4S0 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 15, 1838 
as having few equals and less superiors. Take for another instance 
Prince of Wales, which I regard as quite an inferior variety, as it lacks 
the most important points in an incurved bloom—depth and solidity. 
Seldom indeed is this variety seen with a full centre ; generally the 
petals are thin and loose, the bloom altogether flat. Still the Prince 
stands before his royal consort in position in the voted list. The only 
reason I can assign for the adverse position of this favourite, and one 
which it does not deserve, is that generally it is not well cultivated 
owing to no fault of its own. For this reason it gets the character of 
not being one of the best, whereas under the best treatment it has been 
able to hold its own against all comers. Only once has it been my lot 
to see six blooms of any other sort capable of surpassing the Princess. 
The superior stand in this case was Lord Alcester. One fault which 
Princess of Wales possesses is that of being shy in producing cuttings 
early. In this manner valuable time is lost in the growth cf the plants, 
which can never be made up by any kind of treatment. The variety 
is then often neglected by the ordinary cultivator. I fancy a leading 
exhibitor would think he was but badly oS if a bloom of Princess of 
Wales was not forthcoming for a stand of blooms in an important class, 
certainly would it be regarded by such exhibitors and the judges as 
possessing more merit than either Mr. Bunn or Baron Beust for instance. 
Growers of Incurved Chrysanthemums know well the value of such 
sorts as Princess of Wales in close competition. 
Taking into consideration also the list of forty-eight Japanese varie¬ 
ties which are classed into thirteen divisions, which are bracketed to¬ 
gether according to the number of votes obtained, Madame C. Audiguier 
in my opinion is entitled to rank quite at the head of the list ; certainly 
it is more meritorious than M. Tarin, Balmoreau, Comte de Germiny, or 
even Baronne de Prailly. As far as I know this variety has only 
one fault,that of extremely tall growth, making it unpopular with 
those who have not the necessary convenience of accommodation.— 
E Molyneux. 
WHAT CAUSES “ DAMPING-OFF ” IN CHRYSANTHEMUM 
BLOOMS ? 
This is a question of considerable importance among the exhibition 
growers in several parts of Ireland, as pointed out by Thomas Phelan, 
Esq., of Spring Gardens, recently. I have seen many of the collections 
—I am now referring to those grown for large exhibition blooms —and 
none are safe. I may at once say those grown for decoration or for 
trial—including the newer introductions, such as Avalanche, White 
Ceres, James Carter, Mrs. Beale, Ralph Brocklebank, Alice Bird, Elsie, 
Lady Lawrence, Mrs. H. Cannell, Edouard Audiguier, Mrs. J. Wright, 
and Amy Furze—are, with me, quite free from damp ; while 300, the 
majority being Japanese, against a partially protected south wall, are 
equally so. Those grown for large exhibition blooms are then alone to 
be considered ; so this narrows the subject. 
Mr. Phelan is among the best amateur exhibition growers in Ireland, 
and in last issue he attributes this general damping-off in this locality 
to the effect of the cool wet summer and consequent insufficient ripening 
of the foliage and wood, and that they are now surcharged with sap. 
This is probably right as far as it goes, but from careful examination 
and thinking the matter over I think constant feeding with stimulants 
under those circumstances is the real cause. For maturation purposes 
the amount of sunshine last summer has been estimated at 30 per cent, 
less than in the previous year. As this is the great agent for the 
elaboration of the sap and the process of ripening, the deficiency was a 
third less. It is this, too, that has thrown back the time of blooming 
from ten days to a fortnight. Feeding plants with stimulants then, 
when they must have had a difficulty in assimilating what was already 
fit for absorption, partly from the constant rains, was, and must have 
been at times, a work of supererogation. I respectfully submit then— 
but will duly defer to the opinions of Messrs. J. Wright, Lewis Castle, 
or E. Molyneux for instance—that if we are to have another compara¬ 
tively sunless and moist summer the use of stimulants, if any, must be 
greatly curtailed and only given where the pots are comparatively 
small and as the ripening and building up of the tissues proceed. One 
word as to small pots. I was kindly shown through the Duke of 
Buccleucli’s collection of some 2000 Chrysanthemums at Dalkeith 
Palace Gardens last September by Mr. Malcolm Dunn and his intelligent 
foreman, Mr. Brough. The plants were in pots ranging from 5^ to 8 inches, 
none larger, but regularly fed with a variety of stimulating liquids as 
they jequired it. Finer and healthier plants I never saw, with in every 
instance foliage to the rims of the pots. A party of Yorkshire 
gardeners were admiring them the day before. This set me thinking 
as to tbe necessity of 10 or 12-inch pots when stimulants are regularly 
administered ; but the matter only indirectly bears on the above query. 
—W. J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS AT FROYLE PARK, ALTON, HANTS. 
At the gardens of T. Oliverson, Esq., under the superintendence of 
Mr. H. Coster, Chrysanthemums have for several years constituted an 
important specialty, and Mr. Coster has this season excelled all his 
former efforts to produce good plants and b'ooms. And Mr. Coster 
attributes much of his success to his employer allowing him the necessary 
facilities required to produce such grand plants and blooms. There are 
600 plants grown for large blooms, chiefly from crown buds, and the 
majority of the blooms are fit for exhibition. At the present time 
there is a grand display in the conservatory ; about 500 plants are 
arranged in one group, all the pots standing on the level ranging from 
3 to 10 feet in height. Enumerated are all the recent, new, and approved 
older varieties, and I must admit never before has it been my privilege 
to inspect such a magnificent display in a private establishment. 
Japanese, incurves, and reflexed are well represented both in colour and 
varieties. They are remarkable for their purity, cleanness, and solidity. 
Noticeable among the Japanese are Stanstead White, M. Freeman, 
Sarah Owen, Florence Percy, _ Avalanche, Soleil Levant, Marguerite 
Marrouch, M. J. Laing, Moonlight, Madame C. Audiguier, Grandiflorum, 
J. Delaux, M. Diilaux, and Criterion. These are all of great size. 
Edwin Molyneux and Ralph Brocklebank are just unfolding some very 
large buds, the former variety looking very promising. 
The best of the incurved were Jeanne d’Arc (grand bloom), Lord 
Wolseley, Lord Alcester, Queen of England, Bronze Queen of England, 
Empress of India, Golden Empress of India, Prince Alfred, and many 
others too numerous to mention. The most noticeable among the 
reflexed was Cullingfordi, Cloth of Gold, King of the Crimsons, Christine, 
and Golden Christine. Another conspicuous feature at Froyle Park is 
a large quantity of Poinsettia pulcherrima with its brilliant colouring: 
of scarlet bracts of large dimension.— Visitor. 
FLORA OF THE KERMADEC ISLANDS. 
Upwards of thirty years ago Sir Joseph Hooker published an 
account of the botany of Raoul or Sunday Island, one of the Kermadec? 
Group (Journal of the Linmean Society, i., pp. 125-29), founded upon- 
a small collection made by McGillivray and Milne, naturalists attached 
to II.M.S. !i Herald.” This collection consisted of forty-two species, of 
which twenty were flowering plants, and the rest Ferns and Lycopods ; 
and the most interesting circumstance connected with it was “ the 
identity of most of the flowering plants, and all but one of the Ferns, 
with those of Nevv Zealand.” 
In 1815, Mr. J. T. Arundel presented to the Kew Herbarium a collec¬ 
tion of fourteen species from Meyer, a small rocky islet about a mile 
and a half north of Sunday Island. Poor as it was, it contained half a 
dozen plants not previously known from the group, though they are all 
included in the collection referred to below. 
Since then, no further light has been thrown on this insular flora 
until the quite recent appearance (Transactions of the New Zealand 
Institute, xx., pp. 151-81) of a paper by Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, Curator of 
the Auckland Museum, New Zealand, a copy of which was kindly 
forwarded to the writer. Mr. Cheeseman was permitted, through the 
kind offices of Mr. Percy Smith, the Assistant Surveyor-General of New 
Zealand, to accompany the expedition despatched last year for the pur¬ 
pose of formally annexing the group to the colony of New Zealand. If 
Mr. Cheeseman has not succeeded in exhausting the botany of the 
Kermadec Islands, which, of course, is hardly probable, the undiscovered 
species cannot materially affect the question of the origin of the vegeta¬ 
tion. But before giving the results of his investigations it will be 
useful to indicate the position and extent of the islands. 
A shoit note was recently given on the subject, but the following 
further particulars are interesting. 
The information obtained points unmistakeably to New Zealand as 
the source of the greater part of the flora of the Kermadec Islands. 
How the plants reached these islands is an interesting question. Mr. 
Cheeseman is prepared to admit a former north-western extension of 
New Zealand ; but, after a careful examination of the evidence, he 
arrives at the conclusion that the Kermadec Islands have always been 
isolated, or, at least, have not formed part of any other land since the 
Secondary period. Spores of the Ferns may have been conveyed by 
winds ; and ocean currents and birds it may well be conceived have 
operated in stocking the islands with flowering plants. Most of the 
birds are New Zealand species, and the presence of Kauri logs, of 
different dates and brands, stranded on various parts of the beach, is 
convincing evidence of the direction of ocean currents. Moreover, the 
composition of the flora strongly supports this theory. 
Sunday Island is the only one of the group on which there is any¬ 
thing approaching arboreous vegetation, and this, with the exception of 
a small area of the crater, is clothed with forest from the seashore to 
the tops of the highest peaks. The prevailing tree is Metrosideros 
polymorpha, one of the most characteristic trees of Polynesia, especially 
of the smaller islands, reaching the Sandwich, Marquesas, and Pitcairn 
Islands ; but this particular species does not occur in New Zealand nor 
in Australia. 
Next to t he Metrosideros in abundance and conspicuousness is a Palm, 
which Mr. Cheeseman thinks may be identical with the Norfolk Island 
Rhopaiostylis Baueri (Areca Baueri). In some places this grows gre¬ 
gariously, forming large groves. 
Ferns are everywhere abundant, varied, and luxuriant; and the- 
endemic Tree Fern, Cyathea Milnei, is very plentiful, and handsome 
withal, rising to a height of 50 or 60 feet. Prominent among the New 
Zealand trees are Corynocarpus lrevigatus, Mvoporum Return, Melicope 
ternata, Melicytus ramiflorus, and Panax arboreum. Cordyline ter- 
minale, the widely-spread Polynesian “ Ti,” and Pisonia Brunoniana, 
Pittosporum crassifolium, Coprosma acutifolia, and C. petiolata, natives 
of New Zealand, are other elements deserving of notice. 
The herbaceous vegetation includes no plants with conspicuous 
flowers, but there are two Orchids—namely, Aciantbus Sinclairii, a 
native of New Zealand, and Microtis porrifolia, which also inhabits both 
New Zealand and Australia. Macaulay Island was entirely covered with 
a beautiful sward of natural grass, supposed to be composed of a species 
of Poa and an Agrostis, but in the absence of flowers they were in* 
