October 20, V87. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
337 
claims that he has been able to dispos • of, or at any rate to throw new 
light on, certain disputed points, both botanical and historical, in con¬ 
nection with this g mis. The book will be accompanied by an atlas in 
foolscap size, consisting of 259 plates of outline drawings of all the 
varieties of Citrus to be found in India and Ceylon.—( Nature ). 
- The October number of the “Botanical Magazine” contains 
an illustration of Anemone Fanninii, a South African plant dis¬ 
covered in 1863 at Dargle Farm, Natal, by Mr. G. Fannin, and since 
then specimens have been sent to Kew from other localities at elevations 
of 2 to 4000 feet. It is said to grow in some places to the height of 
5 feet, with leaves 2 feet in diameter, the white fragrant flowers being 
3 or 4 inches across. It has flowered at Kew in a cool pit, but has been 
found quite hardy. 
- An illustration of Statice Suworowi is also given, and well 
pourtrays the character of this annual, which has obtained some favour 
in ^ ardens recently. It was discovered by Dr. Albert Regel in Western 
Turkestan, and seeds have been distributed by Messrs. Haage it Schmidt, 
of Erfurt. Plants have flowered at Kew on the rockery and in a cool 
house, and it has been observed that some plants have remained in 
flower for two months. The long branching dense cylindrical spikes of 
bright rose-coloured flowers have a very distinct appearance. 
-A peculiarly distinct Iris is represented in plate 6960 of the 
same issue-namely, Iris Sari, var. lurida. This is a relative of 
I. Susiana, and was flowered by Mr. R. I. Lynch in the Cambridge 
Botanic Garden last May. The standards are broad and curiously 
veined and mottled with purple, the falls being similarly broad, mottled 
with a brownish tint on a light ground. 
- Gishurstine.—W e are reminded of the approach of winter 
by the reception of samples of this valuable dubbin' for boots. Ex¬ 
perience confirms its worth, and it may be used with service and 
comfort by persons whose engagements take them among wet grass and 
manure. 
- Mr. R. Owen, Maidenhead, writes : “ I enclose you a bloom ol 
Marguerite Cloth of Gold cut from a plant in a small 60-sized 
pot. The plant being in bloom some months, I could send you a quantity 
of such blooms from the same size pots. It is really a grand yellow 
Marguerite for winter blooming ; in fact, it is a perpetual bloomer, as I 
have never been without flowers since I raised it.” The bloom sent is a 
beautiful one, and we remember seeing some of Mr. Owen’s plants late 
in the season flowering most freely. 
- Mildew on Roses. —“Nothing is mere disheartening to 
amateurs,” says “ Olton,” “ than this terrible pest, and in the district in 
which I live in the midlands it is not only in my garden, but in many 
others where I notice it in a strongly developed stage. I think a large 
number of us amateurs who grow only a few and have not the experi¬ 
ence of larger growers, would be very thankful if some of your readers 
could give us advice as to pruning Roses now, which are so much affected 
by mildew, and their treatment afterwards. Is dryness at the root a 
cause ? for we have experienced a very hot, long dry season here, and dry 
through September and October.” 
- A writer in the Ind'an Forester gives the following account 
of “ a Real Weeping Tree —“On my way to and from the Mus- 
soorie Library I have noticed for some days a small pool of water in the 
middle of the road just above ‘ Auchnagie.’ It struck me as something 
singular ; and to-day when passing I notic d several drops of water fall 
inte it; on looking up I saw it was the sap fiom a branch high up on a 
tree that was falling into it; the drops were large and were falling at 
the rate cf one a second. 1 aft rwards noticed several other trees of the 
same kind on the roadside dropping sap from their branches in the same 
way. The tr e is a large one, called by the natives Kagashi (Cornus 
macrophylla ?). In the spring, if the bark of this tree is wounded by 
an axe, the sap runs out of the wound in a great stream ; some of it 
solidifies into a thick mucilage of a bright orange colour ; it was from a 
broken branch that th • sap was coming, broken most 1 ik- ly by the 
heavy fall of snow we had at the end of January. These trees are just 
bursting into leaf, but they have been weeping for the last t- n days at 
least.” 
VIOLAF. 
I will leave to those learned in botany the task which Mr, Jenkins 
asks me to solve, if they can, for all Tansies, Violas, and Violets are 
botanically Violas, the two former of the Viola tricolor section. What 
I think we shall have to do is to make sections of families of our Pansies 
and Violas in future catalogues. Thus, Show Tansies, the old race of 
Pansies so dear to our oldest Pansy growers still, before the fancy Pansy 
became popular, which should consist of white grounds, having a 
regular belting of a shade of purple colour in the three lower petals, the 
two upper petals of a self colour, and a dark, dense, well-cut blotch in 
the centre. Yellow grounds, which should have a ground or body 
colour of a shade of yellow, with rich maroon or purple belting on the top 
petals, and a dense blotch ; and Selfs, either white, yellow, or dark purple, 
or shade of purple, in each case the flower possessing a dense dark 
blotch in the centre, such as I have indicated in the white and yellow 
ground flowers. I need scarcely add that florists have rigid rules as to 
form, substance, belting, blotch, and colour in this section of the Pansy 
class. 
Fancy Pansies would form another division, in which we cannot lay 
down the same strict rules as to colour, belting, &c.; but we look for 
form, substance, and smoothness, combined with bright telling colours, 
and for distinctness especially, for we now have such a long list of 
fancy varieties, quite three hundred, that distinctness combined with 
high class quality must be a sine qw i non in new varieties. 
All the varieties catalogued now as Violas need re-arran. ing into two 
sections, one of these to be bedding Pansies, such as Holyrood, Blue 
King, Cliveden Purple, Archie Giant, Adonis, Lord Darnley, Queen of 
Violets. Queen of Purples, and other varieties which wholly or to a great 
extent preserve the character of the Pansy in growth and flower. In 
the Viola section 1 think the generally distinctive character should be a 
close dens ■ sturdy habit with smaller blooms than the Pansy, good con¬ 
stitution, very floriferous, and very early and continuous bloomers, such 
as Ardwell Gem, Mrs. Gray, Elegans, lutea grandiflora, Golden Prince 
Improved, lilacina, Countess of Kintore, Duchess of Albany, Skylark, 
Bullion, Duchess of Sutherland. Queen of Spring, Golden Queen of 
Spring, Mrs. Smith, Queen of Lilacs, True Blue (the best of all blues), 
and many others. 
Then we come to a cross-bred race, partaking of the mixed characters 
of the Viola and Pansy, in which Mr. Jenkins gives Countess of Hope- 
town a place ; but as this grand variety has such a very close growing 
habit, is so early blooming, and continuous in flower, that I should give 
it a place amongst our Violas, but amongst these hybrids we must give 
a place to Archie Grant, Bronze Queen, Lady Diana, Paragon, Panta¬ 
loon, Unique, and such others of the same strain, also the large-flowering 
kinds which partake more of the Pansy character in growth and flower, 
and in this division Spotted Gem, Mrs. Baxter, York and Lancaster, and 
others would find a place. 
No hard-and-fast line can be drawn as to what are leally Violas and 
what are I’ansies, and I do not see that any effort to do so is necessary. 
What we all want is distinctness, good telling colours, a close sturdy 
habit, goo 1 constitution, and very free, early, and continuous bloomers. 
Form in the flower of the Viola is quite a secondary matter. What the 
public want must possess the qualifications I have indicated.— William 
Dean, Walsall . __ 
THE HORTICULTURAL CLUB. 
OCTOBER PEARS. 
The first monthly dinner of the Club for the present season took 
place on Tuesday evening, Oct. 11th; there was a good attendance of mem¬ 
bers. Mr. John Lee was in the chair. Amongst those present were Messrs. 
F. Rivers, Bald-rdon, Crowley, H. J. Pearson, A. H. Pearson, Strange,. 
Co isens, and Druery. In the evening Mr. Geo. Bunyard read a paper 
on “ October Pears,” which we here give, and an interesting discussion 
took place, in which most of those present joined. H. Balderson, Esq., 
of Comer Hall, brought ten bunches of beautifully finished Grapes which 
had all been grown in one house without any partitions. They included 
such kinds as Muscat of Alexandria, Black Hamburgh, Golden Queen, 
Mrs. Pince, Muscat, Trebbiano, Buekland Sw, e water. He detailed his 
method of culture, and it was considered by all present that it was very 
successful, and, while all the Grapes were jood, the bunch of Mrs. Pince 
was considered equal to any that had been shown this year as regards 
colour, size of bunch and berry, and complete finish. The thanks of the 
meeting were given to Mr. Bunyard and Mr. Balderson. Mr. C. T. Druery 
brought some of his very handsome and serviceable enamelled plant 
labels. A very pleasant and profitable ev s ning was spent. The follow¬ 
ing is Mr. Bunyard’s paper :— 
In bringing before you the above subject I should, at the outset, 
observe that I feel there is little to be added to the present sum of 
knowledge on the subject, by the few remarks I am about to make in 
the limited time allowed me for the purpose. Owing to the late spring 
and the protracted drought the Pears of September will, in some cases, 
be in season in October, but as this is abnormal I will confine myself to 
those usually in season in the present month. 
It has been observed by competent judges that all the good Pears 
may be counted on one’s fingers, which, in a degree, is true. Mr. Bar¬ 
ron’s Pear Conference report gives fifteen varieties only which had over 
fifty votes, as the selection of 100 exhibitors at the 1886 Chiswick 
Conference, atul Mr. Dunn gives fifteen as by the exhibitors at Edin¬ 
burgh having over twenty votes, of this number the cream (nine varie¬ 
ties) come in season in the southern counties during October—viz., 1. 
