316 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 10, 1689. 
chrysanthemum; EDOUARD audiguier. 
Now that I have my Chrysanthemums housed I find Edouard 
Audiguier plays me the same old trick ; the florets are browning, and 
going rotten long before the bloom is fully out—in fact, it is only just 
expanding. 1 took the precaution to house it early, and it has only had 
plain water for three weeks, having taken this precaution thinking 
overfeeding might have done the deed last season. Can any of your 
readers help me to a solution of the puzzle ?— Wordsworth. 
[The defect is to a large extent constitutional, but the specimens 
sent are much too gross, the wood soft, unripened, and hollow. The 
plants have been treated too generously.] 
THE CHISWICK CHRYSANTHEMUM CONFERENCE. 
A MEETING of the Executive Committee of the Royal Horticultural 
Society’s Conference at Chiswick, which takes place on November 5th 
and 6th, was held on Tuesday last, October 8th, in the Council room, 
at the offices, 117, Victoria Street, when the following members were 
present—Shirley Hibberd, Esq., in the chair, and Messrs. A. F. Barron, 
L. Castle, N. Davis, J. Douglas, T. B. Haywood, W. Holmes, R. F. 
Jameson, C. Orchard, C. E. Pearson, G. Paul, II. J. Veitch, J. Wright, 
W. Wildsmith, and the Rev. W. Wilks. The principal business was 
forming the committees of selection snd determining the manner in 
which the awards of certificates, as at the Vegetable Conference, should 
be accorded to exhibits. After some discussion it was decided to classify 
the varieties as follows, the under-mentioned members of the Committee 
being appointed to adjudicate in the respective sections. Varieties 
suitable for outdoor cultivation—Messrs. H. Canned, W. Wildsmith, and 
H. M. Pollett. Incurved specimen blooms — Messrs. J. Wright, D. 
Donald, and W. Mease. Japanese.—Messrs. W. Holmes, E. Wills, and 
R. F. Jameson. Reflexed Anemones, Pompons, and Singles.—Messrs. 
L. Castle, C. Orchard, and N. Davis. Varieties of all classes for named 
specimens.—Messrs. Beckett, Berry, and J. Laing. Varieties suitable for 
decorative plants.—Messrs. C. Herrin, R. Owen, and W. Furze. Referees, 
or Reserve Committee, were Messrs. H. J. Veitch, E. Molyneux, R. 
Parker, and H. Payne. The Committees are to meet at 11 A.M., but the 
Floral Committee also meets at that hour, an 1 all new varieties entered 
for certificates must be submitted to that body. 
MESSRS. JAS. VEITCH & SONS, LANGLEY NURSERY. 
Cut in twain by the Slough branch of the Grand Junction Canal, 
yet is this large nursery of some ninety acres compact in form and full 
of exceeding interest to all privileged to pass within its gates. Of 
course I assume that the visitors are persons like myself who are on in¬ 
struction bent, and privileged indeed is the gardener who has in his 
earlier years been enabled to become familiar, for some time at least, 
with the exceedingly admirable and capable manner in which work of 
all kinds is performed in a first class nursery. Whilst at Langley we 
find something of everything almost, yet is the nursery chiefly devoted 
to the culture of fruit stock, and superb stock it is indeed ; but a visit 
for a part of a day to any man who keeps his eyes open is an educa¬ 
tional object lesson, the which may serve him in good stead for the rest 
of his days. The ways of nurserymen may not be mysterious or past 
finding out, but at least they are severely practical and intensely useful. 
Work is well done, it is performed on the most modern lines, and with 
the best rules of practice. It is performed on a large scale with an 
exceeding variety of subjects, and with perfect order and discipline. Even 
in the matter of studying the art of getting work well and quickly done 
a turn in a nursery is full of value, and especially so is it when the 
study is performed in such a first class school as the Langley Nursery 
presents. When I called there the other day—chiefly to see the Apples, 
of which they have had a very good crop, and the fruits generally 
superb—I could not but remark the numerous varieties of flowers being 
grown for seed, the capital nature of the strains, all indeed of the very 
best. The full appearance of the seed yard, literally crowded with 
stock of various flower and vegetable seed crops, Peas, Beet, and Celery, 
and noted with exceeding pleasure the great care bestowed upon each 
variety, and in securing the seed products in the highest condition. 
Mr. Scott, who manages this establishment for the firm, has everything 
at the tip of his tongue, and looking at the exceeding variety of 
subjects which come under his control, it is indeed needful that he 
should be a sort of human encyclopedia. 
A recent and very important addition to the features of the Langley 
Nursery has been made, for away in one corner of a big meadow beyond 
the stock yard has been erected some capital low span houses, in which 
are now deposited that interesting and wondrously varied family of 
juvenile Orchids of which Mr. Seden is the protective father, guardian, 
and friend. Mr. Seden, with all his household gods, has been transported 
from the fogs of Chelsea to the purer air of Langley, a roomy house 
having been erected for him close to the nursery, in which his numerous 
and varied family of liliputian Orchids now dwell ; not that all are 
small, for many of the plants are just coming to the flowering size, but 
there are thousands of mere pigmies in the tiniest of pots, and myriads 
also of seedlings not even yet transferred from the seed pots, the which, 
should Mr. Seden be spared, he may hope to see blooming some eight or 
ten years hence. Well have the Messrs. Veitch & Sons done to remove 
all this precious and valuable progeny to purer regions than Chelsea 
presents, for are not all more or less the products of hybridisation? and 
they may prove to be swans or geese only, but problematically their 
value must be great indeed. Orchid seed is excessively small. Mr. 
Seden shows a Cattleya pod opened containing a mass of what appear* 
to be the finest of pollen grains, but all are seeds none the less, 
and all are sown, and how ? There again is a curious experience mani¬ 
fested, the which a man may be the most expert of growers and yet 
never hear of. Why, the very best seed bed for these tiny seed particles, 
these infinitessimal embodiments of some future hundred-guinea hybrids- 
perhaps, is found on the sphagnum which surfaces the 21 or 3-inch pots, 
in which myriads of three, four, or five year old seedling plants are 
growing. In such odd material do these particles germinate far more 
readily than if sown in pans or pots alone, or in any other fashion. 
However, there is a wide interval botanically between Orchids and 
Apples, and as I went to Langley to see the Apples to Apples must I 
now revert, and the first thing to say in reference to them is that whilst 
sparse crops seem to have ruled generally, there appears to have been no 
lack of fruit at Langley, and if any solution of the great Apple-pro¬ 
ducing question is needed it seems as if it must of necessity be looted 
for in the nursery methods of culture, myriads of small trees—bush, 
pyramid, or trained—planted thickly, and for their dimensions fruiting 
abundantly. Then, again, as at Langley, Apples seem to come only in 
their true character when grown in this fashion. The smaller fruits on 
old or standard trees with which we are generally familiar are here seen 
in such enlarged, indeed monstrous form, as to be almost unrecognisable, 
so huge, so superbly developed, and so richly coloured and finished are 
they. My visit to Langley was made fully a fortnight late, and especially 
so this season, when the unusual September heat and drought have made 
the fruits to fall early everywhere. To have got there before any fruits 
were gathered for the autumn shows would have been a treat indeed, 
and I hope to experience that joy another year, when notes on Apples 
may be made with greater exactness. There were plenty of fine samples 
of the various gathered kinds in the fruit rooms, but the beauty in 
Apples is never more realised than when seen hanging on the trees, and 
especially on the young nursery trees, of which there are tens of thou¬ 
sands at Langley in the highest degree of robust healthy growth and 
setting first spurs in the most remarkable way. Myriads of these trees 
purchased in October and early in November, planted carefully, and the 
roots slightly protected with a little mulch of long manure, will carry 
superb fruits next year. Indeed there should be hardly one Apple tree 
in growth but what should produce fruits more or less next year, so 
favourable to fine bud development is the present autumn. There runs 
right through the nursery at Langley from the Slough side to the 
Langley end a broad cart-road some third of a mile perhaps in length. 
That road is bordered on either side by dwarf bush or pyramid trees of 
Apples, Pears, Cherries, &c., but the whole of one side is occupied by 
Apples ; three trees of every kind, here and there six trees, being 
planted in rows thickly, and, as far as practicable, the sorts are grouped 
into families, such as Pearmains, Nonpareils, Pippins, Russets, Codlins, 
and so on, so that if any one kind be met with its comparative allies are 
sure to be found close at hand, and thus comparison is more readily 
instituted. 
To have dealt with these myriads of kinds as there prevailed was not 
possible to me the other day. They could only be dealt with when the 
whole were fruiting and time was abundant. Certainly when performed— 
and it needs doing well—the work of comparison of kinds in their 
sections will be an interesting one. Amongst the Apples which at¬ 
tracted attention the Reinettes came first, and a striking kind was 
Werder’s Reinette, not unlike Court Pendfi Plat in form, but finer, 
with the colour of Bleinheim Pippin, a fine cropper, good keeper, and the 
tree makes a capital pyramid. The old Golden Reinette, very hand¬ 
some, cropping freely, and of the finest quality ; Reinette du Caux, 
very handsome, round fruits, striped, of medium size, a splendid dessert 
variety ; Reinette Jaune Hative, fruits of rich colour and highly per¬ 
fumed, ripens in August, was commended as a first-class early dessert 
sort; Winter Pearmain, in a wonderfully fine form, colouring richly, a 
very beautiful Apple ; Scarlet Pearmain, brilliant in colour, handsome, 
conical form ; Hormead’s Pearmain, very handsome, conical, good size 
and solid, a beautiful fruit, and keeps well, first-class quality ; Hereford¬ 
shire Pearmain, a capital old kind, not commonly met with, good, late 
keeper ; Baumann’s Red Winter Reinette, rich red, tree a fine cropper, 
keeps well, a superior market Apple ; Baxter’s Pearmain, conical, like 
fine King of the Pippins, keeps well till March ; Balchin’s Pearmain has 
protrusions at the stem like Lemon Pippin, but keeps colour, a fine 
keeping variety; Adams’ Pearmain, well known and good ; Lane’s 
Prince Albert, fruiting freely, quite a picture, should be universally 
grown for market on dwarf trees ; Peasgood’s Nonesuch, wonderful 
samples on these small trees ; North End Pippin, a handsome and large 
conical shaped variety ; Northern Greening, a fine crop ; Early 
Nonpareil, pretty yellowish round, excellent for dessert; Mrs. Barron, a 
superb conical Apple, yellowish skin with some colour, a grand variety ; 
American Mother, delicious quality, and good conical form ; Margil, 
fruiting finely and freely ; Lord Derby, one of the finest of the Codlia 
type, and fairly good keeper. 
Lord Nelson, not unlike Cellini Pippin, a fine cropper, and wants to 
be better known ; also Nelson Codlin, a moderate growing, free 
cropping kind, fruit like Lord Suffield, but greener and keeps longer ; 
Lady Henniker, a capital keeping sort ; London Pippin, a pretty round 
variety ; the old Lemon Pippin and King of the Pippins, the latter 
especially wonderfully fine ; Jonathan, an American variety for dessert 
purposes, conical, coloured, handsome, and a free cropper ; Withington 
Fillbasket, a huge fruiter, like Ecklinville, but free from speck ; Cornish 
Gillyflower, very beautiful; Lewis’s Incomparable, fine red fruited, 
kind; Winter Hawthornden, fruiting grandly according to statement; 
