July 20. 1912. 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



557 



NATIONAL SWEET PEA 

 SOCIETY'S OUTING. 



Following the custom of the past few years, 

 the cnmniittee of the National Sweet Pea 

 Society arranged for visits of its members to 

 inspect sweet peas. Previously there has been 

 one visit to the Times Experimental Station 

 at Sutton Green, near Guildford, and one to 

 some private or trade establishment where 

 sweet peas are a feature. This season the 

 society has a duplicate set of trials at Rur- 

 bage Experimental Station, near Hinckley, 

 and so the second visit was to this new and 

 interesting place. The attendance at Sutton 

 Green was scarcely so large as usual, but 

 the attendance at Burbage was well up to, 

 and probably rather above, the average for 

 a distant trip. 



Those who are so ready to find fault, and 

 seem never happy unless acting as prophets 

 of evil to come, might urge that the smaller 

 attendance (there were forty-nine at Sutton 

 Green, and forty-three at Burbage), is a 

 sign of decadence ; but the truth is the 

 Floral Committee must visit the trials and 

 finish their work before the Outings take 

 place, and until the weather permits the 

 work of the committee to be accomplished, 

 no arrangements can be made for the Out- 

 ings. This year the notice given was un- 

 usually short, and scores of members could 

 not, as a consequence, make their plans fit 

 with the occasion. 



It must be said at once that the trials at 

 Sutton Green were never seen to better ad- 

 vantage than on July 11, and Mr. Harry 

 Foster is to be congratulated upon the won- 

 derful display of bloom on each of the two 

 hundred and fifty-six rows. Traders and 

 amateurs were both well represented on this 

 date, and distinguished representatives from 

 overseas were Mr. Lester Morse (C. C. Morse 

 and Co., San Francisco), Mr. Howard Earl 

 (Messrs. Atlee Burpee and Co., Philadel- 

 phia), and Mons. Shoetel (Messrs. Vilmorin 

 and Co., Paris). These added their meed of 

 praise, and expressed their satisfaction at 

 the good work the society is doing. 



Eeference has already been made to the 

 varieties the Floral Committee have given 

 Awards of Merit to, but it may be as well 

 to mention again that the?e are King White 

 (row No. 2\ Messrs.- A. Dickson and Sons, 

 Newtownards ; Lady Miller (row No. 22), 

 from Mr. X, MaJcolm, Duns; Decorator 

 (rows Nos. 60, 61, and 83), respectively from 

 Messrs. Dobbie and Co., Edinburgh; Messrs. 

 G. Stark and Son, Great Eyburgh ; and Mr. 

 A. Malcolm; and we understand the name 

 of Decorator will be used in each case — deep 

 cerise or cherry-red about indicates the 

 colour; Agricola (row No. 135), from Mr. 

 Eobt. Bolton; Carnforth; Bertrand Deal 

 (row No. 136), from Mr. Bertrand Deal, 

 Brooklands, Kelvedon : and R. F. Felton 

 (row No. 162), from Mr. R. Bolton. No 

 First Class Certificate was awarded this 

 year, and there was certainly no variety of 

 superlative merit or distinctipn that seemed 

 to warrant sucli an award. 



Unfixed stocks are by no means things of 

 the past, but the work progresses in this 

 direction, and the trials made it quite evi- 

 dent that raisers are striving hard after a 

 white to eclipse Etta Dyke, n large, rich 

 blue, a striking novelty of the Helen Pierce 

 type, and new shades of colour in various 

 directions. Judging from the trials, varie- 

 ties akin to Edrom Beauty, Elfrida Pearson, 

 Hercules, and King Edward have cropped up 

 in many places. Constance Hinton, white; 

 Scarlet Emperor, red; Edith Taylor, salmon- 

 rose; Orion, a rich cerise-crimson; and 

 Minnie Furnell, shrimp-pink, are varieties 

 of considerable merit. There are others of 

 note, but until senders use provisional names 

 for their stocks it is almost useless to dis- 

 cuss a variety w^hich may have neither title 

 or description in the Trials List. Every- 

 hody took copious notes, and nearly all the 



men-folk worked through the trials from 1 

 to 256, coatless and perspiring. 



Lady Northcliffe very kindly provided tea, 

 but time did not permit of an inspection of 

 the charming gardens at Sutton Place. Mr. 

 R. Sydenham and Mr. T. Stevenson tendered 

 thanks to Lady Northcliffe and Mr. Harry 

 Foster and Mrs. Chas. Foster — thanks well 



and heartily endorsed by all 



aeservec 

 present. 



Burbage is a hundred miles north of Sut- 

 ton Green, and so the duplicate set of trials 

 conducted there by Major Hurst were not 

 so forward on July 12, as those inspected 

 the day previously. In ten days' time there 



particular rogue that crops up in a given 

 variety, and the reason for it, and to show 

 the range of variation in various stocks of 

 what may be termed standard varieties, 

 proved of unusual interest and great educa- 

 tional value. Major Hurst is doing a great 

 work, and one that sweet pea raisers and 

 seedsmen cannot fail soon to appreciate. 



At tea time the very necessary and well- 

 deserved votes of thanks were aocorded to 

 Major Hurst and to Mr. Robt. Sydenham. 

 A short but heavy thunderstorm followed 

 close after tea-time, and so cooled the air 

 that the inspection of Major Hursts trials 

 of poultry, homing pigeons for military use, 

 ete.j was carried out in comfort^ and the 



F 



Jm f m 



As shown 

 is free in 



PHLOX STELLARTA LAVENDER, 

 bv the specimen, herewith illustrated, in the rock garden at Kew this variety 

 ^?owth and profuse in flowering, and, as indicated by the varietal name, the 



flowers are of a lavender colour. 



should be a flne display of bloom on the 

 strong, healthy plants at this station. It 

 was generally agreed, however, that the 

 bright colours were brighter here than 

 further south, and that these trials formed 

 an admirable control to those near Guud- 

 ford. To this inspection came members from 

 Sheffield, Manchester, Leicester, Birming- 

 ham, Coggeshall, Addlestone, Folkestone, 

 and other places widely apart, and the party 

 was severelv critical. Major Hurst's own 

 trials, in which he is endeavouring to prove 

 the origin of Countess Spencer, to breed 

 certain unfixed varieties true from single 



plants on Mendelian lines, to discover the 



homeward journev was far less trying and 

 tiring than the one to Burbage was m the 

 morninff of this most sultry July day. 



C. H. Curtis. 



Cochliostema Jacobianum.— 



A large-f^rowing meml>er of the Spider Wort 

 family, with l>old, strap-shaped leaves di^r- 

 posed in a vasiform manner, a*> in some of the 

 Bromeliads, but in this cochliostema they are 

 soft instead of harsh in texture. llie 

 flovven? which are borne in short spikes at 

 the axiie of the leaves, are of a pleasing shade 



of blue and sweetly scented.— A\ - T. 



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