August 20 , 1691. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
157 
- Hooper & Co. (Limited).—T he winding-up order against 
this Company was made upon a creditor’s petition, presented on 
May 25th, 1891. The Company was registered on Dec. 9th, 188G, for the 
purpose of taking over the business of Messrs. Hooper & Co., seed and 
horticultural merchants, carried on for nearly fifty years at Covent 
Garden and elsewhere. The nominal capital of the Company is £100,000, 
divided into 10,000 shares, of which 4500 were offered for public 
■subscription. The total number of shares allotted is 2556, including 
1500 issued to the vendors as fully paid, and 692 so issued to the pro¬ 
prietor of the Maida Vale Nurseries, which were purchased by the 
Gompany in 1887 for the amount thus represented. The number of 
shares applied for at the date of the first allotment (Feb. 23rd, 1887, 
appears to have been 264. The purchase price sgreed upon for the 
assets of the business was £23,640, of which £15,000 was paid in shares, 
£2000 in mortgage debentures, and £6640 in cash. The insolvency is 
attributed to the expenses having exceeded the profits, and to los3 by 
the purchase of stock at the Maida Yale Nurseries. The unsecured 
liabilities as regards creditors are returned at £10,686, and the assets 
are estimated at the same amount, the liabilities towards contributories 
•being £24,112. 
- Glazed Flower Pots. —“ J.,” on page 136, has said much in 
favour of these, but. from what I have seen of them I must confess that 
1 do not like them so well as the ordinary flower pot, even if the latter 
does get a little discoloured at times. The glazed pots look more 
artificial than ordinary pots. We want a pot that looks as natural and 
unobtrusive as possible. By far the best ware that I have seen for the 
purpose is made in Nottingham. It is rustic and rough in appearance) 
■coloured green, black and gold in an irregular manner, and looks very 
ornamental even when empty. When filled with plants the colours 
harmonise well with the foliage when the spectator is near to the plant, 
and at a short distance the whole thing is almost inconspicuous. For 
dinner tables and other purposes connected with indoor decoration there 
is nothing to compete with these at present ; but whether plants will 
grow in them for any length of time, and whether they can be produced 
•cheaply enough to take the place of ordinary flower pots for everyday 
use, remains to be proved. As they have only recently come under my 
notice I cannot express any opinion on these points at present.;—W. H. D. 
- Sweet Peas, —At the recent Liverpool Show a charming 
■stand of named varieties of Sweet Peas was exhibited by Mr. Henry 
Eckford. It is the first time Mr. Eckford has paid the Liverpool people 
a visit, but it is to be hoped it will not be the last, for the exhibit was 
greatly enjoyed. The varieties which seemed to stand out most con¬ 
spicuously were Apple Blossom, the standards bright pinkish rose, wings 
blush ; Countess of Radnor ; pale mauve standards, wing3 pale lilac ; 
Primrose, beautiful pale primrose yellow ; Orange Prince, bright orange 
pink suffused with scarlet ; Stanley, very dark purple, the flowers 
Raving a metallic hue ; Mrs. Sankey, pure white, of fine form. There 
were also varieties of great merit and of the mo3t delicate hues. In a 
conversation I had with Mr. Eckford he stated great care is required to 
keep the varieties true to name and the limited quantity cf seed some of 
them produced. He went on to state that with the choicer varieties the 
best way to succeed with them was to sow them in small pots from the 
middle to the end of January or a little later, according to situation, and 
then transplant. By doing so failures would be very few and the step 
greatly in advance of sowing them outside in drills.—R. P. R. 
- Sweet Peas for Cutting.—F ew hardy annuals are more 
generally admired when used in a cut state than these delightful flowers. 
New classes of plants and flowers are each year brought to the front and 
remain the rage for a limited time and then sink into oblivion. But 
however many flowers there may be of various descriptions to cut from, 
a daily supply of Sweet Peas for filling glasses is always welcomed. 
A great variety of colour may be obtained from a few packets of mixed 
seeds, and many effective combinations may be worked out with them. 
Although the great value of Sweet Peas is well known and fully appre¬ 
ciated, in many cases sufficient attention is not given to their culture to 
secure the best results, especially in cases where the soil is naturally 
light and poor. In such instances the rows should be mulched with 
well decayed manure as soon as the plants have grown to the height of 
18 inches or 2 feet, and should the weather prove dry a thorough soak¬ 
ing with water can be given once or twice during the season. The little 
extra labour thus given is amply repaid by a continuous supply of extra 
large flowers. I know nothing more effective for arranging with them 
than pieces of Dactylis glomerata variegata. This hardy and easily 
grown Grass is so useful for a variety of purposes as to deserve a special 
note on some future occasion.—D. W. G. 
- COREOP3IS. —These are charming flowers for the garden 
border, giving a supply of their pretty and varied-coloured blooms from 
early summer until cut down by frost in autumn. The variety C. tinc- 
toria seems to be the most commonly cultivated among the annuals ; 
but there are others more beautiful even than this obtainable from a 
mixed packet of seeds. There are no seeds cheaper than Coreopsis, or 
Calliopsis as they are sometimes called, and certainly no plants give 
a more continued or brighter display in the borders, or provide more 
useful flowers for cutting. Although they associate well with other cut 
flowers in large vase arrangements they, to my mind, have a more 
pleasing effect when arranged lightly in small vases alone, or rather 
with only an accompaniment of greenery, preferably small sprays of 
the common Asparagus. Their culture is of the simplest character 
possible. Sown outdoors in April they bloom in August if they are 
put in where they are intended to flower. A portion of the seeds, if 
sown in a box or frame similar to Asters, to be afterwards pricked 
out singly, or in patches of three or four plants, will, if kept under 
glass protection until the middle of May, commence flowering a few 
weeks sooner than the outdoor-sown stock, and thus a good succession 
is ensured. I have given some prominence to mixed packets on the 
score of economy ; but growers preferring to have each variety under 
name can do so without incurring a large outlay ; but for ordinary 
cutting purposes a mixed packet will furnish ample material for 
small gardens at any rate. The height of the stems and weight of 
the flower heads demand some support, or they are liab’e to be 
broken by wind and heavy rains.—J. H. 
THE FLOWER TRADE IN PARIS. 
[Notes of a Conference held at the Hall of the Association Fran<;aise pour l’Avanccment 
des Sciences, by Mr. H. L. de Vilmorix.] 
(Continued from page 90.) 
As will have been seen by previous notes the Parisian flower markets 
are never idle. In spite of their number and good organisation we are 
however, compelled to go to the places where they are held in order 
to profit by them, and many persons who are great flower lovers have 
not sufficient leisure to do that. It is to these customers that the street 
merchants apply, selling flowers, vegetables, or fruits of the season. 
It may be easily understood that the majority of the authorised porters 
who devote themselves to that laborious but simple trade prefer to offer 
things that are easily consumed rather than flowers which are an article 
of luxury or pleasure. But among the poorer classes themselves the 
agreeable is often placed on the same footing as the useful, and if the 
“ four season ” merchant (marehand des quatre saisons') has his cart 
loaded with fruits and flowers, the latter are not always the last to be 
sold. 
Every morning, before daybreak, the small carts are seen in long 
files all round the central market and the adjoining streets. Watching 
the sales the street vendors use their small capital with great caution, 
seeking a bargain before everything, but seldom departing from their usual 
kind of goods, when the whole army hastily disperses, 4000 carts parading 
Paris, and 2000 wandering into the suburbs. At no time of the year is 
there a dearth of supplies, and if on certain days they cease to hawk their 
modest assortments, it is because the temperature is too severe in the 
streets, and not on account of the goods being deficient in the central 
market. 
From November to March the environs of Paris furnish irregularly 
winter flowers, such as Christmas Roses, perpetual Violets, Wallflowers, 
and winter Heliotropes; but it is, on the contrary, the time of the 
year when the South of France sends in great profusion the Paper 
White, Bicolor, and Yellow Narcissus, Roman Hyacinths, and mixed 
Anemones. It is the season of the yellow Acacia (Mimosa of tte 
Parisians),early Tulips, white Allium neapolitanum, and for Mignonette, 
Ten-week Stocks, and Marguerites (Chrysanthemum frutescens). Even 
the wild flowers then yield their tribute, the Lilac Heath (Erica 
mediterranea) reaches us in January from the vicinity of Ciotat and 
Ollioules; in March the white Heath (Erica arborea) comes from 
Cannes and Esterel. 
As soon as plant life awakens in March the woods which surround 
Pans supply Anemones, and the single yellow Narcissus pseudo- 
Narcissus, which with Primulas partake the name of “ Coucou.” They 
are brought in March from the Bois de Vincennes, or the forest of 
Shnart, in globular bouquets surmounted by a tuft of green leaves. 
Then come the Parisian Hyacinths, single and double, the Narcissus 
odorus, Narcissus poeticus, called “ Je'annettes,” the Lily of the 
Valley, usually sold in a still green budded state, so afraid are the 
collectors to be distanced by their competitors, the Stellaria with their 
light flowers, and the Arabis alpina. The season soon becomes warmer ; 
the open-air Lilac appears, followed by Pompon Roses, Pinks, first 
Pseonies, Syringas, Snowball, Laburnum, Sweet Williams, Cornflowers, 
and Fritil'arias. 
Lilium candidum is the first harbinger of the summer ; it is followed 
by Moss Roses, bundles of Grasses intermixed with large Marguerites, 
of Lychnis Flos-cuculi, Salvia pratensis, and Buttercups. In full 
