June 30, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



473 



THE PROPOSED GARDENERS' SOCIETY. 



I HATE from week to week anxiously conned your pages, fully 

 expectine to meet with some short article from more than one, 

 giving their opinion as well as their full concurrence in the 

 proposed Society, the prospectus of which appeared in your 

 columns a few weeks ago. I was loath to take up my pen to 

 advocate its claims to the notice of the craft generally, for the 

 simple reason that I know there are plenty of older and more 

 able hands who could set the Society in motion if they would 

 only put their shoulders to the wheel, which if once fairly started 

 I think there need be no danger apprehended. 



That some such society is required few will deny ; and I am 

 only more astonished to see it is not by this time in working 

 order. You have as journalists done all that could reasonably 

 be expected ; but the apathy displayed by those for whose 

 benefit it was intended, I fear shows that the scheme was only 

 received with the " cold shoulder." Notwithstanding all this, 

 I still trust the Society will go on and progress ; and you may 

 rest assured if once fairly started it would not suffer for want of 

 members and sub?cribers to its funds. 



It was only the other day I had tne question put to me by a 

 neighbouring gardener, " What society do you belong to ?" My 

 reply was, " Well, none at present. I am waiting to see what 

 was to be the upshot of the proposed new Society." "Exactly 

 the same with me ; and farther than that, should the Society 

 not go on I shall join another in connection with our profession." 

 Through him I was induced to write thus briefly on the subject ; 

 and although the suggestion remains dormant I hope there is 

 life in it, and that it will spring up into vigorous action. Is it 

 not possible to secure at once two hundred members and start 

 the Society ? Remote as we are, and cut off to a considerable 

 extent from the society of gardeners, I still fancy Ireland would 

 furnish her quota of members. — A Peactical Gabdenek, North 

 of Ireland. 



f_We can only remark upon the above that we are quite as 

 much surprised as our correspondent by the apathy evinced by 

 gardeners towards a society so calculated to secure for them 

 comfort in sickness and old age ; but the apathy is as manifest 

 as it is lamentable. — Eds. J. op H] 



"PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL 

 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY." 



Tee June Number of this Journal, and a list of the Society's 

 Eellows, Committees, &c, are suggestive of a few commentaries. 



It is satisfactory to find announcements in the Journal indica- 

 tive of an attention to economy. The "Proceedings" are not 

 to be published in August, September, October, and November — 

 "that part of the year when most of the Fellows are abroad or 

 out of town." This will be a saving, though a small one, and if 

 it stood alone would he on a par with ceasing to purchase 

 " Moore's Almanac," which a spendthrift announced as a begin- 

 ning of economy ; but the next item of retrenchment is larger — 

 Mr. Weir, the Society's collector in Brazil, is recalled. 



In addition to the above official announcements, there are 

 rumours afloat that the expenditure on the Kensington and 

 Chiswick Gardens is to be very largely reduced, but having no 

 specific information we refrain from commentary further than 

 to say that wages, forming a large item in the last balance sheet, 

 other than those given to the Society's garden staff, might be 

 reduced without decreasing the Society's efficiency. 



THE MERITS AND DEFECTS OF ANNUALS. 



I AM glad to see that you have lately drawn so much attention 

 to annuals in your valuable Journal ; I have given much time 

 and trouble to them for several years. No other tribe of plants, 

 in my opinion, combines such a brilliancy of colouring with a 

 graceful and slender habit of growth. I fear I must add, no 

 other plants require so much care and attention. 



Annuals have so many enemies, and are liable to so many 

 diseases unless they get exactly the treatment they like, that I 

 have often been almost disheartened with the failure of many 

 once-promising pets. 1 persevere, however, always trying by 

 experiment to find out those which are at once hardy and beau- 

 tiful, requiring no protection from slugs, and not liable to damp- 

 off. I keep a list of such to which I am continually adding the 



results of my experiments. This list is especially valuable to me 

 in one way. Every spring I give the children of our national 

 school, and also those cottagers who are in the habit of exhibit- 

 ing flowers or vegetables at our horticultural show, packets of 

 seeds of annuals, &c, and I find it is almost useless, except in a 

 very few cases, giving such as the slugs are particularly fond of, 

 or such as require very careful and delicate handling. 



Every year I am deluged with catalogues of annuals from 

 the different London houses in common with every one else who 

 has the good fortune to possess a garden. I am often, indeed, 

 astonished at the liberality, or generosity, or whatever it may be, 

 of those firms who year after year present me by post with a 

 book got up generally in a most elaborate way, with a great deal 

 of literary and scientific skill, and to whom, notwithstanding, I 

 have never given an order even for a threepenny packet of seeds. 

 It may afford them some gratification, at least, in return for their 

 liberality, to know that the perusal of their catalogues is a source 

 of great enjoyment. The Saturday Mevieio says that you may 

 enjoy your continental tour twice over, first of all in turning 

 over the leaves of your " Bradshaw," Beeing therein all the 

 places to which you might go, and finally choosing which you 

 will visit, and secondly in the actual travelling. In the same 

 way I, for one, thoroughly enjoy looking over the lists of annuals, 

 "new," " good bedders," " showy," &c, which may be bought at 

 prices varying from 3d. to 25. 6rf., even though I have resolved 

 at the outset not to spend more than one guinea in the purchase 

 of the same. 



While on the subject of catalogues, I cannot help remarking 

 that they are very far from being what they might be, and that 

 describing almost every annual as an excellent " bedder," simply 

 because " bedding " is the fashion, is more likely to do harm 

 than good. 



One catalogue gives a very useful list of "ineffective annuals." 

 With regard to this character, there must, of course, be always 

 two opinions. For instance : your correspondent, Mr. W. Earley, 

 Digswell, places Nolana prostrata in a list of " twenty select 

 annuals," while Messrs. E. G. Henderson & Son place it among 

 annuals not worth growing. In this case I am myself inclined 

 to side with Messrs. Henderson, while I would not with them 

 exclude the golden showers of yellow Hawkweed. 



But why should not the catalogues give us a little more prac- 

 tical information, marking, for instance, with an asterisk those 

 annuals which open only in sunshine, and again distinguishing 

 those to devour which a slug will walk or crawl a hundred yards 

 even in dry weather ; in fact, those plants which are to them 

 what toasted cheese is to mice — a treat of peculiar flavour and 

 delicacy, and scented from afar? If any one of jour readers 

 has been unfortunate enough (a long while ago, of course, but 

 perhaps not quite forgotten yet), to put his Portulacas in a shady 

 situation, or discovered a fine, fat, black slug eagerly devouring 

 his French Marigolds, he will understand the value of such 

 information as I have suggested. 



As Mr. W. Earley, Digswell, says that he makes the attempt 

 to select twenty annuals " rather in a spirit of inquiry," I would 

 venture to criiicise his list thus : Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 14 open in the 

 sun only, and are, consequently, not, I think, generally useful, 

 although there can be no two opinions with regard to the beauty 

 of 1, 3, 14. 



Again : Nos. S, 6, S, 9, 15, are fit for the greenhouse only, 

 and are, therefore, subject to the same remark. No 16 is too 

 much like, aud at the same time too inferior to, the Yerbena to 

 be a select annual. No. 10 is, as I have already said, unworthy 

 of such a position, and, I think, in selecting twenty out of the 

 great numbers of truly select annuals, there is no occasion for 

 giving, as in Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, two different species of the 

 same genus. 



Were I to give a list of annuals at once generally useful and 

 select, confining myself to annuals strictly so called, it would be 

 (omitting Mignonette and Sweet Pea, as universally acknow- 

 ledged to be both) the following : — 



1. FreDch Marigold * 



2. Clarkia of kinds -r 



3. Colhnsia bicolor 



4. Lavaiera 



5. Ten-week Stocks 



6. Malope grandiflora 



7. Perilla 



8. Convolvulus minor °t 



9. Virginian Stock + 

 10. Nemophila insignia * 



11. Saponaria calabrica 



12. Poppy of kinds 



13. Linum grandiflorum ° 



14. Love-lies-bleeding 



15. Lobelia gracilis 



16. Silene pendula f 



17. Candytuft of kinds T 



18. Eschscholtzia + 



19. Sunflower of kinds 



20. Ipomeea 



Those marked thus *, readily devoured by slugs; thus t, left altogether 

 untouched by them ; thus °, open in sunshine only. 



