88 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 29, 1891. 
the free use of the room, to R. J. Harvey Gibson, Es:i., for presiding, and 
to the Secretary and Treasurer for their valuable services during the 
past year. 
- A New Horticultural Society for Brighton and 
Sussex.—A largely attended meeting of Sussex gardeners was held 
at the Odd Fellows’ Hall, Brighton, on Thursday afternoon, 22nd inst., 
to take into consideration the desirability of establishing a new horti¬ 
cultural Society at Brighton. Mr. \V. Balchin, jun., presided, and 
was supported by Mr. Cheal and Mr. Glen, Worth Park. Over thirty 
persons were present, and Mr. Longhurst read a like number of 
letters from others, who for various reasons were not able to be present, 
all promising their most hearty support to the proposed new Society. 
It was the unanimous opinion of those present that a Society should 
be started on the same lines as the Chrysanthemum Society, and a 
resolution to that effect was passed. Six gentlemen, with Mr. Balchin 
as Chairman, were appointed a Committee to arrange and advertise a 
public meeting, to be held in the Town Hall at an early date, and take 
the necessary preliminary steps to the establishment of the same. The 
gentlemen present at the meeting, together with those who promised 
their support by letter, may be taken as fairly representative of the 
county, and if the proceedings of the public meeting prove as 
enthusiastic as that of Thursday last no doubt the sixty gardeners 
who have given their support will be augmented by sixty more. May 
all interested in horticulture attend the meeting.—I. 
- The Fruiterers’ Company. —The annual banquet of the 
members of this Company was given on Monday night last at the Mercers’ 
Hall. H. R. Williams, Esq., Past Master of the Company, presided, 
in the absence of Sir James Whitehead, the Master for the current 
year. There were about eighty guests, amongst others being the Lord 
Mayor, Sheriffs, representatives of the other City Companies, Major 
Craigie (Board of Agriculture), Rev. W. Wilks, Seeretary of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, also Messrs. W. Paul, G. Paul, and A. F. Barron. 
Messrs. G. Bunyard, J. Cheal, T. F. Rivers, and J. Wright were amongst 
the liverymen in attendance. After the usual loyal toasts, the Chairman 
said he was occupying the place which ought to have been taken by Sir 
James Whitehead, who was, he very much regretted to say, detained at 
home through illness. There had also been received letters of encourage¬ 
ment, and expressing regret for absence, from Mr. Chaplin, the Dukes of 
Rutland and Westminster, Earl Spencer, Lord Dartmouth, Lord Coventry, 
and others. The Chairman also read a letter from Sir James Whitehead, 
in which he urged that further attention should be paid to the encourage¬ 
ment of fruit culture in English homesteads. The Chairman, in pro¬ 
posing “ The Board of Agriculture,” eulogised the power for good which 
the Board was capable of exercising. He favoured the formation of 
technical schools for teaching the growth of fruit in this country, and it 
was one of the objects which the Board desired to promote. In planting 
trees, he urged that attention should be paid to the adaptation of fruit 
trees to soils, and insisted that England should grovy much larger 
quantities of Apples than were produced here. In 1889 they imported 
from abroad 3,612,310 bushels of Apples, worth £971 405 ; and of other 
raw fruit they imported 5,791,202 bushels, worth £1,147,439. They were 
anxious to push this matter of fruit-growing before the attention of the 
.people ; and he maintained, in proof of the awakening interest that 
w’as already felt, that they had sold nearly 6000 copies of their 
•pamphlet, one of which, specially bound, he presented to the Lord 
Mayor. Major Craigie responded, and mentioned that in 1890 they 
imported a smaller quantity of Apples than they did in 1889, showing 
•that more attention was being paid to the cultivation of that pleasant 
fruit. The Lord Mayor expressed his high approval of the work done 
by the Fruiterers’ Company ; and, as the head of the Corporation, he 
pledged himself to do his utmost to further the work which had been so 
well begun by the Company, and the Mansion House was at their 
disposal for a meeting, which, subject to Sir James Whitehead’s 
recovery, will be held early in March. 
A JOURNEY TO BURMA. 
[A papBr Ly Mr. A. Winkler Wills, read at a meeting of the Birmingham Gardeners 
Association.] 
{Continued from 'page 71.') 
Rangoon is a city of some 250,000 inhabitants, Burmese, 
natives of India, Chinese, English, a city of broad streets and great 
markets, where tall warehouses and offices stand side by side 
with bamboo shanties, and all are set in a background of tropical 
Yegetation. The quarters of the European soldiers and the hand¬ 
some bungalows of the English officials and residents stand on high 
ground behind the town, and are simply buried in Palms and forest 
trees, which attain a great size in the constant heat of the tropics. 
The thernometer stood at 80" to 85° while we were there, and it 
was almost the depth of winter, while in the summer it runs up 
to 100° and even 110°. 
The great Schway Dagon or Golden Pagoda is one of the real 
wonders of the world. It is to the Buddhist what St. Peter’s at 
Rome is to the Roman Catholic, or what the Shrine of Mecca is 
to the Mahommedan, the central point of that religion which for 
twenty-three centuries has been the faith of so many millions of 
our fellow men. To it the pious Buddhist ever aspires once in his 
life to perform a pilgrimage, and at no time can one visit it without 
seeing in its precincts types of many tribes and nationalities, Shans 
and Paloungs from distant parts of Burma and Siam, Cinghalese 
from Ceylon, Chinese from the Flowery Land, and many others. 
It stands on a lofty artificial platform surrounded by luxuriant 
tropical vegetation, and its great central spire rises from an 
amazing platform of masonry, swelling out at the base and tapering 
away in elegant curves io a height greater than that of 'the dome of 
St. Paul’s, the whole covered with pure gold and surmounted by a 
tee, a sort of umbrella-shaped appendage, from which hang 
innumerable bells, which give forth a melodious tinkling as the 
wind sways them to and fro. It is also adorned with jewels, and 
the largest ruby in the world is amongst them. The whole tee, 
which was the gift of King Theebaw in his palmy days, is said to 
be worth £50,000. 
The approach to the Pagoda is up a flight of steps some hundreds 
of yards long, worn by the feet of countless pilgrims, and covered 
for its entire length by a teak roof. After passing through a great 
archway at the bottom, grotesquely carved into forms of huge 
dragons and quaint figures of men and beasts, you first encounter a 
row of mendicants who line the sides of the passages, cripples of 
all sorts, lepers, and other loathsome objects, who extend their 
skinny arms and hold out their alms bowls for contributions ; but 
even they are cheerful specimens of humanity in spite of disease 
and poverty, and instead of cursing you if you pass them unheeded 
they relapse instantly into conversation, not unmixed with laughter, 
after the characteristic fashion of the Burmese generally. 
On either side of the central flight of steps are rows of stalls 
for the sale of trifles of all sorts, cooked rice and cakes, candles 
for votive offerings, native Burmese books, &c., &c. Arrived at 
the top you find yourself in full view of the Pagoda, rising from a 
vast rectangular base, which is surrounded by hundreds of quaint 
gigantic figures of mythical beasts and dragons, and of elephants 
kneeling and standing, all liberally ornamented in gold and 
vermilion. From the centre of each side of this base projects a 
large square temple, open at front, and approached between 
great timber pillars also painted in gold and scarlet, surmounted 
by exquisitely carved wooden archways and roofs, which rise tier 
upon tier against the cloudless blue sky. 
The interior is full of bronze, wooden, and stone figures of 
Buddha of all sizes, and at the back is a recess containing some 
specially sacred image, before which devotees are constantly burn¬ 
ing scores of candles, or depositing flowers and quaint paper orna¬ 
ments. Some carry in cleft sticks little books of gold leaf, which 
they affix to one or other part of the building as votive offerings, 
and in every part of the place an odd appearance is imparted by 
these little square patches of gold standing out in relief against 
the vermilion, which is freely used throughout. We noticed one 
column being freshly painted by a man who first daubed the colour 
on with a stick, and then spread it evenly with his bare hand. It 
seemed an effective if scarcely a clean way of painting. A paved 
square extends round the base of the central mass of masonry, 
forming a great terrace some 40 yards broad, and this again is 
surrounded by an immense number of courts and pagodas, closely 
S3t together, and forming an exterior space some 350 yards long 
each way. Nearly all are of characteristic Burmese architecture, 
and their entrances are adorned by wood carvings of extreme 
delicacy, deeply undercut, and combining conventional scroll work 
based on plant forms, with life-like representations of men, birds, 
and beasts. 
Nearly all of these buildings contain images of Buddha, 
hundreds in all, and of all sizes, from 3 to 15 or 20 feet high, of 
wood, stone, bronze, or alabaster, most of them richly ornamented 
in gilding and vermilion. In one is a recumbent figure about 
40 feet long, with lesser figures of monks and devotees standing or 
kneeling about the foreground. The walls of this chamber are 
adorned with frescoes representing some of Buddha’s miracle.®, 
admirably executed, and especially noticeable for the spirited 
rendering of characteristic forms of tropical life—animal and 
vegetable. 
In another open court a young Hypoongyee was teaching a 
class of Burmese novices, who were evidently admiring a series of 
pictures on the walls, also representing miracles of Buddha, in 
which men were afflicted with loathsome diseases, or with their 
