June 19, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
479 
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COMING EVENTS 
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Sale Show, three days. 
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2nd Sunday after Trinity. 
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Royal Horticultural Society Committees. Fruit and Vegetable Show. 
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Croydon, Leeds, and Tooting Shows. 
THOUGHTS ON CUEEENT TOPICS. 
HINKING backwards is a process by no means 
difficult -when exercised in connection with the 
contents of a book or journal. It simply means 
starting at the end at which it is usual to finish, 
and concluding with the page at which it is 
usual to commence. I think I have heard it 
said that some of the most able “reviewers” 
adopt that system ; and as the practice of 
“ apeing our superiors ” is not yet obsolete, I 
shall not be out of fashion at any rate by attempting to 
proceed on the same lines. 
I first pause over a little unpretending paragraph next 
the bees, having reference to a not too widely known green¬ 
house plant—Choysia ternata. This plant is often seen 
long, lanky, and miserable because kept under glass always 
and not sufficiently pruned. The writer of the few lines in 
question hits the nail on the head when he refers to cutting 
back the plants and eventually placing them in the open air, 
as they “ do much better outside than in during the summer.” 
This is very true. The best examples of culture I have seen 
were planted out in prepared soil on a sheltered border, 
attentively watered, and taken up and potted in early 
autumn. I have often thought it is not possible to produce 
such dwarf bushy plants with bright foliage, and every shoot 
terminating with a truss of pure white flowers, by any other 
method of culture. At any rate, it is a mistake to keep the 
plants under glass and not cut them down, for they can no 
more be well produced in that way than can show Pelar¬ 
goniums. Persons intending growing this useful plant will 
do well to think over the little paragraph above referred to. 
Turning backwards to the next page, a few lines on 
selecting early the wood of Peach trees and disposing it 
thinly contains in small compass abundant “ food for 
thought.” Of all the mistaken practices that are indulged 
in where they ought never to be seen, that of crowding-in 
shoots in summer to afford employment for cutting them out 
in winter is one of the greatest. If the thousand-and-one 
individuals would “ think ” a little more about the work in 
which they are engaged, instead of following a mere imita¬ 
tive rule-and-thumb practice of somebody else as thoughtless 
as themselves, they would not so frequently have to deplore 
the failure of Peach crops. Let the maxim in the paragraph 
on page 473 be “ learned by heart ” by every young gardener 
—“A fruit tree is cultivated solely for its fruit, and therefore 
no shoot or branch should be retained upon it, or rather be 
allowed to grow at all, if it does not in some way contribute 
to the desired end.” Eepeat that until it is mastered ; think 
about it until its full significance is comprehended, and a 
lesson will be learned in fruit-culture that may stand the 
pupil in good stead, and perhaps may make him famous in 
his generation. __ 
Summer-pruning Currants is alluded to in the next 
No. 208.—Vol. VIII., Third Series. 
sentence. It is a good practice when done in time,'.but let it 
be remembered that pinching the shoots to two] or three 
leaves now, as advised, is very different to allowing the 
breastwood to grow until the fruit is about ripening and cut 
off the shoots to two or three leaves then, because those two 
or three leaves suddenly exposed will shrivel at once if the 
weather be hot, and the bulk of the fruit will shrivel too, as 
many bushels did once upon a time when a certain young 
cultivator, by want of thought, “ let daylight in ” with a 
vengeance and roasted the crop. Following advice a fort¬ 
night or three weeks after date often ends disastrously; the 
adviser is then, of course, blamed, the real blunderer never 
thinking for a moment that any fault can attach to him ; but 
it is “ all along a-reading that there paper.” 
“ M. M.” is on safe ground in recommending greenhouse 
Ehododendrons. There are few that are not beautiful; but 
one is named that does not often receive honourable 
mention—namely, Ehododendron fragrantissimum. This is 
not only charming by the purity of its flowers, but its fragrance 
is delicious, resembling Honeysuckle intensified, and hence 
ranking amongst the sweetest of conservatory plants in 
spring. I thought when I read about these plants only 
“ 15 inches high, bearing many fine trusses of splendid 
blooms,” that I should like to have seen them, as I did not 
know 7 that this too-much-overlooked species or variety, which¬ 
ever it is, would flower so freely in such a dwarf state. How 
does “ M. M.” propagate them ? on what stock are they 
grafted ? and will someone state the origin of this the 
sweetest of all Ehododendrons ? The particulars requested 
would, I think, be acceptable to many readers of the Journal. 
And now I come to a series of paragraphs of a kind that 
periodically puzzle me. I try to think them over, but really 
do not know what to think about them. The labours of the 
Scientific Committee of the Eoyal Horticultural Society must 
presumably be very interesting to themselves, and the records 
instructive to persons of keen perceptive faculties. I try to 
picture in my mind the various abnormalities, malforma¬ 
tions, and vegetable quixoticisms provided, and fancy I see 
the learned scrutineers at work with their eye-glasses, and 
try to imagine the erudite remarks as the subjects are passed 
on to somebody for “ examination and report.” The exams 
are made, no doubt, and the “reports” duly registered. 
What a bulk of wisdom must be pigeon-holed somewhere for 
the use of—well, I think it must be for the members of the 
Scientific Committee. I cannot drive my thoughts beyond 
that at present. 
» * 
The accounts of the Fruit and Floral Committees are 
more intelligible, and valuable as records of the progress 
that is being made in the horticultural world; valuable also 
as stamping with authority those which are really good 
amongst the bewildering numbers of claimants to popular 
favour. There may occasionally be good things passed un¬ 
honoured at these meetings, but it is something to feel that 
it is exceedingly rare for anything that is bad to be granted a 
certificate. In the fruit and vegetable departments very few 
mistakes indeed have been made, and I think the Committees 
merit what they so often accord to others—a vote of thanks. 
Pyrethrums seem to have been in large force at the last 
meeting. The report says they were “ superbly shown,” and 
I think some of them are “ superbly ” named. Is Langport 
classical ground, at least that portion on which the single 
varieties are grown ? for the doubles, I perceive, have 
earthly names, and rememberable; but how such outlandish 
names as Abacena, Abdarites, Abarinion, Acacisius, Babyrsa, 
and Nisbola can be considered appropriate for these simple 
and pretty border flowers passes my comprehension. They 
will never rest in the memories and fit comfortably the 
mouths of the majority, and hence can scarcely advance the 
No. 1864.—Vol. LXX., Old Series. 
