150 



JODBNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Angnst 19, 1875. 



high; LUinms lancifolinm album, aiiratnni, tigrinum, and a 

 variety cf Lilium candidnm, with a broad yellow band on the 

 foliage. This is splendid in winter ; certainly no summer 

 plant with variegated or golden foliage can compare with it, 

 and it is perfectly hardy. Funkia, Tigridia, Zauachneria oali- 

 fornica, Aletiiimeria, Bccconia, (Clematis tubuloea, Achillea, 

 Geum, HelianthuB, Eryngium, Helleborus, Winter Aconite, 

 Colchicnms and Autumn Crocus, Sternbergia, Tritoma, Sedum, 

 Cyclamen, Erica, Pardanthus, Anomatheca, Geranium, Tri- 

 cyrtie, Gypsophila, GaUlardia, Plumbago, Galatella, &e. 



For the possession of many of the above gems and for a 

 great deal of information concerning them, I am indebted to 

 our old friend George Wheeler of Warminster, now, alas ! in 

 his eighty-fourth year, but still as young as many a man at 

 fifty. He has been nursing them for years in the hope that 

 they would again become popular, and I need not tell how it 

 gladdens the old man's heart to know that there is a proba- 

 bility of them again gaining favour with the public. May he 

 live to see the day.— William Tatlob. 



MULCHING— ESTIMATE OP STEA\VBERBIES. 



I AM glad to hear Mr. Luckhurst has been making some 

 practical experiments on top-dressing with manure or mulch- 

 ing, instead of forking, or rather digging-in manure. I must 

 thank him for the compliment he paid me at the commence- 

 ment of his remarks, which I fear I do not deserve. My ex- 

 perience still is strongly in favour of mulching, especially in 

 the case of Strawberries, where I think nothing but a hoe 

 should be used, and that lightly, but all runners and weeds 

 should be kept clear of the beds ; and I still think the winter 

 mulching of manure had better not be put on the beds till the 

 autumn growth is nearly ripened. 



I see another of your correspondents as well as myself re- 

 commends chopped straw as a covering for the beds during the 

 fruiting season. I tried barley chaff mixed with it, but it is 

 apt to induce weeds, and I still think it is best to use chopped 

 straw only. Let it be the best and cleanest straw, chopped 

 short, but not too short, and it should be freely used, so as to 

 cover the whole of the soil ; and another word of advice. Let it 

 be put on early before the Strawberries begin to swell and 

 while the flower-sterna are still able to stand upright. Give 

 the beds a good soaking of liquid manure, then cover with the 

 clean chopped straw about an inch thick ; it need not be more, 

 as if there is a greater covering it is apt to decay underneath. 

 One great advantage of the chopped straw is not merely that 

 it prevents dirt from being washed over the Strawberries in 

 wet weather, but when beds are mulched in the winter with 

 manure it is not all removed off the beds in spring, and 

 decayed pieces of straw are left about the plants, which help 

 very much in wet weather to induce decay in the Strawberries. 



We had a very wet time during the best of our Strawberry 

 season this year, and it was curious to notice how one injured 

 berry would in some sorts spread the decay to those which 

 were near. I can strongly recommend Lucas and Sir .Joseph 

 Paxton as first-class sorts for resisting wet. The sorts varied 

 much ; some that have woolly footstalks to the berries with a 

 superabundance of calyx rotted at the crowns, others on the 

 under side the berry. Persons can hardly be too careful in 

 showery weather not to move the bunches of fruit about in 

 gathering. The other sorts that stood well were President and 

 Vicomtesse Eericart de Thury. I still think the latter, though 

 hardy and a good bearer, a much over-rated fruit. Eleanor 

 stands weather pretty well, but loses much in flavour. I do 

 not oare much for either Aromatic, Royalty, Sabreur,or James 

 Veitch. A sort I had given me by a friend, called Comte de 

 Zahn, was a very prolific bearer, and I have no doubt in a 

 strong soil would be valuable, but it evidently has very hairy 

 leaves with a great many stomata or breathing spores, and I 

 find the leaves flag in the sun. Does anyone know anything 

 of it ? Ne Plus Ultra, given me by Mr. Clarke of Stndley Eoyal, 

 proved also a good Strawberry this year, though not so highly 

 flavoured as some. British Queen wo'n't do with me, Dr. 

 Hogg being much better. No Strawberry better repays care in 

 a good strong soil than this. Can anyone who has tried Sir 

 .John Falstaff, Souvenir de Kielif, Princess of Wales, and La 

 Grosse Sucree tell me what they think of them, and whether 

 they would be likely to do in a light loamy soil not naturally 

 a Strawberry soil? La Constante, so highly spoken of by 

 some, is of little or no use here. For those who like Hautboy 

 flavour Princess Dagmar is worth trying. 



Referring again to mulching, I am quite confident that it 



answers better to mulch Roses than to dig-in manure, and I 

 think the same would apply to nearly all fruit trees, and have 

 no doubt Mr. Luckhurst is right when he says the object is to 

 get strong surface roots. Has Mr. Luckhurst remarked with 

 me that Apples and Pears from trees where the ground is 

 hoed or cultivated are better than those grown on trees where 

 the grass is allowed, as in orchards, to grow up to the stems? 

 and, moreover, that in equal periods of time, say ten years 

 from planting, young trees on cultivated land will make double 

 the progress as on grass ? I can show some very marked in- 

 stances of this. I should be glad if any of your readers 

 would furnish notes of their experience with regard to new 

 sorts, especially the seedlings raised by Dr. Eoden and Dr. 

 Nioaise.— C. P. P. 



SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE KOYAL 

 HORTICULTDEAL SOCIETY. 



August 13th. 



Last Friday afternoon a Special General Meeting of the Fellows 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society was held in the Council-room, 

 South Kensington. The object of the Meeting as advertised was 

 " To receive from the Council a statement of the result of their 

 negotiations with Her Majesty's CommisBioners, and to consider 

 and, if they shall approve, sanction the agreements provisionally 

 entered into between the corporations." The chair was occupied 

 by the Hon. and Rev. J.T. Boscawen, and at the Council Board 

 with him were Vice-Admiral Hornby, Mr. William Haughton, 

 Dr. Denny, Dr. Hogg (Secretary), Mr. W. B. Kellock, Mr. A. 

 Grote, Mr. Henry Webb (Treasurer). Amongst the general 

 body of Fellows of the Society were Mr. S. H. Godson, Mr. Bate- 

 man, Mr. Guedalla, Mr. David Wooster, Mr. G. F. Wilson, Dr. 

 Masters, Mr. H. Liggins, Mr. Shirley Hibberd, Mr. B. S. Williams, 

 Mr. Maurice Young, Mr. Pinches, Mr. Bohn, Mr. Moore, Mr. 

 Saul, Mr. Porter, &c. The attendance of the Fellows was by no 

 means commensurate with the important character of the Meet- 

 ing, which was, so to speak, to decide upon the very existence of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society ; but, as was explained in the 

 course of the proceedings, the season of the year operated against 

 the possibility of a full Meeting. 



The Chairman said : Ladies and Gentlemen, I do not think it 

 will be necessary to detain you long. All we have to do is to 

 ask you to accept the Report which I will read to you, and after- 

 wards I hope you will sanction the agreements we have provision- 

 ally entered into with Her Majesty's Commissioners. First of 

 all I must read you a letter from our President, Lord Aberdare. 

 The Chairman read the letter in which the noble Lord said he 

 should not grudge the trouble of coming to London to attend the 

 Meeting were it not that Lord Coleridge and other friends were 

 to be with him on the 12th inst. ; and he added, " The arrange- 

 ments you have succeeded in making with Her Majesty's Com- 

 missioners are so advantageous that I cannot doubt they will 

 recommend themselves to the members for adoption without 

 any adverse discussion. I hope therefore you will be able to 

 dispense with my attendance, the inconvenience of which at 

 this moment would be very great." I wiU now read you the 

 Report of the Council. 



The following is the Report, which was taken as read : — 



*' The Council have the honour to report that they have succeeded in ob- 

 tainint,' from Her Majesty's Commissionera terms which, if sanctioned by the 

 General Meeting, will in their opinion free the Society from its present diffi- 

 culties, and put it in a fair way to attain the high position which it ought to 

 occupy as the foremost institution in this kingdom for the advancement of 

 the science and art of horticulture. It is unhappily notorious that for some 

 time past the action of the Society for good has been paralysed by internal 

 ilissebsions, and that in consequence of such dissensions its income has 

 greatly fallen off. The Council are anxious to do full justice to all classes of 

 the Fellows, the interests of which they think do not in reality conflict ; and, 

 whilst feeling strongly that the encouragement of horticulture ought to be 

 their chief object, they believe that this will not bo interfered with by making 

 the South Kensington Gardens as attractive as possible to the inhabitants of 

 London in general, and to the residents in their immediate neighbourhood in 

 particular. By such a policy they hope, and as they think reasonably, to 

 obtain for the Society an income sufficient to meet the requirements of Her 

 Majesty's Commissioners and to place it on a satisfactory footing. 



" The present agreements between Her Majesty's Commissioners and the 

 Society are so complicated that any attempt to deal with them otherwise 

 than by way of modification was impossible in the time which the Conncil, 

 without risking the very existence of the Society, could devote to the negotia- 

 tion, and a question of some importance, involving the construction of these 

 agreements, is still pending, but is, as the Council believe, in a fair way 

 towards being settled amicably. The nature of this question is such that it 

 is not possible to explain it within the limits of an ordinary report, but the 

 Council refer to it here, inasmuch as it has necessitated the wording of the 

 third clause of the proposed first agreement, which to those Fellows who are 

 not intimately acquainted with the relations between the corporations may 

 appear obscure. Two new agreements are proposed to be made between Her 

 Majesty's Commissioners and the Society. The beads of the first are com- 

 plete, and only await the sanction o( the Fellows ; those of the other the 

 Council hope to be able to lay before them at the General Meeting. 



"By the first Her Majesty's Commissioners absolutely remit the payment 

 of the £'^400 rent now nearly due, and authorise the Society to borrow i:7000 

 to pay its debts and repair its buildings ; and if at the end of three years 

 they shall exercise the power given to them by olause 2, they must take upon 



