326 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 19, 188?. 
beautiful. The sea is now calm, and if it remains so, as does not appear 
unlikely, there is just time for English visitors who can find it con¬ 
venient to do so, to inspect such a show as can only be seen in 
Ghent. AVe hear that some gentlemen are sending their gardeners, and 
they can leave London on Friday night, arriving in Ghent on Saturday 
in ample time to see the Exhibition before it closes at night, and there 
is much of interest to attract besides the Exhibition. The admission to 
the Exhibition on Saturday is 1 franc (tenpence). English visitors 
stay chiefly in the Hotels de la Poste, Royal, and Vienne, and though 
these are full now, there will be daily departures from to-d.ay (Monday) 
onwards, making room for new arrivals. 
THE LATE M. J. M. GONOD OF LYONS. 
I.YONS has to mourn the death of another of its principal rosarians 
in the person of M. J. M. Gonod, who died at Monplaisir, Lyons, on the 
12th of March last, at the age of sixty-one years. It was only in 
November last that we lo^t M. F'. Lacharme, at the greater age of 
seventy years. These men were two of the most distinguished'^Kosc 
growers of the district ; they were both raisers, and both large culti¬ 
vators, but M. Lacharme was best known as a raiser of novelties, and 
M. Gonod as a general cultivator. When at Lyons, in June of last 
yt.ar, I spent a long morning with the former (an old friend), and an 
afternoon with the latter, and little thought that I was conversing with 
both for the last time. M. Lach.arme communic.ated to mo his inten¬ 
tion of resigning the gener.al cultivation of Roses this year, and confining 
himself exclusively to the raising of seedlings. On referring to my note¬ 
book I find I thought highly of two different see^lling yellow Tea-scented 
Roses not then named, the one much in the way of Comtesse de Frig- 
neuse, but apparently superior to it. I lingered long before a lofty w.all 
running the whole length of his garden, and which was covered from 
top to bottom with glorious flowers grown expressly for bearing seed. 
This was truly a magnificent sight, and remains fresh in my memory. 
Turning to M. Gonod I find I thought well of his recent issue, Baroniie 
de Fonvielle (Tea-scented), a very sweet coppery-yellow Rose splashed 
with lake. He had one piece of 50,000 dwarf Roses budded on the Dog 
Rose, and the growth and bloom surpassed everything I h.ad previously 
seen at Lyons. I had known him before, and left him with the im¬ 
pression that I had been in company with an earnest, industrious, and 
clever man.—W m. Paul, Waltham Crons, Herts. 
ROSE HEDGEL 
Paeagraphs have been going the round of the papers with regard 
to the employment of Roses as hedges on continental railways, and the 
Daily Telegraph recently gave the following interesting details :—“ Ex¬ 
cellent opportunities have been afforded to continental railway companies 
by the unusually heavy snowfalls of the past winter for testing the efficacy 
of the various means devised by experienced engineers for the protection 
of their ‘permanent w.ays ’ against snowdrifts. Of all the results 
hitherto obtained by experiment in this direction the most satisfactory 
have been rendered by Rose hedges fringing cither side of the railway 
line. The Rose tree exclusively utilised for these fences is that popularly 
known as the ‘ rosier de la Provence.’ In Lower Hungary, where the 
iron road traverses long stretches of flat country, akin in conformation 
and aspect to the R'jssian steppes or to the prairies of Western America, 
hedges of Rose trees, thick and tall, cover both flanks of the snow-beset 
metals, and repel the fiercest onslaughts of their fleecy foe. On the 
State railways of the Banat, in the outlying regions of Magyarland, a 
section of the line ne.arly a mile and a half in length, which'in former 
years invariably became blocked by the snow, has been kept clear during 
the abnorm.ally heavy falls of the past winter by one of these double 
Rose hedges, averaging 6 feet 6 inches in height and about 3 feet in 
thickness. This stout bulwark—in summer time bisecting the dusky 
“puszta” with twin-streaks of gay green, aglow with rich colour and 
redolent of sweet fragrance—has successfully withstood the fury of the 
snow-laden tempests which have of late repeatedly swept over Eastern 
Europe, enwrapiiing thousands of square miles of territory in a cold 
white mantle, of such density and weight that whole villages and 
countless homesteads have vanished for the time beino' under its frozen 
folds. 
“Although, no doubt, strictly practical considerations h.ave suggested 
the planting of these avenues of Rose bushes which h.ave been instru¬ 
mental in keeping open an arterial line of communic.ation between 
Central and Eastern Europe throughout some of the severest weather 
experienced for many a year past, the exoedieut adopted by the 
Hungarian Staatsbahn for protecting its traffic against interruption 
bears a romantic aspect th.at might well furnish a theme to poctic.al 
inspiration. It requires but little im.aginative effort to picture to the 
mind's eye a summer’s journey gladdened by the glory of Roses, shining 
to the right and left of a swiftly gliding steam chariot, while the 
surrounding atmosphere is fraught with faintly subtle scents which 
superinduce a soft languor in the fortunate traveller. Such sights and 
odours have hitherto been rarely allotted to tourists dependent upon 
railway locomotion for their transport through strange countries. They 
may be found in the plains of Bersia, where ‘ Roses are bright by the 
calm Bendemeer,’ and in the Roumelian lowlands, adjoining the southern 
and eastern slopes of the rugged Balkan range. Between Tatar Bazar 
and Adrianople the horseman following the post-ro.ad on a sultry June 
day rides mile after mile through enormous Rose plantations blazing 
with scarlet and crimson, and giving out odours well nigh as over¬ 
powering as that of the attar distilled from their gorgeous blossoms. In 
those fields of queen flowers he may gaze his fill on ‘ the Damask Rose, 
whose rare mixture doth disclose beauties pencils cannot feign.’ The 
uncounted millions of Roses grown in Eoumelia are not merely turne<l 
to account by the Rose farmers for sale to the preparers of that powerful 
essence which, enclosed in long, slender, carefully stoppered bottles 
lettered with gold, is still so popular throughout the East, although it 
has quite gone out of fashion in this country. Many tons’ weight of 
their leaves, gathered and packed whilst they are freshly fallen, are 
converted into Rose jam, one of the exquisite conserves which, under 
the generic name of ‘ dulchatz,’ are so admirably confected in Turkey, 
Greece, and Rouraania, and constitute a leading feature in the light but 
toothsome refection offered to the casual visitor in every well-to-do 
Oriental household. Rose jam, considered as a sweetmeat, is far superior 
in flavour and savour to Rabat Lakoum, and to the somewhat cloying 
prep.arations of angelica for which Stamboul confectioners are justly 
famous. It is by no means sickly, or even insipid, as those delicacies 
unquestionably are, but is characterised by an after-taste no less brisk 
and refreshing than that of the Black Cherry ‘ dulchatz,’’ paragon of all 
Turkish sweets. 
“ There is but little hope that English railway lines wiB be hedged 
in by belts of Rose trees, with a view to guard them against the en¬ 
croachments of the drifting snow, or in order to gratify the eyes and 
noses of British excursionists with infinite varieties of colour and faintly 
perfumed airs. It seems, however, that much might be done to render 
many of our iron roads—or at least their immediate surroundings—less 
monotonously hideous than they are at the present time. The bare 
slopes of embankments and cuttings alike might often be planted, taste¬ 
fully, and not unprofitably, with trees and underwood. Where the track 
passes through a level district it might be enclosed with green hedges, 
sufficiently hardy and close in texture to stay the driving snow in winter 
time, and solacing to the traveller's gaze when dressed out in their 
summer garb of verdant leaves and wild flowers. Railways, it may be 
said by doctrinaires of the Gradgrind school are meant for use, not for 
ornament. Granted ; but we would venture to observe that their de¬ 
coration with flowers in no respect impairs their utility, whilst render¬ 
ing them manifestly less unattractive than they would otherwise be. 
Englishmen who have travelled through Southern Germany, the Aus¬ 
trian Duchies, Bohemia, and the Tyrol will remember with pleasure the 
pretty gardens and shady groves attached to many of the humbler pro¬ 
vincial stations in those countries ; the trellised Vines and gracefully 
trained creepers, the gay beds and borders of hardy annuals, the devices 
in growing flowers of bright hues, the well-keiit kitchen gardens on up¬ 
ward and downward inclines hard by the lines of rails, wherever the 
soiTis of a sufficiently fertile character to permit of that class of culti¬ 
vation.’’ 
BIRMINGHAM SPRING FLOWER SHOW. 
The eighth annual Exhibition of the Birmingham Chrysanthemum 
and Spring Flower Show Society was held in the Town Hall on the 11th 
and 12th inst., the entries being much in excess of previous years, and 
necessitated staging many plants in the gvlleries. 
Orchids were well represented. In the class for twelve, Mr. Barnes, 
gardener to Mr. Charles Winn, Selly Oak, Birmingham, staged an 
excellent collection, which contained fine examples of Odontoglossum 
Rossi rubellum, Cypripedium villosum superbum, Coelogyne cristata 
Lemoniana, and Cypripedium caudatum. Second, Mr. A. W. AVills, 
Wyldes Green, Birmingham, who had Cypripedium lasvigatum and 
Cymbidium Lowianum especially good. Thinl, Mr. A. Powell, gardener 
to Mr. G. H. Kenrick, Edgbaston, having Dendrobium formosum and 
Odontoglossum cifcrosmum both good, also 0. citrosmum album and 
Phalsenopsis Stuartiana. 
In the class for six Orchids, Mr. Cooper, gardener to the Right Hon. 
Joseph Chamberlain, M.P., staged superb plants, consisting of grandly 
flowered Dendrobium Wardianum and Oucidium Marshalli, Cattleya 
Triame delicata, Odontoglossum Alexandra;, Cmlogyne cristata, and 
Dendrobium chrysanthum. Mr. Charles AV’inn touk the second prize, 
and had good examples of Cattleya Mendelli and C. Trianre formosa. 
Besides these classes other Orchids were staged. Mr. Jinks, gardener to 
J. E. Wilson, Esq., Widdington, Edgbaslon, had a magnificent Dendro¬ 
bium nobile, nearly 4 feet through and densely flowered, a plant of 
Phalmnopsis Parishii with quite thirty blooms, and other Orchids. Mr. 
C. Winn also set up a group, not for competition, in which were Cypri¬ 
pedium Argus, Odontoglossum luteo-purpureum, and some Masdjvallia'^. 
In the class for three Orchids Mr. Cooper, Highbury, was first with Den- 
dr .bium AVardianum, D. Jamesianum, and Cymbidium Lowianum. 
Second, Mr. Charles Winn, and in this collection was a fine pan of Odon- 
toglossum Rossi majus. Third, Mr. A. AV. AA’ills. 
Mr. Cooper staged, not for competition, a group of plants which in¬ 
cluded some of the new Imantophyllurns, exhibited in Birmingham for 
the first time, of which Alaric Reimers is one of the fine.st. Some good 
Spiraeas were shown, Mr. G. Showell taking the first prize. Excellent 
Deutzias took the first prize, shown by Mr. J. Crook, gardener to AAL 
