262 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[April 20, 1912. 



The varieties which survived over three life. The most dangerous situation was en- 



American Gooseberry - mildew. 



The 



winters in Mr. Cuthbertson's experiment countered at Shenchow, in Honan, where Pur- summer stage of this disease has been discovered 



already in a Cambridgeshire garden, and growers 

 are recommended to examine their bushes care- 



were : 



Whites. — Seagull, Peace, White Beauty, 

 Pencaitland and Christiana. 



Cream. — Sylvia. 



Primrose. — Sulphurea. 



Yellows.— Grievii, Redbraes Yellow, 

 Klondyke and Mrs. E. A. Cade. 



Light Blues. — Blue Duchess and Lilac- 

 ina (bedding Pansy). 



DOM and his Chinese escort of three men were 

 attacked by brigands, who shot down two of the 

 horses. At this point it was determined to 

 make a stand, and thanks to the possession of a 

 rifle Mr. Purdom was able to turn the position 

 and break away, but not without loss of life. 

 Mr. Purdom states that, at the time of writing, 

 the Chinese soldiers were most to be feared as 

 they were not receiving wages, and were causing 

 riots in most of the cities. Mr. Purdom, who 

 has been for the past three years collecting for 



Dark Blues.— Royal Scot, Archibald Messrs. Veitch & Sons, is now on his way home 



from Peking. 



Royal International Horticultural 



Exhibition. 



Grant, Edina, Blue Rock and Jubilee. 



It would be interesting to discover if the 

 same varieties tend to become perennial in 

 the Wisley soil. Perhaps others will suc- 

 ceed in standing over the winter in Surrey 

 which failed to do so in Essex. We have 

 specially in mind such charming varieties wea ther, season or other causes. 



as 



reminded that 



Exhibitors are 



1. is the latest date 



for 



Wednesday, May i, is 



the making of any alterations or withdrawals 



which may be occasioned by exigencies of 



the Blues, Cream King, Primrose Dame, 

 Snowflake, and Purity. There are now 



L.C.C. Gardeners and the R.H.S. Exam- 



fully, and should any sign of disease be found, to 

 spray their bushes with a solution of liver of 

 sulphur (1 lb. to 32 gallons of water). By Article 

 3 of the American Gooseberry-mildew Order of 

 1911 growers are required to report the presence 

 of this disease on their premises to the Board or 

 the Clerk of the Local Authority for the district 

 either directly or through an inspector, the 

 failure to report being punishable by a fine. 



Presentation by the St. Germans Hor- 

 ticultural Society. — In recognition of his 

 services to the above society the members have 

 presented a silver centre-piece and pair of silver 

 candlesticks to Mr. Alfred J. Hampton, who 

 is leaving the neighbourhood. Amongst many 

 other good works in connection with the society 

 Mr. Hampton instituted seed-raising competi- 

 tions for children, which proved so popular thai 

 no fewer than 550 children have entered for this 



INATION. 



numbers of very fine bronze-coloured i n August, 1905, that gardeners employed in the 

 Violas, and it is to be hoped that they Parks Department before becoming entitled to 

 will be well represented in the trial. The further increments of wages, in accordance with 



the approved scale, should be required to pass 

 in the first or second class the examination in 



The London County Council decided competition for the forthcoming show. 



ideal bedding Viola should have clean, 

 bright foliage, it should produce flowers 



on short, upright stalks in abundance, and Poetical horticulture, held by the Royal Horti- 



the flowers, whilst being of fair size, 

 should be distinctly self in colour. All 

 these points the Royal Horticultural 

 Society will, no doubt, keep in view. It 



cultural Society, and in January, 1911, the Coun- 

 cil further decided that under-gardeners who 

 pass the examination should receive an allowance 

 of Is. a week in addition to the wages of their 

 class. Vacancies for gardeners are also filled 



would be well also for the Society to tabu- so f ar as possible by the promotion of such 



late early-flowering and late-flowering 

 varieties for the guidance of planters. 

 Violas are invaluable in large public 

 and private gardens^ where they are 

 required often in tens of thousands ; they 

 appeal none the less successfully to the 

 smallest amateur; hence the announce- 

 ment of the Wisley trial will be welcomed 

 universally. 



under-gardeners as have passed the examination. 

 The Parks Committee of the Council now report 



Salt and Sugar Beet. — Experiment 

 carried out at Orton (Joint Beport, 1911, Stafford- 

 shire, Shropshire, and Harper Adams College), 

 appear to show that the addition of salt to the 

 manurial dressing applied to land used for the 

 cultivation of Sugar Beet has a markedly bene- 

 ficial effect, both in yield and quality of this crop. 

 The plot to which salt was added (4 cwts. per 

 acre) yielded 14 tons 17 cwts. as against 13 tons 

 7 cwts. from the plot which received similar 

 manurial treatment, except that no salt was 

 applied. 



Scholarships in Agriculture. 



The 



that of the men who have presented themselves Staffordshire Agricultural Committee has issued 



for examination in the last four years 269 have 

 been successful. The Committee are also pleased 

 to report that out of 38 employees in the Parks 

 Department who sat for the examination in 

 January last, 30 passed, of whom 10 were in the 

 first class, 6 in the second, and 14 in the third. 



Camellia cuspidata (see fig. 123).— This ex- 

 ceedingly free-flowering species was discovered 

 by Wilson during his first visit to China. A 

 specimen shown by Messrs. James Veitch & 

 Sons was in the form of a compact, pyramidal 

 bush. The narrow leaves are from 2 inches to 

 2£ inches long, and the white flowers are 1£ inch 

 in diameter, the latter resembling somewhat 

 those of C. Sasanqua or Eucryphia pinnatifolia. 

 The tree is an evergreen, and has proved hardy 

 at the Coome Wood Nurseries : the flowers nnpn 



Surveyors* Institution. — The annual 

 dinner of the Institution will be held at the 

 Whitehall Rooms, Hotel Metropole, on the 23rd 

 inst. The professional examinations will be held 

 on March 25 and following days. The Council 

 have accepted an invitation from the Nottingham 

 and Lincoln Committee of the Institution to hold 

 the next country meeting at Nottingham on May 

 30 and 31. 



Edinburgh Spring Show The receipts, 



including the proceeds from the sale of tickets 



in April. Although the hybrid Camellias are f° r admission to the Spring Show of the Royal 

 hardy over a great part of the British Isles, the Caledonian Horticultural Society, amounted to 



an announcement of the scholarships which it 

 offers in agriculture. They include the Stafford- 

 shire Major Scholarships (of a value of £45 per 

 annum, tenable at the Harper Adams College), 

 the Minor Agricultural (Brewood) Scholarships 

 (of a value of £4 per annum, tenable at Brewood 

 Grammar School), and special short term agricul- 

 tural scholarships. Full particulars may be ob- 

 tained from the Director of Education, County 

 Education Offices, Stafford. 



The Effect of Manures on Tobacco.- 



In the course of experiments— referred to else- 

 where—made at the Wye Agricultural College, it 

 was shown that the heaviest yield of Tobacco 

 leaf and the largest amount of nicotine were 

 obtained by manuring with farmyard manure 

 plus artificials. Thus, whereas farmyard manure 

 alone yielded from 124-138 lbs. of nicotine per 

 acre, farmyard manure plus artificials yiel 

 from 149-161 lbs. 



fleshy petals of their beautiful flowers are easily £183, which is about £34 more than was taken Mr James Grieve.— The many friends of Mr, 



damaged by slight frosts or rough gales, but the kst year. The arrangements made with the rail- 

 way companies for reduced fares could not be car- 

 ried out owing to the coal strike, but the heating 



firmer texture of the petals of C. cuspidata en- 

 ables them the better to escape injury. As 

 Camellias seed with moderate freedom — in the 

 West of Ensiland. the single and semi-double 



of the hall, which was brought into operation for 

 the first time for a flower show, was no doubt the 



hybrids grown out-of-doors produce their fleshy iaeans of attracting more visitors. 



seasons — the new species offers 



James Grieve, head of the firm ot »«T 

 James Grieve & Sons, who were present at e 

 Edinburgh Spring Show, were glad of the oppor- 

 tunity to congratulate him on his recovery W|» 

 a long and serious illness. Had Mr. 

 been present at the Chrysanthemum Show ot 

 Scottish Horticultural Exhibition last Novenit>e 



_ -^ OUUI/USIl nurUCUll/UIcW j^Ainuitiu» — . 



a fine opportunity for a hybridist with skill and Root Nodules of Myrica Gale.— Accord- he wQuld haye attended 52 consecutive shows » 



hardier 



with flowers of equal beauty to those of the pre- 

 sent hybrids. Camellia cuspidata was given an 

 Award of Merit by the R.H.S. on April 2 last. 



The Perils of the Plant Collector. 



On p. 188 we announced that Mr. Purdom had 

 sent home a cable with the news that he had ar- 

 rived safely at Peking. It now appears from a 

 letter just received (Britkh Legation, Peking 



ing to the researches of Professor Bottomley, ™ ,. , , 



March 23) that the revolution riots became so bad 

 in the Shensi and Kansu provinces that Mr. Pub- 



the root nodules of Myrica gale are the outcome 

 of infection by the bacterium Pseudomonas 

 radicicola, which is responsible for nodule forma- 

 tion in the LeguminosaB. The bacterium is 

 capable of forming organic nitrogen compounds 

 from the nitrogen of the air, and hence Myrica 

 gale must rank with the Leguminosae as a 

 nitrogen fixing plant. According to Professor 

 Bottomley plants of Myrica gale free from 

 nodules planted in soil containing no combined 

 nitrogen are unable to survive, whereas plants 



dom had little hop© of getting away with his with nodules similarly treated are able to live. 



mm The Bfr* 

 Flower Showsat Birmingham.--^ 



mingham Botanical and Horticultural boc J 



have decided to hold two flower *°Q* rde ,is, 

 ing the present summer at the Botanical ra ^ 

 Edgbaston. The first will be held on J^ 1 ^ 

 (Orchids and early summer flowers), an 

 second on July 17 (Roses and mlds T^ 

 flowers). Honorary exhibits of floW p S V cU i ar s 

 and vegetables will be welcomed. P ar * ieS> 

 may be obtained from the Hon. Secre 

 Botanical Gardens, Edgbaston* 



