214 JOURNAL OK THK ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



any kind from seed and sow a pan with Llioiti yon probably get ft vast 

 number more Mum you require for yourself, and in all private gardens 

 they arc either given away or thrown on the waste heap. It is exactly the 

 same with the Society. We must either throw all surplus plants on the 

 rubbish heap, or we must distribute them amongst those Fellows who care 

 bo have any of them. Some few years ago the rubbish heap had them, 

 hut when the Society was reorganised it was determined to distribute them 

 by ballot to any who eared for them. Admit that from the point of view 

 of a really first class garden those plants are rubbish ; but is that any 

 reason why those who care to have some of them should not be allowed 

 to have them '? What is rubbish to one is by no means so to another. 

 Suppose you grow a large collection of Chinese Paumies, or of Phloxes, 

 or of Gorman Irises, or of perennial Sunflowers or Asters, ^c. After a 

 lew years the clumps get too crowded and must bo taken up and divided. 

 In all such cases probably not one-twentieth part of the old stool is re- 

 planted, and the other nineteen-twentieths must be either given away or 

 thrown on the waste heap. Generally we find abundance of neighbours 

 and friends only too glad of a part of such waste. Waste rubbish it is 

 t i ourselves, but not so to them. Fxactly the same with the Society, only 

 that as a rule its stock is far larger than in a private garden, and we are 

 sure that the mass of the Fellows would far rather have a share in such 

 " rubbish " than that it should be burnt on the waste heap, and Fellows 

 who grumble that they do not get valuable plants worth ten times the 

 subscription they pay arc 4 manifestly unreasonable! 



Variation. 



A correspondent sends us the following interesting note: "Seeing the 

 interesting discussion on seedling Red Tankard Turnips at the Scientific 

 Committee (pages 1 and li) reminded me of an experience of my own. 

 I had one plant of Broccoli come quite distinct from any other I had at the 

 time, or have indeed ever met with. It was both whiter and later. I 

 Saved it for seed and marked it 1 Not to be OUt,' but the latter precaution 

 proved unavailing. However, the stem was left, and from it I eventually 

 secured a few seeds. Being well aware how easily the Brassica tribe are 

 interor088ed by insects, before the flowers opened I enclosed the whole 

 plant in lace netting, through which not even a greenfly could pass. As 

 s ion as ever the seeds were ripened and gathered 1 had my misgivings, as 



they were larger than Broccoli seed usually is, and when they germinated 

 the seed Leaves were abnormally large, and the resultant plants were of the 

 most nondescript character and totally unlike a Broccoli. It is highly 

 improbable that the flowers had been cross-fertilised by insects or even by 

 wind-blown pollen, tor DO insect as big as an aphis could reach them, and 

 the garden being very isolated and having no other Brassicas flowering in 

 it. the pollen would have had at the least a half-mile to journey on the 

 wind, and that through or over the woods which intervene between us and 

 the nearest garden. It was probably a reversion to some very ancient form, 

 and this might have been induced by the fact of the flowering shoots 

 basing come from the stem growths and not from the central head of the 

 Broccoli. The Comparative freedom of all the garden varieties of the 

 Cabbage tribe from similar reversion is, 1 think, very remarkable, consider- 



