460 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
(Arar 13, 1895. 
APPOINTMENTS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK, 
NG. 
THUBSDAY, Ar RTL 18—Linnean Society. 
HOW. 
Norfolk and Norwich Horticultural 
THURSDAY, APRIL 18} "Society's Show. 
SALE 
id Protheroe & Morris’ 
FRIDAY, apart 194 O Henn. * 
CORRE 
ING WEEK, DEDUCED FROM THE OBSERVATIONS 
OF FORTY-THREE YEARS, AT CHISWICK.—48°.4 
THosE interested in the culture 
t 
be glad ss themselves of a little treatise 
entitled, Les Azaiées, written by M. Duval, and 
published in Paris, 8, Place de l’Odéon, by M. O. 
Dorn. The great development of the so-called 
Indian Azalea, as a gardener's flower, dates from 
about 1832, when KNIGHT and PERRY, SMITH 
and others set to work to raise new varieties by 
ERY, ROLL 
VERSCHAFFELT, LESEBE, D 
varieties still retaining an honourable position. 
The author of the present book has a right to 
speak, for his grandfather, C. Duval, was a noted 
raiser; and, moreover, he is himself an en- 
thusiast, who repeats e i 
zalea is the most beautiful flowering plant in 
existence. The botanical history prefixed to the 
practical sections is interesting and accurate. 
Of course, from a strictly botanical standpoint, 
will continue to be Azaleas, and not Rhododen- 
drons, nor Loiseleurias, nor Tsutsias. In the 
n 
their knowledge of geography, and things from 
China were commonly spoken of as of Indian 
origin, 
Ihe body of the book contains directions for 
the preparation of cuttings, grafts, and for 
carrying out other cultural points, I 
interesting to learn 
onths a size and 
vigour only attainable after two years under 
ordinary circumstances, For forcin purposes, 
M. Duvar commends early-flowering varieties 
such as 1, Deutsche Perle; 2, Pauline Mardner; 
Rucker; 5, versi- 
a; the varieties being 
named in the usual order of their flowering. If 
these plants are started the first week in Novem- 
ber, they may be expected to flower in the third 
or fourth week of December. ter these come 
other varieties, which, started at the same time, 
flower in the end of December or early in 
January, viz., 1, Simond Mardner; 2, Eborina 
or Pb 0 8 5 -Mo = ea „ pla 
colestinum attain in thirteen m 
= 
plena; 3, Madame Van der Cruyssen ; 4, Paul de 
Sigismand Rucker, e 
Melanie, Harlequin, Comte de Kerchove, and 
ing, and otherwise unattractive. 
only a few lines above, he says, “the reader 
must not imagine that these variations are pro- 
duced by chance. ems easy to trace the 
origin of these sportive varieties to the old 
Azalea vittata, In any case, it is the varieties 
with brick-red or clear rose-coloured flowers 
which furnish the varieties in which the petals 
re edged with white, fringed or margined; 
whilst those varieties which have cherry - red 
flowers, have, up to the present, not shown any 
variation. Among the illustrations cited by 
M. Duvat, we may mention Souvenir du Prince 
Albert, a variety with dull-red flowers and in- 
different habit. The striped variety of this has a 
deep rose ground striped with purple, margined 
a flower of a clear salmon colour, whilst 
the 
scope causing the separation and re-combination 
of previously mixedelements, Atavism—or the 
reversion to an ancestral condition—is, of course, 
only a more marked and clearly defined separa- 
tion. Under this heading we should place the 
case mentioned by M. Duvat, where one Azalea 
is tardy in development, whilst the sport from it 
is early and more vigorous. Double-flowered 
varieties are also alluded 
with the author that, from a purely ssthetic 
varieties are preferable, 
some di 
= 
i but all the better for that and for the 
benefit of exhibitors a chapter is: given on the 
od of packing for transport. Soils 
suitable for the culture of 
the Ghent Azaleas, and to those of the mollis 
These are not treated at such 
treatises we have ever met with. We com i 
i ` cund it 
heartily to the notice of those interested, 
— l 
In the ordinary run of things 
The ee nothing could be more interesti 
or 
than a bulb show at Haarlem; and those who read 
will admit that, at all events, it was compre. 
hensive enough in character, But an interval 
of five years is a long one, as exhibitions go now- 
— 
a-days, especially when the importance 
utch Society is a purely 
local one, confined, indeed, to the boundaries of 
Alkmaar on the one sid d Leiden on the other, 
with Haarlem as the great centre. The Sooi 
is composed of 1500 members, for whose special 
benefit a weekly journal, Weekblad voor Bloem- 
bollencultuur, is issued, now in the fifth year of 
its existence. The suggestion has been made 
Shabba Hit ial Wrehihiti ] 
an international affair; and the suggestion is 
certainly one of considerable interest to 
English and ot growe The Dutch 
florists, as munity, are essentially 
8 
conservative, but, like other business communi- 
ties, they would hardly stand in their own light 
when an innovation would be synonymous with 
a magnificent advertisement. An international 
show would mean a publicity for Haarlem which 
it has not enjoyed since the famous Tulipomanis 
sensations. English growers can scarcely expeot 
to triumph over the Datch in regard to Hya- 
cinths, Tulips, and several other classes; but in 
many respects we venture to hazard the belief 
that our friends across the water would not have 
it alltheirown way. The rivalry would be bene- 
ficial for both countries, and many useful lessons 
rnt. 
The chief objection to an international show 
as p 
bitors would probably do at the end of the 
journey. Haarlem is less than a twelve hours’ 
journey from London, and the splendid facilities 
of the new Hook-of-Holland route has brought 
the famous old city within as easy reach of 
which properly-packed plants arrive at their 
destination, the fine show of Amaryllis (Hippe- 
astrum) staged by Messrs. R. P. Kern & Sons, 
Liverpool, would be sufficient. 
One of the most interesting lessons of the 
the result of the 
several experiments which had been made in 
growing certain bulbous plants with the aid of 
artificial manure, So far as we could see, after 
a very careful examination into the fruits of 
these trials,the time-honoured method of dressing 
the ground with cow-manure is indubitably the 
co! one, In other words, artificial manure 
has failed entirely: it has neither increased the 
robustness of the plant, nor the brilliancy of the 
flowers, The soil of Haarlem is the most 
one possible for the majority of bulbous plants, 
with the addition of the nourishment already 
indicated; and it would be a waste of both time 
and money to seek for aid in the form of 
artificial manures. 
other lesson is too important to be 
exhib 3 
additional labour which this system in 5 
the jurors, the results, as a whole, were 80 
unpleasantly surprising, 
more than those who had adjudicated. In the | 
| 
