140 



HORTICULTURE 



July 31, 1909 



lias taken hold of this work, backed 

 by the State of New York, and they 

 will carry it to its final conclusion, 

 even if the Peony Society should go 

 OJt of existence. They have already 

 spent over ?700 on the Bulletins print- 

 ed for the society. Several acres are 

 occupied by the peonies, the use of the 

 land and its care being no small item. 



Mr. Fewkes, secretary of the So- 

 ciety, in a letter just received writes 

 as follows: "I think the society does 

 not realize what is being done for it 

 by Prof. Craig and his assistants, and 

 what little experience I have had in 

 such matters leads me to believe that 

 the nomenclature business would soon 

 be in the same condition in which the 

 peony committee of the S. A. F. find 

 their efforts, had it not been for Prof. 

 Craig. I am glad the Society conferred 

 honorary membership on Mr. Batche- 

 lor. And/ when they come to realize 

 the amount of work he is doing, I 

 think they will be glad to honor him 

 in any way that seems fit." 



Prof. Whetzel gave me an interest- 

 ing account of his experiments with 

 club roots or nemotodes as some call 

 them. He has a choice collection of 

 these growing in his garden for ex- 

 perimental purposes, and seems in a 

 fair way to solve this problem. 



In conclusion, I wish to say that it 

 seems to me every florist who grows 

 peonies commercially, and every ama- 

 te<ir whose special hobby is peonies, 

 will find it to their advantage to assist 

 us, not only by joining the society, 

 bat by giving us the benefit of their 

 observations. It is surprising how 

 much the growers have learned indi- 

 vidually during the last few years, 

 many of the errors which stand forth 

 so conspicuously in the Cornell plot 

 having long since been corrected in the 

 catalogues of the donors, but there is 

 still plenty of worK ahead. 



BERTRAND H. FARR. 



Reading. Pa. 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY. 



The fortnightly meeting held July 

 20, although it followed so closely on 

 that held at the Holland House, showed 

 no exhaustion of the spirit of competi- 

 tion in plants beautiful and economi- 

 cally useful. Hoses were there in 

 greater beauty than on the earlier date, 

 thanks to the improvement in the 

 v.eather conditions of the last week, 

 which have been quite delightful, and 

 have perfected the blooms; Delphin- 

 iums have come along wonderfully, the 

 flower spikes being unusually long and 

 massive; Eremurus* were very finely 

 developed in the genial warmth. Car- 

 nations, florists' border varieties a» 

 well as the hybrid perpetuals, were 

 very fine, only here and there among 

 dark colored flowers showing signs of 

 burning. Sweet peas were abundantly 

 shown and of these charming flowers 

 v.e seem to have got to the full extent 

 of their possibilities in coloring and 

 fine form. For about a month or two 

 there arises a dearth of showy orchids 

 at this season and not many were pre- 

 sented on this occasion and but few 

 which could be termed striking in any 

 particular. 



Of fruits an extra fine collection of 

 tomatoes was made by Messrs. Sutton 

 & Sons, and of fan trained and cordon 

 gooseberry trees; of peaches, necta- 

 I ines and cherries in pots by J. Veitch 

 & Sons. 



Of orchids Sir Jeremiah Colman was 

 awarded an award of merit for a plant 

 in bloom of Spathoglottis plicata alba, 

 the flower having a diameter of 2 

 inches surmounting a stem of 1 1-4 ft; 

 and a Botanical Certificate for one of 

 N(i)hulophyllum pulchrum having a 

 spike of white flowers on a short foot 

 stalk, and leaves with dark marbling, 



F. Sander & Sons exhibited a plant 

 of Odontoglossura ardentessima "Star- 

 light" having striking flowers 3 inches 

 in diameter, white with a tinge of lilac 



pervading the middle area of the petals 

 and sepals, with purple spotting; 

 Award of Merit. Cattleya gigas San- 

 deiiana had a superb spike of blooms; 

 I-aelio Cattleya Ophir has a flower 

 whose petals and sepals are of a rich 

 yellow, and lip of a rosy yellow tint, 

 traversed with crimson lines. It is the 

 outcome of a cross of Laelia xanthina 

 with Cattleya aurea. W. Bull & Sons 

 showed some crosses of Laelia xan- 

 thina with Cattleya Mossiae with pale, 

 ralher unattractive flowers, which seen 

 in large numbers on big old plants 

 would not be without decorative value. 



Wallace & Co. exhibited a dwarf 

 growing lily, of the umbellatum type, 

 and named Orange Queen, the blooms 

 measuring 6 inches in the full spread 

 of the petals. 



Mr. J. Unwin had an extensive ex- 

 hibit of sweet peas, of which worthy 

 of mention were Ella Dyke, a good 

 white flower; Gladys French, light 

 blue; Elsie Herbert, pink and white, 

 lavender sky blue; Sunproof, bright 

 scarlet. 



Mr. Smith, gardener to Mr. G. Fer- 

 guson, Weybridge, showed an extraor- 

 dinary variety of Delphinium named 

 NuUi Secundus, pure white with a mass 

 of perfectly black stamens. The flow- 

 ers are 2 1-2 inches in diameter and 

 quite unique in appearance. The ex- 

 hibitor has been engaged in crossing 

 the genus for many years and he has 

 succeeded in raising a number of fine 

 varieties, but none equal to this one. 



Messrs. Paul, Waltham Cross, were 

 exhibitors of roses as cut blooms and 

 plants. Novel were Grafin Icy Hard- 

 egg, a flower of the build of Grus an 

 Teplitz, rosy crimson in color; Hugo 

 Roller, white centre and cerise outer 

 petals; Madame Maurice de Luze, a 

 flower of beautiful shape, and in color 

 deep rose pink; Madame Jules Grolez, 

 old rose pink, and Grus an Sanger- 

 hausen. a flattish flower, in color a 

 purplish crimson. 



FREDERICK MOORE. 



Odontoglossum CKi>rtM \ AH. E. B. Dank 



Julius Ruehrs Co. 



