r i 



II 



5 



THE 



GARDENERS 



\GAZINE. 



SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1898. 



^opaT FLOWER SHOW, RICHMOND (SURREY). Ju 

 /-*RbAi rowf ^- 3oo in PRIZES> 



29, 1898. 



CHALLENGE CUP for ROSES. 



and the sod in the other gauge was hoed to the depth of about an inch. Mr. 



— M f^! ey has Com P. ,Ied a taMe showing the effect of the mulching or per- 



scheduies and fu.i ^ticuiars^ tf^ Hon> King Street> Richmond> Surrey . coiat'on, ^oration, and temperature, and taking the five months com- 



menC,ng w . ,th A P nl and en dmg with August, when the growth of plants 

 m0St ac f tlve ' we learn { ™™ this table that the mulched soil remained 

 more uniformly moist than the unmulched ; and that it was also more 

 equable in temperature, being slightly warmer at night and decidedly 



— pwr ASTLE-UPON-TYNE GREAT SUMMER FLOWER SHOW, 



together with the NORTHUMBERLAND AGRICULTURAL SHOW, on 

 cni v Thursday, and Friday, i 3 th, 14th, and 15th July. The Greatest Show in th? 

 Wednesday, the R , HorticuItural Society> Applications for Space should 



Kde at once! Entries close Wednesday, 6th July, to . _ 



J4) Westgate Road 



J. J. Gill espie, jun., Secretary. cooler during the daytime. There were sixty-eight days durintr the five 



DISTRICT 



WOOD GREEN AND 

 PTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION, grn July, 1898. 

 3 SPECIAL NOTICE TO NURSERYMEN. 



The Silver Medal of the Society will be awarded to Exhibits of sufficient merit, also £1 is, to 

 l Trade Exhibitor towards the cost of Staging a Grouo. 

 caChA SPECIAL PRIZES. 



Three Special Prizes will be awardrd for 12 SPECIMEN PLANTS. 

 First Prize, £10 10s. ; Second Prize, £6 6s.; Third Prize, £3 3s. 



ADDlications for Space should be made to the Honorary Secretary, before the 2nd July next. 

 v E. J. Wickenden, F.R H.S., Heckfield, Clarence Road, Wood Green, N. 



w 



OLVERHAMPTON. 



THE TENTH ANNUAL FLORAL FETE will be held in the West Park, 



1 ' July 12, 13, and 14, 1898. 



RIZE MONEY GREATLY INCREASED. 



NTRIES CLOSE, FOR PLANTS, July 5th, and for 

 QUT FLOWERS, FRUIT, VEGETABLES, July 8th. 



RIZE SCHEDULES AND ENTRY FORMS from the Secretary, 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ™£h a i \ measurabIe ^ n ^V of rain passed through the un- 

 mulched soil, but on no occasion did percolation cease in the case of the 

 mulched soil. During the twelve months the percolation in the case of 

 the latter exceeded that of the unmulched by 167 inches, while the 

 evaporation was 1.67 inches less. There are, in Mr. Mawley's opinion, 

 two important points to be borne in mind as to the application of 

 mulching, one being, not to put it on in any case earl • r than May, as it 

 keep the ground cold at a time when the stimulative effects cf warmth 

 are most needed, and the other, that it should not be so deep or close in 

 texture as to exclude the air from the roots of the plants rcnad which it 

 is placed. The investigations that have been made by Mr. Mawley 

 amply confirm the views held by experienced cultivators and are of much 

 interest for the light they throw upon this simple but important detail of 

 garden management. 



William E. Barnett, Snowhill, 



hampton 



WOKING FLOWER SHOW, Tuesday and Wednesday, July 12 and 1 

 —Four Cups ; 87 Classes. Schedules on application to 



W. I. Neal, Claremont Avenue, Woking. 



NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS. 



EVOLUTIONARY JUMPS. 



In looking round our present abundant wealth of floral beauty, both of 

 flowers and foliage, our immense variety of fruits and vegetables, and 

 even our decorative trees and shrubs, we seldom realise the immense debt 

 we owe to Nature in the shape of those sudden inventive freaks which 

 we term " sports." Every individual creation has some peculiarities of 

 its own which distinguish it from its fellows, and, besides the dissimilarity 

 of general external appearance or minor differences of detail, there are a 



. . • • ~ '. T myriad unseen constitutional variations which also nlav a material nart 



Owing to continued increase in circulation, the " Gardeners' Magazine " - *u <. <i • 1 r ^ i_ * . 7 , u a material part 



insertion, or altered, unless received before Four p.m. on that day. 



Notes of the Week. 



MULCHING. 



their present forms. The selective cultivator, with his keen eye, can do 

 much by picking out, generation after generation, these minor pecu- 

 liarities, and, by breeding on from them, can add them together to great 

 effect ; but, nevertheless, his work would fall far short of the results 

 obtained, both in originality of conception and in extent of effect, did 

 not Nature (by which we mean the underlying creative and shaping 



In tViA imnnrfont rs^a* a ■ 4 power of all life) step in, and at a "jump" present him with altogether 



IN thejmportant^paper on weather influences on farm and garden new types, aslwell as with much advanced forms of known ones, and 



rrnnQ whiVfc Mr TT A/T« "a . r , ^ 7 G 11CVV lypca, cu>|wcu « wiui mum duvauicu iorms OI Known on 



St It* I ' a^ heS6C 1 retary 0f the Royal Meteorological so afford him new sta, ting-points, and inspire fresh ideals for future 



^firn? ? ? quarterly journal of that body, the author realisation. In many cases man himself, in these later days, has done 



^^XZT?^ droughts that have been experi- rouch t0 induce these" jumps - by crossing or hybridising plants which, 



ui able m l r il 5 ♦ > ^ ^ * ^ ° f mulching with thou S h of different s P ecies > are ? et sufficiently^ to combine and form 

 suiuwe materials m mitigating their injurious effects upon growing crops. 



Different crops, it is pointed out, vary considerably as to their powers ot 



fertile flowers. By doing this a sort of conflict is set up within the com- 



nd • ai r - » * -~ — t~™~«>»v. bined organism between the diverse, though conformed, parental 



a*eJral i COnt, " uance of dr y rather, and this power depends, as elements. The result of this is that in the offspring the normal stability 



loLil™ Upo " the " ature and de P th of their roots. For meteoro- of both species is upset, and now one and now the other ancestral form 



drought, T P ° SeS ' a/' ? ymons ' defi mtion of " absolute " and "partial" obtains the mastery to a certain extent, the varying degrees of pre- 



ahortirult 7' m * Mawley ' S °P inion . P rove d most useful, but from dominance affording all sorts of variant forms, of which the breeder 



ground h h P ° mt ° , V,eW they are ,lke,v to be misl eading. When the avails himself. In such alliances colour becomes a potent factor, and a 



inches a^ll 0n SUrface and to the de P th of several remarkable instance to the point was seen in the clematis section of the 



soon b ' * tCnth ° f an ' nCh ° f rai " ° nCe a Week ' which would Tem P le Show > where the influence of C. coccinea had been infused into 



ve£retat nng ^ ^ * partial drou 8 ht > would P rov e of no service to other species with larger and more open flowers with delightful effect. 



On certa" y be y° nd temporarily cooling and moistening the air. In the tuberous begonias we see another grand result of similar work 



surface d° h * W ° Uld d ° m ° re harm than g °° d by beatin & down the carried much farther, and in the orchids some really marvellous com- 



hi proof a f w iu tendlng to incre ase evaporation from it afterwards, binations have been effected, the mingled features of the parents' flowers 



the d™,«£* r o Mawle y cites the fact that at Rothamsted during affording a most interesting study to the connoisseur. This sort of 



j r . , J — ' — v " l 'wuiauiaicu uunng 



that Z S ?i. l° J Whkh extended from A P ril t0 July, it was found 

 croos in ? X u? ^ rbage ° f meadow land suffered much mor e than the 

 stirreVL nd ' ° f which the Surface between the rows had been 



at the m^r ° r Tl e timeS With the hoe - In the ^ arden the crops are less 

 a poro«^ y -i dry t . weather than on ^e farm, for even in the case of 



mulching n° ,K mi i may done dthcr by borough waterings, 



alone LZa f J eqUentUSto{ihe hoe ' t0 enable themto withstand 

 cases the . 7 Wealher> a liberal mulching - being in the majority of 

 - the most useful. A few years since Mr. Mawley carried out an 



sportive instability is, however, somewhat apart from our subject of 

 perfectly natural sports, to which, so far as we can ascertain, no 

 particular inducement exists. In this connection ferns may especially be 

 cited, as a very large number of beautiful sports have been found 

 growing quite wild, and of such widely different types from the common 

 as the selective breeder could not obtain by many generations of culture. 

 In this direction the Temple Show afforded a rare example of a natural 

 sport of this class occurring under] culture in the case of Phlebodium 

 Mayi, a beautiful plumose form of P. glaucum. This species has been 



interesting ■ • ^ caia ***** wawiey carried out an Mayi, a beautitul plumose rorm 01 r. jjiautuui. inis species nas oeen 



half-rotted expenment in order to ascertain the effect of mulching with raised probably by the million for trade purposes, but has hitherto 

 v manure upon th#» mnicrnr** onH ipmn^f,^ ~i _ _ -i -.i r^^i„ ~*~ui^ . of locf rinu ovoy ■%«M4»mt*> oo 



^neath manure u P on the 



square JO? ^ ovcnn fr Two percolation gauges, each three feet species of Polypodium (a near relative) has given us the plumose Welsh 

 ^periment feet dee P' were 



mature. The^ i theSe WCre filled with Soil ° f a Iight and P orous 

 ^th half-decayed ~ ^ ^ covered t0 a depth of three inches 



lef t uncovered. 



moisture and temperature of the soil remained perfectly stable ; at last, however, precisely as our native 



i gauges, each three feet species of Polypodium (a near relative) has given us the plumose Welsh 

 used in conducting the form (P. v. cambricum), this exotic jumps at a bound into a form pre- 

 cisely akin, though its greater size and robustness will, of course, give it 

 a far grander character, surpassing even that triumph of hybridism, 

 anure, and the surface of the soil in the other was P. Schneideri, in which the same or a closely-allied fern was mingled 



Once a week the mulching was loosened with a fork, with another natural English sport, and so imbued with precisely the 



