December 21, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
561 
have also been introduced to give a semi-rural aspect, and possibly 
by-and-by we may see aviaries. A variety of flowers is displayed 
in the summer season by the bedding-out system, and in spring by 
the flowering of bulbs, and most gardens have a few herbaceous or 
perennial plants, upon which less reliance is placed now. London 
gardens of the old type had these in predominance, the spaces 
between them being yearly sown with annuals, not to much profit; 
in fact annuals, as a rule, cannot advantageously be sown in 
London, the cats and sparrows being much against them, and the 
soil of the ordinary bed is apt to cake upon the surface if watered, 
so that the seedlings have difficulty in breaking through. 
Many shrubs have been planted in the former burial grounds of 
the City, and some that seem unlikely to thrive amid smoke have 
grown fairly well. The calculation of trees in 1877 did not 
include shrubs, of which the City has always bad a number, both 
of deciduous and evergreen species, such as the Elder, Privet, Lilac, 
and Laburnum, also the Holly, Aucuba, Portugal Laurel, Box, and 
Euonymus. It is curious to note how stationary some of these 
appear to be from year to year, making no appreciable increase in 
size. One singular effect of the drought of 1893, and the late rains 
of autumn, was that many London trees and shrubs put forth a 
crop of leaves at a time when they are usually bare, and retained 
these till nearly, the end of October. 
St. Botolph’s garden, Aldersgate Street, is another garden of 
about an acre in the heart of the City, and so popular on fine 
summer days that the ground is often crowded with visitors, the 
conduct of young and old being generally good. The grounds of 
two other City churches of like name being also much appreciated, 
especially the half acre of St. Botolph, Aldgate. at the junction 
of the City and East-end. About the same size is the churchyard 
of St. Botolph in Bishopsgate, which was laid out as a garden last 
year. Of smaller size (only a quarter of an acre) are the gardens 
of St. Mary Aldermary, and St. Katherine Coleman ; also 
those of St. Bride’s, Fleet Street, and St. Sepulchre, Holborn 
Viaduct, just beyond the City boundaries. As an example of a most 
valuable East London garden, not far from the Tower and St. 
Katherine’s Docks, we might visit St. G-eorge’s-in-the-Eist garden, 
formed from two old burial grounds of 3 acres, where we find a 
capital display of flowers from spring to autumn, looking little the 
worse for the murky atmosphere. When I went there one autumn 
day, the scene was enlivened by a number of white butterflies, 
which delighted the juveniles, though the gardener demurred to the 
mischief they had done as caterpillars. 
Farther eastward larger gardens occur in crowded neighbour¬ 
hoods, such as that of St. Dunstan’s, Stepney, 7 acres in extent. 
Spitalfields, many centuries ago real fields attached to the old 
hospital, now an over-populous and squalid district, has at least one 
garden of 2 acres attached to Christ Church, which is much visited 
by those who cannot reach broader spaces some distance away. 
Moorfields, once an extensive open space just beyond the north 
wall of the City, is not all built over, for we have the gardens of 
Finsbury Square and Circus of nearly 10 acres ; upon its ground, 
though not as yet open to the public, are the Bunhill Fields 
enclosure of 7 acres, which, however, retains its character of a 
cemetery, and is not garden-like. On the west of the City is one 
of the finest spaces of central London, the 12 acre expanse of 
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, well timbered ; and along the Embankment 
the familiar but smaller Temple Gardens.—J. R. S. C, 
SEASONABLE HINTS ON FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
The closing weeks of the year always more or less bring 
anxiety to the growers of those, which we of the older generation 
call florists’ flowers. As I have often said, it is almost an impossi¬ 
bility to define what is a florist’s flower, but there are certain 
plants which are always associated with that term, while in later 
years a few have been generally admitted in the same rank ; 
although we can give no valid reason why a Pansy should be so 
called,°and a Phlox not, yet so it is, and, like many other arbitrary 
arrangements in horticulture, we must be contented to let them 
bide. I, therefore, confine my remarks, as usual, to a few out of 
the many kinds of flowers that have sometimes been so designated. 
This time of the year is, as I have said, an anxious one, not so 
much from the dread of frost and snow as from the prevalence of 
damp ; when the atmosphere is heavy and charged with moisture, 
plants under shelter, whether in the greenhouse or frames, are 
apt to suffer from it, and the greatest care is necessary. 
Auricdlas. 
The past season has had, I fear, an unfavourable effect on 
many Auriculas. They love a cool atmosphere, and hence the long 
terrible drought of the past summer bas had a deleterious effect 
upon them in two ways ; in the first place, their vitality to seems 
have suffered, and the summer losses were in consequence larger 
than usual. Stating this, I am not detailing my own experience, 
only the same thing has been told me by moxe extensive growers 
of this class of plants than myself. Another is that there has been 
a larger number of autumn blooms than usual. The mild and open 
weather, also, has tended to increase the number of aphides, many 
of which may be found snugly sheltered in the upper part of 
the foliage. With regard to any present work connected with 
Auriculas, it will be simply that of removing the dead or decaying 
leaves, and the plants, after this is done, will present a somewhat 
diminished appearance. These leaves are those which have clothed 
the plant with beauty, and having fulfilled their task, gradually die 
off and must be removed, and nothing is more injurious to the 
well-being of the Auricula than any decaying matter of this kind; 
at the same time it would be well to look both in the heart of the 
plant and on the under side of the leaves for aphides, which should 
be removed when the collection is small with a soft brush. When, 
however, a large number are grown, this will be too tedious a 
process, and fumigation may be done. Where Auriculas are grown 
in frames and not in houses or pits, there is often great danger from 
drip. There may be some small leakage in the glazing through 
which the wet comes, or there may be condensation, which has 
very much the same effect, and in a frame it is not oftentimes easy 
to see where the injury is ; which is, however, easily discovered 
when grown in a house or p'it. Watering will be, of course, 
necessary, only very occasionally ; once a week being quite sufficient 
in dull weather. 
Carnations and Picotees. 
Here again we have to repeat that damp is the great enemy we 
have to contend with ; when black spot, which is a fungus, appears 
on the leaves it is a pretty sure token that something is wrong. 
Affected leaves should be cut away and the plants well dusted with 
sulphur, for it is very contagious. So far those who have trusted 
their border Carnations to the open ground hive had a favourable 
time, but I believe for the greater number it is far safer to keep 
them in pots in frames during the winter, as has always been done 
with the florist varieties. I know of some growers who have 
recommended the former plan have, after the experience of two or 
three seasons, reverted to the latter practice. The milder weather 
will probably make aphides troublesome, and they may be eradicated 
in the same way as from the Auricula, or the shoot may be passed 
between the finger and thumb, so killing the aphides. Where the 
collection is large, fumigation had better be resorted to. 
Gladioli. 
Never during the thirty or forty years that I have grown these 
plants have I been so late in lifting them as in this season. 
Various causes have contributed to this, the chief one being the 
illness of my gardener, which has thrown me very much behind¬ 
hand in many things, and I have not now (December 1st) lifted 
more than one-half of my Gladioli. I have, of course, as I fear I 
must always have in this garden, a considerable loss of bulbs, but 
certainly not in any way equal to that of last year, while the sound 
ones I have lifted are very strong. My friends Messrs. Lindsell 
and Fowler give the same account of theirs. I am still as perplexed 
as ever at the cause of my losses. I find them, as in last year, 
amongst imported and home-grown bulbs, and as yet there seems 
to be no preventive or remedy. As I no longer exhibit, and grow 
only for my own pleasure, I am about to try this season the 
experiment of leaving some in the ground all the winter, giving 
them some slight protection either of ashes or cocoa-nut fibre. ^ I 
want to see whether they will fare better tbat way than by being 
taken up and dried. That the disease bas something to do with 
the character of the soil I have now very little doubt. Some 
kinds are more liable to it than others, but it is a sore trouble to 
all those who grow Gladioli. Some per centage of loss appears to 
be the misfortune of all growers, and to some, as with myself, in 
greater measure. ..'T. 
Pansies. 
The past hot summer was very unfavourable to thosedn the 
south of England who grow these plants ; there is nothing to:which 
they more strongly object than drought, and whether kept in 
pots or planted out, there were considerable losses among them this 
year. Mine have been put into pots, where they will remain until 
the spring. There will be the necessity for watching against damp, 
which they greatly resent, however much they may like moisture. 
It is a curious thing to notice the collapse of the show varieties, 
as they were called, for in writing of Pansies hardly anyone now 
seems to think of anything but the fancy kinds, their stronger 
constitution and greater variety of colour giving them a decided 
preference. 
Roses. 
One hardly likes placing these amongst florists’ flowers, yet I sup¬ 
pose they must, strictly speaking, be called so. So much is written 
