January 31, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
83 
200 Carnations, 200 Camellias, fifty strings of Smilax, twenty-five Lilies 
of the Valley, and fifty Bouvardias.’ The articles were counted oft as 
he named them and put into the basket ; the wholesale price of the 
order was £16. The basket would easily hold £100 worth of Roses or 
£200 worth even of Lilac sprays, which at this season of the year are 
among the most valuable of flowers. ‘ Until ten years ago,’ explained 
the commission dealer, ‘ the flower-growers sold their stock to the florists 
direct; but with the growth of the business there became a necessity for 
middlemen, and now nearly the entire merchantable stock of flowers 
used in New York passes through the brokers’ hands. The business of 
growing fine flowers for the market has become a great industry ; hun¬ 
dreds of thousands of dollars are invested in hothouses, and the product 
amounts to over £400,000 a year at the wholesale prices. There are over 
500 men engaged in the business, many of whom are millionaires who 
have made the profit on their gardens pay the expenses of their places 
and a handsome interest on the money besides. Flowers now are as 
■staple article as Wheat or corn. A good Rose bud is always saleable for 
cash. This morning we had 20,000 Rose buds on our counters, and every 
one is sold, and half as many more could have been disposed of if we had 
them here.’ ” 
- The Hon. Secretary of the Peeshoee Horticultural As¬ 
sociation (Mr. J. Milward) reports that the banking account of the 
Association shows a balance in their favour of about £360, and that to 
witness the show and sports on Bank Holiday, 6th August last, when 
rain fell in torrents during the greater part of the afternoon, upwards of 
10,000 persons were admitted. 
- “ We greatly doubt,” observes the Irish Farmers' Gazette, “ if 
anywhere else is to be found a more extensive or more interesting series 
of Helleboees than are to he found AT Glasnevin, not only in the 
way of species and established varieties, but notably in the several novel 
and beautiful forms originated there by hybridisation, and now develop¬ 
ing their colours and character. Mr. Moore is following up the work, 
and at the present moment has a large number of seedlings from last 
year’s crossing and seed-saving.” 
- In a Hand Guide to the Ceylon Botanic Gaedens recently 
issued by Dr. Trimen the following interesting particulars are given :— 
41 The Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniva were established in 1821, six 
years after the final occupation of the Kandyan Kingdom by the English. 
The site is less than four miles from Kandy on the Colombo road, and 
occupies a loop of the river Mahaweli, which surrounds it on all sides 
except the south, where it is bounded by the high road. The area, nearly 
150 acres in extent, is beautifully undulated, its average elevation above 
sea level being about 1540 feet. The climate is hot, moist, and very 
equable ; the mean annual temperature is about 77° F., April and May 
being the hottest and December the coldest months. Rain falls on about 
200 days in the year, the annual rainfall being about 85 inches ; it is 
pretty evenly spread through the year, but is heaviest in October and 
November and in June, at the full establishment of the N. E. and S. W. 
monsoon, respectively. February and March are the driest months, but 
even then there are showers at no distant intervals. Before its occupation 
as a Botanic Garden the greater part of the land had been a royal 
demesne occasionally occupied as a residence by the Kings of Kandy 
The earth-mound and ditch along the south boundary are still evident, 
and remains of stone buildings have been found. The name Pera, Guava, 
and deniya, an enclosed place—indicates its use as a fruit garden of 
which the existence of some very old Mango trees is further evidence. 
On another part of the site stood a small temple or flower shrine and 
priest’s house, abandoned, however, before the formation of the garden 
This garden now contains considerably over 2000 species of plants. The 
Director has also under his charge, as adjuncts to the Peradeniya Gardens- 
smaller branch establishments in different climatic districts of Ceylon 
Hakgala Gardens are situated at an elevation of 5500 feet about six miles 
to the east of Nuwara Eliya on the road to Badulla. They were opened 
in 1860 as a Cinchona nursery. The climate admits of the cultivation 
there of numerous European and Australian plants, and those of the 
tropical mountain regions. Henaratgoda Garden is a completely tropical 
one, scarcely above sea level, and in a wet steaming climate which varies 
little. It is about three-quarters of a mile from the railway station of 
the same name on the Colombo-Kandy railway. Many of the plants grown 
at Peradeniya flourish there with far greater luxuriance, and others can be 
cultivated there only. It was opened in 1876. Anuradhapura Garden. 
—This is in process of formation at the ancient capital of Ceylon, ninety 
miles north of Kandy (seventy-four from Matale), in a district which 
possesses a hot dry climate with a short rainy season, like the Carnatic 
or Coromandel Coast. Here such plants and crops as are intolerant of 
continuous and excessive moisture can be cultivated.” 
CHRYSANTHEMUM LORD ALCESTER. 
I desire to state that the above-named variety is identical with my 
Princess Imperial, which I exhibited in an undeveloped form at the West¬ 
minister Aquarium in November, 1882. 
Mr. Wills procured a young plant from me last spring, from which he 
obtained the magnificent blooms exhibited by him in November, 1883, at 
Southampton and Kingston-on-Thames, for which he obtained first-class 
certificates. Had I been consulted I should have preferred its retaining 
its original name. Be it understood, I am not writing in a spirit of 
antagonism to Mr. Wills. He will share equally with me in the proceeds ; 
but in fairness to others who purchased plants of me, and who are, as yet, 
unaware of the change of name, I feel bound to make this explanation. 
It was arranged between Mr. Wills and myself that he should do the 
selling, but as I hold the stock, and he was unwilling to make the neces¬ 
sary explanation, I have decided to take the orders and execute them 
direct as per advertisement. — Henry Freemantle, Bishop's Hull 
Taunton. 
P.S.—Princess Imperial, alias Lord Alcester, is a sport from Empress 
of India, and was raised by me five years ago.—H. F. 
CONTROVERSY. 
When the writer was a learner he was for several years connected 
with debating societies in a town, and had good opportunities of coming 
in contact with young men with better opportunities and better educated 
than himself, and he looks back to that time as a very agreeable period of 
his life, when he learned much that has been of great service to him 
since. At one debating club which he attended twice a week the debates 
were often very keen, and one of the most formidable disputants was a 
young student, now a Scottish parish minister, who was a terrible 
catechist more than anything else, and whose “ whys ” and “ where¬ 
fores ” and habit of probing opponents’ theories to their source caused 
him to be regarded with great deference and circumspection by the 
rasher and more speculative minds after two or three encounters with 
him. Well, this young student gave the writer this excellent advice in 
the following or similar words :—“ Strive,” he said, “ to get an accurate 
knowledge of your subject, and whether speaking or writing never 
advance anything confidently, or as a fact, which you are not sure about. 
On the other hand always drive at the foundation of your opponent’s 
argument, as if you can find a flaw in his premisses you are far more 
likely to defeat him there than by wrangling over side-issues, which tend 
to confuse debate ; press him for reasons and proofs, and probe him 
closely on all vital points. If your opponent be a reasonable man he 
will be only too glad to satisfy you, and you will probably learn some¬ 
thing ; if he is not a man of this stamp the probability is he will lose his 
temper, and perhaps become abusive and mount the 1 high horse,’ but if 
you stick to him he will have to give way in the end—at all events he 
will be silenced if he has any sense. A man who persists in mere 
dogmatic assertion is not worth arguing with.” 
These remarks have been suggested by the controversed articles in 
the Journal lately. It is admitted by scholars that among ordinary 
writers and speakers on the various subjects that interest mankind, a 
very small proportion only know how to state their case logically, and 
fewer still know what 11 demonstration ” means. It may be seen in our 
gardening papers often enough that writers as a rule set out by taking 
something—their premisses—for granted, quite wrongly perhaps, and on 
this foundation they proceed to build some hypothesis or other, and from 
it to draw false conclusions that only widen the area of error. Much 
needless space, too, is occupied, as anyone can see, by writers not correctly 
apprehending what they read, and not being able to state clearly what 
they think themselves ; and this takes no account of those numerous 
communications which are passed into the wastebasket by editors, but 
which they would no doubt be glad to publish if they could see their way 
to do so. As an example of the aimless questions sometimes put, and 
supposed by the questioner to be full of significance, I may refer to one 
put lately by a correspondent, who desired to know in connection with 
stored-up sap where the young shoots derived their sustenance from that 
grew upon Vine wood that had been bottled to preserve the Grape3 
upon it. Had this writer asked himself why he put the shoots with the 
Grapes upon them in the bottles of water and other ingredients, in the 
first instance, he need not have asked such a question.— CASUAL. 
VINE ECONOMY. 
About New Year’s day, 1882, several large Oak trees growing on a 
steep hillside near here were uprooted by the wind, and fell with their 
tops directly down the hill. Nearly all the roots were severed ; a few 
might have escaped with a severe wrench. The ball of earth torn up 
with them was very small. They burst into leaf as usual, and remained 
green about the usual time; but they made no growth, except one of 
them, at the top, which was now the lowest part of the tree. There, on 
the points of what had been the highest branches, I was surprised to see 
watery shoots of from 12 to 16 inches long, bearing leaves nearly as 
large as my hand, or three times the size of the others. The place was 
