362 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May $, 1888. 
several stands. The foliage plants were chiefly Palms, such as 
Kentias, Geonoma gracilis, and Cocos Weddelliana, with Ferns 
(Adiantums and Pterises), the much-enduring Aspidistras, and 
Cyperus laxus or alternifolius. 
The cut flowers were also in strong force. Daffodils and Wall¬ 
flowers nearly sharing the honours in point of numbers, but the 
latter were in the majority, for some of the larger growers took 
the market by storm, bringing some waggonloads of stout bunches 
of dark fragrant flowers. Daffodils were there in aU shades, from 
white to the richest golden form of the trumpet flowered section, 
together with the delicately pretty Poeticus varieties. Forget-me- 
nots, Roses, Violets, Gardenias, and Stephanotis were prominent in 
other directions, while of Hyacinths there were some hundreds of 
boxes, showing that the exportation of flowers from Holland to 
this country has by no means been stopped by the Society formed 
for that purpose, though it has probably been checked. On the 
previous day a large sale was held in the market, when shallow 
boxes containing several dozens of spikes were sold at from Is. 6d. 
to 4s. each, the white varieties realising the latter price. 
On Thursday a “ Fruit Show ” of a rather remarkable character 
will be held in the Floral HaU, for one of the salesmen announces 
that he will have 5000 Pine Apples on view, to be subsequently 
sold by auction. Such exhibitions as these and those in the flower 
market are even more interesting to horticulturists than the ordinary 
competitive displays. 
WHINHAM’S INDUSTRY GOOSEBERRY. 
Amongst useful varieties of Goosebendes for market culture 
Whinhara’s Industry has gained an astonishing popularity. It is 
very early (tliree weeks, it is said, before any other). The fruit is 
large and red, crops heavy, and valuable either for picking green or 
when ripe for jam. One firm in the north of England that has 
made a specialty of the variety, in 188G sold 35,000 bushes, in 1887 
over 53,000, and in the present year 95,000. These were dispatched 
to America and various parts of the Continent, including the 
home supply.—L. C.iSTLE. 
THE NATIONAL AURICULA SOCIETY. 
(SOUTHERN SECTION.) 
The annual Exhibition, of which a report appeared in last week's 
Journal, was held under very discouraging circumstances, for anyone 
who has ever grown Auriculas must have felt what a terribly late season 
we have. I had not one single truss out, and it is only where there were 
appliances for heating that it was possible to have flowers in bloom. It 
is idle people talking about there being no change in our climate. We 
may be in the midst of a cjmle of late seasons, and there may have been 
such a cycle before, but ever since I have grown Auriculas, a period of 
fifty years, I always calculated on, and was not disappointed in having 
a good bloom by the 20th of April, which was the date the older growers 
of the early part of this century used to assign as the orthodox time of 
blooming. In those days the application of heat to Auriculas was never 
dreamt of, and I believe had it been mentioned would have been uni¬ 
versally scouted. I am one of the old-fashioned people, and I still un¬ 
hesitatingly declare that the practice is an injurious one. However 
carefully it may be done it is injurious. I have not the slightest doubt 
that it tends, while perhaps increasing the size, to destroy the refinement 
of the flower, and this is one of its greatest charms. Doubtless had it 
not been for the use of heat there would have been very few flowers on 
the 24th, and so the evil is somewhat mitigated, but where exhibiting is 
not the chief object, growers will, I am sure, do best to grow their plants 
in the old way. 
In my opinion the Exhibition of last Tuesday was a long way behind 
most of its predecessors, I fancy in the numbers, and in quality certainly 
of the flowers exhibited. It was unfortunate, too, that the day was so 
dull. The hall at the best of times is not light, and with such a day it 
was especially dull, and I need hardly say that a good yet subdued 
light is absolutely nece.ssary in order to see well the beauties of the 
Auricula. My reasons for regarding the Exhibition of Tuesday as not 
up to the standard we would wish to see are—1, There was in most of 
the stands an undue preponderance of seifs ; in many cases fully one- 
half of the flowers were of this class. Now, while they are very beautiful, 
I think it will be generally admitted that it is the least advanced and 
the most easily grown of the four classes of show Auriculas. Whoever 
attempts to grow seedlings is, I believe, pretty sure to get a large pro¬ 
portion of this class amongst them. They are, moreover, the earliest to 
bloom, and I think this is the reason why so many of them were shown. 
The season is a remarkably backward one, and hence those flowers which 
came in early were seized upon to make up the stand. A well-balanced 
stand of twelve ought to contain three each of the four divisions. 2, In 
many of the stands Auriculas were shown with only three pips, and I 
do not call that a truss. The old rule used to be that every edged 
flower must have five, and every self seven pips, and often even where 
there were only three pips they were not “all fully expanded. I must 
think that, considering the number of plants many exhibitors grow, that 
they must have been very hard up to have put up plants with such 
small trusses. .3, There was in most cases a great deal of coarseness in 
the flowers. I have before my mind several plants with flowers utterly 
out of character, many with great goggle eyes, as my old friend Mr. 
Jeans used to call them, many with body colour too heavy and running 
into the edge, and others with dimpled and curled petals, as if all the 
heat they had been subjected to had not even been enough to open them 
fully. 4, The very few really first-rate examples of the old-established 
varieties. There was, for instance, in my judgment not more than one 
or two really first-rate trusses of George Lightbody, not one of Prince of 
Greens or Acme, but one or two of Lancashire Hero. In the classes for 
single plants this was the more conspicuous ; classes where one has been 
accustomed to look for and find good examples in profusion of these 
“ cracks,” there were very few of them. I have no doubt that the wise 
rule of restricting growers to two plants has lessened considerably the 
number of those exhibited, but it ought and would in ordinary circum¬ 
stances have done so, but as I have already said, the lateness of the sea¬ 
son and the consequent need of a good deal of heat have contributed 
very much to the mediocre character of many of the blooms exhibited 
to-day. 
1 think that perhaps the most interesting part of the Exhibition was 
the number of seedlings exhibited by such raisers as Messrs. Horner, 
Douglas, Bolton and others. One is very much astonished to think of 
what the old raisers did without any scientific knowledge or any artifi¬ 
cial hybridising, for I do not believe that Headly, Lightbody, Read, 
Lancashire, Heap, and others ever hybridised their flowers, and, as I 
believe, it will be a long time before the flowers that were raised by 
them will be beaten out of the field. Now-a-days careful hybridising is 
the practice with most seed raisers ; good results have already been 
obtained, but it may be after all with the Auricula as with the Rose, 
chance seedlings will still hold the palm. Mr. Douglas’s account of 
seedlings raised in recent years in last week’s Journal was very interest¬ 
ing. I think, perhaps, he has been rather hard on the older varieties, as 
many others besides those named by him will, I hope, remain in our 
lists and collections and last my time at least. There is, however, one 
thing to be remembered, that seedlings do not always retain their 
character, and develope in after years some defect which was not con¬ 
spicuous in their youthful days. 
With regard to the seedlings exhibited the other day there can be no 
question, I imagine, that the variety named Bessie Potts, raised by Mr. 
W. Bolton of Warrington, and exhibited in Mr. Horner’s stand of twelve, 
was the “ topper ” of the Show, indeed it gained the premier prize as 
the best Auricula in the Show. It is a very beautiful green-edged 
variety, the edge very bright, the eye bright and lively, the body colour 
good and not too heavy, and altogether a very bright and pleasing 
flower. Monarch (Horner) was also a very fine green-edge, somewhat 
larger than the preceding, but not so refined, with a somewhat duller 
eye. Mr. Horner’s Irreproachable (grey edge), a bold and taking 
flower. There were several seifs exhibited, and I noticed what seems 
to an old fashioned grower to be an innovation—seifs with two colours 
or shaded. Such for instance is Laura (Horner) where there are two dis¬ 
tinct shades of colour, whether permanently so or not I do not know, 
but I do not like it, it is bringing the self Auricula much too near to the 
white ground Alpines. Mr. Horner had a very beautiful self in Con¬ 
stance, of a crimson maroon shade, good form and substance, and Mr. 
Bolton had a very beautiful maroon self, called Mrs. James Tinsley. Of 
older varieties Heroine (Horner) still holds its supremacy, and whenever 
a good plant of it is exhibited there is very little chance of any other 
variety beating it. 
Such is my estimate (right or wrong I must leave to others to decide) 
of the Exhibition of last week. I must again ask those who read 
these notes to bear in mind that I was brought up in a very rigid 
school of critics, that in my day a truss of ten or twelve pips was not 
considered a des^.eratum, seven pips in the opinion of the older florists 
making a perfect truss, and that coarseness was considered a fatal 
defect. I am not one of those who think there is no progress, and who 
are for ever praising the “ good old times.” Many of the varieties which 
used to hold the foremost place have passed out of cultivation. We had 
then no George Lightbody, Richard Headly, Acme, Pizarro, Smiling 
Beauty, &c., and perhaps the time may come when those we so highly 
prize now will give way to better kinds. The younger men who are 
going in for seedling raising have, I hope, a “ good time ” before them, 
and I wish them every success. 
It remains but to say that the South was well supported on this 
occasion, and that for the first time in its existence the President of the 
Royal Horticultural Society presided at the luncheon. Let us hope for 
a better season in 1889, when the labours of all engaged in working the 
Society may have a more satisfactory result.—D., Deal. 
CABBAGES CLUBBING. 
I DO not think anyone could be more troubled with Cabbages 
clubbing than we were at one time, but of recent years it has been 
unknown in this garden. We have had to pull up ninety out of a 
hundred plants in a row. There is no mistaking the disease. The 
plants become yellow and wither in the leaves. When drawn up 
a little swelling is noticed on the stem amongst the roots, or close 
to them, and if this is opened with the thumb nail, or cut in two with 
a knife, a white maggot is found inside. It is this that does the 
mischief, and it must be treated like any other grub. Gardens in 
which Carrots, Onions, and Parsley suffer from grubs are alwaj's liable 
to foster Cabbage clubbing. 
Lime and soot are our only cirre for clubbing. At one time our 
Cnions, Carrots, and Parsley were so uncertain that I resolved to exter 
