238 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t September 9, isso. 
that I am in opposition to the received opinion, but I cannot help 
it, and I feel confident that when the matter has been thoroughly 
investigated I shall be found to be in the right. 
As regards Mr. Luckhurst’s letter I have but little to say. 
With regard to certain diseases, if I may so term them, as result¬ 
ing from fungus, he simply says, “ in every instance the idea is 
erroneous.” That is very easily said, but he gives no proof that 
it is so in any way. One assertion is equal to twenty denials is a 
well-known axiom, and this I apply to Mr. Luckhurst. His letter 
has no weight with me whatever. I think in the latter part he 
had better have consulted a medical man before he made the 
following statement:—“ The fact of the liability of delicate human 
beings to suffer from infectious diseases while those of robust 
health are untouched, is well known to medical practitioners.” Is 
it ? Here is another of Mr. Luckhurst’s facts. Now I believe it 
is remarkable that these particular kind of diseases, such as fever, 
small pox, &c., are more readily taken by persons in robust health, 
and are generally more fatal. Take, for example, the North 
American Indians, full of vigorous health ; they were carried off 
in hundreds by small pox, and it is the same with fever. The old 
saying of “a creaking door hangs long on its hinges” is a truer 
one than most people think. Mr. Luckhurst goes on to say, “ the 
analogy which exists between plant and animal life should fairly 
induce similar conclusions.” I fail to see this entirely. The 
organisation of a man and a plant are so widely different that to 
my mind there is no analogy at all. As Mr. Luckhurst has so 
kindly said of my theory, I think I can more safely 6ay of his 
letter—“in every instance the idea is erroneous.”— Harrison 
Weir, F.R.H.S., Weirleigh, JBrenchley, Kent . 
GLADIOLI, &c., AT LANGPORT. 
When a man—and he no scatter-brained smooth-faced youth, 
but a venerable white-headed sexagenarian—looks you quietly in 
the face and tells you that he has 20 acres of Gladioli, your first 
impulse is to give that low vulgar whistle which simply implies 
that your vis-4-vis has told you a pretty considerable tall one, or 
that Somersetshire acres are different in size from those in other 
parts of England. Your second is to think of the few hundred 
roots you have in your own garden, and to smile at the idea of 
your being thought to be a grower of Gladioli. Yet this was what 
Mr. Kelway told me when I met him at the Royal Horticultural 
Society's Show in June last, and bid me come and see. So on 
my journey to Taunton I accepted his courteous invitation, and, 
despite all the delays and inconveniences of the two competing 
lines of railway, was enabled to spend a few hours in visiting 
this most remarkable place, for the annals of Gladiolus-growing 
can tell of no such achievement as this. M. Souchet and his suc¬ 
cessors, Messrs. Soulliard & Brunelot, grow them largely and supply 
the Continent with corms to a large extent from their grounds at 
Montreux and Fontainebleau, but they grow nothing like the 
quantity that Mr. Kelway does—a quantity that seems to increase 
every year ; and I can quite believe his statement, that if his corms 
were planted the same distance apart that growers in their private 
gardens do, he has sufficient to plant 100 acres instead of 20. 
He may, then, surely lay claim to being the prince of Gladiolus 
growers. 
Most florists know that Langport is in Somerset, but more par¬ 
ticularly I may state that it lies on the branch line of the Great 
Western Railway from Yeovil to Durston on the main Bristol and 
Exeter line, in a tract of country of great historic interest—the 
scene of Alfred the Great’s early life, and many centuries after¬ 
wards of Monmouth’s rebellion, the last embers of which were so 
cruelly stamped out by the bloody assize of the brutal Jeffries. 
The country is low and marshy, but Langport itself stands in 
rather an elevated position as compared with the neighbourhood. 
The soil is of various characters—some light, other parts stiff clay, 
and others loam, so that no special advantages are derived by Mr. 
Kelway from his position, indeed I consider quite the reverse, 
for I saw on his land patches which had been continuously under 
water where the corms had perished—a marked contrast to Fon¬ 
tainebleau, where the clear bright autumn allows them to be 
lifted in such a ripened condition as is hardly possible in our 
moister climate ; for the climate which ripens the delicious Chas- 
selas de Fontainebleau must compare favourably in this respect 
to our own, where the ripening of Grapes out of doors is so rarely 
achieved. 
Mr. Kelway’s land comprises about 140 acres, and of this, as I 
have said, 20 acres is this year devoted to the culture of Gladioli. 
In such an immense culture there is, of course, to be found the 
utmost variety. There are huge patches of such as Brench- 
leyensis, Bowiensis, and the older French varieties ; while there 
are selected spots where the choicer varieties both of French 
origin and his own seedlings are grown, and the prices of the 
roots vary from 5s. a hundred to 60s. a piece. Here is a piece of 
ground, for instance, of several acres, where the corms have been 
literally ploughed in. The drills are done by the plough, the 
roots planted and covered over with the plough, much in the same 
way as Potatoes are in some cases planted ; while here is another 
smaller piece where each corm has been carefully planted, and 
the ordinary garden method is adopted. He does not find that 
the soil makes much difference, and in this I am inclined to agree. 
Moreover, the use or non-use of manure does not seem to affect 
them. In the early days of Gladiolus-growing manure was con¬ 
sidered injurious to them, and all were advised never to use it ; 
this is an utter fallacy. I saw some small corms of the choice 
varieties, which were sown on an old hotbed, about 3 inches of 
soil resting on the manure, yet here they were as healthy as 
in any other part of the ground, while in other places a heavy 
coating of manure had been applied on the surface without in the 
least affecting the health of the plants, unless it was indeed to 
make them more vigorous. Wherever we turned it was “ Gladioli 
to the right of us, Gladioli to the left of us,” &c. Even the 
walks between the beds were covered with seedlings, and they 
seemed as much at home there as anywhere else. What, it 
may be asked, becomes of all these flowers ? Do they “ waste 
their sweetness on the desert air?” Not so; they appear in 
places all over England. Last year one hundred thousand spikes 
were sent out for decorative purposes to all parts of England, 
while America, the colonies, and the British Islands are largely 
supplied with the corms. It may well be imagined what a labo¬ 
rious matter this culture is. Already, when I was there, Mr. 
Kelway had begun the lifting of the small seedlings and spawn, 
and this will go on continuously for months as the corms ripen 
until frost comes to put an end to it. Then, again, consider the 
planting. Mr. Kelway takes off the outer skin of each corm, 
so that he may see that no imperfect ones are planted, and each 
has to be planted separately by hand. This planting begins in 
February, and goes on continuously until May or even June. 
As Mr. Kelway grows such a large number of seedlings he has 
the good fortune to raise many very striking novelties, but it 
must be most bewildering for him to know what to reject. On 
my remonstrating with him for the enormous number of named 
sorts in his catalogue he posed me by the reply, “But what 
will you cut out? If you were to reply, The older varieties, 
the answer might be, Why Lady Bridport, one of the oldest, is 
also one of the best for exhibition purposes even now.” But this 
makes the task of recommending varieties a very difficult one. 
Of course I know some, and can easily recommend them ; but it 
does not follow that there are not many others quite as good and 
perhaps better. My advice would then be to anyone who desires 
to cultivate them, to name the price to which he will go and leave 
himself in Mr. Kelway’s hands. In one respect my visit was 
unfortunately timed. The season was so very late that very few 
were in bloom, and it was with great difficulty that a presentable 
box could be cut for the Taunton Show ; but had I been there in 
“ the season ” I daresay I should have been bewildered by the 
embarras des richesses, and so philosophically consoled myself. 
Those who were present at the June Show at South Kensington 
need not be informed that Gladioli are not the only flowers for 
which Mr. Kelway is noted. The stands of Pyrethrums which he 
exhibited, and which so puzzled the multitude, bore witness to 
the fact that he is no ordinary cultivator of these fine flowers. I 
heard them called Chrysanthemums, Asters, and by one lady who 
was quite sure of her ground Zinnias. They were indeed very 
grand, and several of them were his own seedlings. Upwards of 
sixteen thousand of these very handsome plants were sent out 
last season. A notice appeared in the Journal some time ago of 
the large quantities of Hyacinthus candicans which Mr. Kelway 
grows. Bed after bed was filled with them, and upwards of twenty 
thousand blooming bulbs will be ready for delivery in October. It 
is a very handsome flower of the most dazzling whiteness, and 
the individual blooms are very valuable for button-hole bouquets ; 
while planted in clumps in the borders it is very striking, and is 
thoroughly hardy. I had a 6mall lot of seedlings in the ground 
all last winter, which bloomed very strongly this summer. Those 
who are now going in for herbaceous plants—happily an increasing 
number—will find this a very welcome addition to their border 
bulbs. It remains a considerable time in bloom, and supports its 
flower stems without the need of stakes. 
Although Mr. Kelway cannot vie with some of our large growers 
of Roses as to quantity, yet in one department he is a large culti¬ 
vator—Roses in pots, of which I saw some fifteen thousand, vary¬ 
ing in size from 9 inches to 3 feet in height, exceedingly vigorous 
in growth and healthy. In the houses there were also some sights 
to be seen, the Cucumber houses especially, where immense fruit 
