364 



THE GARDENERS 9 CHRONICLE. 



[Jcne 1, 1912 



EDITORIAL NOTICE. 



ADVERTISEMENTS should be scat to the PUB- 

 LISHER, 41, Wellington Street, Covent Garden, 



Letter* for Publication, as well as specimens of plants 

 for naming, should be addressed to the EDITORS, 

 41, Wellington Street, Covent Garden, London. 



Communications should be written on onk si dk only op 

 thk paper, sent as early in the week as possible and duly 

 signed by the writer. If desired, the signature will not be 

 printed, but kept as a guarantee of good faith. 



Special Notice to Correspondents.— The Editors do not 

 undertake to pay for any contributions or illustrations, or 

 to return unused communications or illustrations, unless by 

 special arrangement. The Editors do not hold themselves 

 responsible for any opinions expresseil by their correspon- 

 dents. 



Local News.— Correspondents will greatly oblige by sending to 

 ih' Ed tots early intelligence of local events likely to be of 

 interest to our readers, or of any matters whichtt is desirable 

 to bring under the notice of horticulturists. 



APPOINTMENTS FOR JUNE. 



SATURDAY, JUNE 1- 



Soc. Francaise d'Hort. de Londres meet. 



TUESDAY, JUNE 4- '." . 



Royal Hort. Soc. Corns, meet. (Masters' Memorial 

 Lecture by Prof. I. Bayley Balfour on " Problems of 

 Propagation.") Scottish Hort. Assoc, meet. 



THURSDAY, JUNE 6— Linnean Soc. meet. 



MONDAY, JUNE 10— 



United Hort. Benefit and Prov. Soc. Com. m-et. 



WEDNESDAY. JUNE 12- 



Royal Cornwall Sh. at Penzance (2 days). 



FRIDAY, JUNE 14-Richmond Horse Sh. (2 days). 



TUESDAY, JUNE 18— 



Royal Hort. Soc. Corns, meet, and Gladiolus Sh. 

 (Lecture by the Rev. Prof. Henslow on ■• Prof. J. S. 

 Henslow as Ecologist.") 



WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19- f m 



Yorkshire Gala (3 < ays). Royal Meteorological Soc. 



meet. Nat. Hardy Plant Soc. Sh. at R.H.S. Hall, 

 Westminster. 



THURSDAY, JUNE 20 - Linnean Soc. meet. 



MONDAY, JUNE 24— Midsummer Day. 



TUESDAY. JUNE 25- 



Royal Scottish Arboricultural Soc. Excursion to Dee 



side (6 days). 



WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26- 



Colchester Rose and Hort. Soc. Summer Sh. Nat. Rose 

 Soc. Sh. at Southampton. Richmond PL Show. Royal 

 Botanic Soc. meet. 



THURSDAY, JUNE 27— Isle of Wight Rose Exh.at Ryde. 



FRIDAY. JUNE 28-Canterbury and Kent Rose Soc. Sh. 



SATURDAY, JUNE 29- 



Windsor, Eton and Dist. Rose Sh. at Windsor. Sutton 

 Rose Soc. Sh. 



Average Mean Temperature for the ensuing week 

 deduced from observations during the last Fifty Years 

 at Greenwich-58°. 



Actual Temperatures:— jmL 



London.— Wednesday, May 29 (6 p.m.): Max. 72°; 



Min. 46«. 

 Gardeners' Chronicle Office, 41, Wellington Street, 

 Covent Garden, London.— Thursday, May 30 

 (10 a.m.) : Bar. 29*8° ; Temp. 68° ; Weather- 

 Sunshine. 



Provinces.— Wednesday, May 29: Max. 60° Kent; 



Min. 51° Scotland, N.E. 



i 



SALES FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 



WEDNESDAY- 



Gladiolus, Liliums, and other Hardy Bulbs and Roots, 

 at 3 ; Palms and Plants, at 3.80 ; at 67 & 68, Cheapside, 

 E.C., by Protheroe 8c Morris. 



i 



■ 



i 



■ # 



The 1912 Exhibition with its 

 Horticultural wonderful demonstration of 



Science: , _ ■, _, . 



1866-1912. *" e progress of the art of 



horticulture evokes in the 



grandfathers and grandmothers. We for- 

 get, perhaps, that our taste is but an ex- 

 pression of our character, and that the solid 

 and stiff formality of mid-Victorian flowers 

 reflected alike the virtues and the failings 

 of that age as the soft-toned gracefulness 

 of many of the floral products of the pre- 

 sent day represent ours. This symbolic 



that there can be an applied science except 

 it be founded on the basis of pure sci.-nce. 

 You cannot predict the tides Without a 

 knowledge of ths laws of gravitation. Xow 

 the greatest achievement of the present age 

 is the birth and growth of applied 

 physical and chemical science. So the 



in vain. 



aspect of horticultural progress we leave, the birth and growth of applied biological 

 however, to the moralist to interpret. It science. Inasmuch as the latter, when it 

 may be that he will decide that we, in arrives, will be born of the travail of pure 

 becoming more artistic, have lost some of science, the labours of scientific horticul- 

 the sturdiness and strenuousness of charac- turists and other biologists of the present 

 ter possessed by the previous genera- day may not be conceived of as having been 

 tions. It may be that he will absolve 

 us of this failing and assure us that Hence, whereas there will always be men 

 we and our flowers alike have all the vir- who take short-sighted views of thing? and 

 tues of our ancestors, with the added who urge that if horticultural science can- 

 graces of our own : for doubtless we may not here and now show how to rid them of 

 train our philosophers like those of olden their pests, how to double tli3ir profit 

 time to speak comfortable things to us. how to control or at least predict the 

 But when we turn from the art of horticul- vagaries of the seasons, how, in short, to 



give first aid to the wounded, then horticul- 



present knowledge with that possessed by tural science is no good to them ; yet there 



the gardeners of past times, we find it will also always be others who look with 



extraordinarily difficult to arrive at a just approval on the building, though it may 

 conclusion. - 



ture to the scientific side, and compare our 



not be ready for occupation in their tim 

 On the one hand, whereas the knowledge and who realise that the results of pure 

 of the mode of life of plants possessed by science, though not always of immediate 

 the scientific men of 1866 could be com- 

 prised within the bounds of a 



service to them, are a necessary preliinin- 



slender ary to discoveries of a more "practical 



volume, it now overflows those of volumes kind. 



many and thick. On the other hand, 



That this is in course of achievement 



should the gardener of the present day ask there can be no doubt. 



The mysteries of 



of contemporary men of science practical the soil are being unravelled ; the garden 



advice in the maragement of his plants, we pests begin to tremble at their impending 



are by no means confident that he would 

 fare much better than did the gardener of 



1866 who relied on the scientific knowledge though the patient hybridist may even now 



In but two directions, per- afford to ignore the laws which Mendel 



destruction , 



disease are in course of discovery, and 



time 



hapa-that relating to the proper use of gave us, the time is not far off when he 



1 with may discover that to work according to 

 hnnP those laws is to achieve his ends more 



rne 



pestsr— m 



for better guidance. 



But, even admitting this, can it be con- 

 cluded that all our laboriously-garnered 

 scientific knowledge is vain and useless? 

 By no means ; for an unfinished house is 

 not useless except as an immediate habi- 

 tation, and it may be urged that though 

 the roof is not yet on the building of our 

 knowledge of scientific horticulture, yet 

 the foundations have been laid and the 



walls of the edifice have risen well above 

 the ground. 

 It is true that the practical horticulturist 



x 



may find perhaps but little that attracts 

 him in the architecture of that building, yet 

 if he be wise and have an eye for the future, 

 he will not hasten to condemn it. It is a^ 



surely, than by working at nazaiu aim ^ 

 waiting on the gifts of chance. 



The 40 years in the wilderness were 

 weary years, and many of the wanderers 

 despaired; so the spade work that has 

 been done in the wilderness of horticul- 

 tural science has been weary work, yet the 

 future is full of promise, and when the 

 achievements of applied horticultural 

 science are in universal use it will b3 recog- 

 nised that they are the outcome of the wo* 

 which is now in course of doing. 



That this is so was demonstrated ampi> 

 by a careful inspection of the exhibits dis- 

 played . in the somewhat sombre ten 

 devoted to Science and Education m tne 

 International Exhibition. A cursor? 

 glance and a hurried exit was all that the 



student of horticultural science many re- fact, for example, that science is better giauuc auu <* uumvu — ~ — ^ e 



flections, not all of which are cheerful, able to name his pests than to destroy many could bestow— nor are they 



None but the querulous or disappointed them, and is more concerned in explaining blamed, for all must learn where ^ y ^ ^ 



can aver that the art of horticulture has his results than in emulating them : yet, 



net made enormous strides during the 46 though this be so, it does not therefore 



years which have elapsed since the last follow that the science of horticulture has 



International Exhibition was held in Lon- played a futile part during the last 50 years. 



don. It is true that just as there were A little careful consideration may put the 



great men before Agamemnon, so there case in a truer perspective. 



were great cultivators before the present There are two aspects of every science. 



race of horticulturists began its triumphant 

 career. It is true also that we are aDt to 



One, which may be called that of pure 

 science, is concerned with a description of 



judge kindly our own exploits and to be facts 



other, 



critically severe on those achieved by our that of applied science, is occupied with 

 forbears. We contrast the airy grace of the bringing of scientific knowledge to bear 

 our garden flowers with the prim stiffness on the practical problems of life. None but 



of those which won the affections of our a charlatan among scientific men believes' ment. 



But those whose business it was i to ^ 

 much in the Scientific section observe 

 many a gardener studying the speciro 

 with care, and showing a deep intere * 

 the varied collections. Happiest aug". 

 of all was the fact that the exhibitor 

 were not confined to the professional m 



included firms such a 

 Messrs. May, Messrs. Sutton *_**> 

 Messrs. Veiteh, and others, and 

 demonstrated that horticultural s? ^ 

 is not a thing apart but a factor »" 

 increasing factor in horticultural ae 



of science, but 





