a 70 



HORTICULTURE 



March 12, 1910 



esting. It is mostly devoted to the growing of fruits. 

 Mr. Simmons is in charge and is tireless in showing vis- 

 itors everj'thing of interest. A long lath house here 

 is devoted to the vanilla plant and had quite a nice crop 

 on. Plenty of seedlings of Avocata pears for budding 

 on other varieties are seen. Some of the budded ones 

 have made a fine growth. Mr. Simmons has also done 

 some crossing in the orange line. Everything is in good 

 order. The most remarkable flowering tree around 

 here is the Poinciana, a large fiat-headed^ fast growing 

 tree which is covered all over with brilliant scarlet flow- 

 ers in Mav. 



T 



British Horticulture 



THE PEEMIEK HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY 



An encouraging record of continued progress charac- 

 terized the annual report presented at the recent annual 

 meeting of the Eoyal Horticultural Society. It was an- 

 nounced that negotiations had been in progress for hold- 

 ing the International Exhibition of 1912 in the grounds 

 of Chelsea Hospital, London, but nothing definite has 

 yet been fixed. A proposal to hold a flower show under 

 the auspices of the society at the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's show at Liverpool this summer has fallen 

 through. In the course of the discussion some criticism 

 was passed on a proposal to spend £3,000 for the repub- 

 lication of Printzel's "Incones Botanicarum." It was 

 suggested that the existing type-written copies might 

 be brought up to date instead of the expense of printing 

 the work being undertaken. Eev. W. Wilks, the Sec- 

 retar)', pointed out that tlie type-written copies were im- 

 perfect, and therefore, of little practical use. At pres- 

 ent the matter stood in abeyance, owing to the indecis- 

 ion of the American Universities. The report and bal- 

 ance sheet, showing a satisfactory surplus on the year's 

 working, were approved. Sir Trevor Lawrence, the 

 president, at the close of the formal business handed to 

 Mr. J. H. Goodacre and Mr. A. Mackellar Victoria Med- 

 als of Honor, and a Veitch medal to Mr. W. H. White, 

 the recipients also receiving the hearty congratulations 

 of Sir Trevor for the distinguished position they had 

 attained in the horticultural world. 



ITEMS OF INTEREST 



The British Gardeners' Association has raised a pro- 

 test against the appointment of a military man as Chief 

 Officer of the Parks Department, under the London 

 County Council. — A letter has lately appeared in the 

 Press from Mr. Herbert Bell, suggesting the formation 

 of a federation of horticultural societies. The matter 

 is being discussed by the executives of these organiza- 

 tions. — The National Fruit Growers' Association held 

 their annual meeting this week. In addition to the 

 routine business there was an animated discussion on 

 the question of protective tariffs in the interests of fruit 

 growing. There was a diversity of opinion as to the ad- 

 vantages of the existing system of free imports, under 

 which the country is inundated with foreign fruit and 

 vegetables in times of plenty. — The Eoyal Horticultural 

 Society has arranged for trials to take place at Wisley 

 during the coming season of autumn fruiting strawber- 

 ries, early out-door flowering chrysanthemums, rhodo- 

 dendrons, and other flowering plants , 



London. 



yy^rf. C\Mt^. 



The Blue Rose 



Thanks to Messrs. EUwanger & Barry, who have 

 «ent us the photograph, we are enabled to show our 

 readers a picture of this extraordinary novelty Veilchen- 

 blau. The variety is of German origin, ^^^lile not 

 perfectly blue it is regarded as a forerunner of that 

 long sought curiosity. The color, on first unfolding, is 

 purplish pink, then amethyst, and finally steel blue. 

 The yellow stamens make a sharp contrast to the petals. 

 One characteristic is satisfactorily shown in the picture 

 — that of floriferousness. The photograpli from which 

 tlie engi-aving -was made was taken in EUwanger & 

 Barry's greenhouses, February, 1910. 



Means for Extending the Flower 

 Demand 



How are the growers to find profitable markets to 

 dispose of their constantly increasing production? This 

 seems to be the burning question among many of the 

 leading florists in the Eastern cities. It has at least 

 become the interesting topic of discussion where it has 

 recently been the privilege of the writer to come in con- 

 tact with those prominently identified with floriculture. 

 In nearly every instance where the subject was discussed 

 the conclusion reached was that growers should restrict 

 their production so that they may realize better prices. 

 In only one case was it argued that the way is open to 

 create a better demand for flowers if up-to-date business 

 methods, which have been successfully tried out in other 

 lines of industry were instilled into the florist trade, but 

 this line of reasoning met with the contention that flor- 



