8 3 6 



Decemb&r 17, 1898 



water nymphceas, are easily raised from seeds or by dividing the 

 rhizomes. Both may also be grown in tubs or shallow tank?, with 

 four to six inches of rich mud at the bottom, and filled with wa er. 

 "Owing to the nature of their stocks, tubercles, and root stocks, 

 nymphceas can be sent very far off in every season without getting 

 damaged." Thus writes a sanguine grower, and to his statement 

 I would add, "always sometimes," for the erratic vagaries of the 

 railroad man, and of he of the parcel post, are many ; he doeth as he 

 listetb, none daring to make him afrai i ! Neither nymphceas nor 

 Nelumbia should be planted deep, fifteen to twenty inches of water over 

 six inches of compost being sufficient. The point to observe is that a 

 shallow sheet of water is more quickly heated by sunshine, and shelter, 

 not shade, is desirable, since water lilies and Lotus alike hate to be blown 

 on by the wind. 



M. Bary Latour Marliac, of Temple-sur-Lot, who has raised most 

 of the new hardy varieties of nymphaea, also offers no less than eight 

 fine varieties of Xelumbium speciosum in his latest lists. They are 

 album, with large ivory-white flowers ; album striatum, with its floral 

 segments white at the base, and striped and tipped with rosy carmine ; 

 Japonicum roseum has rosy lilac petals shading to white below ; N. 

 luteum, with soft, sulphur yellow flowers ; Osiris, which has intense rosy- 

 crimson blooms ; Pekinense rubrum, one of the best and deepest coloured 

 varieties yet obtained ; Speciosum roseum, of a deep rich rose colour, 

 creamy-white at the base ; and lastly, Roseum plenum, a very distinct 

 " double " variety, having eighty petals of a deep rose colour, and 

 resembling a fine flower of tree pceony, one of the rarest and best. 

 The prices of the above vary from four to eight shillings, so that initial 

 expenses need not deter one from growing these exquisite Lotus lilies 

 in our gardens. To succeed with them one must either grow them in 

 tubs or tanks in a warm, sunny hothouse, or you may run a hot-water 

 pipe or two under the water in a shallow open-air tank made in a 

 sheltered position and exposed to every ray of sunlight all day long. 

 Given these conveniences, either Nelumbia or subtropical Nymphaeas, 

 such as the sweet-scented N. ca^rulea, N. stellata, N. Daubeneyana, &c, 

 may be flowered in the open air, as has been done by Mr. Hudson at 

 Gunnersbury, and by other cultivators having heated water in open-air 

 ponds and tanks elsewhere. As an enthusiast writes : " The aspect of a 

 sheet of water studded with these countless many-coloured flowers, 

 swung to and fro by the breeze, like a richly-decked flotilla, is delightful. 

 Everybody now is passionately fond of cultivating these charming 



EARLY DAYS OF AN OLD HISTORIC 



GARDEN. 



at 



exact date of the es- 

 tablishment of the Horti- 

 cultural Society's garden 

 Chiswick has been from time 

 to time variously stated, some 

 authorities giving it as early as 

 18 1 8, probably confounding it 

 with the establishment of an 

 experimental garden at Ken- 

 sington at the end of that year, 

 and of an auxiliary nursery or 

 hospital garden at Ealing. 

 From the " Rook of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society " we le*rn 

 " On March 21, 1822, the society 

 obtained a lease of the present garden 

 at Chiswick from the Duke of Devon- 

 shire on terms which were then con- 

 sidered favourable. Its extent was 

 thirty-three acres, and the rent ^300 

 a year, with a power of renewal for ever 

 upon a fine of ^450 every 



Upon taking possession of the 

 at Chiswick, the Kensington 

 and its auxiliary at Ealing 

 were relinquished, and thus com- 

 menced the historic garden which, 



afterwards, is still 



Dear 



thirty 



years.' 

 ground 

 garden 



seventy-six 

 tenanted 



Chiswick ! illustrious in the 



years 

 by the 



society. Dear old 

 with interest for 



past, and pregnant 

 numbers in the present, though some think time has put the stamp 

 of decay upon it, making it a declining force m horticultural enter- 

 It will ever stand as a time-mark in the horticultural annals of the 



prise. 



nineteenth century 



associations and of pleasant memories ; it 



undines, which grow in all sorts of waters (rain, spring, and river waters), 

 in all aquaria, large and small, in ponds, basins, tubs, bowls, and come 

 up in the sun as in the shade " — to which I would add here, the less shade 

 the better. 



The " Western Lotus " (Nelumbium /u/eum)* is found in the West 

 Indies and in the Southern American States. Like N. speciosum, it has 

 peltate velvety green leaves, very soft and pale below, and borne on long 

 stalks which are spiny towards the leaf blade. The flowers are pale 

 yellow or primrose coloured, and the outspread segments measure a foot 

 or more in diameter. The flower has been well described as being like 

 a gigantic semi-double tulip, and its blossoms are delicately scented. It 

 was introduced to British gardens in 18 10, and flowered in the hothouse 

 or plant stove of Mr. Miller, of Durdham D.own Nursery, near Bristol, in 

 September, 1839. The plant has since bloomed at Kew and at Cam- 

 bridge Botanical Gardens; and at Paris it was for years grown and was therTa long stretch of turf east of the great vinery on which the tents 



there cluster about it a multitude of horticultural 



recalls keen competitions, 

 social gatherings, many interesting experiments, and a long list of 

 cultural successes, all of which fire the imaginations of young gardeners, 

 and incline them to look back with sympathetic interest upon the doings 

 of their forefathers in the time long since. Who that has mixed much 

 among practical horticulturists during the past thirty years has not been 

 a delighted listener to the reminiscences of old Chiswick students and 

 boys, when they meet years after and tell of escapade?, exploits, events, 

 and associations which thrill the memory and send it back to distant 

 days, when great exhibitions were in their prime, when horticulture drew 

 to it the fashionable world, and the old Chiswick gardens were a univer- 

 sity of practical gardening in this country. 



The " Florist" for 1848 contains two excellent and clear woodcuts of 

 one of the famed exhibitions at Chiswick; those who never witnessed 

 one can gain from these illustrations some idea of what it was like. There 



bloomed, and may be so still, in a round tank in the open-air garden, a 

 covering or roof of glass being put on in September, and allowed to 

 remain on until April or May. Extending from New Jersey to Eastern 

 Florida, and inland to Louisiana, it may be called the Queen of American 

 aquatics, and is the largest wild flower of the Southern States, with the one 

 exception of Magnolia fuetida (M. grandiflora). It has been introduced 

 into ponds and lakes near Philadelphia, but its natural limits are not so 

 far north, though Michaux found it as far north as Illinois. A white- 

 flowered form is alluded to by .Mr. Walter, but Barton and other 

 botanists have regarded N. luteum as a mere geographical form of the 

 variable N. speciosum, which often has white flowers. Although this 

 plant usually grows in shallow pools and streams, yet Bartram saw it 

 extending across Cape Fear River, in North Carolina, where it is two 

 miles broad, and twelve feet or more in depth, u its leaves covering many 

 acres, and forming a delusive wavy plain." Its flowers open in the 

 morning and close at sunset, opening again on the following two or 

 thiee days if not fertilised. The nocturnal closing seems a natural pro- 

 vision to keep its pollen dry, and to exclude nocturnal insect visitors. 



F. W. Burbidge, M.A., V.M.H. 



were pitched, there were spreading shade-trees, and given fine weather 

 the scene was animated in the extreme. I recall with pleasure the sight 

 of one of these shows— it must have been that in 1855— just when their 

 glory was on the wane. I remember the excitement, not unmixed with 

 the delightful anticipation of the night journey from Slough to London, 

 seated by the side of a driver on a van laden with precious specimen 

 plants of pelargoniums. The incidents of that journey are clear and 

 fresh in my memory ; it was all novel and diverting, the stoppages at the 

 night houses and the characters which were met with. The time was 

 June, the night very chilly and unpleasant, but much was strange ana 

 new which made it endurable. The reaching of Turnham Green by day 

 break, the concourse of vans, the unloading and conveyance of the speci- 

 mens to the tents, the staging, the subsequent breakfast and wash, ana 



when the public were admitted. 



the appearance of the exhibition 



then the stroll through the tent 



Dr. 



• For coloured plate and very full desc ription 

 No. 14. 



Maund's "The Botanist," vol. i. t plate 



is ex 

 was 

 of 



Lindley was very particular about ^ - rr 



assistants, and would have in the tents only those which were pre senwotc. 

 It was the first big flower show I had ever looked upon, and it tilled . me 

 with wonder and delight. The tents were mostly open at the sides, tncy 

 were in consequence much less stuffy and sweltering than is - 

 perienced in these days. The huge circular tent, which later 

 such a fine feature at provincial shows, was there, lul 

 the fine specimens grown in these days : Aphelexis, Boronia, chorozema, 

 Crowea, Franciscea, Gompholobium, Leschenaultia, J«««*t 

 Pol) gala ; but some of these are well-nigh forgotten, and rarely seen 



Dipladenia crassinoda was the only one exhibited m that do> , 

 it was so in the case of Allamanda cathartica ; the only Ixoras * 

 alba and coccinea 5 the large-flowered allamandas were un ™° J" | 

 to Bougainvillea glabra, Clerodendron Balfourianum, or Antbunui 

 Scherzerianum. I think of old William Barnes, of Camberwell, and nis 

 retort to one who said in his presence that the collections o f stove 

 greenhouse plants since the introduction of some of the ^ * 

 stove climbers now so much exhibited were better than they *erc 

 years ago. 

 pholobium 

 specimens 



now. 



r 



" v - 1 J »ni su mucn exmuncu »^.v- ~- orn , v Gom- 



The veteran said, " Give me the man who can grow 

 'Polymorph™ splendens, and I will show you a culm ator 

 " The task of providing fine and attract, ve spec men ^ 

 is an easier one in these later days than it was in those oj VNiinan ^^ 

 There were giant growers at that period-the Mays, Coll) ^r 

 Peed, Rhodes, Green, Donald, Dods, Carson, and I others, all 1 of 

 their skill as cultivators and their success as exhibitors wrote tne.r 

 large on contemporary annals of horticultuie. 



