m 



JotJRSAii OF EOrtTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( April 10, 187?. 



nobleman's estate in Hampshire noted for its Beech trees 

 squirrels abound, and I have seen them come and run along 

 the top of the garden wall, go down the fruit trees and make 

 sad havoc among the fruit. It is only by the unremitting 

 vigilance of the gardener with his gun that any fruit can be 

 kept for use in the house. The hedgehog doubtless is of 

 service in the garden, for the experience of most gardeners 

 has given a verdict in its favour. The question is. Are hedge- 

 hogs entirely harmless ? I assert. No. They will suck the 

 cow, and spoil her too. This is a fact indisputable. I have 

 Bought and gained information from farmers of long standing. 

 I notice next the Bullfinch. It seems to have got into the 

 Rector's bad books altogether, for he has scarcely a good word 

 for it. I find upon the best of authority the bullfinch rarely 

 frequents the garden, and then only when there is great 

 scarcity of food outside the garden. We have three other 

 birds which are far greater enemies in the garden. They are 

 the sparrow, the tomtit, and the greenfinch. It is these birds 

 which destroy the buds of the Gooseberry, the Red Currant, 

 and the Plum. — A Master Gakdeneh. 



AMSTERDAM INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 



APRIL 13th to may 2nd. 



With the spread of commerce and the increase of wealth 

 there has been fostered improved tastes ; hence the luxuries of 

 life have been proportionately indulged-in in all countries. Some 

 of these luxuries may be local, amounting only to fashions; 

 others are beyond fashion and above mere custom, and have 

 become eBtablished as an integral part of the social economy. 

 Such is horticulture. From a luxury it has expanded to a 

 necessity. The wholesomeuess of the pleasures resulting from 

 horticultural pursuits, the enjoyable fruits which follow, and 

 the substantial advautagea which are the natural outcome of 

 the allied industries have rendered it incumbent on those 

 countries which have participated in the benefits to make 

 special efforts leading to farther advancement, to stimulate to 

 renewed vigour, to encourage national euterprise, to acknowledge 

 skill and reward merit, wherever they can be found and in what- 

 ever manner exemplifierl. For the bringing together — the cen- 

 tralising, as it were — of that skill, merit, and enterprise so emi- 

 nently identified with hortieultaral pursuits public exhibitions 

 have heoome a necesBity of the times. From local they became 

 general, from general national, and from national international. 



For such an exhibition Holland must be acknowledged to be 

 peculiarly appropriate, for the weal of no nation is perhaps 

 more intimately connected with horticultural industry than 

 that which has Amsterdam for its capita). The position in 

 this respect which Holland enjoys is not due to the salubrity 

 of its air, the atttactiveuefs of its situation, or the extent and 

 beauty of its natural flora. It is not favoured with any of these 

 natural advantages, but it possesses, and has long possessed, a 

 race of sturdy sons proverbial for their industry, and by well- 

 directed skill they have won success so marked as to command 

 universal admiration. For what is Holland ? A nation thickly 

 populated, thnfty, even wealthy, so much so as to be envied by 

 the larger kingdoms of more favoured climes. Wliat was Hol- 

 land? Her very name tells us: it is literally "Hollow-land" 

 (from the German word Iiohe, low), laud much of which is below 

 the sea level ; ouce a swamp, but now fertile pastures and rich 

 arable land — land which in itself is the beat monument of the 

 nation's industry, for since the peace of LSI", the gain eaelj year 

 recovered from the sea has averaged 'iSiiO acres. Such labour 

 has been thus immortaUsed by Goldsmith — 



" Methinlca ber patient ^0D8 before rue etflnd 

 ■\Vlicre the proud ocean lenDB ncaiiist tlie lami, 

 Kpr, ads its long arms amidst llie wat'ry roar, 

 ScoopB out an empire and UBurpa tlio shore." 



That is truly descriptive of Holland ; but what shall we say 

 of its metropolis Amsterdam ? It has been designated the 

 " city of piles " and the " floating city," with its " canal streets," 

 of which Gay once wrote — 



" happy streets ! to rumbling wheels unknown, 

 Ko carts, no coaches, shal:e the tloating town." 

 But matter-of-fact events have travelled more swiftly than the 

 poet's imagination, for "rumbling wheels" there are now plenty, 

 yet the city remains one of caLuls, and it is now also — what 

 more immediiitely concerns us — emphatically a city of flowers. 



" But is it not too early for flowers ?" does some one ask ? It 

 is not too early for those flowers which form the staple floral 

 commodity of the Low Countries— bulbs. Our Dutch friends 

 were not likely to fix the time for a great gathering of this 

 nature when their "own flowers" were sleeping. Neither is 

 the date too early for Camellias and Azaleas, although these are 

 neither so numerous nor so fine as wc have seen at previous Con- 



tinental exhibitions. It is not too early for Palms, for they are 

 at all times beautiful objects. Ferns are similarly always ready, 

 and are always found in superior health and elegant stateliness 

 " over the water." Neither is it too early for many choice exotics 

 — ornameiital-foliaged and flowering plants — which we expected 

 to have seen exhibited in larger numbers by our Continental 

 friends, and who were quite overpowered by the splendid contri- 

 bution of our principal English representative — the redoubtable 

 B. S. Williams. Yet the season of the year is too early and the 

 period of the exhibition too long to encourage English exhibitors 

 generally from endangering their valuable new plants to a 

 lengthened sojourn from their congenial home. Other English 

 firms, therefore, who could have contributed so well at Amster- 

 dam have preferred reserving their plants for pending English 

 exhibitions. Yet if Mr. Williams is alone as it were at Am- 

 sterdam, his plants are sufficient both in numbers and for 

 quality to sustain the reputation of his country, and their owner 

 has the reward of his courage and enterprise in the honours 

 which his collections have commanded. 



The Exhibition is held in the grounds adjoining the Palace 

 of Industry, an imposing structure erected for the first great 

 Exhibition of Industry which was held at Amsterdam, and in 

 which the great International Exhibition of Horticulture was 

 held in 1865. One would have thought that the success that 

 attended the arrangement and general eiJect of that exhibition 

 would have induced the promoters of the present one to have 

 held it here also ; but instead of this being the case everything 

 horticultural is Ecattered over the grounds outside in a number 

 of detached glass houses and sheds, while the great buildiug is 

 occupied with exhibitions of a very miscellaneous description. 

 Perhaps it is wrong to say that there is nothing horticultural 

 in the great building, for its area is divided into three cornpart- 

 ments, the centre one being a circle with a jet of water in the 

 middle, which rises about 25 feet, and in its fall makes a splash 

 over some artificial rockwork. Surrounding this jet are placed 

 Tree Ferns in tubs at a respectful diatauce from each other, and 

 between them some specimens of carpet bedding, composed of 

 succulents and other plants adapted fur that style of ornament- 

 ation. On either side of this circle is an oval filled with large 

 specimens of Ferns and Palms. The rest of the building is 

 taken up with stalls on which are exhibited for sale apparatus 

 of various kinds, such as syringes, pruning knives and secateurs, 

 lawn mowers, vegetable slicers, sausage machines, charcoal 

 filters, the ubiquitous " Crystal Palace " diamond cement, the 

 magic knife-sharpener. Majolica ware, and iu short that miscel- 

 laneous sort of commodities which one sees at the Crystal Palace 

 and in out-of-the-way corners of the Agricultural Hall at the 

 Christmas cattle show. Why this valuable space, so well 

 adapted for making a grand display and many fine effects, 

 should have been frittered away tor such a purpose as we have 

 indicated is beyond comprehension. It was not becairse there 

 was any lack of the material with which to make a fine show 

 that this could have been done, for distributed throughout the 

 grounds were some as fine specimens of horticultural produce 

 as could be seen anywhere. There is no scarcity of Tree Ferns, 

 Palms, Cordylines, and other house plants, and there are such 

 collections of hardy trees and shrubs as are rarely seen on such 

 occasions. Splendid green and variegated Hollies 12 and 14 feet 

 high, neatly trimmed and trained ; handsome standard Bay 

 Laurels and Lauruttinus, a profusion of large and well-grown 

 specimens in tubs of Conifers from the noted nurseries of Bos- 

 koop, with all of which the building could have been amply 

 furnished in every corner. And iIk ii there are exposed in open 

 sheds in the grounds such well-gruw n specimens of New Holland 

 Acacias, forced Khododendrons, standard Koses, Azaleas, and 

 miscellaneous greenhouse plants as would have added beauty of 

 colour and effect to the more sombre masses, but they were left 

 exposed to withering winds and sunshine, which in the first 

 days of the Exhibition were already producing a telling effect 

 upon them. Everything of interest from a horticultural point 

 of view, and which would have been useful in producing artistic 

 groups iu the largo building, is, as we have already said, dis- 

 persed in numerous glass houses of the ordinary description 

 and in open sheds throughout the grounds surrounding the 

 buildiug, and as a consequence there is no concentration of in- 

 terest in what might otherwise have been a very fine exhibition. 

 The effect produced by this kind of arrangement is suggestive 

 0} a large nursery establisbmeiat, and but for the large number 

 of people, the quantity of bunting decoration, and the general 

 gala accessories, there is nothing to distinguish the place from 

 such nurseries as those of M. Van Houtte at Ghent, Messrs. 

 Veitch & Sou of Chelsea, or Mr. B. S. Williams of Hollowsy, 

 and perhaps it is no compliment to these gentlemen to make the 

 comparison. 



In cue of the houses we found Mr. B. S. Williams occupying 

 the most prominent position, having filled one loug table with 

 miscellaneous stove and greenhouse plants, and the half of 

 another with excellent specimens of Crotons and Pitcher-plants, 

 the whole number exhibited being about 35(J, iucluding a remark- 

 ably fine collection of Orchids, which were placed in a sortcf 



