THE 



GARDENERS 



MAGAZINE. 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1898. 



ATIONAL CHRYSANTHEMUM 



N A jiiS5*™«. W E r T MrNsVR.-EARLY .CHkY iANTHEMUM 0 S, C DASuA^ 

 j,i kotai. v (JLADIOLI, &c, September 6, 7, and 8, 1898. 

 fcWules of Prues on application to Richard Dean, V.M.H., Secretary, Ranelagh Road, 



T^^nUM^REAT CHRYSANTHEMUM EXHIBITION, Bingley 



R h/, , NovJSeb 8, 9. and io, ,898. -£400 in Prizes. 32.°°° *»« nded the «ast Exhibi- 

 D S&es of Prizes, plak ;»d particulars of space to be let to Stallholders, to be had post 



10 lhC SeCretarieS ' j. Hughes, ,40, High Street, Harborne. 



F. W. Simpson, Victoria Road, Harborne. 



ill 



— - . — V 



arranged in accordance with the practice that now generally obtains, we 

 are strongly of the opinion that the time has come for encouraging 

 arrangements suitable for indoor apartments. A commencement might 

 be made by providing a few classes for vases containing from nine to 

 twelve blooms, as may be considered the most advisable, in association 

 with suitable foliage. Vases of blooms, either in mixture or in separate 

 colours, present a charming appearance, and as a good competition may 



HIRE 



E R B Y S 



AND 



HORTICULTURAL 



AGRICULTURAL 



heavy 



be 



SOCIETY. 



ANNUAL SHOW, DERBY, September 7 and 8. 



UPWARDS OF ^2co IN PRIZES FOR HORTICULTURE. 



Open to all England. 

 GROUPS, £65; DECORATIVE DESSERT TABLE, £19. 



Entries positively close Wednesday, August 31. 



Schedules and all particulars of 

 final Office, Derby. Sidney Burton, Secretary 



MAIDENHEAD HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. — The ANNUAL 

 SHOW will be held in Kidwell's Park, on THURSDAY, September i, 1898. 

 Schedules may be obtained from Chas. A. Vardy, Hon. Sec. 



TO SECRETARIES OF FRUIT SHOWS, &c— JUDGING OF FRUITS, 



I FLOWERS and VEGETABLES, by Stephen Castle. F.R.H.S., Consulting 



Horticulturist, Bottesford Vineries, Notts, 

 Terms on application. Telegrams, u Grapes," Bottesford. 



HORTICULTURAL SHOW ADVERTISEMENTS are inserted in this 

 column at One Shilling per line, the minimum charge being Five Sh Wings. Advertise- 

 Office, 148 and 149, Aldersgate Street, London, E.C. 



-. — *- 



NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS. 



FRUITS. 



Among the innumerable artifices evolved in the struggle for 

 existence, for the purpose of enabling plants to become disseminated 

 far and away from the parental sources, succulent edible fruits of all 

 classes must certainly be ranked as the cunningest of all. The thistle- 

 down floating in the breeze o'er hill and dale represents one mode of 

 dissemination, the;explosive seed-vessels of the balsam sending their 

 contents yards away, is another and less efficacious one, the burr hooking 

 itself on to the coats of man or beast, and so borne, involuntarily, far 

 afield, before being detached, is another type, but none of these is so 

 complexly clever as the seed which, clothing itself with delicate lines, 

 cries, as it were, "Come, eat me," and being eaten, parts with its 

 luscious coating only, and uses its devourer as transmission agents by 

 defying digestion. The grape, the currant, strawberry, gooseberry, 

 raspberry, blackberry, indeed,; most of the berry tribe, if not all, have 

 adopted this dodge, and man, with his usual selfishness, induces all these 



Owing to continued increase in circulation, the - Gardeners' Magazine " X ? P ile ^ XX S * VOur V stor u es for his benefit > f d * en COoly ? etS f 11 

 now goes to press on Wednesday. No advertisement can be guaranteed * he P rofits , b >' net , tin S °* otherwise protecting his plants, so that the 



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



Notes of the Week. 



birds are denied their toll, and the chief aim of the plants is defeated. 



The stone fruits, plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, &c, are hardly so 

 clever ; their lures incite to robbery also, but though the precious seed 

 be carried away with the tempting fruit, its journey is more limited, and the 

 bulk rarely travel beyond the foot of the tree, which they would reach with- 

 out any lure at all]in the ordinary course. The pip fruits, such as oranges 

 At no period in the history of horticulture in this country have the and lemons, apples and pears, also seem to give a great deal of small 

 filers of new plants, fruits, and vegetables shown so great a degree of service, since under natural conditions they are hardly likely to 

 activity as during the second half of the century now drawing to a close, travel far when plucked by predatory beasts or birds, unless it be in 



*M 1- ..... - . _ _ . _ 



CACTUS DAHLIAS. 



!>een 



cro*s 



r _ uunw yvuw^ iJWimv and 



results of hybridization and the fruit as missiles as well as food. It is, however, possible that many 



We large fruits may be helped in the struggle for existence by the manurial 



stimulas the external portion 



germinate 



t give a considerable number of instances in proof of this assertion, JUBIHIiW mwiLUM ^ 7 . _ v 



•Jhc tuberous begonias, culinary and sweet peas, and strawberries, w here the fruit has lain and decayed, the seeds thus deriving nourish- 

 ment from the parental plant indirectly to supplement the albuminous 

 store always provided in the seed itself. The recorded cases of melon 

 and other 'seeds sprouting and growing within the fruit strengthen this 



at 0nce su 8& es t themselves to our readers. They will also readily 

 «u to mind the cactus dahlias, with their elegantly formed and richly 



wwred blooms, which contribute so much to P~ * 



PMen and exhibition tent from the month of July 



possibility, especially since it is only reasonable to assume that the fruit 

 would contain precisely those elements which would aid the development 



to the icv hr. »u fT , "'wiiii. juiy umn nicy lau viuiuis would contain precisely tnose omnwu »~ ,.„._— 



»«uoin. N ' Which aCt aS the heraIds of lhe approach of of the see d it envelopes. If this view be accepted, then we have another 



- ... . • nious contr ivance to further reproduction, the end and aim of all 



fruitage. With our cultivated fruits, however, their present forms are 

 so much to man's tastes and selective care that the original use of the 

 fruit is altogether subordinated to his requirements, and the reproduc ive 

 energies of the plants concerned are so ignored ,n the process o selec- 

 tion as often to be quite eliminated. The seeds are not wanted on y 



fc*ee \h ° l a of our reader5 who ma Y institute comparisons 

 *m f^rn?,™°^^ mp °y tant achievem ents of the art of the hybridizer and 



1 " " inclined to regard the creati on of the 



cactus 



OUT f ' j 6 * *-* f UJU,uU mm 



mk bea.,t„ U consider th *y should have, we highly appreciate 



iy and value, and 



--o—j -x-r null as uil.cu w ui. M"" . , , _.• _ ,u» ci . 



we are filled with admiration of the the attend ant lusciousness, and given time enough, selection on these 



lines yields the fruit, minus the seed, or bearing merely the rudiments 

 while propagation becomes only practicable by means of buds and 

 cut ngs. Efen here, however, the finest fruit is the most wide y dis- 

 seminated, so after all the cleverness of the plants comes in, enlisting a 

 t does the service of man himself by its attractions, and securing Us 



^ipulat 



not discu " e , n0nour of havin & obtained such splendid results. We 

 t * be ^ment S f v, Utll,ty0f this im P ortant sect ion of dahlias for the 



* co '*»ve purno r l0Wer gafden ° r f ° r the SUpplv of blooms for 



to urtre SCS ' th ' S lS S enerallv recognized. But it appears 

 *• *>*er stalks ra 'f ers t0 raake the most strenuous efforts to lengthen 

 10 cultivate t a V1CW t0 increase their effectiveness in the garden; 

 ,|<b *dersforttJ S USC less manure in the Preparation of the beds 



continued existence, seed or no seed. 



HABITATS. 



the dahlia season the advisability 



*** ireattr hibiti0nS durin « 



atter of statin, r • . *"**' "* 



mni. g . cactus ^neties at exhibitions the dahlia growers 



about 



ment to the artistic display ot the blooms. gards the vegetation which clothes the major part of it m innumerable 



forms, from the incipient ones of arctic lichen and moss to the dense 

 jungle or forest of the tropics, we cannot fail to notice that some species 

 of plants are extremely local in their occurrence, cropping up quite sud 

 denly in profusion, and as suddenly ceasing to be seen very ^ shortly 

 afterwards as we proceed. If we examine these plants we shall find that 

 this limited area is not due to any particular lack of disseminating power 

 as regards their seed, and the limitation must therefore be due to some 



r? f in »oine case, t n • exhibitors of Japanese chrysanthemum. 

 iT^od in the T th advanta g*- They recognised at a very 



r/fet board was Z 2 t SeCt5 ° n that dum P in S ^ blooms down 

 «- ' S '- kl >- mtimi a >e3t way of Presenting them to public notice, 

 I^^uets A rra r ? ° f exhlbitin S them in elegant, if somewhat 

 JJ^as ' an / ed ln bouquets of six blooms each thev produce 



^ Citable as T% * exem P lified at Brighton during the past 



tne effect now produced by stands of blooms 



otner cause. °. , . . . , 



bog loving plants, and their flourishing character is seen to be due to a 



