JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 14, 1880. ] 
351 
and resulted in a profit to the Society of £500. Notwithstanding 
the loss arising from the Rose and Autumn Shows, the Committee 
are able to add £350 to the reserve fund, making the total of that 
fund £1200. 
- The Metropolitan Board of Works have arranged for 
holding a Chrysanthemum Show in Finsbury Park. The 
display will be arranged in a temporary glass structure by Mr. 
Cochrane the Superintendent, and will be open to the public on 
the 23rd inst. The plants are in very good condition. 
- Mr. Crossling’s seedling Tomato Glamorgan, which 
has been referred to approvingly in these columns, will, we learn, 
be distributed by Messrs. Osborn & Sons of Fulham. 
-On Saturday and Monday last an Exhibition of Gladi¬ 
olus and Dahlias was held at the Royal Aquarium, Westmins¬ 
ter. The blooms were tastefully arranged in vases and ornamental 
glasses on a table about 150 feet in length, and the combination 
of bright colours produced a pleasing effect. Messrs. Carter and 
Co., Holborn, exhibited collections of Potatoes ; and Messrs. Lane 
and Son, Great Berkhampstead, contributed samples of Grapes. 
- Messrs. Christy & Co., Fenchurch Street, have received 
a consignment of the Chinese reputed remedy for skim disease, 
knowm as Tong-pang-chong, and believed to be the product of 
Rhinacanthus communis. Specimens of this drug were sent 
to Kew about three years ago from Hong Kong, and were subse¬ 
quently described by Sir Joseph Hooker as resembling portions 
of a woody root. In comparison with specimens of Rhinacanthus 
in the museum a great similarity was observed, but no doubt the 
true source will now be definitely settled. 
-In Mr. B. S. Williams’s nursery at Upper Holloway several 
beautiful and useful Orchids are now flowering, and perhaps they 
are especially noticeable owing to the comparative scarcity of 
Orchid blooms during October and November. Three good 
Oncidiums for attractiveness and their late-flowering habit are 
O. aurosum, O. Forbesii, and O. ornithorhynchum. The first has 
a rather short dense panicle of yellowish medium-sized flowers ; 
O. Forbesii bears a panicle of handsome large flowers marked 
with yellow and a rich brown or chocolate colour ; while the 
charming O. ornithorhynchum has compact branching panicles 
of small rosy purple blooms. A specimen of the latter is sus¬ 
pended from the roof of one of the Orchid houses, and the seven 
or eight pendent inflorescences render it extremely attractive. 
- A beautiful and comparatively rare Orchid—namely, 
L^elia Wolstenholma3 —is flowering in the same nursery. 
The petals and sepals are narrow, tinged with purple, and edged 
with a slightly darker shade of the same colour, the labellum 
having a centre of extremely rich purplish lake. It is one of the 
best forms of L. elegans, and was named in honour of Mr. Day’s 
sister, Mrs. Wolstenholm. 
- Near the above is a specimen of Peristeria elata, the 
Dove or Holy Ghost Plant, the El Spirito Santo of Panama. 
This charming Orchid is comparatively well known in most large 
collections, but it deserves the attention of those who can only 
afford space for a few. It produces a spike of roundish de¬ 
liciously fragrant creamy white flowers, with fleshy sepals and 
petals, the labellum being spotted with pale lilac or blue. 
- Mr. G.Lee of Clevedon communicates the following relative 
to his seedling Aster that we referred to last week :—“ There 
are ten stems on the plant, but which are as upright as their 
branches will allow. The extreme height of the stem is 3^ feet. 
The height of stem to lower branches 2 feet. The length of lower 
branches is 1 foot 3 inches. The number of branches on one stem 
twenty-five. The advantages of this seedling over other varieties 
are its lengthened period of flowering and its profusion of bloom, 
the size of the flowers, and their bright colour. It commences 
flowering towards the end of August, and continues till the end 
of this month—quite nine weeks.” Mr. Lee states this variety is 
a seedling from A. novi-belgii, but it appears to be intermediate 
between the two good varieties of A. novse-anglim—pulchellus and 
roseus, and is one of the most beautiful varieties we have seen. 
-We are requested to state that Mr. H. G. Smyth has 
removed his establishment for garden requisites from Nos. 10 and 
12, Castle Street, Endell Street, Long Acre, to more extensive and 
convenient premises, at 17a, Coal Yard, Drury Lane, London, W.C. 
- We are informed that Messrs. Stevens &c Pinches’ Acme 
tree and plant labels, figured by us in January last, can 
now be had with the names of 850 Roses and 550 fruits struck 
with a die, and raised above the opaque surface, consequently 
they are ineradicable and durable. 
LIFTING UNRIPE POTATOES. 
Perhaps I may sound a note of warning to the inexperienced 
against lifting their Potatoes too soon. A year or two ago I read 
an article by, I think, Mr. Luckhurst, advising the lifting of all 
Potatoes when still in a growing state and before the disease 
had taken hold of them. I had six varieties planted, and I had 
every Potato uprooted forthwith, and very clean and pretty they 
looked. I took the greatest possible care with their tender skins 
and stored them thinly in a dry room, locked them up and felt 
happy. In a week or two after my neighbours began to complain 
of the dreadful disease. I smiled very blandly, and told them 
they ought to have them up and out of harm’s w T ay, and in¬ 
vited some of them to come and see my Potato room. I proudly 
flung open the door. But why linger over a tale of horror ? I 
commenced to buy Potatoes a few weeks after. 
This year I have saved upwards of one hundred measures of 
Myatt’s Kidney, and have stored the tubers at seven distinct and 
separate times, noting down carefully the circumstances and con¬ 
ditions under which each lot were stored. The result is, that in 
the lots lifted last, and consequently when the tubers had attained 
their full growth, there is scarcely one diseased, whilst in those 
first lifted very many have become mere hard dry decayed husks. 
This has proved to my mind more than any amount of theory 
that it is a mistake to lift the tubers until they are quite ripe. It 
is too late for my experience to be of benefit to others this year, 
but could we not arrive at some conclusion before the season of 
1881 ? I have this year grown (the second year from the berry) 
a distinct new variety much darker and better shaped than the 
Skerry Blue, which I hope to prove next year.—A. K. B. 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
October 12th. 
The meeting of the Society’s Committees on Tuesday last w'as 
exceptionally well attended, and the exhibits in fruit, vegetables, and 
plants were sufficiently munerous to produce a good display. Fine 
collections of Apples from Messrs. Veitch and Lane occupied con¬ 
siderable space in the Council-room, Messrs. Yeitch, Cannell, Williams, 
and the General Horticultural Company contributing a number of 
Orchids, fine-foliage and flowering plants. The Dahlia blooms from 
the Society’s gardens formed the chief feature among the exhibits 
of flowers, and well indicated the beauty the Pompon race of Dahlias 
possess. 
Fruit Committee. —John Lee, Esq., in the chair. Messrs. Os¬ 
born exhibited a dish of their new Fig, called Osborn’s Prolific. It 
had been grown on the back of a cool house, and was excellent in 
flavour ; but the Committee, considering it was shown so late in the 
season, and having been produced under unfavourable circumstances, 
expressed a wish to see it again. Messrs. Rivers & Son of Saw- 
bridgeworth sent a dish of their new late Plum Grand Duke. It is a 
large dark Plum, in appearance like Diamond, but much superior in 
flavour, and very valuable for its lateness. It was awarded a first- 
class certificate. Another seedling, No. 15, was similar in appear¬ 
ance, but not so good as the former. No. 8 is another large dark 
oval Plum, similar in appearance to the two former; hut it was not 
equal in flavour to Grand Duke, though superior to No. 15. Messrs. 
Rivers also exhibited a bunch of Gros Maroc Grape, very handsome, 
and well set with large berries, and finely coloured. This was highly 
appreciated and much admired by the Committee, and was awarded a 
first-class certificate. Mr. R. Gilbert, The Gardens, Burghley, exhibited 
a bunch of each Black Alicante and Abercairney Seedling Grapes. 
The former was quite unripe ; the Abercairney was in fine condition, 
but on inquiry they were found to have been grown in different houses. 
It was arranged for it to be exhibited again at the meeting in December, 
