily taken out for cleaning; the feeding-boxes at the ends are so arranged that it is impossible for the birds to throw out their seeds or water. These improvements will be found a great acquisition where birds are kept in the Drawing-Room.
The Aviaries are made of the best well-seasoned Mahogany, French-polished, and Brass- or Tin-Wired. They have two loose divisions, dividing the Aviary into three separate compartments, the divisions can be easily withdrawn, to form one long Aviary, if desired.
SIZES AND PRICES OF AVIARIES, WITHOUT THE TABLE.
Length. Width. Height. Wire. Wire. ft.in. ft: in.) dts dns bE) Gig eos. Wh
No. 22. 3 0 | 3 3 5 50 4 60 23. 3 6 1v--6 3 9 6150 5120 24. 4 0 lexg 4 6 9 00 7150 25. 4 6 1 10 BL sOr- 12) L000 Yi, 0 26. 5 0 2 0 5 Oy - 1770, Gee 15: 26. 0
SUPERIOR MAHOGANY TABLES.
Extra strong, with drawers divided into compart- ments, to contain gravel, five different kinds of seeds, perch-scraper, &c., so that all requisites for the Aviary can be always at hand.
PRICES OF TABLES.
& 8. -d.
For No. 22 Aviary ........ 210 0
RRR” etree ST) 25°66
ae Salt mee) ee 310 0
pat ons, € omens 4 00
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ILLUSTRATED AND PRICED LISTS
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HANGING BASKETS, FENCING, HURDLES, &c.,
ON APPLICATION.
Orders recewed at the Royal Horticultural Gardens by Mr. J. C. Fox.
Phe advantages of procuring New and Unadulterated Seeds direct from the Growers cannot be overestimated.
Apes Mbed oF tata
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237, 238, & 261 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. CARTER’S GARDEN SEEDS, im Assortments.
No. 1. For Cottage Gardens.......... 12s. 6d. No. 3. For Medium Gardens.....:......... 42s, 2. For Small'Gardens...¢.5... 2... Bis; 4, For Large Gardens ..".\....- cee eee 63s. No charge for packing. Detailed list of contents on application.
CARTHR’S FLOWER SEEDS. In assorted Collections, to produce the most effective and permanent display in the Garden throughout the Year. Collection A, 10s. 6d.; free by post, 11s. | Collection D, 42s.; free by post, 42s. 6d.
3 B, 15s.; free by post, 15s. 6d. os E, 63s.; free by post, 64s, C, 21s.; free by post, 21s. 6d. Detailed tables of contents on application.
NEW DOUBLE ZONAL GERANIUM FOR 1869.
WILHELM PFITZER (Lemotine).—A novelty without a rival, possessing all the desirable qualities to make it a valuable addition to every collection; dwarf, free-blooming habit, and brilliancy of colour.
Plants not higher than 5 inches had two and three trusses fully expanded, each measuring rather more than 5 inches across; the individual flowers are large, very double, of the most perfect shape, and dazzling orange-scarlet colour.
J. C. & Co, have purchased a large Stock of the raiser, M. Lemoine, of Nancy, for distribution in Eng-
land. Plants now ready. Price 7s. 6d. each.
CARTER’S. EFENE LAWN GRASS
AS SUPPLIED TO THE GARDENS
OF THE
Princtpal Eurepean Courts, THE PARIS EXHIBITION, THE CRYSTAL PALACE, THE
MARYLEBONE CRICKET CLUB, &e. &e.
J.C. and Co.’s mixture of fine Grasses will speedily produce a permanent turf of the finest description on Lawns, Terraces, &c. affected by the drought of last year.
Price 1s. per ib., 20s. per bushel. Quantity required per acre, to form a new Lawn, 3 bushels. To renovate, 1 bushel (more or less).
CARTER’S GRASS SEEDS FOR PERMANEN PAS TW BES. Specially prepared for every description of soil. Finest quality 32s. per acre, second quality 20s. to 26s. per acre. Special estimates for large quantities. For full cultural directions and information see
CARTER’S | Gardener’s and Farmer’s Vade Mecum
FOR 1869 (ILLUSTRATED). . Post-free for Twelve Stamps (gratis to Customers).
JAMES CARTER AND Co.,
SEED GROWERS AND NURSERYMEN, 237, 238, and 261 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C.
SEED FARMS :—East House Farm, Dedham, Essex ; The Seed Farm, St. Osyth, Essex ;
Jupes Hill Farm, Dedham, Essex ; God’s House Farm, Ardleigh, Essex.
REY. M. J. BERKELEY ON VARIOUS FORMS OF CANKER. 25
it 1s possible to trace the affection from its earliest stage, it will sometimes be found that what at first sight might reasonably be supposed to depend on insects has really a different origin, though occasionally they may have aggravated the evil.
On examining the affected tissues, little perceptible difference occurs. In all cases the walls have become more or less flaccid, though seldom broken up, and have assumed the brown tint due to the presence of ulmates. The endochrome has often entirely vanished, or has been deposited on the cell-walls under some altered form. In moister tissues, where the cells are still turgid, the contained liquid abounds in minute brown granules; where ducts or vascular tissues are involved, the cavity is sometimes gorged with brown matter. The surrounding living cells are gra- dually affected, and a complete or partial change takes place, so that all neighbouring growths assume an altered form; and the lesion is of greater or less magnitude in proportion to the rapidity with which the taint is communicated. The evil may sometimes be arrested for years where pains are taken to remove carefully the affected part and to secure the wound by some application which may protect it from atmospheric influences.
A notice respecting the cause and proper remedy for Canker, by Mr. Rivers, appeared in the ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle’ for Dec. 13, 1856, which seems highly worthy of attention. After stating that certain varieties of apples, as the Ribston, Golden Pippin, Newtown Pippin, Nonesuch, and Old Nonpareil, defy the utmost eare of the pruner, he attributes the malady in these cases to deep rooting, and he not only suggests as a remedy biennial re- moving, but states that this system has answered in practice, and that, where delicate varieties had been accidentally undisturbed, canker prevailed. At the time of replanting, a quantity of charred garden refuse or burnt earth was added to the soil with good effect. Those varieties, however, which are of a less delicate con- stitution need not be removed.
In the same journal (June 18, 1857) is a notice by myself of a pamphlet on Canker, by Mr. John Pearson, which is deserving of especial attention. His remarks, however, apply more to stone-fruit ; and it is well that cultivators should keep them in mind. Deli- cate plants from warm countries cannot bear the wear and tear of our changeable climate without care. The buds in half-ripened wood are affected by alternations of wet and cold weather ; and he has attempted to prove this by causing artificially a stream of water to pass over the buds, and has induced in this way gum or
VOU. II. D
26 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
canker. Something, indeed, of this kind had already been tried by Mr. Knight; but it was certainly most desirable that the experi- ment should be confirmed, whether Mr. Pearson was acquainted or not with what had been done previously.
There can be little doubt that the main cause of Canker is penetration into an ungenial or badly drained soil, and a fre- quent lowering of temperature in consequence of the presence of constant wet; but in many cases a naturally weakly consti- tution must be taken into account, which gives way under rapid alternations of cold and heat. In no case, I believe, is any para- sitic fungus concerned, though, where branches have perished from Canker, such fungi as Lubercularia vulgaris, Spheria ambiens, &e. often make their appearance, and are occasionally considered the cause rather than the consequence.
The different forms which Canker assumes do not very readily admit of classification. The most convenient plan will probably be to consider separately those which affect each particular tree or group of trees. IJ begin, therefore, with those which occur on Apple-trees, of which there are several varieties.
1. One of the most common forms of Canker in Apple-trees is that which is produced by the woolly Aphis. The little insect gains admission generally at the base of a young shoot or bud, and by constant imbibition of the juices and consequent irritation causes an irregular growth, accompanied by a greater or less decay of the tissues, so that in a short time a ragged hollow is produced ; and where these hollows are scattered over the whole tree, the fer- tility is greatly impaired, and death at length ensues. The common Oodlin is perhaps more subject to this form of Canker than any other variety. A careful inspection will enable the cul- tivator frequently to arrest the evil in an early stage. I have found nothing so effectual as the common mixture of grease and tar which is applied to horses’ hoofs ; if this be rubbed in carefully with the finger, the evil will in general be arrested. "Where, how- ever, it is of long standing, it may be more difficult ; and even if the insect is destroyed, the diseased tissues may taint those beneath, and the malady will thus continually burrow deeper and deeper.
2. A second form of Canker, to which the Keswick Codlin is peculiarly subject, at first sight appears very similar to this, but on close inspection it will be fotind to be of a totally different nature. Probably from something wrong about the roots, a quan- tity either of adventitious buds or roots are produced in little shield-like patches. If buds, they are undeveloped; if roots, the
REV. M. J. BERKELEY ON VARIOUS FORMS OF CANKER. 27
tips soon die, and the taint is rapidly communicated to the under- lying tissues: new wood and bark are formed round the patches, which are in consequence sunk more or less deeply ; the sides of the surrounding wood and bark are soon more or less involved in the disease, the hollow becomes ragged and unsightly ; whole branches by degrees perish from the disease being carried round them, the trunk itself is filled with unseemly cavities, and the tree at length dies. Much the same process takes place frequently in the common Laurel, less frequently perhaps in the Laburnum ; and there can be little doubt that the mischief arises rather from a bad condition of the roots than from any deleterious matter being imbibed. I bave no information to show whether this form of Canker admits of remedy by lifting or not.
3. A third form of Canker is extremely common, and shows itself in various ways. Hither distinct patches of diseased tissue appear on different parts of the tree, or whole branches perish at once, the cuticle in most instances shelling off from the other portion of the bark. This undoubtedly in many cases arises from decay of the buds. Water collects in drops upon the buds and congeals, the vitality of the buds is lowered, disease takes place, and the tissues decay down to the wood, or penetrates it, and, in consequence, no fresh deposit can be made. Ido not say it always arises from a bud, whether developed or adventitious; but I be- lieve this very generally to be the case, and where the shoots are thin and ill ripened the progress is extremely rapid. The same process as before takes place; new growth is formed round the diseased patch, and a hollow gradually made as before. An old, experienced gardener told me that he was careful to prune off every spur which showed any symptom of decay, and never to leave any decayed fruit where the peduncle had not separated from the spur on the tree, as he had observed Canker often to arise in. this manner. Where the diseased patches occur on the stem, if they are cut out effectually, and the tissues protected from further decay by some kind of paint, the disease may be arrested; but no time must be lost, and every tainted shoot must be carefully re- moved. If, however, the disease has arisen from the penetration of the roots into ungenial soil, and not from stress of weather, timely lifting and root-pruning is the obvious remedy.
4. A fourth form of Canker I have observed on the Royal Russet, and it probably occurs on other varieties, though I have not observed it elsewhere. ‘The whole of the .tender bark, for several inches of the stem, looks as if it were pitted with the small-
D2
28 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
pox; the spots gradually become confluent, extending round the stem, which perishes, sometimes just as the fruit is coming to maturity, exactly after the fashion of what so constantly occurs in Apricots. Up to a certain time there was sufficient living tissue to carry the needful supply of sap; but the demand being at length at its maximum, the fountain-head fails.
5. A fifth form of Canker occurs occasionally, as in the Blen- heim Orange, though at present I have not seen it proceed to such a height as to produce serious mischief. Patches on the trunk assume a fibrous appearance; but the disease does not penetrate deeply, and I have found timely removal to be an effec- tual remedy. How far neglect might lead to mischief in this case I am unable to say.
6. A very curious form of Canker; very different from any of the preceding, occurs in some varieties, as, for instance, in the Court-of-Wick Pippin. ‘The process is in this case a very slow one, and is indicated by a shortening of the branches and an accompanying narrowing of the leaves. Fruit-blossoms for a time are produced, impregnation takes place, and some sorry apples arrive at their full development; after a time, however, merely a few leaves appear, and the whole branch perishes.
7. I mentioned above that what I believe to be a form of Canker occurs in the fruit itself, in some varieties certainly more frequently than in others; but it is not always fully developed while the fruit is on the tree, though doubtless the cause was antecedent to its being gathered. The fruit sometimes appears sound externally ; but more frequently there are slight discoloured depressions on the surface ; and when the fruit is divided, brown patches are scattered through the cellular tissue, and the fruit is comparatively worthless. I have frequently examined the diseased spots under the microscope, and could never detect any insect; and the whole phenomena appear to me to belong to the same category
as ordinary Canker. [To be continued. |
VI. Note on the Cultivation of the Mangrove Tree at the Gar- dens of the Royal Botanic Society of London, By Win1t1amM Sownrsy, Assistant Secretary.
As this curious tree has seldom been grown in England, a few notes on its cultivation may interest the Members of the Horti- cultural Society.
The “ Mangroye,” Rhizophora mangle, is common in most
MR. W. SOWERBY ON TILE MANGROVE TREE. 29
tropical countries; it delights in salt swamps and the low shores of the ocean. Dr. W. Hamilton thus describes its mode of growth: he says, “In the economy of nature the Mangrove per- forms a most important part, wresting annually fresh portions of the land from the dominion of the ocean, and adding them to the domain of man; this is effected in a twofold manner—first by the progressive advance of the roots, and secondly by the aérial ger- mination of the seeds, which do not quit their lofty cradle till they have assumed the form of actual trees, and drop into the water with their roots ready prepared to take possession of the mud in advance of the parent stems and repel to a further and perpetually increasing distance the invasion of the water. The progression by means of the roots is effected by fresh roots which issue from the trunk at some distance above the surface of the water, and, arching downwards, penetrate the mud and become in time independent trees; thus a complicated labyrinth of vegeta- tion is at length formed, serving to arrest the particles of soil washed down from the interior of the country and raise the level of the ground; the shallow water is thus converted into a salt- marsh, and the salt-marsh progressively dry land. These roots afford attachment to myriads of small but delicious oysters, which are left bare during the efflux of the tide, giving rise to the popular fable of oysters growing on trees.”
After several unsuccessful attempts, we received, in June 1867, many young plants of the Mangrove in very good condition; the very healthy state in which they arrived at the Gardens is due to the care given to them by the officers of the Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, who brought home the case I had specially prepared and sent out to the West Indies. Of the young plants, which are from 1 to 2 feet high, some have been grown in pots entirely submerged in sea water, others are only occasionally watered ; but all are kept in a moist warm stove, and are at the present time, August 1868, in good health ; they root very freely, and the roots appear not to be injured by the decomposing soil, which occasionally becomes putrid. The plants have not yet thrown out any aérial roots; the growth of the stems is inter- mittent, giving them the appearance of having been grafted,
30 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
VII. Interim Report to the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society by the Subcommittee appointed to inquire into the adul- teration of Seeds.
1. In accordance with your instructions, your Committee have
taken steps to ascertain whether there is any just foundation for
the representations which have been made to the Council regard- ing the unsatisfactory state of the seed-trade and the bad quality of much of the seed sold to the public.
2. It was represented to the Council that, as the business of seedsmen is at present conducted, the purchaser of seeds fre- quently receives neither the kind nor the quality of seeds he | pays for, and that against this he has no remedy except a doubtful and expensive lawsuit after the mischief has been done.
3. It was also urged that, unlike most other kinds of adultera- tion or deception in the quality of goods, the injury done in the case of seeds does not terminate with the use of the article pur- chased, but entails, in addition, the loss of the rent of the ground on which the seed may be sown, and of the labour expended upon it in preparing the soil and tending the crop—not to speak of the disappointment of the reasonable expectations of the cultivator.
4, Having no means of compelling parties to give evidence, your Committee’s investigation into the alleged adulteration, mixing, or deterioration of seeds has necessarily been confined to making inquiries of those who have the means of knowledge, and on whose statements they could rely.
5. From information so acquired, they believe that the public suffers more or less from the neglect and malpractices of dealers in seeds in at least the following ways :—
(1.) Generally by seeds being kept too long and being sold after they have lost their vitality.
This is the most injurious of all the causes of depreciation ; for it applies equally to the honest and dishonest trader. In adulte- ration, the evil must be done with intent to defraud. Here there may be no intention to defraud; but mere neglect or want of judgment may be as injurious to the purchaser as if there were.
(2.) By the addition of bad seed to good, and mixing old and new.
(3.) By the addition of seed whose vitality has been killed.
This is‘done in the case of varieties of peculiar excellence, when the supply is insufficient to meet the demand. Killed seed of a cheap kind, similar in appearance to that of a dear kind, is added to increase the quantity without affecting the quality. In this kind of adulteration the purchaser is only deceived in the quantity.
REPORT TO THE COUNCIL ON ADULTERATION OF SEEDS. 31
What comes up at all, comes true, and the character of the dealer for supplying a true article is maintained. ©
(4.) By manipulating and doctoring the seed so as to make bad
seed look like good, as by dying bad clover-seed, sulphur-smoking bad grass-seed, oil-dressing bad turnip-seed, &c. &e. - 6. Your Committee have been unable to ascertain to what ex- tent these different practices are carried on; but they have rea- son to think it must be considerable. One of their informants was able, from personal knowledge, to instance one individual whose principal business consisted in destroying the vitality of cheap seeds for the purpose of mixing with sound seed of greater value; and they have reason to believe that this is by no means a solitary case. They are told also that large numbers of people obtain a livelihood by the manufacture of bad into apparently good clover-seed.
7. Your Committee next endeavoured to ascertain how far the various causes, above-mentioned, actually affect the productive- ness of seeds sold in the market. They have not at present made any tests with the view of determining how far seeds sold as of special quality or kind come true. Their experiments have, in the first instance, been directed solely to the vitality of seeds; and to that alone the present Report applies. In a future Report they may deal with the quality of the kinds of seeds sold, as well as some other collateral points.
8. In entering on the inquiry as to vitality, your Committee attempted to obtain a test for guessing at the age of seed by the percentage which comes up; but this they found impossible, so much depending on the original quality, and the care with which the seed has been afterwards stored. They made, however, some trials of turnip-seed with this intent; and it may not be without interest to mention that, in them, they found the percent- age which came up from home-grown good seed one year old to be 80, three years old 43, seven years old.32, and the older the seed the lower the rate of germination.
9. It would have been beyond the means at the disposal of your Committee to test even a small sample of the goods of all the seeds- men and nurserymen in London; but by going only to the whole- ‘sale dealers, from whom the retail dealers of course chiefly obtain their supplies, they thought they could arrive at a fair estimate of the general character of the seeds sold throughout the country. It appears from Dr. Hogg’s ‘ Horticultural Directory’ that there -are twenty wholesale dealers in London. From each of these (with
32 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
the exception of two, who were accidentally omitted) the Com- mittee purchased samples of five of our commonest garden-yege- tables (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and white and yellow turnips) —care being taken to prevent the purpose for which they were wanted being known. ‘The samples were numbered, and the names of the dealers from whom they were got were kept secret ; 100 seeds of each package were tested by the Society’s officers at Chiswick, and a like sample separately by one of the Members of the Committee, and the number of seeds which came up were counted. In addition to this test, in a number of instances, especially where, before sowing, the appearance of the seeds was not good, they were mechanically tested by crushing and microscopical examina- tion; and that test was found to correspond with the result of the trial by sowing. ‘The test by floating was also tried, but found of no value with the kinds of seeds specified.
10. The results of sowimg, as shown by the average of both trials (which, it is right to say, in general corresponded very closely) were as follows :—
Out of the eighteen packages of 100 cauliflower-seeds, the fol- lowing numbers respectively came up, viz. 86, 70, 66, 60, 56, 54, 54, 52, 51, 51, 50, 44, 44, 44, 48, 39, 36, 24.
Out of the eighteen packages of 100 broccoli-seeds, the follow- ing numbers respectively came up, viz. 86, 83, 70, 68, 65, 62, 60, 59, 56, 55, 50, 46, 42, 42, 39, 35.
Out of the eighteen packages of 100 carrot-seeds, the following were the numbers which came up, viz. 61, 56, 54, 48, 47, 45, 44, 48, 41, 38, 38, 37, 37, 35, 33, 80, 19, 14.
Out of the eighteen packages of 100 white-turnip-seeds, the following numbers respectively came up, viz. 98,95, 98, 87, 87, 83, 82, 71, 70, 68, 68, 66, 65, 64, 62, 60, 58, 57.
Out of the eighteen packages of 100 yellow-turnip-seeds, the following numbers respectively came up, viz. 95, 84, 79, 79, 78, 77, 72, 72,.67, 66, 65, 64, 62, 58, 55, 55, 44, 28.
11. It should be added that the quality of different kinds of seeds obtained from the same tradesman was not always uniform, all good or all bad; the cauliflower .would sometimes be infe- rior and the turnip superior, and so on; but, on the whole, a good position in one kind was generally accompanied by a good posi- tion inall. It is also to be observed that the general percentage is less on some seeds than others—a difference probably due to the ereater care required in harvesting them, and, in the case of carrots, to the difficulty in separating the good seed from the bad.
REPORT TO THE COUNCIL ON ADULTERATION OF SEEDS. 33
12. In seeking for a remedy for the evil, your Committee recog- nized the existence of two distinct elements in it, each requiring different treatment :—1, the actual adulteration of seeds; and, 2, the mere keeping them too long and selling them when too old.
18. Actual adulteration is entitled tono mercy. It is a delibe- rate and intentional fraud, in the suppression of which the trade is as much interested as the general public, and ought to be suppressed by the strong hand of the law in the same way as any other fraud.
14. It is different with the selling of old seed. The seeds produced in different years, like different vintages, vary in their quality and in their power of retaining their vitality. It thus sometimes happens that two-years-old seed is better than one- year-old. There is thus a special difficulty in dealing with it; but it is clear that the public are entitled to get what they pay for; and if itis necessary, to secure this, that the dealer should test the quality of his seeds each year, it is his duty to do so.
15. It seems a right and proper thing that Government should bestow some pains in protecting the very large numbers of igno- rant and uneducated people who have to purchase seeds. In Prussia, Sachverstandigen, or, as we should call them, experts, are appointed by Government, whose duty it is, for a certain fee, to test the quality of the seeds of such merchants as apply to them, and to publish the results ; and in some districts (Saxony and Wir- temberg, for example) there are officials, paid by the Government or district, whose business it is to look after the culture of fruit- trees and to give gratuitous advice to all who apply to them for it.
16. But, independently of the action of Government, your Committee are disposed to think that the Council of the Royal . Horticultural Society might itself do much to encourage the sale of good seeds, if not to prevent the sale of bad. How it can most effectually exert its influence for this purpose, is a question on which the Council might probably obtain useful suggestions from the respectable members of the seed-trade ; and your Committee re- commend that a number of them be invited to meet the Council and give their views as to the best steps to be taken to remedy the eyil.
VIII. Second Interim Report by the Subcommittee on the Adulte- ration of Seeds. (“ Viraurry ’’—continued.)
Since presenting their last Report your Committee have ob- tained additional information, which they think will be sufficient to enable the Council to take some action in the matter.
The circulation and publication of their former Report brought
34 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
forward many to speak to matters within their cognizance, and led to a certain amount of discussion in the public prints, which has not been without its use.
So far as they have heard, no exception has been taken by any one to the statements in their former Report. They understand that they are admitted to be a fair and moderate statement of facts, so far as they go. Some of the details have been explained or apologized for ; and the burden and odium of others have been shifted from England to the Continent; but the fact of their existence has not been disputed. |
The minor details of manipulation your Committee think of little consequence. The mixing of old seed or killed seed with new to increase the apparent quantity is the chief evil, and the practice which your Committee have found it most difficult to deal with.- At the first blush it seems a monstrous absurdity, not to say iniquity, that the grower should be at pains to clean his seed, and bring it to a high average of good seed, only to have the dealer put himself to equal pains to undo his work and reduce it again ; but an explanation of the peculiarities of the business has shown how naturally and easily the practice has imperceptibly glided on from innocent and natural precautions to its present questionable state.
The crop of many of the seeds which form the staple of the seeds- man’s business is always uncertain and precarious in this country. — A single night’s frost at a critical period may destroy the whole of the crops of turnip-;mangold-, cauliflower-, or cabbage-seed exposed to it, The seedsman thus can never calculate on the supply of the coming year. It may be a failure; and he most properly provides against this by laying in a large stock when the crop is abundant and good. But what is he to do with the large stock so laid up in the case of a sequence of two or three good years? He uses it up by mixing the product of the different years together. By and by a bad year comes, but, by the seedsman’s precautions and forethought, a sufficient oversupply from previous years remains in stock, and the country is not unprovided. From such occa- sional intermixture there is a natural and easy descent to a con- stant lowering of the average. ‘Troublesome questions are put if the seed is found better or worse one year than another. So it comes to be thought that it would be more easy for the seedsman, and less troublesome for the customer, if it were kept always at about the same average, and the price correspondingly lowered ; and so the system of regular manipulation and tampering with the quality is introduced.
SECOND REPORT ON ADULTERATION OF SEEDS. 35
The next stage, of introducing killed seed instead of old dead seed, is still more easy. It is obviously much more to the cus- tomer’s advantage, if the average is to be lowered, that it should be done by the intermixture of clean fresh-killed seed, rather than of old musty seed, full of the spores of fungi and the eggs of insects. So regarded, the introduction of killed seed is a boon to the buyer instead of an injury. There is, indeed, another point of view from which to look at it. The old dead seed betrays its presence; the killed seed does not, and so the purchaser is deprived of that means of testing the quality of the article he purchases.
Everything is thus thrown upon the honesty of the dealer. He fixes the price, he regulates the quality ; and the purchaser is kept in the dark, and has no check upon either. This is a temp- tation beyond what the average frailty of human nature ought in fairness to be exposed.
Jt is not to be supposed that the existing system could have reached its present magnitude through the separate and inde- pendent action of individuals ; it is the combined action of the trade which has done it. At what time it commenced your Com- mittee have not learned; but it is no modern device.’ Most of the present members of the seed-trade have succeeded to it as to a fatal heritage, and they have found themselves constrained to conform to the traditional custom of the trade, or run the risk of sacrificing important and well-established businesses to the ruin of themselves and their families.
The combined action of the trade, which has consolidated the system, has been exerted through a trade’s club, or association, something in the nature of a trade’s union, which, as in other businesses, the London wholesale seedsmen have established among themselves. One of the chief functions of the association is, as your Committee are informed, the regulation of prices and the determination, by mutual consultation and advice, what kinds of seeds should have their average lowered, and to what extent it should be done. :
Supported by the countenance of their fellows, and animated by a belief that by their foresight and superintendence they are regulating the supply and demand of the kingdom, and preserving the country from the dire consequences of an occasional famine in some of the most important articles of food, it is not surprising that the seedsmen should have lent themselves to a practice which, in addition to these good qualities, had the recommendation of being at the same time so easily adapted to their own advantage.
36 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Accordingly the practice has taken root so firmly, and ramified in so many directions, that it now penetrates every branch of the business. Of its extent no stronger evidence can be given than the regular quotation in certain of the seed-trade lists of the prices of “nett seed,” and “trio” or “000,’—*nett-seed ” meaning good seed which has not been adulterated or mixed, “trio”? or “ 000” meaning seed whose vitality has been killed for the purpose of mixing with good seed.
It must not be supposed, however, that there are no exceptions to the universality of the practice ; the results of your Committee’s inquiries, confirmed, as they have been, by the trials recorded in last Report, enable them to speak to the contrary. From these, were it their cue to do go, they could name the few houses which proceed on a different system, and which are struggling single- handed against the overwhelming preponderance of those who do not. But to do so would be by implication to reflect on others ; and as the object of the Council in this inquiry is entirely of an impersonal nature (to redress a public grievance, and not to attack individuals), they feel bound to refrain from mentioning names on either side, even when the mention would be laudatory. .
Of the complication and difficulty of domg away with the system an idea may be formed from some of the following facts. Instead of purchasing their seeds from growers in the market, wholesale seedsmen find it necessary to enter into a sort of guasi partner- | ship, or joint adventure, with the growers. They supply them with the seeds they want grown, and receive the product from them after harvest at certain previously fixed, or proportionally arranged prices. In no other way (of growing by a third party) could they make sure that the seeds they purchase were of the kind they wanted,—the seeds of many different species, and espe- cially of varieties, being undistinguishable. Unless they knew that the produce of any particular field was to be their own, they would neither have the right nor the interest to examine it while growing, to make sure of its kind. As may be supposed, the bargains with these growers vary infinitely: sometimes the seeds- man is the owner of the soil, and the grower his tenant; and leases or bargains for growing seeds, extending over many years, have been entered into on the faith of the continuance of the present system of conducting the seed business.
Again, one apology for the present system is, that under it the seedsman keeps the price much more equable from year to year than it would otherwise be. He charges always more nearly the
SECOND REPORT ON ADULTERATION OF SEEDS. 37
same price, trusting to the average of years and prices equalizing things in the course of a number of years. Your Committee do not think that this uniformity of price is any advantage to the purchasers, but a great disadvantage, if obtained, as it is, at the cost of variation in the quality of the seeds. But the fact being that, whether an advantage or not, the seedsmen have been to a certain extent acting upon it, it is plain that injury might be inflicted upon them if the system were suddenly put a stop to. If, for example, a seedsman is now in the midst of a course of years, of which the first half, which is past, has been bad, a sudden change would deprive him of the chance of restoring things during the remainder of his cycle of years, which, as the first half had been disadvantageous, he might reasonably expect to be good.
Tt is plain, also, that arrangements made in dependence on the continuance of the present system cannot stop merely at the actual bargains between the dealer and grower; a multitude of engagements, sales, and purchases in advance, more or less arising out of the same state of things, are all im dependence. Even the discharge of the servants employed in the mere mechani- cal operations of mixing the seeds would of itself occasion much distress, if any change leading to it were carried out suddenly and without ample premonition.
Too much caution, therefore, cannot be used in dealing with a matter affecting so many and such important interests, and where the consequences of any error would be so grave.
At the same time matters cannot be allowed to remain as they are; and your Committee’s first idea was, that the seedsmen them- selves should undertake their own deliverance. They believe that these gentlemen are themselves thoroughly in earnest in their desire to get rid of the present system; nay, more, they believe that the more respectable members of the trade take no advan- tage from it, that their profits are not greater than those of other similar branches of industry, and that pecuniarily they would be gainers by the abolition of the system, and the substitution of a higher price for a better quality of seeds. But it is to be feared that they are so hedged in by the engagements and bargains that they have made, that it is very doubtful if they would be able to shake themselves free from its trammels by any efforts of their own. And even if they could, and, by a unanimous resolu- tion of the trade, were to renounce all mixing of seeds thencefor- ward, the public would not benefit; on the contrary, they