HORTICULTURE 427 



exported annually from Japan, and are employed in the formation of Japanese gardens 

 in England and elsewhere. In landscape gardening eastern and western ideas are quite 

 dissimilar. The western idea is to clothe the landscape with vegetation suitable to its 

 aspect, altitude, soil, undulations, etc. In the Japanese style Nature is copied in such 

 a way that plants from the mountain tops are never planted in the plains or valleys, and 

 vice versa. In a small garden, therefore, everything is dwarfed to such a degree to 

 represent as it were in scale, trees, shrubs, buildings, etc., reduced to corresponding 

 dimensions. Hence pigmy trees, the miniature bridges of bamboo, the stone lanterns, 

 the kiosks, the rivulets, rocks, and other objects on the landscape are all arranged to 

 accentuate the governing idea. Deciduous trees are rarely used, the principal exception 

 being in favour of the double flowered cherries, and the wistaria both conspicuous 

 objects in Japanese gardens. Water or bog plants like the Japanese iris (Kaempferi), 

 the water lilies, the lotus, etc., are much in evidence in and at the sides of streams and 

 lakes, while clumps of bamboos give a luxuriant and subtropical effect. 



Advance of the American Carnation. Notwithstanding the many admirers of the 

 hardy border and the Malmaison carnations, these sections are becoming more and more 

 eclipsed by the American or perpetual-flowering varieties. These are now grown in 

 hundreds of thousands and are actually pushing out other crops that have long held a 

 place in the high esteem of cultivators. From a purely market point of view, the 

 American carnation has signed the death warrant of the orchid, many kinds of which 

 had just begun to be grown rather extensively for the floral trade. The extraordinary 

 popularity of the American carnation is due to the ease with which it may be cultivated, 

 its long stems and the beautiful shape of the blossoms, its many shades of delicate 

 colour, its delicious fragrance, its cheapness, and to the fact that it blooms profusely 

 during what in England are the worst months of the year, from October to April (but 

 also during the summer months) and that it may be, and is, used for such a great variety 

 of floral decorative purpbses. At present it stands without a rival in these respects; 

 added to which is the fact that the colours always seem pleasing under any condition of 

 light, natural or artificial. 



Development of the Dahlia. In addition to the older sections like the singles, the 

 show, fancy, pompon and cactus varieties, the last year or two have seen the rise of 

 quite new forms- or what are claimed as new, for it is probable that they, or something 

 like them, may have been seen by the first dahlia raisers nearly a century ago, but were 

 discarded because they did not conform to the hard and fast outlines that were regarded 

 as ideals in those days. The " cactus " dahlia is still perhaps the most popular of all 

 sections, but even it is undergoing a change from the original types that were so fashion- 

 able a few years ago. Now there is the " miniature " or " pompon " cactus dahlia, in 

 which the blooms, although retaining the perfect " cactus " shape, are much smaller, 

 about 3 inches across, and are borne on long stififisli stems in great profusion. The 

 plants are also much dwarfer than the ordinary kinds, being only about 3 feet high. 

 They flower profusely and embrace every shade of colour almost, except blue. 



Another new section of the dahlia is that known as the " collarette." The flowers 

 resemble those of the ordinary single varieties in general appearance, but they differ 

 conspicuously in having a secondary row or " collarette " of small forked petals inter- 

 posed between the large outer ray florets and the small tubular ones in the centre or 

 disc. The. little petals forming the collarette are usually distinct in colour from the 

 others. The " giant-flowered " dahlias with huge double flowers, and the " paeony- 

 flowered " dahlias, having very large single blooms, are both making headway in popular 

 favour, as newer and better forms are being developed. 



Evolution of the Gladiolus. Since the appearance of the first hybrid gladiolus in 

 1837, under the name of gandavensis, gardeners have worked unceasingly to evolve 

 other new strains. At first the work was slow and spasmodic, and the second hybrid 

 of note, the still popular scarlet-flowered brenchleyensis, did not appear till 1848. The 

 Lemoinei hybrids were put into commerce in 1875, and were followed in 1882 by the 

 Childsi section, and in 1889 by the Nanceianus group. Since that time British, Conti- 



