+ 
18—1845.] 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE, 
283 
H ORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.— 
EXHIBITIONS AT THE GARDEN.—The first Meeting 
will take place on Saturday the 9th of May; subjects for Exhi- 
bition must be at this office on Friday the 8th, or at the Garden 
e 5s each; or at the 
Garden, in the afternoon of the days of Exhibition, Ts. 6 
each ; but then only to Orders from Fellows of the Society. 
N.B. No Tickets will be issued in Regent-street on the day of 
Exhibition.—21, Regent-street. 
SjPLENDID NEW SEEDLING DAHLIAS now 
ready for delivery. 
GAINES'S PRINCESS RADZIWILL, 
GAINES’S PRIDE OF SURREY, 
GAINES'S PULCHELLA. 
GAINES'S QUEEN OF MAY. 
The above obtained several First Class Prizes at the prin- 
cipal shows. Early orders are particularly requested, „as the 
stock of each is limited, A Priced Catalogue of Dahlias, Gera- 
niums, Calceolarias, Cinerarias, Fuchsias, Pansies, Verbenas, 
5 may be had by application to N. Gainzs, Florist, 
Surrey-lane, Battersea, 
MEETINGS F 
Moxpay, May 4—Entomological 
jorticultural 
Timo Set HORE 
WuowsspAy, — 6— Society of Arts 
o Horticultural 
Sarurpay, — 9 Royal Botanic 
WmwmspAY, — 18—Microscopical 
Wapsmepay, May 
TompAY, ^ — 
TusxsDAY, = 
Ar the approach of the FIRST GREAT EXHIBITION 
IN THE Society's GARDEN, which takes place next 
Saturday, it becomes necessary to draw the atten- 
tion of Exhibitors to two points. 
In the first place every Exhibitor is required to 
deliver, upon first entering the Garden, a fairly- 
written statement of the Letter in the Classes under 
which he intends to Exhibit; he cannot be per- 
mitted to pass beyond the Carters Yard till this 
is done; and no alteration in the entries will 
be afterwards permitted UPON ANY PRETENCE 
WHATSOEVER, To facilitate this operation printed 
forms have been prepared, which can be ob- 
tained in Regent-street by any person applying 
for them. And in order to prevent confusion, 
Exhibitors are requested to bring their papers ready 
filled up ; for the regulation has become so indis- 
pensable, in order to put an end to delay and con- 
fusion in setting plants, that no one will be exempt 
from its operation, It will also be found by Exhi- 
bitors much better to do this while at home, when 
they have leisure to consider well how their plants 
are to be divided, than to delay as heretofore till 
they are in the midst of the confusion of a Show. 
Those who send boxes from a distance must enclose 
a similar declaration, the words of which are these. 
“I, A. B., hereby declare that the following are the 
Letters under which I intend to Exhibit, and I pledge 
myself not to propose any alteration whatsoever." 
[Here follow the letters taken from the printed Sohedule.] 
'The next point relates exclusively to those who 
intend exhibiting Fruit. They will excuse us if we 
call their particular attention to the regulations 
under which,the Prizes are awarded, but which, on 
past occasions, have frequently been disregarded, 
the consequence of which has been that Medals have 
been lost which might otherwise have been gained. 
It is distinetly stated in the Horticultural Society’s 
printed rules that “all fruit must be fully ripe and 
well coloured, if the contrary it will be disqualified.” 
Also, that “exhibitors of collections of fruit should 
bear in mind that however fne one or two of the 
kinds in the collection may be, they cannot gain a 
Prize unless they furnish at least three different 
Kinds of fruit of first-rate quality." 
Notwithstanding those rules are so clearly ex- 
pressed,we have seldom visited an Exhibition with- 
out seeing several specimens of fruit so unripe as 
to be totally disqualified, and collections containing 
less than the requisite number of good articles, The 
unripe fruit has often been of very fine quality, and 
ree from any other fault than unripeness, and would 
doubtless have gained a Prize if it had arrived at a 
proper degree of maturity, and one or two articles 
have frequently appeared in the defective collec- 
tions which might also have gained Prizes if they 
ad been shown separately in their respective 
» Classes, but they failed because they were placed in 
a collection containing fewer than three good kinds. 
The disappointments felt by an unsuccessful com- 
petitor for a prize must under any circumstances be 
great, but must, we think, be increased when his 
Contributions are really good, and he afterwards 
finds that he would have succeeded if he had shown 
them in a different letter. We therefore hope 
that every exhibitor in future will, for his own sake, 
Send only such fruit as is “fully ripe and well- 
coloured,” and “ worthy of a medal ;” and that he 
will not damage good articles by mixing them i; * 
colléction with bad ones, for he should remember | thorndeu, Royal Russet, Api petit Apples; the 
that however fine his specimens may be, the Judges| White Beurré, St. Germain, and W 
have not the power to award any prize except in | 
accordance with the printed regulations laid down 
for their guidance. 
We have only to add that arrangements are 
made for supplying the exhibitors with refreshment 
in the morning, as was done last year. 
A CORRESPONDENT writes to us thus:—* In a 
* beautiful wall-garden, in the west of Caernarvon- 
“shire, the Canker is very severe among the 
“standard Apple and Pear-trees, and the gar- 
“ dener says he cannot prune them or put the knife 
“to them in any way, as the spurs and sometimes 
“the whole limb die away ; and it is certainly the 
* case in many instances which I saw myself. 
* However, the same does not apply to the trained 
“ trees on any aspect, whether they are stone fruit 
“or Apples and Pears, and they are always regu- 
“larly pruned as usual. The situation of the gar- 
* den is about two miles from the sea, and is rather 
* exposed to the south-west winds, The soil is a 
* sandy clay with a yellow sandy subsoil. The 
* dying of the spurs and limbs the gardener thinks 
* js attributable to the effect of the sea-breeze on 
* the wound; but I think that that would apply 
** equally to the wall-fruit. If anybody among your 
* correspondents could suggest a remedy for the 
* horrid canker with which the garden abounds, 
“and give a hint how to act with regard to the 
** pruning, they would greatly oblige by their kind- 
“ ness— Cerniwaidd.” 
They would greatly oblige us also, and, we may 
add, every person in Europe who has a garden. 
But how can this inquiry be answered in a reasonable 
manner, until the cause of canker is agreed upon? 
We have turned over every book in our library, we 
have read everything that has been said about it; we 
have been asking all our garden acquaintance for a 
quarter of a century ; we have ourselves examined 
cankers of all sorts, from the little brown speck 
which appears on the surface of a young twig to the 
great dry sore which eats through a limb 20 years 
old; the scalpel, the scraper, the saw, the pruning 
knife, and Mr. Forsyrn’s composition have been 
enlisted ; even the microscope has been made to do 
its work, and the result is almost nothing. We do 
not know with certainty what is the cause. 
Plenty of prescriptions are to be found, which, 
like Horrowav's ointment, are applicable to all 
sorts of cases ; there is no lack of learned explana- 
tions and dogmatical opinions; but as to saga- 
cious ing, or sound philosophical induction— 
there is no such thing, 
Use any plaister, said the learned and royal gar- 
dener at Kensington. Scrape away all the dead 
wood, go down to the quick and cauterise with oil 
of vitriol, says M. Dusreviz. M. Dunamer tells 
us to cut to the quick, to cover the wound with 
cow-dung, and to bind all up with straw or matting 
held fast by withs. Throw away your cankered 
trees and raise seedlings, was the doctrine of Mr. 
Kaicur. Bring up the roots to the surface, said 
Mr. Rem, a sensible writer on gardening, in the 
“ Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society.” 
But no confidence can be placed in these or any 
other so-called remedies, unless they ean be shown 
to have some direct bearing on the cause of the 
disease, In the absence of that proof, they are 
merely empirical. The great point, then, here, as 
in all similar instances, is to determine what it is 
that produces canker, Let ussee what authors say 
as to that matter. 
Mr. Kyicur referred it to old age, and conceived 
that it was constitutional debility. Dosamencalled 
it a corrosive ulcer, and classes it among diseases 
which proceed “from dryness, or wetness, or the 
quality ofthe soil,” not a very precise account of it, 
we must confess. De Cawporrr does not mention 
it. DusnEvrL the younger says that nobody knows ; 
that it often follows hail, or is otherwise the result 
of contusions, and that a sunstroke may cause it. 
Mr. Re refers it to the coldness of soil. Mr. 
Prarson, of Bewdley, is clear that it is caused by 
atmospheric influences. It is the insects says one ; 
it is constitutional cries a second ; it is all the fault 
of the sea, says another ; while athird assigns it to 
late and extensive pruning in the spring. 
Nothing can well mark more distinctly what an 
utter confusion of ideas there is respecting this, 
which is a disease of the utmost consequence to the 
gardener, as is sufficiently shown by our corres- 
pondent’s letter, at the head of these remarks, Out 
of such a farrago what is to be gathered ? 
The first points on which attention 1s to be fixed 
are the well ined facts coi ted with can- 
ker, about which no question exists. They are not 
many.. l. We know that some varieties of fruit 
canker in this country, more or less, under all cir- 
gumstances; such are the Golden Pippin, Haw-; 
x 
indsor Pears. 
2. We know that in others canker is never ob- 
served; as, for example, in the Wild Apple and 
Pear, or the varieties called Dumelow's Seedling, 
Northern Greening, Wormsley Pippin, Blenheim 
Pippin, Waltham Abbey Seedling, and Dutch Mig- 
nonne Apples; and the Glout Morceau, Beurré 
Diel, Seckel, Aston Town, Marie Louise, Ne Plus 
Meuris, Althorp Crassane, and Knights Monarch 
Pears. 3. We know that although inveterately 
cankering varieties may become healthyñior a time, 
they invariably show symptoms of the disease 
sooner or later. How common, for instance, 
is it for Apples in the nurseries, grafted on strong 
healthy stocks, to lose all sign of canker until they 
have been growing for a few years ina garden, 4. 
We know that if a tree is once seriously cankered, 
all the appliances that ingenuity has suggested fail 
to eradicate it, though it may no doubt be dimin- 
ished. 5. We know that in cold, wet, undrained 
soils, or cold climates, the symptoms of disease 
are aggravated; and that in warm well drained 
land, and amild climate, they are mitigated. And 
these are, perhaps, the only facts about which we 
are quite certain. 
Do they render it probable that local applications, 
cutting, and scarifying, and cauterising, and plais- 
tering, are the true cures for the evil? Surely not. 
The five great facts above mentioned conclusively 
showthat whatever the primal cause of canker may be, 
it is a constitutional malady which is always liable to 
appear in certain varieties, and generally will appear 
under peculiar and well ascertained circumstances. 
To cut aplantto pieces, in suchacase, is like mangling 
a poor creature afflicted with cancer or any other 
scrofulous affection. If the evil is eradicated in 
one place, it presently breaks out in another. The 
constitution of the plant is what must be looked to, 
and nothing else. It may, however, not only be con- 
stitutional, but hereditary ; and in such cases is 
incurable, as it often is. 
Or it may be a constitutional affection caused by 
exposure to unfavourable climates, as when the 
tender Apples of the United States, born and reared 
beneath a broiling sun, are transferred to our chilly, 
cloudy, pleasant England. Such cases are also in- 
curable, unless summer warmth can be artificially 
secured. 
Orit may be a temporary disease induced by local 
causes ; as when an Apple-tree with an hereditar 
disorder, or constitutional tendency to canker, is 
placed artificially in a place absolutely unfavourable 
to the very nature of the species. In such a case 
to remove the obvious cause is to put an end to the 
mischief. 
This we take it is the case of our correspondent 
Cerniwaidd. His wall-borders are warm, raised, 
and probably well drained ; there he has no canker. 
But in the central quarters the sandy subsoil is pos- 
sibly a standing pool, for want of drainage, and 
cold, wet, and * sour," for want of access to air. His 
case appears to be the same as that mentioned in 
the “ Theory of Horticulture," p. 110, where it was 
found by observation that the summer temperature 
at 8 feet below the surface was only 44° instead of 
60°, as it should have been. Means were taken to 
confine the roots near the surface, and the canker 
disappeared. à 
We have been led to dwell more upon this matter 
than is often possible, in answer to the inquiries of 
our correspondents, because it is a striking illus- 
tration of the importance of looking to principles 
and not to prescriptions. — 1 
SELECT PLANTS FOR BEDDING OUT, &c. IN 
FLOWER-GARDENS. 
(Continued from page 252.) 
5. Cuphea pubijlora.— This is a slender and neat- 
habited half-deciduous shrub, requiring the protection 
of a cool greenhouse in winter, and thriving in a mix- 
ture composed of equal portions of sandy loam, well- 
rotted leaf soil, and heath mould. Like Cheenostoma 
polyantha, when kept in the greenhouse throughout 
the year, it forms a sparingly-branched and inelegant 
growth, with scattered terminal clusters of blossoms; 
but when induced to form a close growth in spring, by 
topping the fore shoots, it forms a very compact bush, 
measuring from 6 to 9 inches in height. When thus 
transferred to the borders and parterres of the flower- 
garden, it forms a very ti ject, d 
with abundance of slightly-pendent orange and scarlet 
flowers during July, August, and September. It more- 
over presents a remarkably rich appearance as a mar- 
ginal edging to other plants of suitable contrast in point 
of colour. : 
6. Saponaria n , but 
neglected plants of a decorative character, perhaps 
none possesses higher interest than this—so accomodat- 
ing in its habits, so easily multiplied, so long continued 
in bloom, and so admirably adapted for variety of effect. 
Its scarcity is a matter of surprise. 
It is a half-shrubby, hardy plant, of two or three years 
duration, in habit slender and spreading, and producing 
ides.— Amongst well-l 
