300 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[September 15, 1888, 



Advertisers are specially requested to note, that, 

 under no circumstances whatever, can any 

 particular position in the paper be guaran- 

 teed for advertisements occupying less space 

 than an entire column. 



APPOINTMENTS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 



WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19 S 



SATURDAY, Sept. 22 



SALES. 



/Great Unreserved Sale of Dutch 

 Bulbs, at Protheroe & Morris' 

 Rooms. 

 Annual Trade Sale of Greenhouse 

 Plants at the Dyson's Lane Nur- 

 sery, Upper Edmonton, by Pro- 

 theroe & Morris. 

 First-class Dutch Bulbs, at Stevens' 



Rooms. 

 Firstclass Dutch Bulbs, at 123, Fen- 

 church Street, by Messrs. Smail & 

 "~ Co. 



(Annual Trade Sale of Greenhouse 



.„, ,„) Plants at the Burnt Ash lane 



bEPT. 18< NurserieSj Lee , by Protheroe & 



(. Morris. 



Annual Trade Sale of Greenhouse 



Plants at the Lea Bridge Road 



Nurseries, Leyton, E., by Messrs. 



Protheroe & Morris. 



First-class Dutch Bulbs, at Stevens' 



Rooms. 

 '100 Plants of Azalea indica from 



Ghent, at Stevens' Rooms. 

 First-class Dutch Bulbs, at 123, Fen- 

 church Street, by Messrs. Smail 

 &Co. 



(Annual Trade Sale of Greenhouse 

 Plants, at the Brimsdown Nur- 

 sery, Enfield Highway, by Messrs. 

 Protheroe & Morris. 

 Great Unreserved Sale of Dutch 

 Bulbs, at Protheroe & Morris' 

 I Rooms. 

 I First-class Dutch Bulbs, at Stevens' 



Rooms. 

 ' Annual Trade Sale of Greenhouse 

 Plants, at the Langlands Nur- 

 sery, Sidcup, by Messrs. Pro- 

 theroe & Morris. 

 I Established and Semi-established 

 Orchids at Protheroe & Morris' 

 Rooms. 

 First-class Dutch Bulbs, at 123, 

 Fenchureh Street, by Messrs. 

 Smail& Co. 

 Great Unreserved Sale of Dutch 

 Bulbs, at Protheroe & Morris' 

 Rooms. 

 First-class Dutch Bulbs, at Stevens' 

 Rooms. 



There can be little doubt that 

 Fruit Culture, the British public — or, at least, 



those most immediately con- 

 cerned — are being vigorously stirred up as to the 

 necessity of utilising all our available resources. 

 Of these, fruit culture is undoubtedly one. There 

 is, however, a fear that, with the enthusiasm of 

 advocates, exaggeration, and consequent dis- 

 appointment, may prevail, if the subject be not 

 treated with becoming carefulness. From this 

 point of view the Fruit Conference at the 

 Crystal Palace — the record of which occupies so 

 much of our space to-day — may fairly be com- 

 mended. 



Mr. Francis Rivers, the worthy inheritor of 

 a great name, with great prudence and discretion 

 plunged at once into the more practical side of 

 the question, and dealt with it in a spirit to which 

 little but commendation can be applied. If any 

 exception can be taken to his pronouncement it 

 is, as we think, the undue value, under existing 

 circumstances, that he placed on the chemical 

 analysis of soil. In point of fact, the future of 

 fruit cultivation, according to our present lights, 

 is not so much a question of a little more 

 or a little less potash in the soil, as of 

 the selection of suitable sorts, and particu- 

 larly of careful and judicious cultivation. 

 Speaking generally, most soils are rich enough 

 in potash not to need much expenditure in that 

 direction, though, of course, it needs no chemist 

 to tell the fruit-farmer that judicious feeding is 

 as important for fruit trees as for any other 

 crop. We have only to look at the majority of 

 our fruit gardens to see that cultivation, in 



the gardener's sense, has been and is grievously 

 neglected by the fruit grower. The impression 

 seems to prevail that we have only to stick in a 

 fruit tree, and let it grow to secure desirable results. 

 Look at the mangy condition of most of our 

 orchards, the scrubbyjtrees, thejrecklesspruning — 

 save the mark ! — the indifference as to the selec- 

 tion of suitable sorts and appropriate stocks, the 

 utterly careless system of gathering, the reckless 

 selection for market, and the happy-go-lucky 

 system of packing and sending to market, and 

 consider whether these things are not as inimical 

 to profit as hard land laws, fiscal restrictions, and 

 exorbitant railway charges. Growers for market 

 have indeed much to learn from the gardeners who 

 grow mainly for their masters' tables. Ask the 

 salesmen in the market whose fruit fetches the 

 highest prices, and the reasons ; and it will be 

 found that the gardeners by their superior skill in 

 growing, in selecting, and in packing the produce, 

 achieve results of a far more satisfactory character 

 than the ordinary fruit grower though of course 

 he has to deal with much larger quantities. The. 

 reasons for this are obvious enough. It is a 

 question of good cultivation and business-like 

 marketing ; and the Conferences which have been 

 held, and which are still to come, will effect much 

 good by making this known. A knowledge of 

 first principles will be diffused, and the experience 

 of the most skilled cultivators will be turned to 

 good account. In this way also will the labours of 

 such men as Knight and Rivers the elder, and 

 those who, like them, have combined science with 

 practice and practice with science, be brought to 

 bear on the subject. To experiment with know- 

 ledge, care, and judgment, as Knight and 

 Rivers did, is to secure results of incal- 

 culable value. A. Peach or a Plum which 

 comes into use a week or two earlier, or a week 

 or two later, as the case may be — which will be 

 free from mildew while others are crippled with 

 it, which will bear the rough handling con- 

 sequent upon transit, which may be depended 

 on for a crop of some sort, even in adverse 

 seasons — to obtain and to distribute these is 

 to add to the wealth of the producer, 

 and to contribute to the welfare of the 

 consumer. And the men who achieve these 

 results — the men who know most of the 

 subject — are precisely the men who, while 

 recognising the desirability of extending fruit 

 culture, will be, and are, the most ready to 

 avoid exaggeration, and to look on fruit- 

 culture as an adjunct to agriculture — not, as 

 some seem to think, a substitute for it. It is, 

 indeed, lamentable to see, on the one hand, the 

 enormous importations from abroad, and on the 

 other the equally great neglect of opportunities 

 at home ; and if these Conferences do aught, as 

 we think they will, to reduce both to their 

 proper proportions they will effect great good even 

 if they do not realise all the " tall talk " which has 

 been poured forth, or effect that change of 

 climate which shall convert the British Isles into 

 a second California. 



"Whether or no, the thanks of the community 

 are due to Messrs. Castle and Earley, by 

 whose exertions the recent Conference at the 

 Palace was conducted to so satisfactory a con- 

 clusion, and which may lay the foundations of a 

 Fruit Growers' Association on the lines of that 

 famous American Pomological Society whose 

 proceedings we have so often had to record with 

 mixed feelings of congratulation to our Ameri- 

 can cousins and of humiliation as regards our- 

 selves. A proposal to this effect was, indeed, 

 submitted to the Conference by Mr. Cheal, and 

 this is to be further discussed at the meeting to 

 be held at the Crystal Palace on October 11. 



Convolvulus tenuissimus.— a very beauti- 

 ful greenhouse perennial, native of Greece (fig. 39). 

 Its leaves are delicately cut into narrow lobes, and 

 covered with silky pubescence. The flowers are 

 of a pretty pink colour. It is figured in Sib- 

 thorp's Flora Grceca, t. 195, and also in one of the 

 early volumes of the Botanical Magazine, t. 359, 

 where it was figured as C. althueoides. 



The British Association.— The meeting at 



Bath may be described as one of average character 

 Section D. — Biology — was presided over by Mr. Dyer, 

 Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, who in his address 

 reviewed the present state and prospects of botany 

 and its applications to biology and medicine. We 

 regret that the crowded state of our columns forbids 

 our inserting any portion of this address this week, 

 but we trust to be able to do so later on. Professor 

 Marshall Ward's paper on the fungus destructive 

 to Lilies was a very exhaustive piece of work, which 

 will be probably published in full, when we may have 

 an opportunity of referring to it. 



Landscape Gardening in India.— We under- 

 stand that Mr. W. Goldring has been engaged 

 by His Highness the Maharajah Gaekwar of Baroda, 

 to carry ont some extensive landscape gardening 

 work at Baroda and other parts of the Gaekwar's 

 dominions. His Highness is desirous of having 

 magnificent gardens around his palaces (Makurpura 

 and Laxmivilosa), and no expense will be spared to 

 effect his object. Mr. Goldring is commissioned to 

 design and lay out some public parks and gardens at 

 Baroda and other places, and to advise His High- 

 ness upon organising a Department of Public Parks 

 and Gardens, which will include a school for teach- 

 ing the principles of horticulture to young native 

 men. The Gaekwar is fond of gardening, and he is 

 anxious to see gardening carried out on better prin- 

 ciples in his dominions, for, having travelled much in 

 Europe, he has seen how highly advanced gardening 

 is here. Mr. Goldring has been engaged to spend 

 three winter months (December, January, and 

 February) in India for three successive years, by 

 which arrangement he will be able to continue his 

 home practice, and he will start this year on his first 

 visit in November, 



CHARLES LEIRENS. — Visitors to the Ghent 

 Quinquennial must be familiar, if not with the per- 

 son at least with the name of this gentleman. He 

 died on August 6 last at the age of 78 years, 

 having for many years been a leading spirit in the 

 Royal Society of Agriculture and of Botany of Ghent 

 since 1838, in which position he obtained the con- 

 fidence and respect of all with whom he came in 

 contact. 



CHAMBRE SYNDICALE, GHENT.— At the meet- 

 ing of the Chambre, on August 13 last, Certificates 

 were granted to the following subjects: — Cypri- 

 pedium Stonei album, shown by MM. J. Vervaet 

 & Co. ; Cattleya Randei, shown by M. L. Linden 

 Cypripedium C. Canham, shown by M. J. Hye- 

 Leysen ; Filicium decipiens, Nephrolepis rufescens 

 tripinnatifida, and Bertolonia Madame Ed. Pynaert, 

 shown by M. Ed. Pynaert ; and Cattleya Gaskeliana 

 alba, shown by M. Alfred Van Imschoot, 



" Botanical Magazine." — The September 

 number contains figures of — 



Spathoglottis Viellardi, Rchb. f., t. 7013. — Leaves 

 plicate ; racemes from the base of the pseudobulb ; 

 flowers 2 inches across, star-shaped, flat, segments, 

 ovate-lanceolate lip very narrow, anterior lobe 

 rounded. New Caledonia. 



Caraguata Andreana, E. Morren, t. 7014. — Leaves 

 strap-shaped, spineless, reflexed ; flowers in terminal 

 stalked panicles, bracts orange, lanceolate, perianth 

 segments yellow. 



Masdevallia Mooreana, Rchb. f., t. 7015. — Flower- 

 cup cylindric, tubular limb divided into linear-lan- 

 ceolate acuminate segments of a rich crimson colour. 



Narcissus Broussonettii, Lagasca, t. 7016. —A very 

 interesting species, with umbellate white flowers 



