366 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 25, 1895. 
their eyes closed to the emporium. Some flowers do close their petals 
when the sun departs, just as some servants forget to open their eyes to 
duty. This is a very important point. No doubt market work is 
extremely trying to some constitutions in the very busy season. Some 
cultivators, after being hard at work from early morning, have to set off 
a long journey to market, where they may reach late in the evening. 
Then the plants have to be unloaded on to what may be called double¬ 
decked trolleys, and the market porters wheel them away to the parti¬ 
cular stand which is numbered and rented from year to year. Then 
when the grower has staged all his plants, his horse cannot stand in 
street all night, so is taken to some place of bait, while the cultivators 
snatch an hour or two’s rest at some hostelry, and by four o’clock the 
following morning they must be at their stand in the market ready 
for the buyers—the best buyers. If by chance the grower or his deputy 
sleeps on, and does not arrive at the market as soon as it opens for sale, 
he has a great chance of missing the market, which is tantamount to 
missing the best prize. Beware of that circumstance, for it is not to the 
purpose of growing plants to perfection if they cannot be sold to the 
best advantage. 
It is also well for the grower or his salesman to take a cursory 
glance round the market for the purpose of comparing notes. In 
March, when a great quantity of Genistas make their appearance in the 
market, unless they be first-class stuff it is no use asking too high a price 
and sticking to it. Take chances as they come, and endeavour to allow 
no would-be buyer to go away unsatisfied. In the busy market season 
the plant salesman has enough to do to watch all points; they have 
little or no trouble with the best buyers, but experience a deal of what 
is extremely trying to a similar temperament from the lowest class of 
buyers, chiefly composed of costers, who have a knack of hanging about, 
and often drive away good buyers, and if it were not for the important 
circumstance that they buy largely and chiefly what the best do not 
want, their presence in the market would be an intolerable nuisance. 
The Maeket. 
Covent Garden Market for the sale of plants and cut flowers from 
time to time has been enlarged to meet the requirements of the trade, 
and the present season has seen a new market opened purposely for the 
convenience of the continental cut flower trade which has now become 
so extensive, contrasting wonderfully with the narrow limits which a 
few years ago it possessed, when one solitary continental representative 
brought into market his consignment of cut flowers in a few boxes 
strapped to his shoulders. 
It is predicted that there awaits a bright future for British art in the 
twentieth century. Vouchsafed commercial prosperity there need be 
no fear of the decay ot British art, nor yet of that which ministers to 
all artistic efforts, the charm of beauty combined with utility, the 
resources of Flora. 
When we think of flowers, and the part they play in sustaining 
animated nature, and the pleasure they give to the sick as well as the 
healthy, there need be no wonder at the vast stride which Flora’s 
universal guests have taken of late years to win popular favour ; and 
that they found favour in the late Duke of Bedford’s eye, that does 
not prove that he had an eye for beauty, or else His Grace would 
never have sanctioned the erection of such a structure for the sale of 
continental cut flowers. Let us hope the iron edifice may be only 
temporary, until such time as a further extension of the present Flower 
Market may be taken in hand, and so have room under the one roof for 
foreign as well as home produce in the way of plants and cut flowers. 
Covent Garden Flower Market opens every Monday, Wednesday, and 
Friday evening at eight o’clock for the convenience of growers and 
others who may choose to bring their produce overnight, so as to be 
ready for market the following morning, when sale begins by five 
o’clock. But in the busy season, from the beginning of April to 
the end of June, the Market is open every week day evening, and 
opens an hour earlier the following morning, and always closes by 
9 A.M, Unsold produce may be left without any extra charge beyond 
the usual Market fee. The Market is open every week day morning 
for the sale of cut flowers, independent of the busy season. 
The market porters are most obliging, and carefully help the growers 
to stage their plants, and in the busy season the task is far from an easy 
one. Some hundreds of thousands of plants, in what is technically 
known as 48’s, have to be wheeled in and staged every evening, besides 
innumerable boxes of seedlings and cuttings of the finer sorts of bedding 
plants, as well as the commoner varieties of plants, such as Daisies, 
Pansies, Creeping Jenny, Wallflowers, Sweetwilliams, Gardener’s 
Garters, Old Man, &c., «fcc., too numerous to mention. Covent Garden 
Flower Market is a rare sight indeed when all the foregoing plants are 
present smiling beneath long banks of Boses, Marguerites, Lilies, 
Geraniums of every hue, with any quantity of Ferns and Palms, dwarf 
and tall. May is the month to see the wealth of flowers, though a visit 
to Covent Garden Flower Market at any season of the year, a lover of 
flowers will be rewarded by excellence of culture and always a good 
variety of subjects.—A. M. 
(To be continued.) 
EOUND ABOUT SEVENOAKS. 
A DAY in the country ; what attraction it has for the jaded Londoner 1 
At the prospect of it a thrill of pleasure runs through his frame similar 
to that of a weather-beaten sailor at the first sight of his native land. 
Only to be away from the din and bustle of the City and free to roam 
through green fields and shaded woodlands is all that many weary 
workers desire. 
It was with such thoughts as the above that a City scribe wended 
his way (in spite of the cold east wind) to one of the great railway 
centres on Bank Holiday with the intention of enjoying a quiet day 
away from London smoke. Dwellers in the country do not realise what 
Bank Holiday means to the Londoner, and to see the force of it no 
better place could be chosen than any of the. large railway stations on 
such a morning. 
The eager boisterous crowds jostled pellmell into the carriages, those 
who could find room sitting and others standing, but all anxious to get 
away, the stylishly attired City clerk side by side with the coster in the 
orthodox get-up peculiar to his calling. Bustling railway oflficials, tired 
of answering the same repeated questions, are likewise anxious that the 
crowd s’nould be gone. 
Amid lively jokes and peals of laughter, this was at last effected, and 
in course of time Sevenoaks was reached, on which, with a true horti¬ 
culturist’s nature, thoughts at once turned towards a garden. 
To satisfy the ruling passion of most gardeners—viz., visiting gardens 
and talking over the cultivation of such, Chevening Park, the 
ancestral home of the Earl of Stanhope was decided on. The mansiois 
is beautifully situated in a vast tract of land from which it takes its 
name, and surrounded by magnificent specimens of forest timber, with 
undulating woodland glades forming a charming background to the 
landscape, and giving the whole a calm and sequestered appearance. 
Frost has here, like everywhere else, played havoc amongst Conifer, 
ornamental shrubs and Rotes, Laurels and Evergreen Oaks having 
suffered terribly. In the glass department a high standard of cultiva¬ 
tion is everywhere maintained. In the early vinery good bunches of 
Black Hamburgh, Madresfield Court, and Foster’s Seedling were noticed 
in an early stage of swelling, while a succession house devoted tO' 
Muscats showed prospects of a fine crop, the bunches being large and 
to all appearance setting satisfactorily. 
Summer bedding is extensively practised, for which purpose large 
numbers of Pelargoniums, Begonias, Lobelias, and such-like are annually 
propagated. Melons, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Figs, and Strawberries in 
pots are grown to some extent, and all in good condition, together with 
decorative flower and foliage plants. Neatness and order prevail in 
the pleasure grounds and kitchen garden, the latter being large and 
surrounded by a high wall, against which have been planted young fruit 
trees, such as Peaches, Nectarines, Plums, Pears, and Cherries, since 
Mr. Chas. Sutton took charge of the gardens six years ago, in place 
of worn-out specimens which formerly grew there. 
A pleasant feature in the grounds are clumps of Daffodils of the 
common and more choice varieties, dotted about and flowering profusely 
on the turf banks, a system of planting which might with advantage be 
adopted and practised in many gardens. A curious freak of Nature was 
noticed in the shape of a large clump of giant Horse Chestnut trees, all 
of which had arisen from one parent by means of the lower branches 
coming into contact with the earth and naturally layering themselves, 
rooting and forming a separate tree, which process is still going on, and 
proving that in time a whole forest might be so formed. 
Amid such surroundings a pleasant day passed too quickly away, and 
as evening advanced steps were again directed towards the station to 
once more encounter the same crowd, but with what a different aspect f 
The boisterous laughter of the morning is superseded by tired and weary 
expressions as the city dwellers journeyed homeward laden with Prim¬ 
roses and other wild flowers to brighten their dwellings, and to be kept 
as long as possible as a memento of Bank Holiday in the country.— 
Wandeeer. 
ROYAL BOTANIC SOCIETY. 
April 24th. 
The second spring show in connection with the above Society wao 
held at Regent’s Park on Wednesday. Though the classes in many 
instances were not well filled, a bright and varied display of bloom was 
given, many of the exhibits being of high order. The miscellaneous 
groups, as usual, were large and good, and formed a bright and pleasing 
feature. We append a list of the prizewinners in the principal 
classes. 
Messrs. Paul & Son, Cheshunt, was a good first for collection of 
Roses in pots, the plants being large and well clothed with bloom. 
Amongst other varieties were Celine Forestier, Caroline d’Arden, Mrs. 
John Laing, Beauty of Waltham, Madame de St. Joseph, Jeannie 
Dickson, Madame Victor Verdier, Gustave Piganeau, Paul’s Carmine 
Pillar, and Souvenir de S. A. Prince. Mr, W. Ramsey, Waltham Cross, 
was second with plants not so large as the former, conspicuous amongst 
them being Chas. Lefebvre, Beauty of Waltham, Magna Charta, and 
Niphetos. 
Mr. T. S. Ware, Tottenham, gained first prize for a collection of 
hardy herbaceous plants, several of which were very striking. Amongst 
others were noticed Arabia albida. Pink Mrs. Sinkins, Adonis vernalis, 
Saxifraga Wallichi, Dielytra spectabilis alba. Anemone fulgens. 
Spiraea japonica multiflora compacta, and Orchis fusca. 
Mr. T. S. Ware was also first for group of Begonias, The plants 
were sturdy and well grown, the blooms being varied in colour, 
compact, and of good substance, the chief varieties being Brilliant, 
Novelty, Perfection, Duke of Teck, Picotee, Murillo, Miss Dora 
Richardson, Regina, Bexley White, Mrs, F. Fell, Champion, Snowdrift, 
Princess May, and Arthur Pitts. 
