Febrnary 2, 13J3. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENERu 
85 
annual subscription from each would do a world of good, but many 
societies have goodly sums of money in hand, and could well spare £5 
or £10 to those most deserving charities. Individual members also can 
do the orphan fund especially a great service by eollecting small sums 
and transmitting them to the Secretary, Mr. Hughes, the Secretary of 
the Birmingham Chrysanthemum Society and the Birmingham Gar¬ 
deners’ Association, has a collecting box in which donations from a penny* 
upwards are welcomed, and he has already remitted to the Secretary a 
good sum of money collected in this way. In these times of depression 
generally, and in gardening especially, the calls upon these two charities 
will grow rapidly, and it is therefore most desirable that increased funds 
should be possessed by the executive of these Societies, and I thinh that 
if a special appeal was made to each horticultural society in the kingdom, 
stating what each was doing, so that the matter may be brought before 
each Committee, that good results would follow.” 
- Mr. Eichard Gilbert is a very clever man, and almost merits 
a free advertisement for the following trite observation. He writes— 
“ My advertisement last week, and Mr. D. Thomson’s leader, will hand 
down the Journal of Jlorticxdture to posterity ?” How very fortunate 
for the Journal, and, shall we add, Mr. Gilbert ? 
- Mk. Obadiah King, Secretary of the Maidenhead Horti- 
CULTHRAL SOCIETY, informs us that the .annual Show is fixed for 
Thursday, August 16th, 1888. 
- A WELL-KNOWN north of England natur.alist, Mr. J. D. Sid- 
DALL, OF Chester, has recently been lecturing in Wakefield, and has 
given much .satisfaction to the numerous local gardeners and natur.alists 
who attended his fluent and interesting extempore discourses. Mr. Sid- 
dall has made a special study of the Foraminifera of the River Dee, 
and we remember a year or two since seeing a microscopical slide he had 
prepared containing 150 distinct species in the space of about a square 
inch. A lecture was also devoted to the Canadian Water Weed, the 
Anacharis, which was discussed very fully. He mentioned as an 
example of its rapid increase that 3000 tons were dragged out of a loch 
near Glasgow, which h,ad been cleared a year previously. Mr. Siddall 
stated that the chief reasons why the pLant increases so rapidly here 
while it advances but slowly in America, are that the currents of the 
rivers are much slower here than there, and also contain much more 
refuse or pullution. He thought it would gradually die aw.ay and dis¬ 
appear. 
- Gardening Appointment.— We are pleased to be able to 
announce that Mr. C. Orchard, late of Coombe Warren, Kingston-on- 
Thames, has been appointed bailiff of the estate of The Brading Harbour 
Company, St. Helens, Isle of Wight, llis address will be Bay View, 
Brading, Isle of Wight. 
TUB HOLLYHOCK. 
The Hollyhock has recently been written about in the Journal, 
its return to the front rank of florists’ flowers being prophesied, and 
I .am quite prepared to predict the same thing. In some districts 
really good Hollyhocks are shown annu.ally, but unfortunately not 
from the g.ardens of many cultivators. It would have been a great 
pity indeed if those majestic flowers had been allowed to die out of 
cultivation, for to my mind they are the most .attractive and beau¬ 
tiful the autumn brings us. Thanks, however, to the energy and 
skill of some horticulturists who have taken them in hand, they are 
saved from the dying out process. We happen to have one of these 
men in our district—namely, Mr. G. Finlay of East Layton Hall, 
who has certainly the best Hollyhocks I have ever seen. He has 
been at work with them about eight years, and has wrought wonders 
in obtaining new and excellent v.arieties. I had the pleasure of 
seeing his plants in bloom last year, .and M'hat a marvellous sight 
they were ! The colours ranged from a white to the deepest of crim¬ 
sons and purples, some of the flowers measuring 8 inches in 
diameter without the guard petals. Mr. Finlay has a few excellent 
seedlings, and has a good stock of three of his best, which I believe 
he intends sending out next autumn—namely. Pride of Layton, a 
be<autiful deep Stahnon coloured variety, of splendid form and 
robust constitution ; John Finlaj’, a very large and especially deep 
flower, of a dark red colour, devoid of salmon tint (which is 
unusual in Hollyhocks), this is a variety of great merit, also of 
vigorous constitution. The third is a pink of the most perfect 
shape and lively colour. It is a rosy pink, lighter towards the base 
of the flower. There are a few more excellent seedlings, but as 
yet not a large stock of individual sorts. I should say Mr. Finlay 
has twelve seedlings in his possession that would surpass any other 
twelve Hollyhocks in cultivation. The Layton Hollyhocks are 
famous wherever they h.ave been shown, which is not a few places, 
as Mr. Finl.ay has won about fifty first prizes and only one or two 
seconds. The much-dreaded Hollyhock disease once found its way 
into the Layton collection and made great ravages one summer, 
but he set to work and completely overcame it in a very short time. 
The process, too, is very simple, yet effective, and I daresay Mr. 
Finl.ay would describe it if desired to do so.—F. M. 
rWo shall be gl.ad to publish a note from Mr. Finlay on the 
subject.] 
NATIONAL CHRYSANTHEMUM SOCIETY. 
January 31st. 
The annual general meeting of the above Society was held at 
“ Anderton’s Hotel,” Fleet Street, on Tuesday last, when there was a good 
attendance of members. The Vice-President, R. Ballantine, Esq., took 
the chair shortly after 7 P.M., Mr. E. Sanderson being unavoidably 
absent, the Treasurer, J. R. Starling, Esq., and the Hon. Secretary, Jlr. 
W. Holmes, with others, being present. Mr. Holmes read the report for 
the past year, of which the leading points were as follows :—“ The re¬ 
sult of the operations of the National Chrysanthemum Society for the 
past twelve months may be truthfully recorded as that of an unquali¬ 
fied success. Good and useful work has been accomplished in each of 
its departments, while its finances have been equal to the heavy strain 
imposed thereon. The September Show was again considered both good 
and interesting, although the early varieties of Chrysanthemums do not 
as yet seem to have taken a very firm hold of popular favour. Dahlias 
and GLadioli, however, formed as before a very attractive display. Of 
the November fete too much can scarcely be said. It was in every re¬ 
spect the largest and most attractive Exhibition ever yet held under the 
auspices of the Society. The buildings were well filled during each day, 
while in the evening the crowds were enormous, no less than 10,0(}() 
persons (exclusive of staff entrances) passed through the turnstiles on 
the first day of the Show. The Janmary Show was vastly superior to 
that of any preceding year. Chrysanthemums were largely staged, 
although as yet the object of the original promoters of the midwinter 
Show has not been largely fulfilled by the introduction of many 
naturally late-flowering Chrysiinthemums. The Floral Committee 
steadily carried on its work during the season, and its decisions in every 
instance carefully debated. 
“ The business meetings of the Society will for the future be held at 
‘Anderton’s Hotel,’ Fleet Street, the Society having outgrown the 
accommodation of its old quarters, and Fleet Street being considered 
to be more central, and consequently more convenient, for its members 
generally. The Committee desire to tender their very hearty thanks to 
all donors of special prizes, and especially to the Trustees of the Veitch's 
Memorial Fund for the liberal grant of medals and cash during the past 
season.” 
The balance-sheet was next read, from which it appears that about 
£700 have been received and expended during the past year, leaving a 
small favourable b.alance besides the reserve fund, which Mr. Starling 
stated now amounts to £78. Subscriptions were received from 432 
members, but the number has been considerably increased at the last 
two or three meetings. Both the report and the balance-sheet were 
unanimously adopted, and votes of thanks were accorded to the 
Auditors. 
The Hon. Secretary announced that Lady Lytton, The British 
Embassy, Paris, had signified her willingness to become a patroness of 
the Society, a number of Fellows and members were elected, and the 
IVimbledon, Tooting, and Pembroke Societies were admitted into affilia¬ 
tion. The next business was the election of officers, the following being 
unanimously returned :—President, E. Sanderson ; Vice-President, R. 
Ballantine ; Treasurer, J. R. Starling ; Hon. Secretary, W. Holmes ; and 
Auditors, Messrs. Crane and Drain, jun. In accordance with the rule 
passed at a previous meeting one-third of the General Committee retire 
annually, but are eligible for re-election. The following were elected 
to fill the vacancies thus caused, and who retire in 1891—namely, Messrs. 
W. Blake, F. Bingham, Lewis Castle, W. Davey, F. J. liOng, J. Newton, 
R. Nichols, R. Payne, R. E. Reeve, J. Udale, J. Williams, and H. C. 
Wildman. It was proposed and adopted that the Floral Committee 
should be elected at the first General Committee meeting, that it shall 
consist of fifteen members, and that one-third of these shall retire 
.annually. Liberal special prizes from Messrs. Sutton A Sons, R ading, 
Wood & Sons, Wood Green, and H. Cannell & Sons, Swanley, were then 
announced to be offered at the November Show. 
Several projects for the present season next came under consideration, 
and the first was a proposal th.at the Society shouhl h Id a provincial 
show in the north of England, concerning which Mr. Holmes re.ad some 
correspondence that had passed between hira.self, Mr. Morton of D.ar- 
lington, and Mr. E. Mawley, Hon. Secretary of the National Rose 
Society. The general feeling of the members present was in flavour of 
the idea if it could be carried out without incurring .any materi.al 
financial risk, and it was ultimately resolved to refer the m.atter to a 
Sub-Committee, comprising Messrs. Bevan, Castle, Gordon, De.an, and 
Rundell, for full consideration and to prep.are a report to be submitted 
to the General Committee. Until this matter is settled it was felt that 
the dates of the Society’s shows could not be all fixed, but it was decided 
that the November Show should be held on the 7th and 8th of that 
month. 
