84 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



FEBRrAEY 3, 1912. 



glass 



department at Kingsweston House, near 

 BristoL After this large experience under 



Mr. Hopkins spent three years in 

 the kitchen garden and hardy fruit de- 

 partment in Mrs. Leveson Gower's gardens 

 at Bill Hill, Wokingham, and left there 

 to become foreman at Leigh ton House, 

 Westbury, Avhere he stayed two years, and 

 then entered service with Mr. Wellesley. 

 Some of his successes include the Cham- 

 pion Cup at Guildford for chrysanthemums, 

 which he won three times in succession, and 

 fifty first prizes for carnations. He has 

 held the Eckford Cup for sweet peas, and 

 was runner-up for the National Sweet Pea 

 Society's Provincial Cup at Saltaire ; the 

 Reigate Cup and the Gamage Shield for 

 sweet peas have also fallen to his share, 

 while for orchids numerous First Class Cer- 

 tificates and Awards of Merit have been 

 obtained from the Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety, the majority being granted to hy- 

 brids raised at Westfield. 



Proposed Exhibition of South 



African Fruits The Rev. W. Wilks 



writes: *' The following cablegram w^as re- 

 ceived on January 22 by the High Com- 

 missioner in London for the Union of South 

 Africa from the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Pretoria : ' Owing to unforseen cir- 

 cumstances regret Government compelled 

 to abandon exhibition.' No further ex- 

 planation has yet come to hand, but it is 

 necessary to abandon the exhibition accord- 

 ingly. All notices of it appearing in the 

 Royal Horticultural Society's Book of Ar- 

 rangements, on Fellows' tickets, and else- 

 where^ are cancelled. 



Revival of the Hull Chrysan- 

 themum Show. — For some time past 

 a strong desire has been felt by chrysan- 

 themum lovers in the district of which Hull 



that the chrysanthemum 



allowed to fall into 



is the centre, 

 slio w s , wh ich were 



abeyance some eight years since, should be 

 revived. As the result of this feeling a 

 public meeting was held in the Town Hall, 

 Hull, for the purpose of considering the 

 question. The chairman was the Right 

 Hon. T. R. Ferens, M.P., and he was sup- 

 j>orted by the Mayor and Sheriff of Hull 

 and an influential body of citizens and the 

 leading chrysanthemum growers . After 

 eome discussion it was unanimously re- 

 solved to revive the chrysanthemum show. 

 The title of the Hull and East Riding Chry- 

 santhemum Society has been revived, and 

 a strong executive formed, with Mr. James 

 Dixon, who for many years took an active 

 part in the management of the old society 

 as honorary secretary. The exhibition 

 will open on Wednesday, November 

 20, and, presumably, be continued on the 

 following day, but we have no definite in- 

 formation upon this point. It will be held 

 in the new City Hall, which is in the centre 

 of the city, and in every way suitable for 

 an autumn flower show. 



British Gardeners' Associa- 

 tion. — As notifie<l in our issue of January 

 20, Mr. J. Weathers has resigned the posi- 

 tion of general sc-cretary, which he has 

 occupied during the past seven years, and 

 on the 25th ult., a special general meeting 

 was held at Carr's Restaurant, Strand, for 

 the purpose of receiving his resignation and 

 other business. The latter comprised the 

 alteration of rules, and confirming the sub- 

 committee's report upon the future man- 

 agement of the association, as adopted by 

 the Executive Council. Mr. Frogbrcok, the 

 chairman of the Council, presided, and 

 tliero was a large attendance of members, 

 inchuling a considerable number of repre- 

 sentatives of the branches in th*v provinr^s. 

 At the commencement of ilu^ tikm t iii^ 

 the Chairman directed attention to thf faft 

 that, as it was a special general one, the 



proceedings should be regarded as private ; 

 therefore the Council had decided not to 

 allow the members of the Press, as such, to 

 be present, unless the members wished it 

 otherwise. On the question being sub- 

 mitted, it was decided by a large majority 

 that the Press should not be admitted. 

 While we respect the decision of the meet- 

 ing, we protest against the refusal to allow 

 the' Press to give a report of the proceed- 

 ings in the usual manner. The exceptional 

 course taken on this occasion is all the 

 more remarkable, for to us there did not 

 appear anjrthing in the course of the pro- 

 ceedings, which extended over about three 

 and a-half hours, to whirh publicity might 

 not have been given with advantage. For 

 instance, there could surely be no objec- 

 tion to the publication of the fact 

 that at this meeting Mr. John Weathers 

 was heartily thanked for his splen- 

 did services, and was unanimously 

 awarded the gold medal of the asso- 

 ciation, which is to be accompanied by an 

 illuminated address ! Since ^^Titing the fore- 

 going we have received from the associa- 

 tion, through Mr. Hawes, the Council's 

 report of the proceedings at the meeting, 

 but as our representative was not allowed 

 to carry out his duties and thus provide 

 our readers with an independent report, 

 we do not propose to publish it. 



Show at Belfast-— The 



National Rose Society's visit to Belfast on 

 July 19 should be a most interesting one, 

 for the exhibition w^ill be held in the beau- 

 tiful Botanic Gardens Park, kindly lent 

 for the occasion by the City Council. The 

 local society that will receive the parent 

 body on this occasion is the newly-formed 

 Irish Rose and Floral Society, which has 

 Colonel Sharman-Crawford as president, 

 and includes Messrs. S. McGredy, Alex 

 Dickson (Newtownards), Alex. Dickson 

 (Belmont), and Hugh Dickson (Newtown- 

 ards) among its official members. Belfast, 

 needless to say, is the centre of a great 

 rose growing and rose raising industry. 



American Roses at the Inter- 

 national Show. — The Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society has offered a 

 gold medal, to be awarded at the 

 International Horticultural Exhibition 

 in May, for the best display of roses of 

 American origin in pots. Mr. J . K. 

 Farquhar has been appointed delegate from 

 the Massachusetts Society to the great 

 show. 



Sale of Herbals and Old Gar- 

 dening* Works- — The library of the 

 late Dr. J. F. Payne, librarian to the Royal 

 College of Physicians, was sold by auction 

 by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge 

 on Tuesday, January 30. There were 235 

 lots, and these realised £1,089. The Her- 

 bals' and similar works were arranged in 

 116 lots, and an effort was made to sell 

 these in one block, but, as the reserve price 

 was not reached , the lots we re put up 

 separately. The principal works in this 



the nrices realised and the 



AUerhandt Kreuteren,^' Augsburg, 1490- 

 £26 (Llewellyn) ; three editions of tlie 

 ^'Hortus Sanitatis," by Joannem de Cuba, 

 one printed at Moguntiae," by J. Meyden- 

 bach, 1491 — £46; another at Cologne, circa 

 1496— £31 ; and the third from the Paris 

 Press of Philippe Le Noir, no date, but 

 about 1539--£35 (all purchased by Messrs. 

 Wesley); OrtoUf von Beylandt, *^Ein Ar- 

 tzneibuch,'' the very rare original edition 

 printed at Augsburg by G. Zainer, circa 

 1471— £24 (Maggs). 



Fijia.n Plants-— The lecture to be de- 

 livered before the Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety on Tuesday, Febriiary 6, at 3 p.m., 

 at Westminster, should be of unusual in- 

 terest. The lecturer is Sir Everard im 

 Thurn, K.C.M.G., and his subject ''Plants 

 of the Fiji and other South Sea Islands." 



series, tne prices reaiiseu, anu ine pur- 

 chasers were as follows: Dr. L. Fuchs's 

 ''New Kreutzerbuch," etc., Basel, 1543, 

 the first edition of this fine herbal in Ger- 

 man — £27 5s. (Royal Gardens, Kew); P. A. 

 Matthiolus, De"^ Plantis, Epitome Utilis- 

 sima," etc.', Franckfort-a-Main, 1586— £7 

 (Royal Gardens, Kew); Apuleius Platoni- 

 cus, " Herbarium," Rome, circa 1488, ex- 

 tremely rare, the earliest printed book 

 with figures of plants— £96 (Ellis) ; L. Fuch- 

 sius " De Historia St'rpium Commentarii 

 Insignes," Ba,sel, 1542— £25 10s. (Tre- 

 gaskis); Herbarius Patavie," Passu, 1485, 

 a fine and perfect copy of this very rare 

 herbal — £69 (Maggs) ; Herbaruis 

 Teutsch," printed by Schoeffer, 1485— £22 

 (Leighton); "Herbarius zu Teutsch und 



and 



m 



Anemone 



santhemums. — We are much gratified 

 to learn from the report which will be pre- 

 sented to the m.em'oers of the National 

 Chrysanthemum Society, at the annual 

 meeting on Monday evening, that the com- 

 mittee have decided to offer special prizes 

 for seedlings of pompon, anemone pompon, 

 and large anemone varieties at the autumn 

 exhibition, to be held in 1913. Our grati- 

 fication is derived from the fact that while 

 distinct in character, and of great beauty, 

 these sections have of late years been much 

 neglected by chrysanthemum societi<'& 

 generally. We trust that the new de- 

 parture on the part of the National Chry- 

 santhemum Society will be successful in 

 directing the attention of chrysanthemum 

 lovers to the merits of these sections. 



National Chrysanthemum So. 



Ciety. — The anjiual general meeting of 

 this society will take place at Carr s Re- 

 staurant, 264, Strand, W.C., on Monday 

 next February 5, at 7 p.m., wath Sir Albert 

 Rollit, LL.I)., DX\L., president, in the 

 chair. 



Partial Sterilisation of Soil 



for Glasshouses* — During the past 

 few years Dr. E. J. Russell, of the Rothani- 

 sted Experimental Station, has devoted con. 

 siderable attention to the investigation of 

 the effects of sterilisation on soil used for 

 cultural purposes, and in the course of his 

 experiments has obtained some remarkable 

 results. To the current issue of the 

 ^'Journar' of the Board of Agriculture, 

 Dr. Russell contributes, conjointly with Mr. 

 F. R. Petherington, B.A., a report on 

 ''The Partial Sterilisation of Soil for 

 Glasshouse AVork," which is not less deserv- 

 ing the attention of the practical cultivator 

 than of the scientist. One of the great diffi- 

 culties with which cultivators of cucum- 

 bers, tomatoes, and some other crops under 

 glass have to contend is keeping the soil 

 free from organisms more or less injurious 

 to plants. As the investigators point out, 

 ''before very long the soil may be «o 

 fected w itli the gtu-ms of undesirables that 

 it is little Ix^tcr than a death-trap for the 

 plants, and has, therefore, to be thrown 

 out.'' Recent experiments have shown that, 

 by means of certain poisons, or by heat, 

 these germs and the injurious bacteria can. 

 practically speaking, be destroyed, and the 

 beneficent food-making bacteria be therebv 

 enabled to multiply freely, and make nnicn 

 more food than before. Such heated so:ls 

 are, therefore, well suited for crops gro\vn 

 under glass, because they are free froni 

 harmful organisms. This differential treat- 

 ment whereby some organisms are 

 and others are spared, is known as partia 

 sterilisation. The plants that wore nt\h^^'^ 

 in considerable detail, and the text is f reel} 

 chrysanthemums, tomatoes, carnat.ons, 

 cinerarias. (Muumbers, and melons, yer 

 benns. and Irltuce. The results are gn^ 

 in considerable detail ,and the text is freel} 



