45 G 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 9, 1881. 
have in the first place created a desire on the part of innumerable 
exhibitors to have what they have seen produced so well ; and 
have proved magnificent object lessons to the searchers for know¬ 
ledge, and have afforded examples of skill that they might emulate. 
In other respects the shows have been of great use, for they have 
encouraged mechanical and scientific enterprise in the designing 
and erection of structures and heating them effectually and eco¬ 
nomically, also in giving a stimuliflkto inventors, and encourage¬ 
ment to improvers of labour-savrSfe Implements and appliances. 
All this is beneficial, alike to the fabricators, as it ought to be, 
and to those who enjoy the fruits of their skill and labour. 
The widely extending and ever-growing love of plants and 
flowers that is a characteristic of the present era, and which will 
without doubt continue to expand, is of great benefit nationally, 
professionally, and individually. It appears to be an element in 
our being that man must have something to foster, woman some¬ 
thing to love. What more worthy of the intellect of the one and 
the heart of the other than flowers ? Stars of earth they are, as 
the great bard sang, and emblems of heaven. Societies do well 
to encourage their culture, and their shows create a taste that is 
health-giving, mind-expanding, and in all respects salutary. The 
“ appetite growing with what it feeds upon,” is ever making 
fresh demands; and forthwith men of enterprise formed trade 
establishments that became great, even of world-wide fame, and 
other men are found who will risk health and even life in the 
pursuit of the vocation that has been created. 
The tendency of the times appears to be towards utilitarianism 
even in plants It is not the fashion now to spend half a dozen 
years in growing a specimen Heath, nor for a stout man to 
sit for two days tying the plant into “form.” The stiff ideal 
form of the old plantsmen is being supplemented by a style par¬ 
taking in some degree of the delightful freedom of Nature. 
Grand specimen plants are always admired, but those are most 
in repute that are of quick growth and free, not slow in move¬ 
ment, stiff and formal. In these electricity days quick returns 
are in fashion ; these the smaller plants afford—useful plants 
that are adapted to other purposes than exhibitions—namely, the 
adornment of homes. Beyond question the custom, for custom it 
now is, of giving prizes for the grouping of small plants artis¬ 
tically at exhibitions, first advocated in this Journal, has been 
successful in various ways. It has increased the number and 
variety of plants exhibited both at metropolitan and provincial 
shows ; has enabled new and rare, even if small, plants to be 
brought forward with greater advantage than formerly ; has 
developed taste in arrangement ; and has extended the trade for 
plants to a greater extent than elephantine specimens alone could 
possibly have done. Yet undoubtedly grand examples of culture 
should be encouraged, especially as Heaths and other hardwooded 
plants are so valuable for decorative purposes when in a com¬ 
paratively small state. 
It would seem to follow from this that while shows have been 
of undoubted benefit, those engaged in commercial plant culture 
have reaped the greatest advantage from them. This probably is 
so. Purchasers of plants have had their home pleasures enhanced 
after admiring the plants at shows and procuring them ; gardeners 
have by visiting the exhibitions become more skilled cultivators; 
and some of them who have the privilege of devoting the re¬ 
sources at their command to showing as a system—a profession— 
have derived, as they have deserved to do, pecuniary profit; but 
the vast majority have had to be content with honour. The costs 
of travelling, &c., even in these big prize days, have too often left 
no margin ; but this little, somewhat strange to say, some employers 
have appropriated. They have a right to do this ; but it is happily 
rarely the custom to enforce that right, for those who have had 
experience in showing know that the men who win have spent 
hundreds of hours working when they might justly and lawfully 
have been resting. Large prizes to enable gardeners to cover the 
expenses of exhibiting appear to be indispensable, for they have 
no indirect gain ; but such prizes are less needed by those to 
whom shows and press notices bring much business ; and the 
majority of nurserymen have the reputation of being true horti¬ 
culturists, and do not regard shows and societies as organisations 
for directly compensating them for their immediate outlay. 
Draining societies, whose sole and only object is the promotion 
of horticulture, is a bad policy, and almost tantamount to killing 
the goose that lays the golden eggs. They should be supported, 
not exhausted, for their promoters labour without reward, except 
that of fostering the industry that they believe is fraught with 
benefit to all. Their managers, London and provincial, often 
receive as much of obloquy as honour. They deserve a better 
fate, and merit support—steady, regular, and continuous ; for 
shows more frequently result in loss than gain, and whatever 
profit may occasionally result is devoted to'the more effectual 
furtherance of the great object of their being—the advancement 
of horticulture. 
Still shows and showing must never be regarded as the be-all 
and end-all of gardening, for it is a fact that the names of many 
of the best cultivators of plants, flowers, and fruit are never seen 
in exhibition lists at all; and it is a little curious to notice the 
number of those who show and lose who “ have left their best things 
at home ! ” Even to such people shows are useful, as they teach 
that this policy seldom brings them either sympathy or profit. 
METROSIDEROS FLORIBUNDA. 
This fine old greenhouse plant, which is known as the Bottle¬ 
brush Tree, is seldom seen now. I am surprised it is not more 
generally grown, being so easy of culture and free-flowering when 
well established. I find it very useful for cutting. The shape 
and colour of the flower spike is very telling when mixed with 
other flowers. The plant produces its flowers all through the 
spring months, but just now it is a perfect picture, having forty 
spikes of bloom out. It is growing in a 10-inch pot, is 5 feet 
high, and 3 feet through. It has not been shifted for three years. 
I find it flowers more freely when rootbound. I enclose a spray 
for your opinion thereon.— Stifford. 
[It is a fine example of a fine old plant.—E d.] 
APPLE TREE ON A PLUM, STOCK (?). 
Instances of fruit trees succeeding on stocks of different yet 
allied genera are exceptional, confined, so far as I know, to the 
Pear, Apricot, and Peach. The Pear succeeds on the Quince 
(Cydonia vulgaris), Hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha) Mountain 
Ash (Pyrus aucuparia), and Medlar (Mespilus germanica). Apri¬ 
cots are invariably on Plum stocks, usually Mussle. Peaches and 
Nectarines thrive remarkably well on Plum stocks, and in certain 
localities are successful on the Almond (Amygdalus communis). 
The Medlar succeeds on the Quince, Hawthorn, and Pear. In all 
cases there is affinity in sap. Those with gummy sap, as the 
Cherry, Plum, Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot, do not succeed on 
those which have not descending gummy saps, as the Apple, Pear, 
Quince, and Medlar. The stone fruits require stocks of a similar 
nature ; and so with the others—those with pips do not thrive on 
stone-fruit stocks. The Apple and Pear, though closely allied, do 
not afford stocks for each other, although Mr. Knight obtained 
a heavy crop of Apples from a graft inserted in a tall Pear tree 
only twenty months previously. The graft, however, perished the 
winter following. 
Having repeatedly heard of an Apple tree on a Plum growing 
at Grinkle Mill, Easington, North Riding of Yorkshire ; and upon 
inquiries of the present occupier and grafter, Mr. T. Wren, I went 
to see the tree, which I understand was one of a group of three 
Wyedale Plums. The stems of the trio are only a few inches 
apart, but are separate to the ground, and have evidently sprung 
from one root stem, probably that of an old tree of the same kind. 
The stems of the Plums are clearly those to the base, as they are 
emitting suckers freely ; but whilst that upon which the Apple 
has been worked indicates its Plum origin at the base it does not 
produce suckers, and the bole gradually loses its Plum bark 
upward until it entirely disappears in that of the Apple some 
distance below the junction of stock and scion. The point of 
union is still clearly indicated by the bark, and the only visible 
effect has been to gradually increase the stock, it being somewhat 
stouter than those of the Plums, and to cause it to assume the 
character of the bark and wood of the scion. 
The only question is, Is it really a Plum stock ? The appear¬ 
ances all go to verify the statement of the operator—viz., that it 
was a Plum and bore Plums like its two companions until it was 
grafted with the Apple, which was done out of that youthful 
inclination for trying experiments often leading to unexpected 
results. It was grafted late in the season, had leaves and Plums 
on when headed, and has borne for many years crops of Apples, 
and promises an abundant crop this season. When I saw it the 
pink blossoms were showing amid the snowy white of the Plums. 
It is worked at about 7 feet from the ground, and gives no indi¬ 
cations of shoots on the stem below the junction. The tree is in 
apparent health, but for its age is comparatively small, yet some¬ 
what larger than its Plum companions. The variety of the Apple 
is Holland Pippin, one of the best and most certain in elevated 
localities ; the Plum (Wyedale) being one of the best late, and 
certain cropping varieties for culinary purposes.— G. Abbey. 
Sycamore Growing in a Laburnum. —On being shown over 
the grounds attached to Merlin, near this town, a few days .since 
