September 7, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
219 
Let societies offer the very best prizes they can, and there will be 
little difficulty in securing good entries and a show which a generous 
public will patronise and appreciate. It is a blind policy to extract the 
last fraction you can get from the pocket of the very men who make 
the show. Such niggardly treatment tends to drive exhibitors away 
in disgust never to return. I am pleased to know that there are 
societies which I could name, and that deserve all the praise that has 
been bestowed upon them from time to time, and which are to-day in a 
most prosperous condition. They have gained the confidence of the 
community in the first place by securing the services of the best judges 
they can obtain, and secondly by a liberal, generous, and considerate 
treatment of the exhibitors and supporters.—Wai. Innes. 
Events of the Week. —During the ensuing week several impor¬ 
tant horticultural events will take place. The Committees of the Koyal 
Horticultural Society will meet at the Drill Hall on Tuesday, 
September 12th ; and on the 13th a special Show of autumn flowers and 
fruit will open at the Gardening and Forestry Exhibition, Earl’s Court, 
continuing the following day. The Royal Caledonian Horticultural 
Society’s Exhibition will be held at Edinburgh on the 13th and 
14th inst. The show of Dahlias, Gladioli, and Early Chrysanthemums, 
which opened at the Royal Aquarium on the 6th inst., continues to-day 
(Thursday) and to-morrow, 
- The Weather in London. — With the exception of a few 
slight local showers fine weather has again prevailed in the metropolis 
during the past week. The days have, as a rule, being bright and sunny 
but the nights rather cold. At the time of going to press it is fine and 
warm. 
- Royal Horticultural Society. —The next meeting of the 
above Society will be held on Tuesday, September 12th, in the Drill 
Hall, James Street, Westminster. Mr. James Douglas will deliver a 
lecture on “ Garden Phloxes and Pentstemons,” and collections of these 
plants will be welcomed as a means of illustrating the lecture in a 
practical way. As the season for Gladioli is drawing to a close we 
have been requested by Messrs. Kelway & Son of Langport to say that 
their prize of a silver medal will be offered at this meeting for the best 
twelve Gladiolus gandavensis varieties raised from British seeds. Prizes 
are also offered by the Society for twelve distinct Gladioli grown by 
amateurs. 
- Mr. Thomas Manning, —After long, diligent, and faithful 
service as manager to the great firm of Messrs. .James Veitch & Sons, 
Chelsea, Mr. Manning has well won the rest he will seek at the close 
of the present month, Few persons could possess more intimate and 
varied knowledge of plants and their value than Mr. Manning, and this 
combined with great business capacity made him a man of mark in the 
horticultural world. He has, “ boy and man,” been connected with the 
firm for forty-eight years. Mr. Manning will take with him wherever 
he may “ settle down ” the best wishes of a host of friends. 
- We have received the first Fasciculus of that marvellous book 
the Index Kewensis, of which it may be said, as Linnmus and Haller 
said of John Ray’s “ Historia Plantarum,” “ opus immensi laioris." 
We have heard this described as a “ Modern Steudel,” and so it is in 
some respects; but it is that and something more, for it gives a citation 
of all the synonymes, with references to the pages of the works in 
which they are to be found, and this Steudel dees not do. The title of 
the work is “ Index Kewensis : an Enumeration of the Genera and 
Species of Flowering Plants from the time of Linnseus to the year 1885 
inclusive, together with their authors’ names, the works in which they 
were first published, their native countries, and their synonymes. 
Compiled at the expense of the late Charles Robert Darwin, under the 
direction of Joseph D. Hooker, by B. Daydon Jackson.” It is a great 
work and worthy of Kew. 
- Medals.— Now that medals are so freely provided as honours 
for commendable exhibits at horticultural and other shows we may 
appropriately refer to some artistic examples sent for inspection by 
Mr. J. Carter, 37, Howard Street, Birmingham, which he is now 
bringing before the public. The gold, silver-gilt, silver, and bronze 
medals are alike beautifully finished, while the various designs are highly 
artistic and appropriate to the objects represented so well. 
- Death of Mr. George Marchant.—T hough not a pushing 
man striving to keep his name before the public, Mr. Marchant 
occupied a very public position, to which he won his way by diligent 
work and honest endeavour. He was one of the Crimean heroes, 
receiving several wounds, also English and Turkish medals. He found 
employment in the London parks, and spent about thirty years of his 
life in them. For sixteen years he had charge of the Thames Embank¬ 
ment Gardens, first under Mr. Sinclair, then Mr. Cochrane, in the 
Metropolitan Board of Works days. On the County Council succeeding 
the Board, Mr. Marchant was sent to Ravenscourt Park, but soon 
returned to take full charge of the Thames Embankment Gardens. 
This position he held with much credit till his death, which occurred 
on the 28th ult. in his fifty-eighth year. A gentleman who has known 
Mr. Marchant and his work for years says of him, “ A more con¬ 
scientious worker could not be found. Faithful labour is always 
appreciated, and no man in the several parks was more highly thought 
of by his superior officer, Mr. Sexby, than was George Marchant.” 
-The Agricultural Hall Show.—A s most persons expected. 
this speculation resulted in considerable loss—it is said upwards of £300. 
As might also be expected, the Council of the Royal Horticultural 
Society took care to secure a guarantee against bearing any share of 
possible loss occurring. We also learn that several trade exhibitors did 
little or no business to meet the considerable expense they incurred in 
sending large collections of produce. The Exhibition was a fine one, 
and it is regrettable that it did not receive a large share of public 
appreciation. 
- Drought in France. —Mr. A. H. Pearson, writing from 
Angers on the 3rd inst., says :—“ In passing down the boulevard here 
to-day I noticed several of the Chestnut trees which had gone to res: 
by reason of the drought, and subsequently pushed out new leaves and 
blossoms. One or two trees were quite white over. Is not this unusual ? 
The pastures are in a fearful state, and the proverbial ‘ oldest inhabi¬ 
tant ’ never saw the Loire so low as at present.” [There are numbers 
of leafless trees in the south of London, but France is ahead of us in 
having Chestnuts growing and flowering now as if in spring.] 
- White Antirrhinums.—I n reply to “ A. D.” (page 197) as 
to why I referred to this variety as “ Iggulden’s,” I have to say that I 
believed him to be the first to introduce it to that part of the country, 
and I very naturally connected his name with it, not knowing any other 
that I could distinguish it by. Ic has been grown at Marston for some 
ten years, and I think I am correct in stating that it was in Mr. 
Iggulden’s possession prior to that time. My only motive in writing the 
note (page 172) was to call attention to a very useful plant. If “A. D.” 
had distributed the “splendid crimson” of which he writes, and I had 
fortunately shared in his liberality, I should certainly have spoken and 
written of it as “ Dean's,” without taking the trouble to ascertain 
whether or not he had a right to his name being coupled with it.—T. S. 
- Drought Effects. —It seems almost incredible after the 
many fine rains that we have had in the London district, that trees 
should be suffering so severely from drought that at the end of 
August there may be seen at Strawberry Hill numerous Elms 
literally without a leaf on them, and this too in what is called the 
fertile valley of the Thames. I have rarely seen in relation to the 
effects of the season on trees greater contrast than was the other day 
found at Hackwood Park, Basingstoke, where on a solid chalk base 
trees and shrubs and grass were all luxuriantly beautiful, hardly a 
leaf having been shed. Then a few days later I looked in at Lady 
Freake’s place, Fulwell Park, Twickenham, and there found the grass 
burnt brown, the trees shedding leaves wholesale, some being quite 
leafless, and sweeping literally going on constantly; in fact, it was 
just such a sight as may be looked for at the end of October; and 
yet the soil in this district has the reputation of being deep and 
retentive; but it is evident that when gravel at the base and trees 
are thick, the subsoil becomes so intensely dry that nothing short of a 
deluge of water such as a wet winter gives can fairly saturate the roots. 
Needless to say that this intense dryness of the soil extended to the 
kitchen gardens also, and rendered cultivation exceedingly difficult. 
It is a capital wet season position, but a very bad dry one ; and yet 
within 40 yards of the garden there is a small river full of water, 
but it might as well be in the moon so far as it affords any benefit 
to the trees or gardens. In all such situations the season has beyond 
measure demonstrated the immense need there is of an ample supply of 
water in dry weather, and here could a few thousands of gallons be 
lifted each day from the river it would be of the greatest value to the 
gardener.—A. D. 
