604 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[November 24, 1888. 



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 'THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE, 



J. Vol. HI., Third Series, JAN. to JUNE, 1888. 



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APPOINTMENTS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 



SHOWS. 



WEDNESDAY, Nov. 28-The Hartlepools (two days), Luton. 



SALES. 



/"Dutch Bulbs, at Stevens' Rooms. 

 MONDAY Nov q 6< Dutch Bulbs, at Protheroe & Morris ' 



j Rooms. 

 (.Plants and Bulbs, at Smail'sRoom3. 



! Dutch Bulbs, at Stevens' Rooms. 

 Orchids, established, imported, and 

 in flower, at Protheroe & 

 Morris' Rooms. 

 Bulbs, Roses, and other Plants, at 

 the City Auction Rooms, by 

 Protheroe & Morris. 



f Dutch Bulbs, at'Stevens' Rooms. 



Lilies, Greenhouse Plants, and 

 [ Bulbs, at Protheroe & Morris' 

 Rooms. 

 Clearance of Greenhouse Plants and 

 Ferns, at the Hornsey Nurseries, 

 by Protheroe & Morris 

 .Plants and Bulbs, at Smail's Rooms. 



auratuni and African Tube- 

 . at Stevens' Rooms. 

 Dutch Bulbs, at Protheroe 8c Morris' 



WEDNESDAY, Nov. :8 



THURSDAY, Nov. 29 



re 



\ Dut 

 (. R 



I' Imported and Established Orchids, 

 at Protheroe & Morris' Rooms. 

 Freehold and Leasehold Nurseries, 



—j Barnet, at the Auction Mart, by 



I Protheroe & Morris 



I, Bulbs and Plants, at Smail's Rooms. 



L Dutch Bulbs, at Stevens' Rooms. 

 Dec, 1 J Dutch Bulbs, at Protheroe & 

 ( Morris' Rooms. 



In a recent article relating to a 

 ^egoniS!* serviceable little book lately pub- 

 lished at the Gardening World 

 office, we took an opportunity of summarising 

 the chief points in the history of the tuberous 

 Begonias as we now know them. Although we 

 have them of almost every shade of colour 

 except blue, and of all sizes from that of a shil- 

 ling to that of a saucer, we are still not satisfied, 

 nor, indeed, ought we to be"; till it is clear that 

 we have exhausted all the possibilities of the 

 case, and then we must, as the modern cant 

 phrase has it, make a new departure. Every 

 one who sees the tuberous Begonias must 

 wish that their season could be prolonged. 

 And there are already indications that 

 this result will be attained to. " Oh ! but," some 

 will say, " how are we to get light enough under 

 our gloomy, often foggy skies to develope the 

 flowers ? " Such objectors forget the fact, that 

 the flowers are not necessarily made under those 

 unpropitious auspices, and that even if their 



foundations were not laid and their plan sketched 

 out very long before, yet the materials out of which 

 they are framed have been stored up ready for use 

 some time before, so that we doubt not our gar- 

 deners, by clever adaptations, which they so well 

 know how to practise, will, relying on these facts, 

 be able so to manage their plants as to have 

 them early or late at will. In the meantime, a 

 better prospect of doing this is afforded by 

 cross-breeding and hybridisation.. 



We have already alluded to the brilliant 

 results in the way of autumn-flowering Begonias, 

 of which John Heale and "Adonis" afford 

 illustrations ; and we have alluded to the crosses 

 with B. Froebeli raised in Messrs. Veitch's 

 establishment, and to which we look forward 

 with eager interest. 



M. Lemoine, of Nancy, has also been at 

 work, using the large white-flowered Begonia 

 octopetala as one of the parents, and the result, 

 according to a photograph which we have before 



FIG. 84.'— PINUS PIXEA. (SEE P. 602.) 



us, is so striking, that we lose no time in letting 

 our readers know what they may expect to see 

 in the near future. It is best to let M. Lemoine 

 speak for himself : — 



" I beg to send you a photograph taken from a 

 specimen of a new race of autumn flowering tuberous 

 Begonias, which may, perhaps, have some interest to 

 you. It is the result of a cross which I made some 

 years ago between the white-flowered Begonia 

 octopetala and some of the finest of the tuberous 

 section. As you may judge from the photograph, the 

 result is a magnificent one, and the new race, ' octo- 

 petala-Lemoinea ' is one of the handsomest which I 

 have ever raised. The root is somewhat irregularly 

 lengthened, black, intermediate in shape between 

 the long root in B. octopetala and the spherical corm 

 of a tuberous Begonia. The herbaceous stem is very 

 short, so that the leaves seem to be radical ; these 

 are broad undulated, of a glossy green, with round, 

 hairy stalks. The plant bears from six to eight erect 

 flower-stalks, thick and hairy, about 2 feet high, and 

 each supporting from five to seven flowers, which 

 open at the same time. The individual blooms, male 

 and female, attain the size of 3 inches or more across, 



and are composed of six to eight large oval petals 

 which give them somewhat of the shape of Anemone 

 japonica or Anemone fulgens. 



" A nearly complete range of colours, from 

 pure white to scarlet, with various shades of pink 

 and carmine, is to be found in this new class, which 

 produces a beautiful show of blooms at a season 

 when the brightness of the tuberous Begonias is over. 

 The photograph was taken on November 10 in my 

 nursery, from a variety with pink flowers, one-sixth 

 natural size. V. Letnoiiie." 



The Late Dr. Asa Gray.— We have received 

 a " chronologically arranged list of the writings " of 

 this botanist, as beloved as he was eminent. Dr. 

 Geat began to write in 1834, his first article, as it 

 happens, being devoted to mineralogy. From that 

 time, year by year, the roll of contributions in the 

 shape of books, articles, memoirs, reviews, and 

 obituary notices was unceasing till the present 

 year, which has three entries, one being the 

 "Botanical Necrology for 1887." In a few years 

 only two or three original contributions to 

 science are noted, but in [many years they reach 

 to as many as twenty. Even more numerous 

 are the " botanical notices " and book reviews, 

 issued during the same years. The whole record 

 with index occupies no fewer than sixty-seven octavo 

 pages of small, unleaded type. When we remember 

 that by far the greater and more important part of 

 this is the record of actual work and investigations 

 carried on by the author himself, investigations 

 generally necessitating a large expenditure of time 

 and labour, we can but feel astonishment at the 

 patience and perseverance thus conspicuously mani- 

 fested. Nor must the quantity alone be considered, 

 far more important is the quality ; and here, although 

 many of the criticisms are of relatively ephemeral 

 interest, the record of actual work done is such as to 

 secure for Asa Gbay a place amongst the highest so 

 long as botany endures. 



THE ROYAL MEDAL.— One of the Royal Medals 

 in the gift of the Royal Society, has this year been 

 awarded to Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller, of 

 Melbourne, in recognition of his long and unwearied 

 labours as an explorer, a collector, and an investi- 

 gator of the Australian flora. Sir Ferdinand has 

 found time to do much towards popularising the 

 science by his educational writings, and has also 

 worked hard in the development of the economic 

 resources of the great Australian continent, so that 

 the compliment is thoroughly well earned. 



A ROSE CONFERENCE is in course of organisa- 

 tion by the Council of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society. It will probably be held at Chiswick in the 

 Jast week of June next, 



THE LlNNEAN : November 15.— Mr. W. Caeru- 

 thers, F.R.S., President, in the chair. On 

 behalf of Mr. H. Bolus, F.L.S., Mr. J. G. Bakee 

 exhibited a specimen of Eriospermum folioliferum, a 

 plant showing a very remarkable type of leaf-struc- 

 ture. It was figured by Andrews, in his Botanist's 

 Repository, in 1807. and lost sight of until recently 

 refound by Mr. Bolus in Namaqualand. Professor 

 Stewart exhibited a substance which had been 

 picked up on the sea-shore, the nature of which it 

 had puzzled many to determine, its structure being 

 regarded by some as animal, by others as vegetable. 

 He proposed to submit it to careful microscopical 

 examination. Mr. J. E. Haeting exhibited a South 

 American bat from Trinidad (Noctilis leporinus), 

 alleged to be of piscivorous habits, and remarked 

 upon a similar habit which had been observed in a 

 species of Pteropus in India, A paper was read by 

 Mr. B. D. Jackson, on behalf of Mr. H. Chichestee 

 Haet, on " The Mountain Range of Plants in Ire- 

 land," which was criticised by Mr. J. G. Bakee, who 

 gave an interesting sketch of the characteristics of 

 the Irish flora. Two papers were then read by Mr. 

 Sladen on the mammals and birds collected by Mr. 

 H. N. Ridley, in Fernando Noronha, in the deter- 



