140 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
February 14, 1895. 
which the plants that are cultivated for the production of cut blooms 
are made secure, should be prepared, so that when the time comes for 
their use no trouble will be experienced or delay occur. Pots of all 
sizes requisite for the various phases of culture ought to be clean if 
already in stock, and all other minor details facilitated, and then will 
be the advantage proved of “looking ahead.”—B. Molyneux. 
MR. CHARLES E. SHEA. 
From time to time portraits of men of mark in the horticultural 
world, and of those who have achieved success in some particular 
department, have appeared in our columns. We have now pleasure in 
giving an excellent 
photographic repre¬ 
sentation of the gen¬ 
tleman under notice, 
whose name is so 
familiar to readers of 
garden literature. 
Mr. Shea may be fairly 
described as both a 
scientific and prac¬ 
tical horticulturist. 
His article on the 
fertilisation of Chrys¬ 
anthemums (page 121, 
last week), shows that 
in raising new varie¬ 
ties of these flowers 
he does not resort to 
easy, haphazard or 
empirical methods, but 
follows strictly scien¬ 
tific lines as suggested 
by botanical know¬ 
ledge, and to this may 
be attributed his 
quiekly won success, 
but we only regard 
this as a beginning of 
greater triumphs to 
follow. He has good 
reason to persevere in 
the work in which he 
has proved himself an 
adept, and we shall 
be both surprised and 
disappointed if he does 
not share largely in 
placing England on a 
level with France or 
any other nation in 
the raising of new 
and meritorious Chrys¬ 
anthemums. 
Mr. Shea, as is well 
known, was a success¬ 
ful exhibitor of Chrys- 
anthemums during 
some four or five 
years, and though he 
limited his culture to 
350 plants, met the best growers in open classes and won many prizes 
at the shows of the N.C.S. at the Crystal Palace and the Kent County 
exhibitions, and it will be remembered that in 1891 he succeeded in 
securing first prizes in the forty-eight Japanese classes at the National 
and “eighteen Japs” at the Palace. After this Mr. Shea appears to have 
become tired of the monotony of exhibiting, and turned his attention 
to the raising of new forms, guided into being by his own judgment 
in the selection of varieties for manipulation in the production of 
ideals that he has in view, and of which he seeks the realisation. He 
has thus entered the domain of infinite variety and practical'y 
inexhaustible. 
We believe that of his first batch of seedlings he saved thirty-six 
(from the foliage mainly) and threw the rest away. The best of these 
thirty-six were Miss Dorothea Shea and Silver King. Next year he kept 
thirty-six more, and sent out Miss Maggie Blenkiron and Miss Sylvia 
Shea, the latter rather a weak variety and difficult, it seems, to grow. 
The late audit shows the position of the-:e. Of the 1891 seedlings the 
] best so far is Mrs. C. E. Shea. Miss Rita Schroeter obtained a F.C.C. 
from the F.C. of the N.C.S., and Miss Dulcie Schroeter an award of 
merit at the Drill Hall last November. Miss Elsie Teichmann and Miss 
Bronna Foster are also 1891 seedlings, but have not yet been submitted 
to the Committee, and there are still more yet unproved. Mr. Shea, it 
is hoped, will continue in this work, though he does not pretend to give 
it his whole thought, 
devoting attention 
also to Roses, herba¬ 
ceous plants and fruit 
culture ; but will he 
be satisfied with culti¬ 
vating, even in these 
departments? We sus¬ 
pect not ; but sooner 
or later he will be 
tempted to see what 
can be accomplished 
by the art of pollina¬ 
tion, which has already 
given him such en¬ 
couraging results. 
Then he has other 
calls on his time, and 
is always ready to help 
where he can possibly 
do so. His ability as a 
chairman was fully 
recognised at the re¬ 
cent annual meeting 
of the National Rose 
Society, and he was ad¬ 
mittedly of assistance 
there. He is chair¬ 
man of, to coin a term, 
the court of judges 
now trying to reduce 
order out of chaos. 
His legal training 
(though he has retired 
from practice) fits him 
admirably for sifting 
the wheat from the 
chaff, and he is helpful 
there. Mr. Shea also 
occupies a seat at the 
Council table of the 
Royal Horticultural 
Society, and he must 
be admirably qualified 
for such a distin¬ 
guished position. For 
these reasons we are 
glad to have the 
opportunity of adorn¬ 
ing our pages with the 
portrait of a gentleman who works so willingly and well in the advance¬ 
ment of horticulture. 
IMPRESSIONS OF EATON. 
Eaton Hall, the magnificent home of the Duke of Westminster, is 
so well known in the gardening world that it is scarcely necessary to 
explain its whereabouts. After a long railway journey in the early 
morning I arrived at the quaint old city of Chester. Gladly would I 
have lingered for a few hours and examined more closely its old- 
fashioned houses with their timber-studded gables of the Elizabethan 
period, or wandered round the crumbling remnants of the old city wall. 
Stern duty, however, forbade this, and a rapid drive through pleasant 
FiGt, 24.—MR. C. E. SHEA. 
