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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 15, 1891. 
village—Halarn—by the late Mr. S. Bradley, the raiser also of Sir Joseph 
Paxton, Dr. Hogg, and other Strawberries. Mr. Bradley’s death was 
recorded in this Journal a few months ago, and those Strawberries with 
this Damson are fitting memorials of his skill and care —J, Weight. 
THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY*. 
The Conifer Conference. — October 7th and Sth. 
The weather was not favourable for the gathering at Chiswick last 
week, and though the Exhibition was prolonged a couple of days the 
result was not satisfactory. On Wednesday afternoon the Conifer 
Conference was opened at 2 p.m. Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, who presided, 
delivered an address on the special features of interest in the order of 
Conifers. Noah’s flood was a thing of yesterday compared with the 
antiquity of some Conifers. All available evidence went to show that 
we must look for the ancestry of the Conifers among some group now 
extinct, but which must have been very closely allied to existing 
Lycopods and Selaginellas. This presumption was based upon certain 
very remarkable peculiarities in the organs of fertilisation, pollen as 
well as ovula. There was other evidence dependent upon the generally 
admitted fact that the progressive changes in the development and 
growth of each living creature were the reflections of similar changes of 
growth in its ancestry. As to size, Conifers were as veritable sons of 
Anak. Only some of the Eucalypts of Australia could approach them 
in this particular. There were Sequoias close upon 400 feet in height, 
and Pinus Lambertiana and ponderosa not much inferior. At the other 
extreme, there were in New Zealand Dacrydiums smaller than our 
Poplar Willow. Daily did we in some way or another avail ourselves of 
the products of these trees. With the exception of the Scotch Pine, 
the Yew, and the Juniper, no species of Conifer was wild in this 
country. Our earliest records of the introducer of plants did not go 
beyond the sixteenth century. The Pinaster w r as known here in 1596, 
the Larch in 1629, and the Lebanon Cedar in 1664. John Evelyn was 
credited with the introduction of the so-called Cedar (Juniperus 
virginiana). From 1827 to 1833 Douglas startled the botanical and 
horticultural world by the number and importance of his discoveries in 
North-west America. The Douglas Fir, the Lambert Pine, Abies 
amabilis, Abies grandis, Abies nobilis, and the Menzies Spruce were 
among the introductions of Douglas. To the Royal Horticultural 
Society it must always be a source of legitimate pride that these 
magnificent discoveries, like those of Hartweg and Fortune at a later 
date, were made by officers of the Society. In this connection it was 
interesting to note that in introducing the Araucarias from Chili and 
Australia, the Sequoias and Libocedrus from the North-West Pacific, 
and the allied Cycads from South Africa and Australia, we were but 
bringing back plants that flourished at various epochs upon our own 
soil. Dealing with the prospects, he hoped that one result of the 
Conference would be the accumulation of evidence concerning the 
economic value of these introductions, especially of some of the most 
recent. The value of the Lebanon Cedar as a decorative tree, and of the 
Weymouth Pine was admitted, but in regard to others there was still 
doubt. Had not the Deodar disappointed expectations, and was the 
Douglas Fir likely to be of any great value 1 Again, considering the 
distressing failure of the Larch in many situations owing to attacks of a 
fungus, had we among newcomers any efficient substitutes? He ventured 
to think that there were several, as Lobb’s Cypress (Thuia gigantea), 
the Lawson Cypress, the Red-wood (Taxodium sempervirens), the 
Nootka Cypress (Thujopsis borealis), the Abies brachyphylla, and some 
others of Japanese origin. It was to be feared that many of the Conifers 
were too precocious in this climate, and attained their full span of life 
much sooner than in their native land. 
Mr. H. J. Yeitch read a pajrer on Japanese Conifers, in the course of 
which he remarked that there were in Japan no fewer than forty-one 
species of Coniferae, of which a large number were indigenous. Mr. 
Edmund J. Baillie read a paper on the decorative character of Conifers. 
To a natural faculty for art he attributed the introduction of Coniferae 
which were now so much a part of our landscape decoration. Few 
classes of plants require greater care and judgment in arranging, and 
few, if any, were more effective. The Pine was the king of the woods, 
with its stately shaft, its splendidly balanced branches, and its crowned 
head of dense dark foliage standing back on the hill side. The Cedar, 
the Cypress, and the Yew had sharply defined characteristics and 
indescribable richness of colour. If Pines derived little interest and no 
decorature from inflorescence thay had a distinct advantage in their 
cones, and their full magnificence in isolation might be seen in the 
pineta at Woburn, Chatsworth, Dropmore, and Bicton. So abundant 
was the choice for decorative purposes that it was very difficult to select. 
He would, however, name Juniperus chinensis, Retinospora squarrosa, 
filifera and obtusa, Cupressus Lawsoniana stricta and variegated forms, 
Thujopsis dolobrata, the red Cedar, and the Irish, Chinese, and Golden 
Yews. There was, he thought, ample room for the introduction of 
coniferous trees and shrubs in the purely ornamental parts of gardens. 
Papers were also read on “ Conifers as Specimen Trees and for 
Landscape Gardening,” by Mr. G. Nicholson ; on “ Conifers for Timber 
and in Plantations,” by Mr. A. D. Webster ; on the “ Conifers at 
Bicton, Devon, ’ by Mr. Mark Rolle; and on the “ Conifers at Drop- 
more,” by Mr. Charles Herrin. 
On Thursday the Conference on Coniferae was resumed, Mr. W. T. 
Thiselton Dyer, Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, presided, and in 
his address remarked that they had been able to get together an exhibi¬ 
tion of Conifers unparalleled in completeness and extent. No one who 
had not travelled in Scotland could form any conception of the beauty 
and the perfection with which a large number of coniferous trees were 
cultivated in that country. There were in that part of the kingdom 
conditions of coolness and of atmosphere that were not to be met with 
in the southern parts of Great Britain. The result was that in Scotland 
one saw an enormous number of Conifers represented, not by the small 
specimens found on southern lawns and in southern arboreta, but by 
magnificent trees 70 to 100 feet high. In the south-east of England we 
could offer nothing equal to this. With the Pines, however, we were 
more successful, and even on the sterile and summer-burned soil of Kew 
they were able to have a tolerable collection of that species. But with 
regard to Abies, of which the Spruce is a type, they had in Scotland a 
state of things that we in England could not rival. In the south-west 
of England the conditions were more favourable. Here were many 
notable collections, and here, too, flourished the Mexican Pines or repre¬ 
sentatives of the family. 
Mr. Malcolm Dunn spoke of the value of introduced Conifers from 
an economic and an aesthetic point of view. Exotic Conifers, he 
remarked, had played, especially during the present century, an 
important part in landscape decoration. To the explorations conducted 
by Douglas and Fortune under the authority of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, and to the researches of Yeitch in Japan, we owed many trees, 
whose healthy progress gave promise of enduring beauty and usefulness. 
In all cases where Conifers had been planted with care in suitable soil 
the hardy species had grown up with a vigour that could scarcely be 
surpassed, even in their native habitat. A large number were useful 
forest trees, of which the timber might be used for constructive pur¬ 
poses. Among those introduced within the last hundred years he 
enumerated Abies Albertiana, one of the finest of Jeffrey’s importations 
from the North-West of America : Abies concolor, a fine Silver Fir, 
introduced by Jeffrey and Lobb, and widely planted ; Abies Douglasi, a 
grand tree in every respect, and of which there was on the Scone estate 
a specimen 91 feet 9 inches in height, and 12 feet in girth ; Abies 
grandis, another Columbia giant in the front rank of Silver Firs ; Abies 
magnifica, a promising tree in Scotland ; Abies Menziesi, of which there 
was a specimen 96 feet 11 inches high at Castle Menzies; and Abies 
nobilis and Nordmanniana. Of Cypresses, he commended especially 
Lawsoniana and macrocarpa ; and of Pinus, insignis, monticola, and 
gigantea. Dealing with the ornamental species, he pointed out the 
great width of the field of choice, and the great value derived from 
variety of colour, as well as freshness of life, when deciduous trees were 
leafless and resting. 
Scientific Committee. —Present : Dr. M. T. Masters, in the chair; 
Mr. Morris, Mr. McLachlan, Mr. Blandford, Rev. C. W. Dod, and Rev. 
G. Henslow, Hon. Sec. 
Strawberries Attached by Beetles. —With reference to this subject, 
brought before the Committee at the last meeting, Mr. Blandford 
observed that the fact had been recorded before, and attributed to 
identically the same insects, so that it was very probably the same 
beetle in the present instance. The fact that the carnivorous beetles 
thus changed their habit to eat Strawberries reminded Mr. Dod of the 
interesting fact that squirrels would eat not only Mushrooms but even 
poisonous fungi. 
Primula rosea, mildewed. —Mr. Dod exhibited plants, and observed 
that this species alone had been much attacked this year, and especially 
during the w r et season after great thunderstorms in the last week of 
June. The specimens were sent to Dr. Cooke for further examination. 
Mr. Dod also added that he had tried many kinds of remedies for mildew 
this season, but with no very great success, the best being “ anti-blight ” 
and watering with sulphate of copper. Iris reticulata had been very 
badly attacked this year. 
Fog Report. —Mr. Morris read a communication from Mr. Rix 
stating that Mr. G. H. Bailey, Secretary of the Town Gardening Com¬ 
mittee of the Manchester Field Naturalists, had expressed the willing¬ 
ness of the Committee to work in conjunction with the Scientific Com¬ 
mittee of the Royal Horticultural Society in the matter of “ Air and 
Fog,” and had applied for the grant of £50 placed at the disposal of 
the joint Committees by the Government Grant Committee. 
The members of the Scientific Committee -were unanimous in agree¬ 
ing to the proposal of Mr. Bailey, as there was still a working balance 
from last year’s grant to go on with. 
Polyporus fraxineus. —Mr. Plowright forwarded a specimen, with 
the following observations: — “It was taken from an Ash tree near 
King’s Lynn, which is being killed by this fungus. The tree is still 
alive, and bears a certain number of leaves, but will evidently succumb 
before many months. The fungus has attacked the base of the trunk 
near the ground, which is the usual site of its attack. P, fraxineus 
has hitherto not been generally regarded as a parasite by mycologists 
in Britain, but it clearly is a true parasite, capable of doing great 
damage to the trees it attacks. It is not one of the most common 
species with us. When once a tree is fairly attacked it is soon killed by 
the fungus.” The question was raised whether the fungus be not 
rather a parasite in consequence of the previous unhealthiness of the 
tree, as is so often the case with other fungi, as Dr. Masters observed. 
Mr. Henslow added that Polyporus squamosus grows on a dying Horse 
Chestnut tree in his garden, but not on the healthy ones, from which it 
might be inferred that when that fungus occurs on Ash trees, as is so 
often the case, the probability was that the trees were unhealthy. 
Merulius laerymans. —He also sent fine specimens of this fungus, 
