January 28, 1886.] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
73 
the broth.” Amongst the means that have daring the past year 
been adopted to advance the interests of horticulture have been 
the evening conversaziones of the Horticultural Club. We hope 
that there may be an increase of members consequent on this, 
for in many ways the Club is designed to meet the wants of 
horticulturists. 
There is one point which in the review of the past is ever 
powerful—the reading of the death-roll, and the past year has taken 
away from us many whom we could ill spare. It is a testimony to 
the healthfulness of the calling that amongst them were Mr. 
Ellacombe, who died at 95 ; Mr. Chater at 84, and Mr. Drewitt at 
85, and these gentlemen retained their faculties and their love of 
the garden up to the very end. Mr. Ellacombe was in his 94th 
year when I had the pleasure of visiting him at Clyst St. G-eorge, 
and a more wonderful and charming example of extreme old age 
I never saw. His memory was good, his love of his garden as great 
as ever, and his talk upon his favourite subject as instructive as 
any listener could wish. Amongst others who have passed away 
from us were some who were valued and personal friends. In Mr. 
George Baker of Reigate, the kindly and courteous Yice-President 
of the National Rose Society and the most enthusiastic of Rose 
lovers, many, very many, miss a valued friend. Then that king of 
florists. Charles Turner, has also gone from us. Associated as he 
has been with my life-long pursuit of florists’ flowers, one has had 
the opportunity of comparing him with others who have travelled 
on the same lines, and one has no hesitation in saying that he was 
a head and shoulders above his fellows, and that he has done more 
to advance their cultivation than all other florists put together. Of 
him it was true in a floricultural sense there was nothing that he 
touched that he did not adorn. Every flower he took in hand he 
improved and increased its popularity. There was not one of them 
in which his name is not associated with new and improved varie¬ 
ties. No man had greater perceptive powers, and at a glance he 
could take in the merits or demerits of an exhibit, and, what is 
rarer still, could see where his own were faulty, which, to tell the 
truth, they very seldom were. Amongst all those who passed 
away last year there is no one I have personally more missed or 
who was a greater favourite amongst his fellows than James 
Cutbush. He had long presided over the Highgate firm, and had 
successfully carried out the culture of bulbs, especially the 
Hyacinth. It was ever a pleasure to meet him. He battled cheer¬ 
fully against continued ill health, and was ever cheerful and pleasant. 
It is a great matter to know that in the case of these two firms 
sons trained in their father’s ways still keep the old name up, and 
that neither Charles Turner nor James Cutbush disappear from 
our lists of floriculturists. Mr. Chater was long known as a suc¬ 
cessful rearer and cultivator of the Hollyhock, while Mr. Drewitt 
long presided over the lovely gardens of Denbies. And so our ranks 
become thinned, new faces meet us, new acquaintances are made, 
but will they ever replace the friendships of bygone days ? I think 
not. 
And so must end my brief review of the past year, chequered 
as it must be with its sunshine and clouds. Let us hope that its 
teachings may not have been lost on all thoughtful readers of the 
Journal. They need not be if we are wise in our day and genera¬ 
tion.—D., Deal. 
FAIRLAWN HOUSE, CHISWICK. 
It has doubtless been the experience of some who have visited large 
gardens that their very extent has been a source of disappointment. So 
much is spread before the eye, there are so many surprises, that a sense 
of bewilderment is sometimes the result. This thought has been 
suggested by a recent inspection of a small garden, one that lays no 
claim to pretension, and yet that has a quiet charm. It is situated near 
to the Acton Green station of the District Railway Company, and stands 
close to a spot that has an interest for those who are of an historical turn 
of mind, for near here took place a sanguinary conflict between the 
Royalists and Cromwellians. The garden contains a good and tastefully 
arranged collection of Chrysanthemums ; some 350 plants being grown 
then (December), making the little conservatory gay, had an especial 
charm for lovers of this truly popular autumn favourite ; and the display 
would not have disgraced larger gardens. 
The majority of blooms are taken by the gardener, Mr. Davis, from 
the crown bud, these producing the earliest and finest blooms, those on 
the terminal coming in for later wood. He is a believer in what is 
called the cutting-down process, and means to adopt the practice more 
extensively in the future, plants thus treated producing the greatest 
quantity of flowers, not perhaps coming up to the exhibition standard, 
but still valuable for decorative purposes, a point for consideration in 
private establishments. 
I noted a few varieties that were doing well—necessarily space forbids 
our giving any long lists—and append their names for the benefit of 
those who wish to grow a collection in a small garden. Those who 
disregard formality, and do not want to see flowers as though turned out 
of a mould, find the Japanese the best. In this class we noticed as 
especially good Lady Selborne, that snowy-white grand flower, sport from 
James Salter ; Mdlle. Lacroix, long drooping sulphur white florets, very 
graceful and handsome; Madame C. Audiguier, colour deep mauve 
beautiful, of great size, a magnificent flower; Mdlle. Moulise, a large 
sulphur white flower, with long twisted petals, a fine exhibition flower ; 
Thunberg, pale yellow, twisted florets, very attractive and fine. 
Amongst the incurved that old but still most exquisite flower, 
Princess of Wales, was very attractive with its fine blush-tinted rose 
flowers ; Mr. Bunn, an improvement on the well-known Golden Beverley ; 
Beverley, a fine pure white flower ; the sport from Mrs. George Rundle, 
George Glenny, is a beautiful flower, colour a pale yellow or primrose ; 
Mrs. George Rundle, a fine white; Venus, a very fine peach-coloured 
flower. 
In a house adjacent to that in which were the Chrysanthemums we 
noted some well-coloured specimen Crotons, Queen Victoria being 
specially noticeable, that lighted up the house. A few specimens of 
Cycas circinalis were also noteworthy, it made fronds from 6 to 7 feet in 
length last year, and is very telling as a group plant. It was purchased 
when the Orleans House fine collection of plants was disposed of. Those 
effective Tree Ferns, Cyathea dealbata and C. prineeps, deservedly merit 
notice. Fuchsias, pyramidally trained, are a speciality, and often put 
in a successful appearance at the local shows. Fuchsias as a rule 
are not well done at London shows. As might be expected in a 
place of this description, fruit-growing is not carried on to any extent. 
A vinery is devoted to that everybody’s Grape, Black Hamburgh. A 
crop of some 200 good medium-sized bunches was produced last season, 
and the Vines are in capital condition for future requirements. Apples 
and Pears are grown just to suit only a moderate demand for them, a 
tree of that valuable late culinary Apple. Dumelow’s Seedling (Welling¬ 
ton) has borne about 13 bushels of its valued fruit. An unpruned pyramid 
Pear, Calebasse, some 20 feet high, having yielded 8 or 9 bushels of its 
large fruits.—B. 
NOTES FROM A NOTTINGHAMSHIRE GARDEN. 
Will “ A. M. B.” care for a few suggestions for her herbaceous 
border from a neighbouring county ? as the climate of north 
Notts and mid-Lincoln must be much the same. At all events we 
have been enjoying much the same variations of temperature lately as 
those “A. M. B.” describes. Earliest of all here (except the 
Christmas Roses) are the Cyclamens Coum and Atkinsii. C. Coum 
had several bright crimson blossoms on the 16th, having already 
weathered one spell of frost since it began to flower. Since that date 
(I am writing on the 24th January) it has been covered with snow, 
from which I hope it will emerge as brightly as before when the 
thaw comes at last. I am sorry to say that I do not find the later- 
blowing hardy Cyclamens as satisfactory as the winter ones. 
C. vernum gives us a few of its pretty rosy flowers so much larger 
than C. Coum, but it seems to feel the spring frosts, and the 
clump dwindles and does not increase as C. Coum does. Cyclamen 
europseum has so far not grown at all with me ; and what I believe 
to be C. hederaefolium, which I brought from Algiers four years ago, 
though it throws up its large handsome marbled leaves each autumn, 
does not flower. Indeed, my Algerian plants have not been very 
successful. Anemone palmata comes up every spring, but does not 
bloom (I have planted one clump of it in peat, where I hope it may 
succeed better), and Iris stylosa, which I keep in a pot in a cold 
frame, has only bloomed once, and then in the October of 1884, 
hardly the right time of year. 
Then in the spring Primula rosea, with its bright pink heads, is 
very charming. If the sparrows will only abstain from picking otf the 
blossoms it increases very rapidly. From two tiny plants purchased 
in 1879 I have now a large enough stock to use it freely as a 
bedding plant for the spring beds, besides having clumps about the 
garden, where it certainly prefers the moist corners. We also find 
Triteleia uniflora very useful for bedding. It does not seem to mind 
being moved twice a year. Primulas cashmeriana and denticulata 
with their lilac heads form a pleasant contrast to the Doronicums, 
Adonis vernalis, and hosts of yellow Daffodills which bloom at the 
same time. 
As to Daffodils and Narcissus, the difficulty nowadays is to 
choose between them, and though we have over thirty varieties that 
is but a small collection. Perhaps pallidus prsecox, Horsfieldi, 
moschatus, Stella, Orange Phoenix, and the double and single Poeticus 
are among the most distinct ; but then we cannot do without the de¬ 
lightful Hoop Petticoat and the Queen Anne Jonquil. 
What beautiful colours there are among the species of Tulips, the 
brilliant orange scarlet Greigii and the yellow Florentine growing in 
bunches, and bright Monstre Rouge Parrot Tulip, though of the latter 
we sometimes complain that the flowers open green and do not colour 
in a cold spring, Then Phlox setacea and its varieties make pretty 
pink carpets for the front row of a border ; and Trillium grandi- 
florum with its beautiful white flowers will do for the shady places, 
and Megasea with its big leaves and pink flowers seems to thrive and 
increase everywhere. Then there are Crown Imperials and purple 
and white Rockets and Flag Iris. The Iris seem nearly as vast a 
