March 29, 1888. J 
JOURXAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
259 
from abroad to supply the wants of the public. Ferns are very useful 
for growing in cases in dwellings, in banging baskets in conservatories, 
and they are also suitable for rockeries. They are easily managed, and 
he was surprised they are not more extensively grown in this eountry, 
because a basket of Ferns will last for years with watering occasionally. 
Ferns grown in cases are extremely interesting, and afford much plea¬ 
sure to those who wish to watch their growth. He knew of no better 
ornament for a home than a miniature fernery. The greatest enemy to 
Ferns is over-watering ; many persons kill Ferns by over-kindness in 
this respect. Four times a year was quite often enough to water a Fern 
case. The best time to remove Ferns is February and March, and 
the best mode of propagating them is from spires. Ferns require a 
period of rest, particularly old plants, and they might be grown by the 
poorest amateur as well as by the wealthy in their conservatories and 
ferneries. A few questions were put to the essayist by Messrs. Alan 
Willis, G. Parkin, and G. Gill, and after these had been answered Mr. 
Garnett said he did not sec why Ferns should not be cultivated for 
market purposes in Ireland, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, and the Channel 
Islands, instead of importing them by shiploads every week from the 
Continent. A hearty vote of thanks was given to Mr. Twigge for his 
paper, and as he had devoted his attention chiefly to British Ferns he 
was requested to give a paper on Exotic Ferns. 
- CAmbeidge Botanic Gaedens.—W e understand that the 
estimates for the plant house (£2760) and research laboratory £250) at 
the Botanical Gardens are accepted, Messrs. Boyd of Paisley being 
engaged for the former, Mr. Sindall for the latter. Sir Joseph Hooker. 
Mr. Thiselton Dyer, and several skilled horticulturists have inspected 
the plans, and they meet with general approval. The proposed Fern 
house, stove, and Orchid bouse have a combined area of 2660 square 
feet, as compared with 2290 square feet, the area of the corresponding 
present houses. 
- A Club eoe Co vent Gaeden Maeket. — The Covent 
Garden Club was opened last Wednesday evening, March 21st, at the 
Covent Garden Hotel. The Club has been promoted ehiefly for the 
accommodation of Covent Garden salesmen and growers and senders of 
produce from the country. Mr. W. Arthur Board is the Hon. Secretary. 
- We learn that the Wilts Hoeticultueal Society will 
hold the Summer Show on Thursday, August 23rd next, at Salisbury. 
-A Camellia Feeak. —A Boston Amateur writes, “ I send a 
white Camellia bloom showing three centres in a single bud. I have a 
small plant of this with four more blooms fully out, each bud having 
two centres ; also five buds beginning to open, and each bud seems to 
have at least two centres. Never having seen a plant like it before, and 
considering it uncommon, I have sent you a bloom. I have lost its name. 
I shall be pleased to hear from any of your readers if two or three centres 
to one bud is of common occurrence on white Camellias.” The flower 
resembles candidissima. 
- The Biemingham Botanical and Hoeticultueal 
Society announce a Bose Show to be held in the Botanic Gardens at 
Edgbaston on July 12th and 13th this year. Fifteen classes are pro¬ 
vided for nurserymen, amateurs, and gardeners ; a few are open. The 
prizes range from £5 for forty-eight blooms to £1 for twelve blooms, 
with second and third prizes of proportionate amounts. Schedules can 
be had from Mr. W. B. Latham. 
- An Exhibition of Chrysanthemums and fruit will be held by 
the Rugby and Disteict Floeicultueal Society on November 
21st and 22nd in that town. Mr. W. Bryant, 28, North Street, is the 
Secretary. 
- A COEEESPONDENT informs us that the Peeston Seeing Show, 
held on Wednesday and Thursday last, “ was a good one, and quite 
equal to any held at Preston before. Hyacinths generally were better 
than last year. The six Azaleas shown by J. B. Dixon, Esq., were 
praiseworthy specimens. The groups of miscellaneous plants by Messrs. 
Payne, Dixon, and Troughton had the most tasteful arrangements in the 
Show. Mr. Chas. Parker, Preston, was the most successful exhibitor of 
Orchids, also in the classes for cut flowers, bouquets, &o. Mr. Clark of 
Ribbleton Hall, among other exhibits, staged an excellent specimen 
plant of Mignonette. Mr. Frisby, gardener, Worden Hall, was the most 
successful in fine-foliage plants, also for twenty pots of miscellaneous 
bulbs. Praise is also due to the last named for his excellent tray of 
vegetables for this season of the year. Jlr. II. Wilding staged splendid 
Cyclamens, the best variety ever seen at Preston ; he also gained the 
premier award for Primulas. Messrs. Dickson, Brown, & Tait staged 
the best Hyacinths, not for competition.” 
- Feuit at the Newcastle Show. —We have received a letter 
from Mr. J. H. Goodacre, in which he says he has “ answered all the 
questions of ‘ Old Hand,’ in some instances before they were asked 
also that “ Mr. Hunter materially supports his arguments against the 
recognition of Tomatoes as dessert fruit, and coarse fruit generally.” 
Another correspondent signing himself “ A Young Hand,” congratulates 
Mr. Goodacre on his courage in challenging the admissibility of fruits 
unsuitable for dessert tables, and doubts the advisability of providing 
classes in which only a few growers can compete, while the many are 
excluded. Mr. Goodacre is entitled to request the two “ conscientious, 
independent, disinterested, and practical gardeners,” whose names are 
published, to give their version of the awards, if he chooses to do so, and 
with that the controversy must cease. The decision of arbitrators is 
final, and we shall not allow their verdict to be criticised whatever it 
may be. 
- The Enteetainment to the Employes op the Royal 
Hoeticultueal Society. —The Committee who have this matter in 
baud have arranged that the employes shall be invited to supper .at the 
“Bolton Hotel,” Bolton Garden, High Road, Chiswick, on Friday evening, 
April 6th, at 7 p.m. Mr. Harry J. Veitch has kindly promised to take 
the chair. Dinner tickets to visitors will be os. each. The hotel is five 
minutes’ walk from Turnham Green Station. Those intending to bo 
present should send their name to Mr. R. Dean, Ealing, the day 
previous. 
HYACINTHS. 
A monthly meeting of the Notts Horticultural and Botanical 
Society was held at the Mechanics’ Institute, Nottingham, recently, Mr, 
N. Pownall (Lenton Hall Gardens) in the chair. There were also 
present—Messrs. S. Thacker, Attenborough, Branstone, Baker, Kirk, 
Ralphs, Holmes, Edmunds, A. Page, E. Steward (Sec.), &c. A paper on 
the “ Hyacinth ” was read by Mr. Steward, who hoped that it would 
be the means of opening up a discussion on what, in his opinion, 
was really the great question for all gardeners and horticulturists in the 
present day—namely, how to “ crop ” their laud so that it will pay the 
occupier and the owner. He should endeavour to show them that money 
could be made by growing bulbs and other flowering roots as well as it 
was done in the famous district in Holland. Mr. Steward then traced 
the history of the Hyacinth from its introduction from Greece in the year 
1591. Since then Dutch growers had taken up the growth of this flower, 
the soil and situation of this district in Holland being particularly 
favourable for their development. The district in question was 1487 
acres in extent, and it was estimated that the imports of bulbs to 
England annually reached £50,000, the bulb trade being a very exten¬ 
sive one. Few were aware of tbe amount expended in Hyacinths, bulb®, 
&c. The London parks required millions. Considering the present bad 
times their agricultural friends were passing through, he would sug¬ 
gest to them the advisability of turning their attention to the growing 
of bulbs, as he believed we had every variety of soil and climate 
suitable (o their growth in the adjoining county of Lincoln. In fact, 
he knew of several growers in the neighbourhood of Spalding who raised 
many thousands of bulbs of various sorts for the trade in London and 
elsewhere, and he saw no reason why so much moiiei’ should be sent into 
Holland, Germany, and other places for roots which could be grown as 
well, and in many cases superior, in our owu country. Not long since 
he was shown a h:ad of Snowdrops in one end of a barn near Peter¬ 
borough, which consisted of about 250,00(1 roots. This heap was the 
result of about two acres growth, and had jielded a handsome profit to 
the owner by the flowers which had been gathered early in the spring, 
and yet that heap of roots was worth £180. If that was not a paying 
crop, he should like to know what was. Another item which he 
desired to mention was the growth of the Lily of Valley crowns. At 
the present time we imported somet'hing like 50,000,000 of this par¬ 
ticular variety from Germany and Holland, at a cost of £25,000 per 
annum. All this money might just as well be saved and kept in our 
own country. Many thousands grown in Lincolnshire had been tried, 
and they had proved better in every respect than those grown abroad. 
He had had some of the finest Gladioli bulbs he had ever sten grown on 
poor sandy land near the Forest. He also mentioned in support of 
what could be done in England that there is a hundred acres of 
ground in Cornwall planted with Narcissus, and nearly the whole of the 
Scilly Islands are planted with the same flowers of various kinds for 
the supply of cut flowers for the London and midland markets. These 
flowers find a ready sale, and are extensively used for home and 
other decorations. They are without doubt some of the most useful 
of all cut flow’ers, on account of the long time they last after being 
cut. 
A discussion followed. Specimens of Hyacinths and other flowers 
