December 22, 1888.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



735 



specimens or cut flowers. Attention is directed to 

 the fact that exhibitors need not necessarily be 

 members of the Society or natives of Belgium. 



Vitality of Gardeners.— We learn from a 



Derbyshire paper that there have been great doings in 

 Chesterfield to commemorate the Great Revolution 

 of 1688. The chief item on the programme seems 

 to have been a grand procession of local celebrities 

 and societies, which paraded the town with much 

 ceremony. The following extract may interest our 

 readers : — " Carriage containing Mr. Adam Scott, 

 Chesterfield (formerly gardener to the late Duke of 

 Devonshire), aged 98 years ; Mr. Allison Clark 

 (farmer, Calow), aged 92 years ; Mr. George Parker, 

 Brimington (formerly gardener to Mr George 

 Stephenson), aged 88 years ; Mr. William Barlow, 

 Chesterfield (formerly gardener to Mr. George 

 Stephenson, Tapton), aged 67 — or a total number of 

 years of 845." The average age of these Chesterfield 

 gardeners is, therefore, over S6 years. These figures 

 surely say something (or the salubrity of Chester- 

 field and the neighbourhood, more for the 

 wholesomeness of gardening as a pursuit, and most, 

 perhaps, for the steady character of the men. 



Pomology in Belgium.— We hear from M. En, 



Rodiuas, the Secretary of the " Cercle d'Arboricul- 

 ture de Belgique," that there will be held in the city 

 of Ghent during September, 1889, a great fruit show 

 and national pomological conference. There is no 

 doubt but that a Congress summoned to discuss such 

 popular topics will meet with widely spread approval 

 and support. 



THE SEASON. — As showing the extreme for- 

 wardness as well as lateness of the flowering of 

 plants in the open ground, we publish a list fur- 

 nished us by Lady Nokthjiourne's gardener at 

 Betteshanger, Sandwich ; and another, shorter, of 

 Chrysanthemums from so far distant a place as 

 Daventry Hall, Cockermouth. At Betteshanger the 

 following were in flower : — Montbretia, Macartney 

 Rose, Abutilons, various ; Pelargoniums, various; St. 

 John's Wort, Clematis, various ; Helichrysums, 

 various ; Carnations, Anemones, East Lothian Stocks, 

 Wallflowers, Agathaia ccelestis, Daisy, yellow and 

 white ; Marigold, Honeysuckle, Pentstemon, Godetia, 

 Verbena, summer Chrysanthemum, Ageratum, Mig- 

 nonette, Roses, six certainly, more probably ; Scabious, 

 Antirrhinums, Pheasant-eye Narcissus, Veronica, 

 Strawberry, Violets, Pansies, Polyanthus, Primroses, 

 yellow and red; Evening Primrose, Senecio pulcher, 

 Cobcea scandens, Petunias, various ; Sweet Peas, 

 Gaillardia, Tobacco, Calceolarias, Gazania splendens, 

 Alonsoa, Berberis Darwinii, Salvia patens. Mr. 

 J. Tait writes : — "I send you from Cockermouth a 

 few Chrysanthemum blooms, just to show you what 

 we can have in a mild season. The blooms of James 

 Salter, Margot, La Charmeuse, Mons. Crousse are 

 from a south wall ; those of La Vierge and Novelty 

 are from a west wall. Wild Primroses are in bloom 

 in the woods, but while I write it is freezing keenly. 

 We had a sharp frost (10°) in the beginning of 

 October, but since the frosts have been slight. Our 

 thermometer registered 9.}° of frost on morning of 

 9th of present month.'' 



BROMELIACE/E. — M. Ed. Andre, in the Revue 

 Hortieole, gives a descriptive list of Bromeliacea; met 

 with by him in his South American travels, among 

 which are no fewer than eighty-three new species. A 

 more detailed work on the same subject is in the 

 Press. 



SKIMMIA FOREMANNI. — We have before us 

 shoots of this brilliant shrub, sent us by its raiser, 

 Mr. Foreman, of Eskbank, Dalkeith, and bearing 

 dense pyramidal panicles of bright coral-red berries, 

 each the size of a small Pea. The leaves are about 

 3 inches long by 1 in width, oblong acute, shortly 

 stalked, deep green, leathery, and studded with 

 minute oil glands. The plant is stated to be a 

 hybrid between S. fragrans and S. oblata, and has 

 the inflorescence of the former and something of 



the leaves of the latter. We regret that it should 

 have received a Latin name, which will lead to con- 

 fusion, as people will naturally consider it a species, 

 and in conversation must naturally omit the X sign 

 of hybridity. 



The question whether this is a true hybrid or no 

 cannot indeed be definitely solved till we know for 

 certain what the plant called S. fragrans is. Some 

 sav it is a species, others that it is a sexual form of 

 S. iaponica. A facetious correspondent who holds 

 this last view asks, with reference to Foremann's 

 Skimmia, whether we have ever seen a hybrid 

 between a bull and a cow ? To which we are con- 

 strained to answer No ; though if the bull were of one 

 species and the cow of another, the offspring would 

 be hybrid, and so it may be with reference to the 

 Skimmia alluded to. We simply told the tale 

 related to us. Be this as it may, the shrub is one of 

 the most brilliantly-berried shrubs we know, and 

 will be very valuable at this season. Like its con- 

 geners, it is probably hardy . 



Conference on Fruit Growing.— a meeting 



of members of Parliament was held on Wednesday, 

 December 19, at the Westminster Palace Hotel, for 

 the purpose of considering the extension of fruit- 

 growing as a solution of the land problem, and a 

 remely for agricultural distress. — Mr. Picton, M.P., 

 presided over a limited audience, which included less 

 than a score of members. — Mr. Sampson Moroan 

 having read a paper on the subject, Sir Wilfred 

 Lawson, M.P., said he was glad to welcome the 

 extension of fruit-eating, but so far as his experience 

 went on his own estates, fruit-growing had not 

 proved a success. He doubted whether the soil and 

 climate of Cumberland were suitable for fruit- 

 growing. Mr. T, B. Potter, M.P., said he had been 

 abroad a great deal, and he could not see why a great 

 deal of the fruit and flowers imported into this 

 country from the South of France should not be 

 grown at home. It was a question worthy of the 

 attention of the Legislature and the general public. 

 Mr. Handel Cosskam, M.P., in moving a reso- 

 lution advocating fruit-growing in the interests 

 alike of rural districts and congested towns, 

 by giving employment to labour, said he was afraid 

 our climate did not give the proper sweetness to 

 fruit. He had tried fruit-growing in the shape of 

 Grapes, but they cost him ten times as much as he 

 could buy them for. Land tenure, in his opinion, 

 was the principal obstacle to success. Mr. Radclute 

 Cooke, M.P., seconded the resolution, but differed 

 from the proposer as to the obstacle. After detail- 

 ing valuable experiences of fruit-growing in Here- 

 fordshire, he pointed out that the movement was well 

 worthy of support, and that it would be most unfor- 

 tunate to check it by connecting it with political 

 " fads." Mr. Channino. M.P., Mr. Seale Hayne, 

 M.P., and Mr. Jasper More, M.P., supported the 

 resolution, which was carried," Morning Post. 



Notices ot- Books. 



The Rose Garden, &c. By William Faul, F.L.S. 

 Ninth edition, 4to, coloured plates. (Kent & 

 Co.) 

 To attempt any criticism of a work in its ninth 

 edition may seem a work of supererogation, but there 

 are some features about this edition which may 

 justify us in doing something more than mention the 

 publication of this new issue, and reiterating the praise 

 already bestowed upon it. And, first of all, let us have 

 our Englishman's privilege. Here it is. We really 

 do not care one jot whether Sappho loved the Rose, 

 whether she' praised it or no, and to whom she com- 

 pared it. We are quite ready to take it for granted 

 that she did do what was attributed to her — but, 

 what then ? We do not learn anything from 

 that fact, and our imaginations and emotions are 

 not stirred by it. Poetical allusions to the Rose 

 are very common. Many of them have no 

 special quality entitling them to reproduction, at 

 any rate in such a book aa this, while some are 



so exquisitely beautiful that we do not wonder at 

 the temptation to quote them being too great to be 

 resisted. Nevertheless, we doubt whether the general 

 public, and even rosarians, would not prefer to get 

 their poetry from other sources — best of all, from 

 the Roses themselves — and trust to Mr. Paul's book 

 for the science and the practice connected with 

 the subject. Most of the quotations connected 

 with the Rose are moreover so terribly hackneyed, 

 that they create about as much poetic feeling in the 

 reader as the bud of a Marechal Niel or a Niphetos 

 empaled on wire in a greengrocer's shop. By far 

 the best, most varied, and least worn series of 

 quotations are those amassed by the fine taste 

 and graceful imaginings of the authoress of the 

 series of articles in our columns, and which have 

 been republished in the authoress' Days and Hours 

 in a Garden, and especially in her Ros Rosaram, 

 both published by Elliot Stock. 



Adverting, however, to the other chapters of the 

 book, we really have little to say further than this, 

 that we feel disposed to praise the book in this its 

 ninth edition nine times more than we did before ; 

 but having already exhausted our superlatives this 

 is a difficult matter. 



Mr. Paul's books have always struck us, not 

 only by their excellence as practical handbooks, 

 but for their suggestiveness, qualities which 

 were remarkably observable also in the works 

 of another great Rosarian, Thomas Rivers. It is 

 this combination of thought with experience that 

 renders Mr. Paul's Rose Garden, so valuable a 

 production, and so superior to the cut and dry per- 

 formances of routine practitioners. Like Oliver Twist, 

 however, we want more, and we could have wished 

 that Mr. Paul could have told us why Hoses do not 

 do well in smoky towns ? Probably there is some 

 anatomical peculiarity which may explain the 

 fact — certainly the Japanese Rosa rugosa does 

 better than most Roses in such localities, and 

 this is a Rose whose foliage, even to the naked eye, 

 presents marked peculiarities. As for the influence 

 of the sea air, that does but heighten the colour of the 

 flowers. As we write, in a Kentish watering-place 

 in mid December, Gloire de Dijon adorns many a 

 porch in the town (Oh, what a benefactor was the 

 man who invented that Rose !), and several hybrid 

 perpetuals are still to be found in the gardens, while 

 in the adjacent warren Scotch Roses, Dog Roses, 

 and wild Sweet Brier form huge bushes. Even on 

 the bleak, wind-swept chalk hills the Scotch Rose 

 may be found — small, indeed, but characteristic in 

 its spines if not in its flowers. 



Into the details of culture it would be impertinent 

 for us to enter, the name of the author is sufficient to 

 prove that they are adequately dealt with, and we do 

 not note nor expect any particular novelty in this 

 direction, but the chapters on cross-breeding and 

 hybridising we may specially commend as a standing 

 example to be followed, and as a protest against the 

 haphazard unbusiness-like — that is, unscientific — 

 practices, usually followed. 



The descriptive lists, of course, require con- 

 stant revision, and this has been done in this 

 edition, apparently with great judgment. Twenty 

 coloured plates of leading varieties from the 

 pencil of Fitch are given, as well as numerous 

 woodcuts by W. G. Smith and others. The 

 botanical appendix, originally written by our 

 friend and colleague, the late Mr. Thomas Moore, 

 has been revised by Mr. Baker, the most competent 

 person to undertake that work. Mr. Arthur Paul 

 contributes an article on the insects feeding on the 

 Rose, and containing a valuable account of those in- 

 sects. We demur, however, to the implication that, 

 because the Rose belongs to the Linnean class, 

 Icosandria polygynia, it therefore does not need (even 

 relatively to other flowers) the agency of insects ; and 

 is it not time that the Linnean classes were laid on 

 the shelf among other antiquarian and historical 

 records ? The order Rosacea;, wide as it is, is a far 

 more compact group than the Linnean groups just 

 mentioned, which include many things that require a 

 wide stretch of the imagination to see their affinity 



