November 24. 1888.1 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



fi07 



regard it as established in the interests of horticul- 

 ture. Thit the exhibitor in question put up good 

 stuff is doubtless the fact, but that nearly all other 

 gardeners in the Society's wide district should hold 

 aloof from exhibiting needs explanation. 



M. Boissier's Herbarium.— In our notice of 

 this collection some time since (p. 509), we stated 

 that this herbarium was now the property of the 

 town of Geneva. We are, however, informed that 

 this is an error, and that the herbarium remains in 

 the possession of the family. 



Vanda COERULEA. —A large specimen of a fine 

 form of this species is now in flower at Priorwood, 

 Melrose, in the collection of Alex. Curle, Esq. The 

 flowers, which are veined with dark blue on a sky- 

 blue ground, are 4 inches across, the larger lower 

 segments 2 inches, the whole well rounded. The 

 plant is about 4 feet high, measuring from the top of 

 the pot, and it has twenty-four leaves on each side, 

 and two spikes, one with fifteen and the other with 

 sixteen flowers. 



MASDEVALLIA MACRURA. — Even considering 

 the genus to which it belongs, this species is a 

 remarkable one. In the size of its flowers it is 

 probably exceeded only by some of the varieties of 

 M. chimsera. A plant now flowering at Kew has 

 flowers measuring 10 inches across the sepals. The 

 long scapes produce several flowers, but singly, and 

 at intervals. 



Hammersmith Horticultural Society.— 



The autumn show was held on November 15, at 

 the Athenaium, Shepherd's Bush. Sir Teevoe 

 Lawrence, M.P., visited the show in the evening, 

 and distributed the prizes. Mr. Lampard, Chiswick, 

 took the 1st prize for his group of Chrysanthemums 

 arranged for effect, whilst Mr. Wood, Chiswick, took 

 six prizes for cut blooms, taking the 1st prize in each 

 case. Mr. Thompson was a 1st prize winner for a 

 group of Chrvsantliemums, and took the Certificate 

 for his premier bloom, Japanese. Messrs. Jones, 

 Woodhouse, Bromley, Nelson, and others, also took 

 prizes. In the fruit classes, Messrs. Addison and 

 Wood were the principal winners, Mr. Davison taking 

 1st for a collection of vegetables. 



Cambridge Horticultural Society.— A 

 show of Chrysanthemums was held by this Society 

 in the Corn Exchange on the 15th and 16th inst. 

 Cut blooms were very fine for the season, and the 

 entries for these and specimen plants more numerous 

 than in previous years. Unfortunately the show 

 failed to arouse much interest among the towns- 

 people, and visitors were few in number. 



Bromley District. — The annual show of 



Chrysanthemums took place at the Drill Hall on 

 November 14 and the following day. Competition 

 in all the larger classes was very weak, but showed 

 improvement in the smaller ones, prizes going in 

 most cases to the gardeners of the neighbourhood. 

 Primulas, Grapes, &c, were likewise shown. 



BUCKINGHAM. — This show was held on Novem- 

 1 er 2) in the Town Hall, the whole of the fifty-nine 

 classes being well taken up generally, Messrs. Cor- 

 deroy. Price, Tailby, Walter, Tipler, and Bedford, 

 dividing the honours for plants and cut blooms, and 

 in the fruit division good specimens were contributed 

 bv Messrs. Walter, Tailby, Price, and Holton. Cot- 

 tagers were well represented. 



TAXODIUM DISTICHUM. — In the grounds of 

 Shoreham Cottage, the seat of E. Chaplin, Esq., 

 near Sevenoaks, a pair of these beautiful trees 

 is growiDg, one of which is said to be about 

 forty years old. It is nearly 60 feet high, and 

 the 'stem measures, at 1 foot from the ground, a 

 little over 5 lePt n circumference, and, like the one at 

 Castle Hill, Englefield, mentioned some few weeks 

 ago in these columns, it stands on the bank of the 

 river. The tree is in s;> ! endid health, and is cer- 

 lainlv a beautiful object when in leaf. A large 

 quantity of its roots are to be seen in the water just 

 iu front of the bank on which it stands. J. Hodgson. 



THE TREATMENT OF BANKS 

 AND SLOPES. 



It is not an uncommon mistake to find the slopes 

 in gardens, and by the sides of roads where the sur- 

 rounding ground is either higher or lower than the 

 road, or parterre, made at too abrupt an angle, as at 

 a, b, c, and d, e (fig. 86, copied from diagrams by J. 

 C. Olmsted, published in Garden and Funs/, Sep- 

 tember 5, 1888). It is only in the panelled 

 garden — a mode of laying out a flower parterre not 

 often adopted at the present day — that sucli sharp 

 slopes are admissible, and in such places they are 

 not difficult to keep in good order, owing to their 

 usually small depth; but in banks of four, five, and 

 more feet in depth there are no means of preserving 

 them in a presentable condition. The slopes are 

 then difficult to mow, the grass becomes im- 

 poverished by the insuperable obstacle the slope 

 presents of being manured properly ; and it is very 

 apt to become disfigured by a few days warm sun- 

 shine, and especially when the slope is southerly, as 

 it frequently is in terraced gardens. 



Moreover, a bank of this character always needs 

 to be backed by hard materials, if its contour is to 

 preserved perfectly — another cause for its dying 

 out during sunny weather, even when the pre- 

 caution is taken to cover the material so employed 

 with clay. 



In park land, which is mostly fed off by stock, the 

 trampling of the animals in wet weather very soon 

 destroys the first neat appearance of a steep bank; 

 the grass then grows tufty, the rains wash out the 



It should be borne in mind that a slope falling to 

 a road or path should not terminate directly at these 

 objects, but there should be a margin of level turf 

 varying from a few feet to twenty, according to the 

 scale on which surrounding objects, paths, buildings, 

 borders, etc., are laid out. 



Fi... Sti.— Tims or slopes. 



soil between the tufts, and a continuous carpet of 

 green turf is lost. 



In diagram d, c, there is some improvement on 

 a, b, c ; the Hue is softer, but it meets the grass plot 

 at the bottom at an unpleasant angle, and is only 

 less formal than an inclined plane. To make it less 

 so the top of the slope may be thrown back from its 

 base, bnt it will still have an ungraceful aspect. 

 The diagram «', .;', *; represents the form a bank 

 of soil of uniform texture would assume after 

 a long interval of rainy weather, the soil being 

 washed out near the foot of the slope and deposited 

 on the level at a short distance from it. That is the 

 1-sson taught bv Nature iu this matter, and it is a 

 pretty safe rule to follow in making a turf bank. A 

 cross-section of such a bank is an " ogee," an archi- 

 tectural term meaning something moulded inward 

 at the bottom and outward at the top, or, more 

 broadly speaking, any reversed curve. The line 

 f.g, h, is a regular " ogee,'' the concave portion,/, g, 

 being equal to the convex portion g, h. In practice 

 the proportions of a curve may be varied, and they 

 may sometimes be made to follow the lines /, »«, «, 

 and o, p. q, and yet be of graceful proportions. 



Another rule in making slopes is illustrated by 

 the diagrams, viz., that when a broad surface of 

 turf has to terminate at a steep slope it would be 

 better to connect the former with the latter by 

 means of a convex curve, as at ;«, n, completing the 

 "o»ee" by a short concave curve as at I, m. But, on 

 the contrary, when the surface is intended to ter- 

 minate at a steep slope rising to a fence, shrub 

 border, or other marked boundary, the long concave 

 curve of o, p, q, is more suitable. 



Home Correspondence. 



VIOLAS AS BEDDING PLANTS.— I consider'' R.D." 

 (p. 546) has done well in drawing attention to these 

 plants, and I would much like to see the suggestion 

 adopted either by the Royal Horticultural, or Royal 

 Botanic, or both. For years they have been quite 

 a feature at the great Whit week show at Old 

 Trafford; but we do not see them around London 

 figuring so conspicuously as in northern counties. 

 Their value in the garden is annually becoming more 

 and more apparent, while the list of really first-class 

 varieties, exclusive of novelties,, is somewhat con- 

 siderable. The middle of May would make a good 

 time to show them, using pans of about 12 inches 

 diameter. A collection of these would make a 

 most interesting display, which might also prove 

 instructive, seeing it would afford abundant oppor- 

 tunity for comparing their habits, whether dwarf, 

 compact, or rambling, as also their flowers, and the 

 freedom with which they are produced ; a dwarf 

 compact habit with profuse flowering being of 

 greater moment with them than the actual size of 

 the flowers individually, but so much the better if 

 size was also included with the two just named. F. 

 Jenkins. 



PEARS. — I fail to see clearly how it is possible to 

 keep up a constant supply of fruit during the whole 

 of the Pear season year after year with only twelve 

 or even fifteen varieties, as remarked by Mr. Shep- 

 pard (p. 535). It is true that within that number 

 all the very best of quality might be placed, and the 

 greater part of the task might be got through pro- 

 vided we could really depend upon them all crop- 

 ping constantly. But here and in other gardens 

 where a goodly number of varieties are grown to 

 keep up a regular supply, we should, if we were to 

 limit ourselves to that number — viz., twelve or fifteen 

 — be as often without fruit as with. To double that 

 number, I think, would be nearer the mark, and 

 none too many. I am no advocate for growing more 

 varieties than are really needful, but as the Pear 

 is not to be depended on for cropping annually, and 

 I am a firm believer in having more than one string 

 to in v bow. H. Markham. 



CHISWICK. — I entirely agree with Mr. Dyer's 

 remarks as to what should be done at Chiswick, and 

 had I known there was to be a meeting to consider 

 it I should certainly have attended, but I had no 

 notice. [It was a meeting of the committees only.] 

 I am indebted to the Scientific Committee for some 

 of the pleasantest and most profitable hours I have 

 spent in the Society, but I believe the Society will 

 never flourish so long as the Floral Committee exists 

 on its present footing. It seems absurd to have a 

 committee composed so largely of persons interested 

 in commercial horticulture. What chance has an 

 interesting plant exhibited by an amateur? Still 

 more absurd is it to give medals to nurserymen for 

 advertising themselves and their goods. Surely also 

 the nurserymen in the neighbourhood of London 

 have so great advantages as to locality that they 

 might at least waive their privilege of voting on the 

 exhibits of their less fortunate brethren in the 

 provinces, who feel themselves unfairly handicapped 

 by the Society. Otvr the Sea. 



I am pretty confident that a few years will 



see the management of the Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety conducted in such a way as to meet our hearty 

 approval. At present we have very little to differ 

 with the Council about, as it is apparent to us that 

 whatever was the case formerly, there is now a strong 

 feeling in the Council that the views of the general 

 body of horticulturists throughout the country should 

 be met and carried out as far as practicable. As this 

 feeling spreads among us, horticulturists will gladly 

 become Fellows, in the confident expectation that 

 they will reap benefit for themselves and confer it 

 upon others. Except on the score of expense I see 

 no objection to the " office " remaining in London, 

 nor, indeed, should I object to an office being kept 

 open for the society in every district of the kingdom 

 if it would advance the Society's aims and interests. 

 The exhibitors' view of the matter is a selfish one, 



