478 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 241. 



Correspondence. 



Frozen Chrysanthemums at the Roj'al Aquarium. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — On the first page of this morning's Standard, sand- 

 wiched between an announcement of fireworks at the Crystal 

 Palace aijd another of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, the following 

 paragraph caught my eye : 



"Royal Aquarium : The National Chrysanthemum Society's 

 Grand Show of early Chrysanthemums, Dahlias and Gladioli 

 will be unusually interesting, showing new varieties brought 

 from the antipodes to this country in frozen blocks of ice." 



A few hours later I was paying my shilling at the entrance 

 turnstile. The Royal Aquarium is along brick building with 

 a glass roof, reminding one in its architecture of a good many 

 ratlway-stations. It stands in a back street, within a stone's- 

 throw of Westminster Abbey, fortunately where it cannot mar 

 that stateliest of London's groups of towers, which the Houses 

 of Parliament and St. Margaret's join with the Abbey to com- 

 pose. The last time I remember passing it, the building was 

 liberally bespotted with huge posters announeing the presence 

 within of Niagara with real water, and an English lady had 

 told me that she thought it "very kind of the Americans to 

 send the falls over." But now the vast inner hall was filled 

 with a bewildering choice of attractions. Just within the door 

 was a shooting-gallery ; beyond, a loud-voiced phrenologist 

 was assuring his audience that the "subject" under considera- 

 tion " 'ad such a 'ead that 'e'd make a capital heditor." Fur- 

 ther still, there was a small stage, its lowered curtain covered 

 with what was perhaps an attempt to picture the mythical 

 Snake-plant of Central America. 



Rounding the empty dress-circle of this expectant theatre 

 the flower-exhibit appeared, admirably arranged on parallel 

 tables, set well apart, and culminating at the further end with 

 huge pyramids of Chrysanthemum-plants and the frozen blos- 

 soms from New Zealand. Passing up to these, the chief at- 

 traction, one was detained by the superb specimens of the 

 Madame Desgranges Chrysanthemum. The perfection of 

 these great, soft, snowy heads is indescribable, and there was 

 a sport of this variety, to which a medal had been awarded, 

 where a delicate pink tip appeared on the three outer rows of 

 petals. It rivaled the original in beauty, but no name has yet 

 been given it. The professional decorator may be earnestly 

 recommended to place side by side, exactly as they were to be 

 found here, Mrs. Burrell and the Incognita, for theirs are the 

 peculiar shades of yellow and pink which make a charming 

 combination. There were, upon the whole, few startling nov- 

 elties to note ; the efforts which the gardeners have been 

 making in the line of mauve and purple tints have not as yet 

 been really successful. The Louis Boehmer, whose hairy pink 

 florets were first seen in America, has sprung into favor iiere, 

 and there were some splendid specimens on view, maintain- 

 ing the reputation of the variety for liardy growth and free 

 bloom. The color, too, is superb, a rich, deep, almost orien- 

 tal, pink. One gardener at my elbow declared that it had dark- 

 ened since its arrival in England.^ [This "rich, deep color" 

 is not the strong point of this variety, as it has been seen in 

 America. — Ed.] 



All this, however, is in passing to the great attraction, which 

 proved curious enough. The blooming-time of Chrysanthe- 

 mums in New Zealand is in our spring, and last April eight 

 fiawless blooms of six distinct varieties had been cut, plunged 

 each in a zinc cylinder filled with water and frozen solid. These 

 cylinders were in turn packed and frozen in a zinc tank and 

 thus shipped to London, where they had been waiting a month 

 for this exhibition. When the various receptacles were opened 

 and sufficiently thawed to make it possible to discern tlie blos- 

 soms lying imbedded in their cakes of ice they were found to 

 be wonderfully well preserved. Save for a little discoloration 

 at the edges, as from the nip of sudden frost, their tints were 

 as fresh as any there — the livid pink of the Zealand!, the lemon- 

 yellow Tarawera and the white, hairy Rimutaka. Mr. John 

 Easland, of Wellington, New Zealand, who conceived this ap- 

 plication of the freezing process, received from the committee 

 a medal and certificates galore, but probably the furnishing of 

 Covent Garden Flower Market will not become a large branch 

 of New Zealand trade. It is the botanical lecturer or other 

 specialist who is likely to seize on the idea and make infinite 

 use of it. The great advantage of being able to preserve a 

 given specimen indefinitely and produce it at an hour's notice 

 must have occurred to every one who saw how successful 

 was the experiment tested yesterday at the Royal Aquarium. — 

 [Flowers in blocks of ice were seen at a New York exhibition 

 some years ago, but they made no sensation. — Ed. J 



I longed to show the English florists, by the same means, 

 what our roadside Asters were like at their best. Golden-rods 

 they have learned to grow fairly well here, though not as per- 

 fectly as in Belgium, and one sees more of them every year, 

 while their Firefly Lobelia (L. flagrans) seems at first glance 

 the very Cardinal Flower of our brooksides, only a little en- 

 larged and improved; but the white and mauve Asters, which 

 they have transplanted from our New England lanes and dis- 

 play among their hardy flowers, make but a pitiful show. 



The Dahlias exhibited were almost better than the Chrys- 

 anthemums — especially the loose, open Cactus Dahlias, which 

 were shown in tints of astonishing deptli and splendor. It 

 seems a pity that prizes should still be offered for the huge 

 double Dahlias and that florists should go on wasting their 

 time in developing them, for the more they are developed 

 the stiffer and more hideous they become. 



The single Dahlia, on the other hand, is one of the most 

 beautiful of flowers, as well as one of the most effective for 

 decoration, especially adapted, as the German gardeners have 

 discovered, to parks and lawns, while a bed of them at the 

 garden's end will give light and color till the nipping frost. 

 And for this purpose the old varieties, with their smooth tints, 

 are better than the modern bicolored flowers, beautiful as 



many of these are in themselves. 

 London. Lotttse Dodgc. 



[Double Dahlias and Camellias are stiff and formal, but with 

 their rich colors and exquisite texture they still find admirers. 

 Even among those who prefer single flowers, there are few 

 who find them hideous. — Ed.] 



Cannas at Bay Ridge, New York. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — For the study of plants in all their phases it is often in- 

 structive, and usually interesting, to seek them where growing 

 in broad masses or in large quantities. As seen in this way 

 one gains a more correct idea, in some respects, of their pe- 

 culiarities, which are accented on a large scale. In this way 

 the true nature of a variety can be more readily determined 

 tlian by the observation of one or a score of plants. Curiosity 

 as to the popular Crozy's Cannas led me a few days ago to the 

 celebrated nursery of Mr. James Dean at Bay Ridge, Long 

 Island. Mr. Dean early appreciated the value of these plants, 

 and is growing them very largely. He has a full selection of 

 varieties, but Madame Crozy and Star of '91 are grown in a 

 very large way. Two plots of these, each containing several 

 thousand plants, were a brilliant sight on a bright September 

 afternoon, and their distinctive qualities were well emphasized. 

 Madame Crozy as grown here averaged about five feet high, 

 while in the adjoining plat of Star of '91 the plants were flower- 

 ing uniformly at about three feet high. The foliage of the 

 former was decidedly the most satisfactory, and so are the 

 flowers, which are broader in petal, more compact and of a 

 clearer, pleasanter tone of red, to which the tint of rich yellow 

 on the margin contributed an added charm. The difference in 

 coloring was very much more marked in some specimens 

 which had been grown under glass. Here they both show a 

 purity of color and a massiveness of petal far superior to 

 those in the plantation. There was also in the same house a 

 selection of yellow-flowering seedling plants of Mr. Dean's 

 growing which show a surprising advance over any previous 

 introductions of this color. 



My main errand to Bay Ridge, however, was to inspect a 

 large bed of seedlings from Madame Crozy, which are espe- 

 cially interesting just now. Mr. C. L. Allen, in the American 

 Agriculturist f or Septem ber, argues that Madame Crozy is a true 

 species, introduced about 1820 asCannaaurea vittata, and later 

 known as C. limbata. This claim seems to be founded on a 

 colored plate in Loddiges' Botanical Cabinet, London, 1820, and 

 an observation that "alargenumberofseedlingsfrom Madame 

 Crozy had last winter come absolutely true to the type, both as 

 regards habit of growtli of the plant and to the color and mark- 

 ings of the flowers." 



Mr. Dean's results with seedlings from Madame Crozy do 

 not confirm this species theory, as only a small proportion, 

 perhaps five in a liundred, could be classed as true Madame 

 Crozy ; a smaller percentage were yellow, some almost pure- 

 colored, others with different red markings, while the large 

 proportion were of various shades of red, with narrower petals 

 than the type, and of generally less value, although the broad 

 inargin of yellow on certain individuals produced a striking 

 effect. 



Mr. Dean is a leading trade-grower of Azaleas, Cytisuses, 

 Lilies, Palms, etc., and has been especially noted for his sue- 



I 



