May 17, 1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
383 
Events of the Week. —The great horticultural event of the 
ensuing week will be the Exhibition held in the Inner Temple 
Gardens, under the auspices of the Koyal Horticultural Society, on 
the 23rd, 24th, and 25th inst. As mentioned in another paragraph the 
Show is to be opened at 12.30 P.M. on the 23rd by II.R.H. the Duke 
o£ York, and, as usual, a magnificent display is anticipated. 
- The Weather in London.—A change in the weather has 
occurred since publishing our last issue. Towards the end of the week 
it was dull, cold, and wet; but Sunday proved bright and warm. 
Monday also was fine, Tuesday being dull and sultry, rain falling in 
the evening ; Wednesday also opened mild and dull, and at the time of 
going to press it is raining. 
- Temple Flower Show. —For the seventh year the Royal 
Horticultural Society will hold its great annual Flower Show in the 
Inner Temple Gardens on May 23rd, 24th and 25th. H.R.H. the Duke 
of York will open the Show on Wednesday May 23rd at 12.30. The 
band of Her Majesty’s Royal Horse Guards (Blues), under the direction 
of Mr. Chas. Godfrey, R.A.Mus., will be in attendance each day. So far 
all the arrangements for the Show have been completed, the one thing 
now necessary being fine weather. Any intending exhibitors who have 
not yet sent in their names, should do so at once to the Secretary 
E.H.S., 117, Victoria Street, S.W., otherwise they cannot appear in the 
official catalogue. 
- Horticultural Club. — The usual monthly dinner and 
conversazione took place at the rooms of the Club on Tuesday evening 
in last week. The chair was occupied by Mr. John Lee, and there was 
a large attendance of members, amongst whom were the Rev. F. H. 
Gall, Messrs. C. E. Shea, H. J. Pearson, H. S. Leonard, G. Paul, C. E. 
Pearson, Francis T. Rivers, C. T. Druery, Edw. Cockett, Geo. Bunyard, 
J, Rivers, and H. J. Seebohm. The subject for discussion was the 
“ Arctic Flora,” which was opened with a deeply interesting paper by 
Mr. H. J. Seebohm ; an animated discussion took place afterwards, 
very opposite opinions being expressed as to the distribution of the 
plants forming the Arctic Flora ; and a vote of thanks was accorded 
to Mr. Seebohm for his valuable paper. 
- South African Grapes. —Many consignments of Grapes 
from the Cape have been imported since last December, the Union and 
Castle lines both having fitted their steamers with the requisite cool 
chambers. The Grapes are sold retail at Covent Garden at an average 
of Is. 6d. per pound for the white, and 2s. per pound for the black, 
when English hothouse Grapes are worth from 3s. to 4s. per pound. 
They are grown at two or three places near Cape Town, one farm, at 
Hex River, about sixty miles inland, consisting of 2000 acres of Vines. 
A further improvement in quality may be expected, and a rapid ex¬ 
tension of trade will doubtless be the result. 
- Lily of the Valley in Woods.— “J. R. S. C.” writes: 
“ Some notes appeared in the Journal of Horticulture recently concern¬ 
ing the occurrence of the Lily of the Valley seemingly wild in England. 
Several acres in Darenth Wood, near Greenhithe, are covered with it, 
the ground being rather below the level of the rest of the wood. 
Several times I have been over in the spring, hoping to procure flowers, but 
was each year too late, or at least I supposed so ; but I am now told by 
a person acquainted with the spot, that the plants very rarely bloom, 
some years not a flower will be found, average seasons only a few. Yet 
the distribution of the species over so large a space might be taken to 
indicate that it had at some period flowered freely.” 
- The Hybrid Gloxinia. —The very interesting plant shown 
at the Drill Hall on the 8th inst. by Messrs. Veitch & Sons of Chelsea, 
the product of a cross between a Gesnera and a Gloxinia, possibly 
led some who saw it to remark that it did but show the Gloxinia in 
its old form of producing pendent flowers. To some extent that was 
true, but there was a richness of colour in the flowers not hitherto 
seen in pendent Gloxinia blooms, with also a promise of still richer 
and deeper colouration such as makes Gesnera zebrina so attractive. 
But the best feature of the plant without doubt was found in its 
shorlece 1, rounded, anl very abundant leafage. In that inspect there 
is promise of improvement that cannot fail to be regarded with satis¬ 
faction. Gloxinias at present have rather gross leafage ; we could very 
well dispense with so much luxuriance, especially when it is needful to 
carry the plants to shows. Presently no doubt erect flowers will come, 
and then we shall have a strain of Gloxinias that will be nearly 
perfect.—A, 
- Importation of Potatoes and Onions — We learn from 
the official returns that during the past month only 37,055 bushels of 
Potatoes were imported, against 211,022 bushels in April, 1893. The 
importations of Onions amounted to 529,410 bushels of the value of 
£82,569, against 291,828 bushels of the value of £70,099 last year. It 
is stated that in the four months ending with April, we paid £205,074 
for Onions imported from foreign countries. 
- Imported Fruit. —According to the Board of Trade returns 
the importations of Apples received during April were 104,819 bushels, 
of the value of £36,623. The imports of Plums amounted to 100 bushels, 
of the value of £200 ; of Pears, 1716 bushels of the value of £489 ; of 
Grapes, 933 bushels of the value of £1010. There has been a decline of 
unenumerated fruits, the amount imported in April, 1894, 34,559 
bushels, against 31,315 bushels during the corresponding month of last 
year. 
- Plum Growing in America. —Californian fruit growers state 
that the trees in a ten acre Plum orchard, and only four years old, near 
Visalia, have near the ground an average of 16 inches in circumference 
and an average height of 20 feet. Certainly, sajs an American 
contemporary, this cannot be excelled, if even reached by some of the 
most successful Plum growers in England. The same paper, remarks 
Professor Munson of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, says 
that Plum growing, once abandoned in the Penobscot valley, is again 
being profitably undertaken in some portions of the State. 
- The Planting of City Spaces.— In the current number of 
“ The New Review,” the relative value of trees for the purposes of City 
cultivation is treated of by Sir Herbert Maxwell. London, of course, is 
taken as the ensampler. In it he asserts no trees have been found to 
bear the trying conditions of impure atmosphere and rubbishy soil 
better than the Mock Acacia (Robinia pseud-acacia) and the Maple¬ 
leaved Plane (Platanus acerifolia). Next to these come the Ailantus 
glandulosa, the Lombardy Poplar, and the Maidenhair Tree (Salisburia 
adiantifolia). He remarks that coniferous evergreens have absolutely 
failed to stand the test, as have also Hollies. Other trees, such as the 
Lime, the Elm, and the Ash, have grown, but the results in respect of 
their foliage do not justify their further introduction. Of smaller 
plants. Sir Herbert Maxwell advocates the diffusion of the Virginian 
Creeper, the Fig, and the Euonymus radicans (plain-leaved variety), 
while he deprecates the multiplication of the Aucuba and the Rhodo¬ 
dendron. We recommend the perusal of this article to our readers. 
- The Origin gf Cultivation. — In the “ Fortnightly 
Review” for the present month, Mr. Grant Allen, in his peculiarly 
clear and tasteful style, prefers a theory regarding the origin of cultiva¬ 
tion. He dilates upon the enormous mental obstacles primitive man 
must have had to overcome before he could grasp the connection between 
the seeds of plants and the vegetation arising from their germination 
beneath the soil. In us, he says, long familiarity with the operations oc 
husbandry has begotten a contempt of any such diSiculty ; but reflection 
will show us that for a creature, half animal, living precariously on 
roots, berries, grubs and shell-fish, to succeed in connecting the two 
ideas is little short of miraculous. Indeed, so wonderful is it that the 
only explanation Mr. Allen can give is that it was an accidental out¬ 
come of the savage custom of funereal rites. In burying the body of a 
chief with him were also entombed fruits and cereals to feed him in 
the hereafter and slaves to wait upon him. Such sacrificial obsequies 
still survive among the African peoples to the scandalising of European 
explorers. It would gradually be observed that fertility resulted from these 
holocausts, and the sacrifice of human life would therefore come to be 
regarded as an indispensable concomitant of agricultural operations. Mr. 
Allen also cites numerous instances which seem to him to be survivals of 
this practice of consecrating husbandry by means of human or (later on) 
by animal blood. Among many peoples, especially the Khonds of Orissa 
in India, it was the custom to rear victims predestined for this purpose, 
who were treated with extraordinary kin Jness, in the belief that their 
spirits would, after sacrifice, operate propitiously on the crops. Mr. Allen 
makes out a very plausible case, which is worth studying, and will 
give food for reflection to those who take an interest in archseology. 
