614 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



(November 24, 1888. 



Sewardstone Lodge — they were clean and well 

 ripened fruits. 



The most interesting exhibits of Chrysanthemums 

 was that from the nursery Of Messrs. Paul & Son, 

 Chislehurst. Some distinct new varieties were ex- 

 hibited, such as William Barley, Japanese, is an 

 excelent variety, with reflexed petals, the flower full, 

 well formed, and of a rich purple colour ; Marsa, D. 

 Stiggall, Japanese, petals straight, the , flower, rich 

 crimson, [shading to maroon at the centre ; Mons. 

 Garner, Japanese, deep yellow, orange-yellow mar- 

 gin, twisted petals ; Joseph Arch, full purple re- 

 flexed ; Mons. V. Morel, blush, petals broad and 

 pointed, very distinct ; L'Amie Layton, purplish-rose 

 florets, buff centre, distinct large Anemone variety ; 

 Grande Alveola, another good large flowered Ane- 

 mone, with pale peach flowers, good centre ; Miss 

 A. Lowe, a primrose-coloured large flowered Ane- 

 mone. 



DERBY CHRYSANTHEMUM ASSO- 

 CIATION. 



Nov. 17. — In conjunction with this was held also 

 the annual Chrysanthemum show of the Midland 

 Railway Horticultural and Cottage Garden Society, 

 in the spacious Drill Hall, and here, as at Sheffield, 

 it was contended that the season had seriously 

 affected the Chrysanthemums," and especially the 

 plants. The latter were poor for a place like Derby, 

 but the Association is young, and has been in opera- 

 tion four years only. 



The best things were found in the open classes, 

 and in that for twelve cut blooms of incurved 

 varieties, Mr. A. H. Fowkes, Northampton, was 1st, 

 with some very good blooms ; Mr. W. G. Marshall, 

 Taunton, being 2nd. Mr. Fowkes also had the best 

 twelve blooms of Japanese varieties, Mr. Marshall 

 being 2nd once more. 



There was a class for a group of Chrysanthemums 

 arranged for effect, the best coming from Mr. J. H. 

 Biggs, of Derby ; Mr. F. Bancroft, the Hon. 

 Secretary of the Society, being 2nd. 



The best bouquet of Chrysanthemums came from 

 Mr. J. H. Goodacre, Elvaston Castle Gardens. 



In the classes for cut blooms, open to members of 

 the Society, the principal prize-winners were : — Mr. 

 F. Bancroft, Mr. H. Bancroft, Mr. C. Carrington, 

 Mr. W. Fowkes, and Mr. E. Litchfield. The flowers 

 shown were fairly good, but they fell short of what 

 one might fairly expect to see in the North. The 

 same can be said of all the flowers shown from the 

 immediate locality. 



Messrs. Richard Smith & Co., St. John's Nursery, 

 Worcester, contributed a collection of fifty dishes of 

 Apples and Pears of an interesting character ; and 

 Mr. E. Cooling, nurseryman, Derby, contributed some 

 large plants of green-leaved Dracasnas and Palms, 

 also crosses, wreaths, &c. 



DEVON AND EXETER HORTICUL- 

 TURAL. 



November 16. — The annual exhibition of Chrysan- 

 themums was held in the Victoria Hall, Exeter, on 

 Friday, November 16, and will certainly rank as the 

 best autumn exhibition the Society has yet held. 

 The quality of the exhibits was excellent, every- 

 where the arrangements of the exhibits in the hall 

 were effective. The Society may congratulate them- 

 selves on having had an exhibition second to no 

 county show. The Chrysanthemums in the groups, 

 for quality of bloom were models of perfection. The 

 cut blooms were excellent, the Japanese being per- 

 haps the best ; but the incurved varieties were shown 

 in better form than on any previous occasion, the 

 only deficiency to bring them to perfection was the 

 art of dressing them ; all other qualities being 

 present. 



Fruit, especially Grapes, was equal to anything 

 previously seen here. 



BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND 

 COUNTIES. 



The twenty-eighth exhibition of Chrysanthemums 

 took place at the Town Hall, Birmingham, on 

 Wednesday and Thursday, November 21 and 22, and 

 was of surprising excellence, considering the injury 

 caused to the plants by early frosts. Chrysanthe- 

 mums in pots as groups, &c, were attractive. 

 Florists' work was better than usual. The local 

 nursery tfade contributed decorative plants. In 

 the fruit classes there was a very fair display, 



although as a whole there were in these fewer 

 exhibits than last year. About 100 bunches of 

 Grapes were shown. Pears and Apples were good, 

 the display being enhanced by non-competing lots of 

 fruit from Messrs. T. Rivers & Sons, Messrs. R. 

 Smith & Co., and Messrs. Cranston & Co. 



Among the principal prize-winners were the Right 

 Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P. (gr., Mr. Cooper), 

 who took a large number of lsts, including the 

 principal honours awarded for Chrysanthemums in 

 pots. Mr. J. Corbett, M.P. (gr., Mr. Parker), was 

 equally successful in winning the principal honours 

 for cut bloom8. Another very successful exhibitor 

 of Chrysanthemums was Sir Thomas Martineau (gr., 

 Mr. Brasier) ; Mr. D. Lindsey, gr. to Sir T. Edwards- 

 Moss, Bart., also won several prizes. 



The fruit prizes were mainly won by distant exhi- 

 bitors, the chief of whom were the Marquis of Bath 

 (gr., Mr. Pratt), the Earl of Harrington (gr., Mr. 

 Goodacre), the Earl of Shrewsbury (gr., Mr. Rabone), 

 Mr. Gilman, Ingestre ; the Duke of Newcastle (gr., 

 Mr. Gleeson), Sir J. E. Moss, Bart., Mr. J. Corbett, 

 M.P., and the Hon. A. C. G. Calthorpe. 

 '» Some special prizes, offered by Messrs. Sutton & 

 Sons, for vegetables, six distinct varieties, brought a 

 few fine exhibits, and this department of the show 

 will in future years possibly develope into an 

 attractive feature. 



Law Notes. 



SANDER v. THE DUCHESS OF MONTEOSE. 



This was an action before Mr. justice Denman 

 and a special jury to recover £1730 6s. 4d. for 

 Orchids supplied, and for work done in connection 

 with a conservatory belonging to the Duchess of 

 Montrose. 



Mr. Reid, Q.C., in opening the case for the plain- 

 tiff, said that he carried on business at St. Albans, 

 and was one of the largest Orchid growers in the 

 world. The Duchess of Montrose had a place called 

 Sefton Lodge, which was at or near Newmarket, and 

 at the beginning of 1887, or the end of 1886, she 

 was desirous of embellishing the house. Accord- 

 ingly, she had a large conservatory constructed, It 

 was divided into three parts. The central part had 

 a dome, and was intended for a Palm-house, and 

 there were two other departments. The conserva- 

 tory was constructed by a firm at Birmingham, but 

 the place did not give satisfaction to the Duchess, 

 and she made some complaints to the plaintiff. All 

 he did in connection with the house itself was to give 

 advice and assistance gratuitously to the Duchess as 

 to the work to be done. She arranged with the 

 plaintiff that he should supply the central house with 

 a rockery ; and that there should be a lake and also 

 fountains. Unfortunately there was no contract as 

 to price, and, therefore, it would be necessary to call 

 witnesses as to the value of the work done. The 

 plaintiff sent in his account with respect to it, and it 

 amounted to £554, but there was a small mistake, 

 which arose from the plaintiff's book-keeper not 

 being at the time in good health. £16 16s. was in- 

 cluded in the account which should not have been 

 included, and that sum would have to be deducted. 

 On the other hand, and for the same reason, that 

 £554 by no means included the whole outlay to 

 which the plaintiff had been put. There were two 

 wings to the conservatory, one of which the Duchess 

 had filled with Geraniums and other plants, and for the 

 decoration of_the other wing she contracted with the 

 plaintiff that he should supply 1000 Orchids at one 

 guinea each. The learned 'counsel said that 

 he believed that this was a very moderate 

 figure indeed, for sometimes they fetched as much as 

 £40, £50, and £100 for one plant. The Duchess 

 left it to Mr. Sander's judgment to provide 1000 

 Orchids for 1000 guineas, according to to his judg- 

 ment, the object being to get Orchids that would 

 bloom when certain Newmarket races were to 

 be run about the beginning of July. Mr. 

 Sander did his best to supply Orchids to 

 execute this order, and to have the Orchids sent 

 in in June. He heard of no complaint until later 

 on, and indeed, the Duchess expressed great satisfac- 



tion when the 1000 Orchids had been placed in one 

 of these side houses. She communicated with the 

 foreman of the plaintiff, and said that she would like 

 some more colour, many of them being white — and 

 necessarily so, because those would be the plants 

 that would be in blossom at the time required. She 

 also told the foreman that Mr. Sandsr was to send 

 some more Orchids with colour, to an amount not 

 to exceed 200 guineas in value. He, in fact, sent 

 down £126 worth of coloured Orchids, because even 

 his large collection could not supply more than that 

 quantity of coloured Orchids that would bloom at 

 the time required. In July the plaintiff sent an 

 invoice for furnishing the conservatory. That was 

 the central part of it, and the amount was £554, 

 This was followed by another invoice, charging 

 the Duchess with £1050 for the 1000 Orchids, 

 and with £126 for the latter parcel of Orchids. 

 No letter was received from the Duchess at 

 that time, but on July 10 the plaintiff wrote 

 sending an invoice for the total amount of 

 £1730, of which he said a large proportion had 

 been expended in labour and materials, and this 

 being money out of pocket, he asked for £500 upon 

 aceount. Soon afterwards the Duchess said that she 

 had asked her clerk to write and explain to the 

 plaintiff that the arrangement was that the plaintiff 

 should fill the Orchid-houses for £1000, that he had 

 stated the same to the Duke of Marlborough, and 

 that the money was to be supplied for furnishing 

 both houses. It was added that the Duke of Marl- 

 borough and the Duchess of Montrose agreed that 

 the plaintiff had not fulfilled the conditions of the 

 agreement, and that he could take hack all the white, 

 unless the plaintiff adhered to the understanding with 

 the Duke of Marlborough that there should be coloured 

 Orchids. The learned counsel added that no doubt 

 the plaintiff had had conversations with the Duke 

 of Marlborough, but the Duke was perfectly aware 

 that the agreement was to supply 1000 plants 

 for 1000 guineas, and that the plaintiff was 

 not to furnish the two houses for £1000. To 

 this communication the plaintiff answered that her 

 Grace had ordered of him 1000 Orchids at £1 Is. 

 each ; that he had spoken to the Duke of Marl- 

 borough several times about the matter, and that he 

 fully agreed with the plaintiff that it was the best to 

 induce her Grace to have 1000 plants at the price 

 named, and that he had supplied her with plants which 

 were worth much more. He added that he would 

 gladly refer the matter to the Duke of Marlborough, 

 and abide by his decision, feeling that he had done 

 his very best for her Grace, but in the meantime he 

 should be glad to have a cheque for £500. This 

 money was not forwarded, and in February of this 

 year the plaintiff was reluctantly obliged to issue a 

 writ, and subsequently there was an order that upon 

 payment of £700 her Grace should have leave to 

 defend the action. 



Mr. Sander, the plaintiff, was examined in support 

 of his counsel. In the course of his evidence he 

 stated that the Orchids were supplied by a certain 

 time, because the Prince of Wales was going down 

 to Newmarket. 



Cross-examined by Mr. Philbrick. — I was to select 

 a thousand plants, choosing the size and colour. I 

 got the order in Belgrave Square. I did not book 

 the order. I carried it in my head. I have no scrap 

 of writing about the bargain. I received the order 

 in the morning and executed it in the afternoon. 

 My manager picked out the Orchids for the £126. It 

 was left entirely in our hands. The value of Orchids 

 depends upon the size and variety. I have known 

 bulbs sold at Is. a-piece ; but what I sold to the 

 Duchess were fine established plants. The design of 

 the rockeries was left to me. I had had a previous 

 transaction with the Duchess. She came down to 

 my nursery with the Duke of Marlborough. She 

 bought four Orchids for 16 guineas, which she has 

 never paid me for. 



Mr. Philbrick : Did the Duke of Marlborough say 

 that the Duchess would be a valuable customer? — 

 Witness : Yes ; and I thought she would be quite a 

 new market for us. I had a correspondence with 



