68 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 23, 1881. 
Davis securing the remaining prizes with smaller but equally healthy 
examples. Mr. Chadwick also staged the finest six foliage plants, and was 
followed by Messrs. Davis and Hooper & Co. 
Bouquets were not satisfactory, being heavy and formal, but the stands 
of flowers were good, especially the three with which Mrs. Hudson, Gun- 
nersbury House Gardens, gained the premier honours, which were the most 
tasteful we have seen for a long time, and were really faultless. 
Fruit was numerously shown, Cherries, Gooseberries, Currants, and 
Strawberries being especially good. The Grapes, however, with the ex¬ 
ception of the two premier prize collections in the white and black 
variety classes were not quite so satisfactory. Mr. Hudson had the best 
black Grapes, Madresfleld Court, even hunches, large berries, and well 
coloured; Mr. Band, Homefield Gardens, Ealing, taking a similar position 
in the white Grape class with Duke of Buccleuch, medium size bunches 
and berries, but splendidly coloured. 
Vegetables were excellently shown, the competition being unusually 
keen in all the classes. The Society’s prizes for nine dishes brought 
seven exhibitort, Mr. C. J. Waite, Glenhurst Gardens, Esher; Mr. J. Coombs, 
and Mr. W. Wright securing the awards in that order with fresh, clean, even 
produce. Eleven competitors entered for Messrs. J. Carter & Co.’s prizes, 
and C. J. Waite was again the premier exhibitor, followed by Messrs. 
J. Coombs and A. Wright. Of the nine entries for Messrs. Sutton and 
Sons’ prizes Mr. C. J. Waite was for the third time the champion, thus 
carrying off three first prizes for vegetables at one show—a remarkable 
achievement; Mr. J. Coombs being second in each class, and in the last 
named was followed by Mr. T. Sich. 
The non-competing exhibits comprised some magnificent Hoses from 
Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons ; Lee & Son, Hammersmith ; and Bunyard & Co., 
Maidstone. Messrs. Lee also having a fine group of ornamental trees and 
shrubs. 
MARECHAL NIEL ROSE. 
The Marshal Niel Hose blooms which I sent you some time ago 
were grown against the wall of a house without any protection. The 
situation is well sheltered from the north and east, and fully exposed to 
the south and west. What I consider the chief cause of success is that it 
is grown in a box and liberally nourished during its period of growth. 
Grown thus, with a restricted root space, the wood ripens better than 
when planted out, and the fine blooms it produces in the early summer 
will repay for the extra labour caused.—J. MacDonald. 
[We have not seen finer blooms at any of the Rose eIiows this year 
than two that were sent to us by our correspondent.] 
THE PRESERVATION OF NATIVE PLANTS. 
The Council of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies, in¬ 
cluding upwards of twenty natural history societies and field clubs in 
the midland counties, forward us the following statement concerning 
the desirability of adopting some means of preserving the native flora of 
Great Britain. 
It is a fact only too evident to the most superficial observer that 
many of our rarest and most beautiful native plants have already been or 
are being rapidly exterminated ; and it may be assumed that this ex¬ 
termination will be viewed with regret—even with indignation—alike by 
the student and by the ordinary lover of natural beauty, and that both 
will be willing to assist, by all available means, in any measures which 
may afford the prospect of arresting its course. 
The Council of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies asks 
serious attention to the following brief statement of the causes of the 
rapid destruction of British plants, and of what it ventures to suggest as 
the best means of mitigating the evil. 
These causes appear to be mainly as follow :— 
First, The ravages of professional plant-hunters, who offer to the 
tourist or to the general public, by advertisement, plants attractive by 
reason of their beauty or of their comparative or absolute rarity. 
Second, The operations of Exchange Clubs, the members of which are 
aften asked to supply large numbers of the rare plants of their own dis¬ 
tricts in exchange for corresponding quantities of those of other neigh¬ 
bourhoods. 
Third, The indiscriminate or careless gathering of plants, often taken 
with their roots or in seed, by botanists and their students in the course 
of botanical excursions. 
Fourth, The reckless gathering of large numbers of specimens by 
individual botanists. 
Recognising that restrictive legislation or police interference are 
neither applicable nor desirable, the Council believes that it is by the 
indirect influence of example and the promotion of healthy public opinion 
that the evil in question can alone be combated. 
They, therefore, earnestly urge the following considerations upon 
botanists, members of field clubs, natural history and other scientific 
societies, upon all lovers of Nature, and upon the public generally : — 
First, That they should rigidly abstain from encouraging or 
countenancing the purchase from professional plant-hunters of any 
native plants for the sake either of their rarity or of their decoiative value. 
Second, That botanists should resort to the assistance of exchange 
clubs, if at all, only for the purpose of obtaining single specimens 
necessary to fill up blanks in their herbaria, using such assistance 
with discrimination, and excluding from their operations plants of 
great rarity. 
Third, That all teachers should inculcate upon their pupils, by 
precept and example, the lamentable consequences of the wholesale or 
indiscriminate gathering of plants, especially with their roots or when 
in seed. 
Fourth, That individual botanists should seriously reflect on these 
consequences, and abstain from taking more than the smallest number 
of specimens indispensable for the purposes of genuine study, and even 
from taking any where the extermination of a particular species from a 
restricted habitat is threatened. 
Fifth, That tourists and amateurs should be urged to refrain from 
collecting plants of any degree of scarcity, especially when in flower 
or seed, it being impossible that 10 per cent, of those gathered under such 
conditions can possibly live after removal. 
Finally, the Council earnestly appeals to the editors of all journals 
devoted to science and art, as well as to horticulture and floriculture, 
and to those of the leading London and provincial papers, to assist it in 
creating a healthy public opinion on this subject by the expression of 
their sympathy with the effort which the Council is making. 
RARE PITCHER PLANTS (Nepenthes Lowi). 
The other day I heard an amateur observe that, much as he liked 
Nepenthes, there was a remarkable sameness about them in habit of 
growth and in form of pitcher. Perhaps to some extent he was right, and 
yet I never see the great collection at Messrs. Yeitch’s Chelsea nursery 
without falling in love with these plants over and over again. When 
well grown, even the commoner kinds, such as N. gracilis, N. phyllam- 
pbora are most elegant but good plants ; even small ones, well grown, of 
N. Hookeriae, N. Ma^tersiana, or N. Khasyana never fail to attract 
attention. Apart from their beauty of form and lovely colouring their 
interest botanically is very great, and Dr. Macfarlane of Edinburgh, 
who has recently carried on some interesting microscopical examinations 
of the glandular structure of the pitchers, finds these glands so charac¬ 
teristic that not only native species, but even garden hybrids, could be 
named with tolerable, even if not with infallible, certainty by the inspection 
of these glands alone. Perhaps after all there is some little sameness in 
the pitchers of many kinds, especially since the influx of the American 
hybrids raised by Mr. James Taplin ; but one thing is especially worth 
remembering—viz , that some of the most remarkable and distinct of all 
the wild species are not as yet in the hands of ordinary cultivators. One 
of the most distinct of these is certainly N. Lowi, of which we now give 
an illustration. Its great leathery pitchers are flagon-shaped, and totally 
different to those of any other known species of Borneo, its native land, 
although in the Seychelles Islands there is a wild species, N. Wardii, 
which has pitchers somewhat similar but smaller. 
Then there is the true N. villosa, with downy pitchers as gracefully 
rounded and as brilliant in colour as a well-ripened Peach; but (after 
N. Lowi) perhaps the most distinct and beautiful of all the unintroduced 
Nepenthes is N. Edwardsiana, pitchers of which have been found over 
20 inches in length and of a bright brick-red colour. The above are 
some of the more remarkable kinds yet to be introduced to our gardens 
generally, but we already have the noble N. Northiana andN. Rajah from 
Borneo, and one or two interesting kinds from Sumatra. 
N. Lowi is found at an elevation of about 5000 feet on Kina Balu, in 
the north of Borneo. It is epiphytal on low-growing trees of Casuarina, 
every branch of which is covered with wet moss and beard-like masses of 
Usnea. The growing points of the long rope-like stems which peep out 
above the scrubby mass of undergrowth are covered with pitchers, as 
shown in this little sketch made on the spot. N. Lowi was named after 
Hugh Low, Esq. (now Sir Hugh Low, C.M.G.), who, when Colonial 
Secretary at Labuan, made the first ascent of Kina Balu, and discovered 
three or four Bpecies of Nepenthes and other plants previously unknown. 
As this mountain is so rich in botanical interest, it is to be hoped that 
the British North Borneo Company will have it thoroughly explored, 
seeing that it lies but a few days’ journey from their coast stations; 
indeed, one of the first objects of the Company should have been the for¬ 
mation of a road to, and a health station or sanitarium on this cool 
mountain side, seeing that without such provision it is well nigh impos¬ 
sible for Europeans to exist permanently in such a uniformly hot and 
malarious climate.—F. <W. B. 
PLUNGING PLANTS. 
Only a few years ago it was a common practice to plunge plants in 
some moisture-holding material when grown indoors or placed outside 
during the summer months ; but of late years a general system of 
plunging does not appear to be practised, and I am led to the conclusion 
that this operation has not found favour with gardeners generally. 
As far as indoor plants are concerned this view of the case can be 
largely supported by a mere glance at the modern structures that have 
been erected for plants. In these provision for plunging material scarcely 
finds a place, and stages are substituted of iron and slate capable of 
holding 2 or 3 inches of sand, gravel, ashes, fibre, or similar material for 
retaining moisture. That plants can be grown to a high state of per¬ 
fection without being plunged is fully demonstrated by the splendid 
examples to be met with in many gardens where plants for decoration are 
largely grown. Although such results are attained it does not prove that 
the system generally adopted is the best or the most economical as regards 
labour. I am of opinion that in most gardens accommodation should be 
provided for plunging, but the deep pits or bets frequently seen in old 
houses are not needed. The beds should be sufficiently deep for 8 to 
12-inch pots, and if larger than these need plunging the material can 
be raised above the side of the beds without presenting an untidy 
appearance. 
For the propagating frame plunging material should be provided—I 
