January so, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
87 
■-The B. S. Williams Memorial Fund.—T he final meeting 
of the Committee of the above Fund was held at 41, Wellington Street 
on Wednesday, January 28th at 3 p.m.. Dr. M. T. Masters in the chair. 
The Treasurer, Mr. H. J. Veitch, announced that the total amount 
subscribed was £527 7s. 6d., that the printing and postage expenses 
amounted to £50 6s. lid., leaving a balance at the bankers of £477 Os. 7d. 
After some discussion it was resolved that £250 be offered to the 
Committee of the Gardeners’ Orphan Fund for the purpose of placing 
two children on that fund, to be nominated by Mr. Harry Williams. 
It was also resolved that the balance—namely, £227, be devoted as 
prizes and medals for plants, the capital and interest to be utilised 
until exhausted. Dr. M. T. Masters, ^Ir. Harry Williams, and Mr. 
J. A. Laing were appointed Trustees, and the determination of the 
distribution of this part of the Fund will be left to them. 
- It is with regret we have to record the death of Mr. Chas. 
Keetley, which occurred on Sunday, January 18th, after a short but 
painful illness, at Osmaston Hall, near Derby, in his seventy-seventh 
year. Mr. Keetley was appointed head gardener to the late Sir Robert 
Wilmot, Bart., upwards of forty ye.ars ago, and continued as such until 
the estate was sold to the Midland Railway Company a year or two ago, 
in whose service he continued until his death. Mr. Keetley was a well 
known and skilful gardener, kind and courteous to all with whom he 
had dealings, and ever ready to give advice to others, which won him a 
number of friends. 
- Two Good Early Potatoes.—H aving tried many early 
varieties of kidney Potatoes side by side during the past two seasons, 
I have come to the conclusion that for early work there is none to 
surpass Sutton’s Ringleader and Sharpe’s Victor. The former, unlike 
other early Potatoes, has the foliage, though much shorter, of a late 
variety, and when I first tried it two years ago I began to think 
we had a wrong sort, a belief shared by many of my friends who 
saw the crop growing ; but, however, it proved perfectly correct to 
description, and with the exception of Sharpe's Victor, came in fully 
ten days earlier than five others, and with such a splendid crop of 
handsome tubers that one was led to think was rather the produce 
of a late variety. It was free from disease both last year and this, and 
of excellent quality. Sharpe’s Victor is useful for pots and forcing. 
It has the shortest foliage of any Potato with which I am acquainted 
which makes it a decided acquisition where space is limited, and for 
cottage gardens. Although with us not nearly such a heavy cropper as 
Ringleader, still the crop turned up in excellent condition, with not a 
trace of disease, and a better flavoured Potato no one could desire. We 
planted both varieties last year on March 25th, and both were ready to 
lift on May 28th.—R. P. R. 
- The correspondents of London daily papers send the two 
appended notes on Gardening and Flowers in Paris :—“ The air 
is mild and the sun clear, although much ice remains in and around 
Paris. The happier conditions of atmosphere have given an impetus to 
the traffic in flowers which has been in abeyance for nearly a month, 
except among those who deal in the rarest and costliest specimens of 
winter cultivation. This Paris industry in recent years has assumed 
very large dimensions. The supplies come chiefly from Provence and 
the South, but a considerable quantity is reared by petty gardeners in 
the ianlieue, whose income the frost has cruelly nipped. The superin¬ 
tendent of the Central Market for flowers tells me that on an average 
about 2000 baskets of cut plants arrive there every day, a little more 
than half of them coming from the provinces. After they have been 
thoroughly sorted according to their value, over 6000 porters are em¬ 
ployed in distributing them in the city and in the suburbs. Eleven 
small markets are regularly constituted in various districts on certain 
days of the week, the taste and skill displayed by the women who pre¬ 
side at the stalls making these places, for the time being, models of 
elegance and artistic arrangement. Forced Lilies, Roses, Camellias, 
Azaleas, and Orchids are reared by a considerable number of gardenerg 
round the capital, but only five devote themselves specially to the 
costly Gardenia, and only one to the Orange flower indispensable at 
marriages.” 
- “The Flower Markets of Paris are usually one of its 
most lovely features. For six weeks they have been flowerless. The 
damage done to flowers in the environs of Paris cannot be repaired this 
year. M. Simon, Secretary of the Horticulturists’ Union, states that a 
Rose gardener at Ivry has lost £4000 worth of standard Roses, another 
at Malakoff £1200, and one at Brie-Comte-Robert £2000. He believes 
the losses of the other great Rose growers will be proportionate, and 
may be roughly set down for the neighbourhood cf Paris at £40,000. 
The flower gardeners at Chevreuse have lost garden plants valued at 
£16,000. The losses of those at Croissy and Montlignon in flowers that 
were being reared under frames in pots are estimated at £36,000. Two 
thousand gardeners’ assistants have been for six weeks out of work. It 
is impossible to compute the injury done to forests and plantations 
Trees during the black frost were riven the whole length of the bole. In 
splitting, they gave out loud reports.” 
- Mr. j. Fairhurst, gardener to P. Blenig, Esq , Beechlcy, 
Allerton, near Liverpool, sends a flower of what he considers 
“ A peculiar Eucharis.” It is a large, handsome, well-developed 
flower, composed of ten equal divisions in two regular series. We 
have frequently seen similar examples, usually from well-grown 
plants, but we have not heard of the character being perpetuated. 
- The Essex Field Club. —The eleventh annual general meet¬ 
ing of this Club will take place at the Essex and Chelmsford Museum, 
New Bridge Street, Chelmsford, on Saturday evening, January 31st, 
1891, at half-past six o’clock. The report of the Council for the year 
1890, and the Treasurer’s statement of accounts, will be read and 
submitted to the meeting. The election of new members of the Council 
and officers for 1891 will also take place. No presidential address will 
be delivered, in order to afford time for the consideration of the 
important subjects to be brought before the members. The scheme 
for the amalgamation (in the event of certain contingencies) of the 
Essex Field Club and the Essex and Chelmsford Museum, and for the 
establishment of a Local (Essex) Museum, Laboratory, and Library of 
Natural History, Geology, and Pre-historic Archceology, will be explained 
and submitted to the meeting. The object of the scheme is to secure 
the establishment by the Club in Essex of a purely local and educa¬ 
tional museum, library, and laboratory, so as to form a centre of scientific 
activity and education in the county in connection with the work and 
publications of the Essex Field Club. The various stipulations are so 
framed as to ensure the plans embracing the whole county, and not any 
particular section of it, and that there may be in operation the best 
methods of working and controlling the Institution under the circum¬ 
stances obtaining from time to time. The scheme for technical 
instruction in Essex, submitted by the Council of the Club to the 
County Council of Essjx, will also be detailed and explained to the 
members. 
-WooLTON Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society.—■ 
The second annual meeting of the above Society was held in the 
Mechanics’ Institute, Woolton, last Thursday evening. The chair was 
occupied by R. .J. Harvey Gibson, Esq., M. A., F.L.S., F.R.S.E., Professor of 
Botany, Liverpool University. Mr. J. Rothwell, Hon. Sec., read the report 
as follows :—The Committee in submitting the report and statement of 
accounts have to record a successful year’s working. The membership 
although somewhat less than last year is still satisfactory, being fourteen 
honorary and sixty-nine ordinary, with an average attendance of fifty. 
The members desire to tender their warmest thanks to the donors of 
special prizes—viz., to Rev. G. H. Spooner for essay on “Propagation 
and Cultivation of Hardy Border Flowers” and “Hardy Fruit 
Culture ; ” to R. G. Harvey Gibson, Esq., for special prize for collection 
of “Microscopic Sections of Fungi;” and to Messrs. R. P. Ker and 
Sons for special prizes for papers on “ Selection and Cultivation of 
Hollies ” and culture of “ Greenhouse Rhododendrons.” The Library 
has been well used during the year, and the following works have been 
added Nicholson’s Dictionary of Gardening,” “Williams’ Orchid 
Manual,” “ Hogg’s Fruit Manual,” and “ Wright’s Fruit Growing.” 
Mr. R. G. Waterman, Hon. Treasurer, stated that the receipts for the 
year were £7 Is,, and exactly that amount had been expended in books 
and working expenses. The following were the prize winners for 
essays “ Hardy Fruit,” Mr. Arthur Kime ; “ Hardy Border Flowers,” 
Mr. Alfred Griffiths ; “ Hollies,” Mr. Harry Corlett; and “ Greenhouse 
Rhododendrons,” Mr. R. G. Waterman. Considerable discussion took 
place as to the advantage such a Society was to the gardeners of the 
neighbourhood, which was taken part in by the Chairman, Messrs. 
R. Todd, W. Ker, R. G. Waterman, and others. Messrs. R. P. Ker and 
Sons again offer a special prize of one guinea for essay on “ Spring 
Flowering Plants,” and R. J. Harvey Gibson, Esq., offers a prize of 
valuable books for paper on “ Hybridisation.” The Treasurer and 
Secretary were re-elected, Mr. J. Griffiths was appointed Libiarian 
for the year, and the following constitute the Committee : Messrs, li. 
Todd, T. Carling, Breeze, R. Lawrence, J. Griffiths, E. Brocklebank, 
H. Corlett, W. Hough, Davies, C. Mainwaring, A. Kime, Andrews, 
T. Leadbeatter, W. W. Gamble, and T. Sumner. A hearty vote of 
thanks was accorded to the Executive of the Mechanics Institute for 
