76 



THE GARDE NEBS' CHRONICLE. 



[Jolt 21, 1888. 



shire for three stands or vases, Mr. J. Hudson, The 

 Gardens, Gunnersbury House, being 1st, with very 

 tasteful arrangements. . 



W. E. Tautz, Esq.'s, special prizes for a stand or 

 vase of flowers brought but one competitor in Miss 

 S. A. Fromow, of Turnham Green ; and the same 

 lady was placed 1st, with a charmingly arranged 

 basket of Roses. Mr. Prewett, Hammersmith, 

 showed good bouquets, being 1st. 



Fruit. — The special prizes offered by Mr. Leopold 

 de Rothschild for six dishes of fruit brought a brisk 

 competition, Mr. W. Bates being 1st, with good 

 Foster's Seedling and Alicante Grapes, Queen Pine, 

 Stirling Castle Peaches, Lord Napier Nectarines, 

 and President Strawberries. 2nd, Mr. T. Donan, gr. 

 to L. J. Parker, Esq., Ottershaw Park, Chertsey, Mr. 

 Donan had the best two bunches of Black Hamburgh 

 Grapes, Mr. Milsom being 2nd. Mr. Donan was 

 also 1st with two bunches of white, having good 

 Buckland Sweetwater ; Mr. Bates being 2nd with 

 Foster's Seedling. Strawberries were very good. 

 Cherries, Raspberries, Currants, and Melons were 

 fairly well represented. 



Vegetables were, as might be expected, a leading 

 feature. The special prizes offered by Messrs. Sutton 

 & Sons, seed merchants, Reading, for their Reading 

 Perfection Tomato brought some very fine fruit. 

 Special prizes were also offered by Messrs. James 

 Carter & Co., High Holborn, and Messrs. W. 

 Fromow & Sons, for collections of six varieties of 

 vegetables, which brought in each case brisk com- 

 petition. One novel class was for a collection of 

 garden produce, to consist of twelve plants, twelve 

 bunches of flowers, six kinds of fruit, and six of 

 vegetables, the prizes offered by Lady George 

 Hamilton ; but it was a disappointing one, neverthe- 

 less. A class for nine dishes of vegetables brought 

 a very keen competition, and good Potatos, Peas, 

 and Tomatos were shown in these several classes. 

 There were also a number of vegetable classes for 

 cottagers, and prizes were offered for school children 

 for bouquets of flowers, and arrangements of flowers 

 on a plate, for which there were numerous entries. 



The show was greatly helped by contributions not 

 for competition. Among these was a fine group of 

 show and fancy Pelargoniums from Mr. Charles 

 Turner, Royal Nursery, Slough ; plants from Messrs. 

 Hooper & Co., very finely arranged ; groups from 

 Mr. J. Roberts, The Gardens, Gunnersbury Park, 

 Ealing, and Mr. May, The Gardens, Chiswick House ; 

 a fine group of variegated and ornamental hardy 

 shrubs and trees, sent by Messrs. C. Lee & Son, 

 Isleworth ; and cut Roses from their Ealing 

 nurseries ; a choice collection of plants from Mr. 

 B. S. Williams, Victoria Nurseries, Holloway ; and 

 cut Roses from Mr. C. Turner. All these were 

 highly commended. 



Cant was 1st, with Madame Watteville, very fine ; 

 Mr. G. Prince 2nd, with Souvenir d'un Ami. 



The following classes were not open to nursery- 

 men, and produced a good competion : — 



Thirty-six distinct blooms. — Captain Ramsay, 

 Ivory House, Fareham, Hants, was 1st, with a good 

 stand, showing large and fresh flowers of Captain 

 Christy, Marie Verdier, Pride of Waltham, and Duke 

 of Wellington ; Mr. W. Neville, gr. to F. W. Flight, 

 Esq., Twyford, Winchester, was a close 2nd. The 

 National Society's Silver Medal was awarded to 

 Merveille de Lyon, in this stand, as the best hybrid 

 perpetual in the amateurs' division. 



Twelve distinct Teas or Noisettes from the Rev, 

 F. R. Burnside Campden, Gloucester, were 1st, the 

 National Society's Silver Medal for the best Tea 

 or Noisette being awarded to Catherine Mermet in 

 this stand. 



Mr. Neville took 1st honours for six Teas or 

 Noisettes and six II. P.'s, in threes, and for six Teas 

 or Noisettes in threes. 



Fruit was of moderate quality and sparingly shown. 



Vegetables, on the whole, were good in quality and 

 fairly plentiful. For nine sorts (two Potatos allowed), 

 Mr. W. Pope, gr. to the Earl of Carnarvon, Highclere 

 Castle, Newbury, was 1st of four exhibitors, Magnum 

 Bonum Cauliflowers. Veitch's Scarlet Model Carrots, 

 White Elephant Onion and Ringleader Potato were 

 his leading dishes ; 2nd, Mr. Inglefield, gr. to Sir J. 

 W. Kelk, Bart., Tedworth, Marlborough. Messrs. 

 Sutton & Sons, Heading, offered prizes for six dis- 

 tinct varieties. Seven competed, Mr. Lye, gr. to W. 

 H. Kingsmill, Esq., Sydmonton Court, Newbury, 

 leading with even, clean samples. 



For the best dressed stand of flowers Miss A. 

 Flight led out of five, with an elegant arrangement ; 

 Miss B. Flight 2nd, also a capital stand. 



Mr. E. Hillier, nurseryman, Winchester, staged the 

 best bouquet ; Miss Flight, 2nd. 



WINCHESTER HORTICULTURAL. 



Jcly12. — The annual summer show of this Society 

 was held in the Guildhall, the arrangements being 

 as usual very satisfactorily carried out by the com- 

 mittee and the Secretary, Mr. C. Sherton. 



Bases. — These formed the principal feature of the 

 show, and were of fair quality this trying season. 

 The entries amounted to 2800 blooms, but many 

 failed to put in an appearance owing to injury from 

 the rain at the last moment. 



Seventy-two blooms, distinct. — 1st, Mr. Frank 

 Cant, Colchester, with a finished even lot of blooms 

 Dr. Andry, Pride of Waltham, Thomas Mills, La 

 France, A. K. Williams, Triomphe de Rennes, Marie 

 Van Houtte, and Marechal Niel, being only a few of 

 the best ; 2nd, Mr. B. R. Cant, with smaller blooms 

 lacking a trifle in freshness. 



Thirty-six blooms, distinct, in triplets. — Here Mr. 

 B. R. Cant was 1st, with a fine stand of blooms ; 2nd, 

 Messrs. Keynes, Williams & Co., Salisbury, with 

 blooms certainly fresh, but a trifle uneven in size. 



Twenty- four distinct single trusses. — 1st, Messrs. 

 Keynes, Williams, & Co. ; 2nd, Mr. G. Prince, Ox- 

 ford. 



Twelve distinct triplets of Teas or Noisettes. — 1st, 

 Mr. G. Prince, with an even stand, the best blooms 

 being Madame Watteville, C. Mermet, x\lba rosea ; 

 2nd, Mr. F. Cant, whose blooms were smaller. 



Twelve blooms of any one variety, dark. — Mr. F. 

 Cant was 1st with Ulrich Brumier ; 2nd, Mr. B. R. 

 Cant, with the same variety, running very closely. 



Twelve blooms of any light coloured variety. — 

 Mr. G. Prince was 1st with Merveille de Lyon, fine 

 in size, but slightly wanting in freshness ; Mr. B. 

 R. Cant was 2nd, with same variety. 



Twelve blooms of any one variety. — Mr, Frank 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



At a recent meeting the following papers were 

 read : — 



On the Nym/phceacea. By George Lawson, Ph.D., 

 LL.D. — An account was given of the general 

 conformation, and of the arrangement of tissue 

 systems, in the organs of these plants, and of special 

 features in their organisation and minute anatomy. 

 The South American Water Lily, Victoria regia, had 

 been many years ago fully described and illustrated, 

 as regards its general botanical characters and history, 

 successively by Dr. Lindley, Sir William Hooker, 

 and Mr. Thomas Moore, and by the author of the 

 present paper : as regards its minute structure and 

 development it was more carefully studied by 

 Planchon, whose researches were published in the 

 Flore des Serres, vol. vi., p. 249, &c. ; and Trecul, who 

 illustrated the more important facts of its structure 

 and the development of organs in the Annates des 

 Sciences Naturelles Botaniqiw, 4 ser., i., pp. 145-172. 

 Some facts well known a quarter of a century ago seem 

 to be forgotten now. Lately De Bary, in the Com- 

 parative Anatomy of Phanerogams and Ferns, and J. H. 

 Blake, of Cambridge, in Balfour's Annals of Botany, 

 August, 1887, question the explanations given of 

 the structure of the prickles of the Victoria, and 

 especially the character of the ostiole or depression 

 at its apex. The author of the present paper had 

 shown, as long ago as 1855, the true character of 

 these prickles, and that the ostiole had no special 

 function as had been argued (and inferentially was 

 not pathological as now suggested by Blake), but " a 

 simple depression in the apex of the prickle of no 

 physiological importance." (Proceedings Bot. Soc. 

 Edin., November, 1855.) In the same paper it was 

 shown that the stomatodes or perforations of the 

 leaf, were not mere holes, caused by insects, as argued 

 by Trecul, and now accepted on his statement by 

 Blake, but special structures of uniform size formed 

 by surrounding modified cells, and comparable with 

 the more complete reductions of parenchymatous 

 tissue seen in submerged plants and in Ouvirandra 

 fenestralis ; moreover their special function in 

 Victoria was indicated. 



A series of large coloured drawings, illustrating 

 the microscopical structure of the Victoria regia, was 

 shown. These drawings were made by Dr. Lawson, 

 partly from observations on the Victoria which 

 flowered in Knight & Perry's nursery, King's Road, 

 Chelsea, in the autumn of 1851, and partly from a 

 plant which flowered in the Botanic Garden of Glasgow 

 in 1855. They show the epidermis andstomata, with 

 their chlorophyll granules, of the upper surface of the 

 leaf; the surface cells, hairs, and hair-bases of the 

 lower surface ; the prickles in several aspects and 



sections, showing their structure, the ostiole, &c. ; 

 the air spaces of the leaves and the large stellate 

 processes projecting into them, whose surface has a 

 bead-like sculpture reminding one of the much more 

 minute markings on diatoms ; colouring matter of 

 the lower surface leaf-cells ; the so-called " stoma- 

 todes " or perforations of the leaf, margined by more 

 or less oblong, flat-sided cells, filled exclusively with 

 red colouring matter ; the upper surface petal cells, 

 with thick translucent, slightly plicate or crimped 

 cell walls, and filled with colouring matter of a rose 

 colour of diverse depths of shade in different parts of 

 the petal. 



A statement is given of the historical facts con- 

 nected with the nomenclature of Nymphseaceae, with 

 regard to the proposal recently made to give up the 

 generic name Nymphaja to the yellow-flowered group 

 so long known as Nuphar, and to reinstate Salis- 

 bury's name Castalia for the true white, red, and 

 blue, Water Lilies. Acting on Professor Greene's 

 suggestion, Mr. Britten had given very full details in 

 the Journal of Botany, ' and these might be quite 

 satisfactory to botanists in London or Paris, or 

 wherever a large University library enabled the 

 student to refer to original sources. Unfortunately, 

 the great majority of Canadian students had no such 

 facilities, and the additional information is given to 

 meet their cases. 



To Professor Greene is entirely due the credit of 

 calling attention to Castalia at an opportune time 

 when priority reigns paramount, and threatens 

 indeed to exclude every other consideration. If, on 

 occasion, an honourable member in a public assembly 

 calls attention to the want of a quorum, or to the 

 presence of strangers in the gallery, it is not usual to 

 assume that his fellows were up to that moment 

 ignorant of the fact. 



The two volumes of Konig and Sims' Annals of 

 Botany form a publication so full of important me- 

 moirs by European, British, and American botan- 

 ists, written at a time of unusual activity in changes 

 of classification and nomenclature that for the last 

 eighty years it has been a constant reference-book 

 for working botanists. A synopsis of the species of 

 Nymphfeacea; was appended to the paper. 



Observations on Early-ripening Cereals, by William 

 Saunders. — Giving details of the work done in con- 

 nection with the experimental farms in obtaining 

 from other northern countries early ripening cereals, 

 results are given of the testing of these in the 

 north-west provinces of Canada including reports of 

 earliness, productiveness and variations in quality of 

 the same grain grown in different localities as shown 

 by chemical analyses. 



Contributions to the Bryology of the Dominion of 

 Canada, by N. Conrad Kindberg, Ph.C,, K.N.L., 

 Professor in the University of Linkoping, Sweden, 

 and Professor John Macoun, M.A., F.L.S. — This 

 paper contained descriptions of a large number of 

 new species. 



GLASGOW AND WEST OF SCOTLAND 

 HORTICULTURAL. 



This Society held its summer flower show in the 

 grounds of the International and Industrial Exhibi- 

 tion, Kelvin Grove Park, Glasgow, on the 11th and 

 12th inst., £500 being offered in prizes. The main 

 feature of the show was to have been the Rose, 

 but the weather has been adverse to the production 

 of good Roses or anything else, yet there was, all 

 things considered, a fine display. 



Ireland carried off the chief honours. In the class 

 of sixty blooms, distinct varieties, Mr. Hugh Dickson, 

 Belmont, Belfast, was an easy winner, with thi- 

 following as prominent blooms in his stand : — Marii- 

 Baumann, La France, Lady Sheffield, Merveille de 

 Lyon, Duke of Edinbugh, Paul Jamain, Alfred K. 

 Williams, and Senateur Vaisse ; Messrs. Harkness 

 & Sons, Bedale, Yorks, were a good 2nd ; and Messrs. 

 A. Dickson & Sons, Newtonards, a close 3rd in 

 this class. 



In the class of forty-eight bloom positions were 

 reversed with the same competitors. 



In the class of twenty-four blooms Mr. David 

 Robertson, Mossend Nursery, Helensburgh, took the 

 1st position with an excellent collection in which 

 the Teas were fine ; and Mr. W. Montgomery, Car- 

 dross and Messrs. T. Smith & Son, Stranraer, re- 

 spectively took 2nd and 3rd prizes. This class was 

 open to Scotch growers only, and form the most im- 

 portant exhibit of Scotch-grown Roses in the show. 



The class, twenty-four Teas or Noisette Roses, at 

 least twelve distinct varieties, formed a wonderfully 

 good feature. 1st, Mr. David Robertson, who had 

 conspicuous blooms of Madame de Watteville, 



