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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 
157 
in bulbs, that measures are being taken to prevent it. The fact that 
at last the secret has been found to extract a perfume from Hyacinth 
flowers may add not a little to remove this grievance.” 
“ The Hyacinth, from an English Point of View ” is the title of Mr. 
J. Douglas’s paper, in which are incorporated the chief facts derived 
from the author’s long experience as a cultivator and exhibitor. The 
writer observes :— 
“ I have cultivated the Hyacinth successfully as an exhibition plant 
in pots for more than a quarter of a century, and may therefore claim 
the right to be a teacher of those who are but commencing their culture. 
The first point to attend to is the purchase of the bulbs, and if the best 
results are expected, full-grown bulbs must be purchased in the best 
varieties. Those intended to flower early should be planted in their 
pots about the middle of September, or even earlier. Those that will 
flower in March, a month later. They should be planted in a rich com¬ 
pound of good loam two parts, one part decayed cow manure, one part 
leaf mould, and one of river sand. This mixture should be laid up in a 
heap about the beginning of August, in order that the ingredients may 
be well incorporated before the material is used. I use the ordinary 
form of pot, 5 and 6 inches diameter inside measure. See that the 
pots are clean, and that clean potsherds are placed over the holes for 
drainage ; some rough turf should be placed over the drainage to pre¬ 
vent the finer particles of soil from mixing with it, and thus choking 
the outlet of water. It is well known that a Hyacinth will grow and 
flower well in water only ; but when it is planted in garden mould too 
much water, or a stoppage of the outlet for the superfluous water, will 
destroy the roots and seriously cripple the growth of the plant.” 
DAFFODILS. 
An exhaustive paper on “The Narcissus,” by Mr. F. W. Burbidge, 
M.A., occupies twenty-three pages of the journal, and gives an interest¬ 
ing review of the leading characters of the genus, structure, colour, 
distribution, species, hybrids, names, seedlings,. and culture, showing 
special sections devoted to their consideration. Double varieties are 
also discussed, and a select list of the best varieties in all the groups is 
furnished. 
“ Seedling Daffodils ” receive the attention of the Bev. G. H. Engle- 
heart, M.A., and many interesting suggestions are given to cultivators. 
In regard to double varieties, it is said :— 
“ Enough attention has not been paid to the raising of double seed¬ 
lings. Double Daffodils seed more often than is supposed. A very 
double Daffodil often has the stigma perfect and visible among the 
tightly packed petals if the flower is well examined. It is because 
there is seldom a large pod that the seed is unnoticed. A few seeds 
may not uncommonly be found in what looks merely like the rather 
swollen end of the pedicel. I have seedlings of the common ‘double 
Telamonius ’ now in flower, and several other gardeners can say the 
same. Hybrid or crossed doubles are not impossibilities. In 1885 I 
noticed the stigma protruding from the tightly-double trunk of a few 
flowers of double cernuus. I marked them, and obtained nineteen 
seeds, eleven of which grew. Out of curiosity I dusted the stigma of 
one or two with pollen from a yellow Ajax—I believe it was spurius— 
which was growing near at hand. This spring one of the eleven seed¬ 
lings is flowering, and the cross was evidently effectual, for the flower— 
so far as I could judge of it in its half-opened state before I left home— 
is drooping, like cernuus, but so yellow as to be almost precisely like the 
common double yellow. The ten unflowered seedlings seem to vary in 
leaf and habit, and I may have more oddities to report next year. It 
may be of service to hybridisers to kno"w that the pollen of double 
Narcissi commonly gives doubleness to single flowers fertilised with it. 
In my garden I have some clumps of the common double yellow on a 
walled south border, which therefore bloom early. In a batch of seed¬ 
lings from ‘Tenby,’ sown in 1884, I have one quite double flower, 
differing in no visible feature from the common double yellow or 
Telamonius plenus. I understand that my friend Mr. Wolley Dod has 
had precisely the same experience, and I do not doubt that in both 
gardens insects conveyed pollen from the double flower to the single. 
These seedlings have been grown in ranks and watched every year, and 
no mistake has been made. Our common wild Pseudo-N., when 
fertilised by pollen of the common double yellow, yields single yellow 
seedlings, and also doubles of a small intermediate character. Much 
then, I think, might be done to give us greater variety in double 
Narcissi.” 
Mr. Alfred Tait, F.L.S., of Oporto, contributes some “ Observations 
on Portuguese Narcissi,” in which several of the best species and 
natural hybrids found in northern Portugal are described. 
THE AUBICULA. 
The discourses of the Ilev. F. D. Horner on Auriculas are always 
worth hearing or perusal, and the paper in this issue of the Journal is 
replete with instructive notes. 
“ In the days of the older raisers there were weak flowers produced 
and accepted, perhaps for variety’s sake, if they were anything like an 
Auricula, perhaps because to equal the best was an impious expectation. 
But a sterner rule is laid down for us, and I am not sorry for it. A new 
Auricula is at once taken for judgment before the best of the older 
flowers, and if it is not worthy it stands lower than the old second- 
rates. • Some redoubtable champion variety is flung at its diminished 
head, and that floral missile is at present the grand grey-edge George 
Lightbody. Even this flower often shows more faults than one, all the 
more vexatious because it can do better. But at its best it is far too 
true an Auricula for us to wish to see it driven out of the field. Our 
aim is rather to surround it with compeers which it will be a great 
honour to defeat. Towards that—and not in one class only but in all— 
I feel a quiet assurance that we are progressing. Another point upon 
which I would lay all stress is purity. In crosses I would keep class to 
class to intensify class distinctions, to avoid beaded edges in the green- 
edged, undecided edges in the greys, and lack of density in the whites. 
So may the seifs also have their rule of colour to colour. Enterprising 
exceptions here should be made carefully, for some mixtures only result 
in dull and common shades of puce, and unattractive tints of plum, to 
say nothing of fancy sports that scarcely have a name in colour.” A- 'iuSi 
The concluding paper is “ Orchid Culture, Past and Present,” by 
Mr. H. J. Veitch, comprising an extremely interesting review of Orchid 
history, particularly in regard to the practical improvement in culture 
and the extension of knowledge generally respecting Orchids. 
National Chrysanthemum Society. —A Conference of cul¬ 
tivators and others interested in the Chrysanthemum will be held on 
September 11th in conjunction with the National Chrysanthemum 
Society’s Exhibition of early flowering Chrysanthemums, with Dahlias 
and Gladioli, at the Boyal Aquarium. The programme prepared by the 
Sub-Committee appointed to carry out the arrangements includes a 
paper bv Mr. W. Piercy of Forest Hill on “ Early Flowering Chrysan¬ 
themums,” and a paper by Mr, J. Doughty of Angley Park on the 
“ Treatment of Plants (Grown for the Production of Exhibition 
Blooms) a Short Time Previous to the Shows.” The chair will be 
taken at 4 P.M. 
- It is with feelings of regret that I record the death of 
Mr. G. D. Yallance of Tresco Abbey, Isles of Scilly. He 
had of late suffered from an affection of the heart, although he 
was not obliged to give up his duties till quite recently, when provision 
was made for him to reside at Yetton. He died at Exeter on the 
17th inst., on his way over from Scilly in company with one of his 
sons. He was well known during the last few years in connection 
with the fine gardens at Scilly. His gardening career was commenced 
at Stackpole Court, Pembrokeshire, at an early age, being apprenticed 
there. After leaving here he served in other places, and in due course 
took charge of the gardens at Farleigh Castle, near Bath. There he 
remained seventeen years, gaining the respect of all with whom he 
came in contact, and more especially by the young men of the village, 
whom he taught in the evening school gratuitously for many years. 
After this he went to Pen Hall, near Sherborne, where he remained 
thirteen years ; from there to Tresco, where he discharged his various 
duties for fourteen years. He was a good all-round gardener, and had 
many friends, gained by his genial manner.—J. C. F. 
_ Improved Varieties of Vegetables and Fruits.—I 
feel sure it will be interesting to many Fellows of the Boyal Horti¬ 
cultural Society to be informed whether the supposition under which I 
labour, that seeds of improved varieties of vegetables and flowers raised 
in the Society’s gardens, are distributed amongst the Fellows, as in 
accordance with the practice of the Society.—F. B. H. S. 
_ Garden Ivies.—M any thanks, in which I am sure many of 
your Ivy-loving readers will join me, for Mr. Shirley Hibberd’s clear 
and concise list of all known varieties. The “ Ivy green ” is a great 
favourite here, and we have many varieties from many places, from 
abbey, and castle, and parsonage, and priest’s house, and cottage 
garden. The delightful vagaries of the Ivy always remind me of the 
healthy school boy at play. It (and he ?) does many things, generally 
simple and beautiful tricks of Nature, and with the intuition of 
native genius, and is scarcely ever twice alike.— Tempora mutantur. 
_ Gardeners’ Improvement Societies.—I t is becoming the 
custom, and a very good custom it is, for the members of Gardeners 
Improvement Societies to pay annual visits to nurseries and gardens of 
note that are conveniently accessible. Not only is a well earned day of 
pleasure thus enjoyed, but information is gathered and hints stored by 
