124 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 11, 1892. 
Board desire to record their appreciation of the diligence and skill 
which he has shown in the discharge of his duties during the period 
that he has been in their employ. It is to a large extent in recog¬ 
nition of this that the First Commissioner recommended, and that the 
First Lord of the Treasury has granted, an additional gratuity of £120 
from the Special Service Fund.” Mr. W. J. Bean succeeds Mr. True- 
love as foreman in the arboretum. Mr. Bean first entered the Kew 
service from the gardens of Belvoir Castle on April 2nd, 1883. He 
was not long before rising to the rank of sub-foreman, and on the 
retirement of Mr. Binder in 1888, Mr. Bean became foreman of the 
temperate house. Mr. Thomas Jones fills the post of foreman of the 
temperate house vacated by Mr. Bean. Mr. Jones came to Kew as 
gardener on January 2nd, 1888, from the nurseries of Messrs. James 
Dickson & Sons, of Chester. In July, 1889, he was promoted sub- 
foreman in the Palm house. 
- French Horticulture at the World’s Fair.— Our 
neighbours are going to do themselves great credit in horticulture at 
the Chicago World’s Fair next year, it would appear. A cablegram has 
been received from the French Commission asking that it be allowed to 
do, and bear the expense of, the “ whole decoration of the spaces 
surrounding the Horticultural and the Woman’s buildings.” This 
generous offer, doubtless, will be accepted if it does not interfere with 
plans too far advanced to be changed. The French are world-renowned 
as artistic landscape gardeners, and it is believed they would hardly 
have made the offer referred to unless they intend to make a display of 
surpassing beauty. The Commission asked also for GO,000 square feet 
for the French horticultural exhibit. British horticulturists must look 
to their laurels ; but there is little doubt that if a combined effort was 
made they would not be eclipsed. 
- 60,000 Gladioli. — M. Hooibrenk, the well-known Dutch 
florist, an old man of eighty-four years, who has for a long time been 
settled at Vienna, has organised a unique Exhibition at the village of 
Hietzing, near the Imperial Castle of Schonbrunn. Our (Daily News) 
Vienna correspondent sends us a description of this remarkable 
collection of GO,000 specimens of the Gladiolus. M. Hooibrenk had 
them cultivated and reared out of the simple original Gladiolus which 
was imported from the Cape by the Bohemian florist and traveller, 
Prince Salm. The flowers show a tropical richness and abundance of 
colours. No one specimen resembles the other, and the colours vary 
from the white of the Lily to the red of the Pomegranate, and between 
these extremes are to be seen many beautiful yellow, brown, and violet 
tints. The various colours are also combined on one specimen. While 
the original flower is but small, the skilful Dutch horticulturist has 
by forcing, produced a flower four times the size of the Lily. 
- Cross-fertilisation of Fruit.— At a meeting of the fruit¬ 
growers of Ontario two Apples were exhibited which were the result of 
careful cross-fertilisation by Mr. P. C. Dempsey, between the Golden 
Russet and the Northern Spy. The first of these was specially com¬ 
mended by the Fruit Committee for appearance, solidity, flavour, and 
keeping quality. It seems an almost perfect Apple for export, not too 
large, of a clear dark red colour, such as the foreign market demands, 
and its very solid flesh enables it to be packed firmly and carried well. 
The other is rather later, and does not reach its best quality till after 
the New Year. It is larger, and quite as well coloured and beautiful. 
Both of these Apples have very small cores. The fact that they are not 
chance seedlings, but have been produced by careful selection from 
parents of known qualities, is certainly an encouragement for those who 
are devoting themselves in a studious way to the production of new 
fruits by careful breeding .—(Garden and Forest.) 
- Potatoes at Earl’s Court.—T he space at your disposal 
doubtless prevented a very wide reference to the merits of the admir¬ 
able vegetables staged at the cottagers’ exhibition at Earl’s Court on 
Bank Holiday. I would trespass upon that space this week just so far 
as to draw attention to the excellence of the Potatoes, which were 
largely shown in several classes, not only because of the good variety 
found, but also because of the high quality of the best examples, quite 
reminding those with memories of the admirable exhibits formerly seen 
at the International Potato Exhibitions. In the class for four dishes 
white varieties had the pre-eminence ; the best four were Windsor 
Castle, one of Messrs. Sutton & Sons’ fine rounds, Sutton’s Seedling, 
Chancellor, and White Beauty of Hebron. In the second four weie 
Schoolmaster, Sutton’s 21, International, and Abundance, the latter, 
being unusually long in form, shown as a kidney. In the single dish 
classes the best four white kidneys in the order of merit were Interna¬ 
tional, Satisfaction, also long in form ; White Rose, and Midsummer 
Kidney. Of white rounds in the same order came Sutton’s Seedling,, 
the same second, Daniel’s Defiance, and London Hero. Of coloured 
kidneys Sutton’s Ruby, very handsome, though not large ; Beauty of 
Hebron, Mr. Bresee, and Prizetaker, whilst of coloured rounds the sorts- 
were Reading Russet, Pink Perfection, Reading Russet again, and 
General Gordon, a handsome purple striped variety. Here is a record 
of twenty distinct varieties, all of great excellence, and in no case big 
in sample, no less than eight of which were sent out from Reading by 
Messrs. SuttoD & Sons.—A. D. 
- What Japanese Gardeners Do. —“The art of the Japanese 
gardener,” writes Sir Edwin Arnold, “ had turned our little plot of a 
couple of acres into the appearance of a large and various pleasaunce, 
with miniature hills—from which you could see the towering snows of 
Fuji San—fish ponds, rockworks, trellised arbours, and clumps cf 
flowers and bushes, which gave us an unbroken succession of floral 
wealth. Scattered about the grounds were stone lamps called Ishi doro^ 
and grotesque demons, and quaint water cisterns in stone with Chinese 
inscriptions. Around these first came into bloom, defying snow and 
frost, the beautiful red and white and striped Camellias. When these 
had fallen the white and pink and rose-red plum flowers filled the eye 
with beauty. Afterward the Azaleas blazed, like burning bushes, all 
round the Lotus pond ; and these were followed by a delicious outburst 
of pale rose tinted Cherry blossoms, making an avenue of beauty and 
glory all the way from the Shinto temple at our gate to the front door, 
where were suspended the little, indispensable, but useless fire engine 
and the bronze gong on which visitors beat wiih a little wooden 
hammer to announce their arrival. The Wistaria and a second crop of 
Camellias, and then some red and yellow Roses, took up the running, 
and the Maple bushes came out resplendent with blood-red leaves - r 
after which there were purple Irises and Callas flowering by the fish 
pond, with orange and red Lilies brighter than the gold fish swimming 
in it, and the lawn became covered with a pretty little flower called 
the Neji-bana, the pink buds of which, growing diagonally and reaching 
round to get the sunlight, twisted the stem into the shape of a cork¬ 
screw. Thus, along with the sprays of the Firs and Loquats and 
ornamental shrubs, our gardener—whom we christened the ‘ Ace of 
Spades,’ out of 1 Alice through the Looking-glass,’ and who wore a 
blue coat with white dragons upon it—was never destitute of delightful 
material wherewith to exercise the high art of decorating our rooms 
after the great aesthetic Enshin fashion.” 
- Magnolia Watsoni and the English Botanists.—U nder 
this heading Mr. W. Falconer writes in the “ American Florist,” “Apropos 
of my note about this Magnolia, June 9th, page 1009, the venerable 
Samuel B. Parsons of the Kissena Nurseries, writes me :—‘ What is the 
matter with the English botanists ? Are they never willing to give 
Americans credit 1 Our Magnolia parviflora named in 1891 by Sir 
Jos. Hooker as Watsoni was introduced by us into this country through 
the enterprise of Thos. Hogg, and named by us in 1875. If the name 
is changed from that we gave it, it should be by us, and we should call 
it after Mr. Hogg. The English cannot plead ignorance, for we 
advertised and sold it ten years before it appeared in the Paris 
gardens, and it was well known here when they named it at Kew/ 
The Committee on nomenclature of the S. A. F. in their report last 
fall covered this case exactly. See Proceedings of Seventh Convention 
( 91), page 91. ‘ In the case of new species of plants, the first published 
botanical name takes precedence, but this publication must be technical 
and made in a recognised botanical or horticultural periodical or 
work, and not in a trade catalogue.’ Messrs. Parsons’ Magnolia wa 3 
named in their trade catalogue twelve years ago, and the name was 
kept up by them ever since in their catalogue, but as the plant was a 
species and not a garden variety, the botanists cared not a crack of 
their fingers for Messrs. Parsons’ name or catalogue, and named it just 
as they pleased, and their Dame will stand. This is pretty galling, but 
we cannot help it. We know the law, and if we will profit by it we 
must take timely advantage of it. When at Professor Sargent’s the 
other day I called his attention to this same Magnolia Wat-oni case, 
and he answered, * Well, I agree with you, I don’t see the justice of 
naming it Watsoni.’ The English botanists, or European botanists any¬ 
where, don’t give us any more ciedit than we deserve. Our only hope, 
therefore, is to fight our own battles and name our own plants, and that, 
too, before they cross the Atlantic, and publish these names properly, 
then the Europeans can rename them if they wish to our name being 
the original one wP Btand for ever in spito of theirs. 
