April 7, 1870. 1 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



261 



which yon contend, " the stndy of the nature and habits of the 

 plants we try to cultivate." Were every fruit tree in a pot thrown 

 away to-morrow, we should still look on the introduction of 

 the system as marked by progression and not by retrogression. 

 How long is it since the axiom existed—" Plant a Pear tree 

 that your sons or grandsons may eat the fruit ?" To what is 

 it owing that a man may now gather fruit some two or three 

 years after grafting ? We have gone into many a little garden 

 and found the under-crops next to useless from the shade of 

 some huge Apple, Pear, or Cherry tree. Iu the same gardens 

 now we find the forest-like tree removed, good vegetables and 

 low fruit trees grown, with, perhaps, a dozen or a score of 

 little bush or standard fruit trees round the border, bearing a 

 great quantity of fruit, though each tree would occupy little 

 more space than from 24 to 30 inches in diameter. The pot 

 system helped to give a great impetus to all such compact, 

 fertile miniature fruit trees, and chiefly because the principle 

 was clearly unfolded, that if we plant an Oak wood ought to 

 be our chief concern ; but if we plant a Peach or a Cherry tree, 

 the fruit ought to be our object. It is a good thing that there 

 are many opinions and many ways of arriving at the same 

 object. 'We trust that many will find interest and profit in 

 growing their miniature plants in pots or otherwise, and we 

 say this, though fully agreeing that planting the trees out so 

 as to cover a trellis will give far less trouble, and with well- 

 ripened wood there can be little doubt of success.] 



THOUGHTS UPON EEADING MR. W. PAULS 

 DENUNCIATION OF FLOWER SHOWS. 



How is this ? We can remember when Mr. Paul was an 

 ardent and constant exhibitor, a founder and friend of exhi- 

 bitions. How is it that he now denounces exhibitors and exhi- 

 bitions alike — the former as " floricultural milliners," "arti- 

 ficial dressers," " pin-stickers," &o. ; and the latter as being 

 " got np to meet the requirements of a false public taste, to 

 realise the greatest possible display, a gaudy show, heedless of 

 the means by which it may be obtained, or the results by which 

 it may be followed?" How is it that he who writes (see his 

 " Bobb Garden," part i., page 40), " The larger the flowers the 

 better, if they be not coarse," should now seek to describe these 

 very Boses as " fat," and stigmatise even the trees which pro- 

 duce them as "gorged?" Is it as when the sportsman who 

 has lost his nerve declaims against fox-hunting, which he loved 

 in youth, or as when the spinster who has danced but once, 

 has a strong impression that balls are vanity ? 



" Certain it is," writes Mr. Paul, " that showing does not 

 bring the business to the exhibitor that it used to do." Will 

 Mr. W. Paul, however, believe that the successful collections 

 from Cheshunt, Salisbury, Colchester, Hereford, Piltdown, Hert- 

 ford, and elsewhere do not fill the order books of those who 

 have grown them .' The public make purchases, and will con- 

 tinue to make purchases, whatever Mr. Paul may advise, from 

 the best samples which they find in the market. 



It is all very well to wish patrons of horticulture to visit 

 nurseries instead of attending exhibitions, but the most certain 

 way of gaining this end is to send first-class productions to the 

 shows. 



As regards the assertion that " two Dahlias are built up to 

 make one large one," and that " huge trusses of our show 

 Pelargoniums are obtained by gumming," I give it the most 

 positive contradiction. Mr. W. Paul may be an authority, and 

 may have had experience as regards Hyacinths and certain 

 clever modes of exhibiting them, but I impute no unfair doings, 

 although Mr. Paul hints at dishonourable practices being made 

 use of by all other exhibitors. 



In your issue of the 24th of February Mr. Paul published 

 some ungenerous remarks upon horticultural writers and re- 

 porter?, and designated all who had the misfortune to differ 

 from himself as " little critics ;" but how thankful we ought 

 to be now that we have a great critic of undoubted taste, and 

 may the public receive great benefit from Mr. Paul's labour in 

 this his new sphere. 



It is reported that Mr. Paul does not intend to exhibit again 

 for prizes. I myself have nearly ceased to do so ; yet would 

 it not be bad taste on my part if I were to turn round like 

 Mr. W. Paul, after having been so many years connected with 

 shows, and say that they were all wrong, accuse the public of 

 bad taste in attending them, and ridicule alike both exhibitions 

 and exhibitors? 



I have written the foregoing to show that I entirely dissent 



from Mr. Paul's conclusions, lest your readers should think 

 they were acquiesced in by exhibitors generally. — Chables 



Turner, Slough. 



THE SUNDEW, THE DADDY-LONGLEGS 

 TRAPPER. 



Is reading some of the past numbers of your Journal, I was 

 struck with an article of July 2nd. 18fi8, upon " Plants of 

 Prey." I believe it is not generally known that by observation 

 in a fine evening the common " Daddy-longlegs " Tipula.may 

 be seen depasturing upon the flies caught in the leaves of the 

 various species of Drosera. The fact will aid in explaining 

 the general distribution of compensating powers in nature. — 

 H.J. 



THE LAMENT OF THE CLEMATIS. 

 " I did not think matters would ever come to this pass," 

 murmured a Clematis from the dim retirement of a back wall 

 in a crowded conservatory. " Dear me ! to think such changes 

 should ever come ! There was a time when I was valued, 

 everything done for me that I could desire— when I stood out 

 to the front and could feel the warm sunshine glow upon my 

 leaves, and the soft air fan me all day long. With what glad- 

 ness I climbed the rafters ! how exquisite was life ! My master's 

 joy and pride I was. How he loved me and cared for me ! And 

 visitors would regard my blooms with such wonder-searching 

 eyes, that I trembled lest in their eagerness they should rob 

 me of my treasures. ' What splendid flowers ! ' they would 

 exclaim, ' what depth of colour ! and what a Bize ! Is it one 

 Clematis or more that so covers half your roof ?' And I, like 

 other beauties, proud of the praise, shook out my feathery fila- 

 ments with gladness. But, alas ! a change came ; they pushed 

 me far back into a region where there was neither sun nor 

 light left, to care for myself, forsaken quite for newer beauties. 

 I passed long days pining for a few drops of water. In vain I 

 hung out my signals of distress ; in vain I stretched up higher 

 and higher, thinking the rain clouds would be merciful. I 

 could not live in the shade, so my strength departed, my beauty 

 fled ; my blooms, once in number more than you could count, 

 were not. I was no longer an object of admiration ; master, 

 and friend, and visitor alike passed me unobserved, or, if they 

 did note my presence, it was only with scornful pity or cold 

 disdain. 'What a miserable thing it is, to be sure !' I heard 

 one gardener say to another ; ' going to the bad and no mistake. 

 I would throw it out.' ' It is starving,' said another, ' pined 

 in that little house. Give it more space and something better 

 to live upon ; it is too good to be thrown away without any 

 effort.' 



" Then, all at once, without any notice — a few warning 

 knocks would have been a gain — they dragged me rudely out 

 of the little red house I had lived in for more than a year, so 

 hastily that several of my members were broken and left behind. 

 True, they gave me a larger house, perhaps a better, but then 

 it was more than I needed, larger than I could fill ; the food in 

 my deep cellars soured from want of using— my appetite had 

 forsaken me. I tried hard to live and to work, but could not. 

 I was assailed on all sides. I suppose everything existing has 

 its peculiar enemy. Mine found me out in my weak condition, 

 and soon covered my poor half-alive leaves under and over with 

 their fast-increasing broods of hungry scale. How they sucked 

 and drew the sap-life out of me! For long I could not tell 

 what ailed me, nor what had so shadowed over the once-glorious 

 world ; it was so dull, and dim, and dark. I could not see sun, 

 or moon, or stars ; I lived in a perpetual twilight, a gloomy 

 shade that saddened me. In vain I sighed for a glimpse of the 

 blue sky, thinking it would be a renewal of strength ; it was 

 ever clouded over. Through all the dreary sunless summer I 

 endeavoured to make the best of my altered condition and to 

 bloom as of old. One of my flowers did venture out of its soft 

 felt-like enclosure, but it was small, and pale, and soon drooped 

 and fell, covered all over with what should not have been there ; 

 and in truth I was not sorry— I felt ashamed to own it. Then 

 my leaves lost colour and firmness, and hung about the un- 

 ripened cane like brown dead leaves in autumn, strange to look 

 upon in the sultry summer. 



" ' One more chance for your restoration,' said the gardener, 

 as, in disgust at my unsightly appearance, he tore me down 

 from the upper heights, never thinking of my poor tendrils 

 which still retained the will and the power to hold, and so were 

 left dangling aloft. Then, unwilling to give me over to the 



