Maroh 18, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



219 



which was given with no nugrudging hand. The English hor- 

 ticulturists felt they must do something in return, and like 

 Britons they were determined it should be well done, so they 

 projected an International Horticultural Exhibition. They 

 applied to the Boyal Horticultural Society, but then, as now, 

 their Council was too technically weak to do anything in the 

 matter. Tho horticulturists, not to be beaten, then did it 

 themselves at an expense of something like £20,000 (that mag- 

 niticent Exhibition will still be in the recollection of many of 

 your readers). As the time neared for closing that Exhibition 

 it was found there would be a deficit of some thousands of 

 pounds. Here, again, the practical element rose to the sur- 

 face ; the Committee held a conference, and decided they would 

 not call on the guarantors that had given it their confidence, 

 but that they would continue the Exhibition a few days longer. 

 This was an easy matter, for several on the Council were 

 large exhibitors, and the other exhibitors were their friends. 

 In the end, instead of a financial failure it was a success, so 

 much BO that the Committee actually had a surplus of £2000, 

 which they scarcely knew what to do with. They gave £1000 

 to the Gardeners' Benevolent Institution, and bought the 

 Lindley Library, which they presented to the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society, otherwise to this day there would not be so 

 much as a library belonging to the Society. 



I cannot pass from this subject without paying a tribute to 

 the excellent generalship of Lord Bury. I have sat at the 

 anniversary meetings of many societies, but I have never seen 

 a president who could meet great difficulties and smooth over 

 extremely perplexing circumstances as easily as his lordship. 



At the last meeting of the Horticultural Society one or two 

 gentlemen incidentally mentioned that they belonged to three 

 or tour learned societies. When the observation was made (for 

 I also belong to eight or ten) it occurred to me how different 

 they must consider the annual meetings of the Boyal Horti- 

 cultural Society to those of other societies, when it is usual 

 for the president or some member of the council to give a 

 short retrospect of the important events of the year, with 

 glimpses of what are likely to occur in the future, and some 

 of the Fellows of the Boyal Horticultural Society would have 

 been glad to have heard from the President what part the 

 Society took in that great assemblage of botanists and horticul- 

 turists at Florence last year ; what they intend to do this year 

 at tho International Exhibitions at Cologne and Antwerp ; as 

 also what they purpose to do next year in Philadelphia. 



What can be thought of the arrangements for the flower 

 shows at Kensington this season ? The Committee issued a 

 schedule announcing what shows would be held, detailing the 

 objects for which prizes would be offered. They then adver- 

 tised that four of those shows would not take place ; but at 

 the last meeting announced that they would all be held, but 

 that exhibitors would be asked to take 50 per cent, less than 

 the prize money that had been offered. Can vacillation go 

 further than this :> — William Bdll. 



[We have received from Mr. Cutbush, just at the eve of 

 going to press, a letter controverting a somewhat generally ac- 

 cepted idea — that the principal exhibitors had been consulted 

 in the matter of the postponement of shows. His firm had not 

 been consulted, but received a special communication that the 

 spring show was abandoned, and as a consequence his Hyacinths 

 were retarded to form a show at Highgate in Easter week.] 



THE PREPARATION OF FORCED FLOWERS. 



We have many beautiful hardy flowering shrubs which are 

 gratifying to the eye and grateful by their fragrance. We have 

 the Kalmias, hardy Azaleas, Lilacs, Bhododendrons, and a 

 host of things too numerous for me to think of at this moment ; 

 but I suppose the prevailing idea with too many people is, that 

 because a plant or shrub is hardy it will stand any amount of 

 rough treatment with impunity. 



With respect to hardy shrubs I can give convincing proofs 

 of the good results of the treatment I so strongly recommend, 

 and facts, being stubborn things, will speak for themselves. 

 I have now (February 18th) two nice bushy plants of Bhodo- 

 dendrons in fuU bloom. They are in lO-inch pots, and would 

 be no disgrace to an exhibition tent. One plant has over 

 thirty well-developed trusses of bloom on it, the other not 

 quite so many, but still good. Now, in making this statement, 

 it is not with an idea to cause a sensation and advance some- 

 thing unheard of ; that is not my motive, as there are many 

 equally good plants in the country at this moment. In men- 

 tioning these plants my main object is to remark that they 



are not forced, but their early blooming is simply tho result 

 of last year's treatment ; neither are they early-forcing kinds, 

 but such as would in an ordinary way bloom in April and 

 May. Last year they were moved to a late vinery after bloom- 

 ing ; there they made their growth and set their bloom buds. 

 After this they were turned out of doors, and plunged up to 

 their rims in the borders, so as to save watering, and when 

 the winter frosts set in they were packed closely together with 

 other things, and the pots covered with Brakes (Fern). There 

 they stood the ordeal of 30' of frost, yet, notwithstanding, 

 they were in January actually bursting their bloom buds and 

 showing colour. They were ihen placed, not in the forcing 

 house but in a cool vinery, to open their blooms. 



The Une I have marked out for one or two things is equally 

 applicable to many others. Deutzias come under the same 

 treatment as the foregoing ; and in reading Mr. Dodgson'a 

 cultural remarks I made a pause when I read the words 

 " when they have done blooming turn them out of doors to 

 make their growth." It is the turning-out question from 

 which I must dissent. Yet I would not be dogmatic and say 

 that they will not bloom under such treatment ; but I feel 

 that it is against the natural order of things to enforce that 

 mode of culture. I am fully convinced that growing them, 

 and, to a certain extent, ripening their wood under glass, is the 

 royal road to success. By that treatment they will give us 

 quick returns the following season with a minimum amount 

 of fire heat, and will pay us back with interest for the reason- 

 able care bestowed on them after blooming. 



This is simply an outline of practice and experience on a 

 detail in the culture of forced shrubs, which I sometimes 

 think is not so generally adopted as it should be. On this 

 point, however, there may be a divergence of opinion ; but on 

 this I have only to say that a kindly-expressed difference with 

 the sole object of eliciting truth is what we should all aim at, 

 and at all times endeavour to make the person subservient to 

 the subject. Now that the blooming period of forced shrubs 

 will soon be over I ask that the plants have reasonable care, 

 and by making their growth and forming their buds early 

 under glass they will unfold their blooms proportionately early 

 another year, and this with the least amount of forcing. Does 

 not this suggest, that by simple and proper preparation of the 

 plants, many who do not possess highly heated structures may 

 yet have hardy shrubs blooming in their vineries or green- 

 houses during the earliest months of the year ?— G. B. aIlis, 



BOILER FOR HORTICULTURAL USES. 



Aeout two years ago I had a cast-iron saddle boiler, which 

 was a good boiler of that class, but, like all other common 

 saddle boilers, there was great waste of fuel. As I was erect- 

 ing more houses and adding more piping I required a larger 

 boiler, and fixed upon one on the coil principle. In fact I 

 bought two, and had them fixed so as to work jointly or 

 separately at will, which with me proved a failure ; and last 

 November I had them removed and replaced with one on the 

 saddle principle, having a water-way back with two inter- 

 mediate flues. The hot air is made to pass underneath these 

 flues to the back of the boiler, up the back, and over the top 

 as in the common saddle. 



I have a boiler now heating 1-100 feet of piping — viz., hard 

 forcing with about two-thirds the amount of fuel, and instead 

 of having to remove every other day a barrowful of ashes 

 to be used by other boilers (which in the coil boilers could not be 

 used up), this is all consumed. Thia boiler is quite capable of 

 heating 2000 feet of 4-inch piping. If my memory serve me 

 right this was about the second boiler oast and offered to the 

 public on this principle. It is cast in sections and bolted to- 

 gether by strong iron rods, so that if in ease more piping is 

 required one or more sections can he added with little trouble. 

 It is made by Boulton & Paul, Norwich. I like it so much 

 that I intend removing another saddle boiler to make room for 

 one like it. Anyone in want of a boiler would do well to see 

 this in full use. — T. Harwood, Market Gardens, Attleborotigh. 



THE BEECH (Fagus s\'LV.VTrcA). 

 TnEUE is no reasonable doubt of the Beech being the Fagua 

 of the Bomans. Pliny says that this bore the sweetest of 

 mast, that it was a nut enclosed in a three-angled rind, that 

 hogs dehghted in the mast, and that the pork they formed 

 was especially wholesome. The fruit of no other European 

 tree than that o{ our Beech agrees with those particulars. It 



