382 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October SI, 1889v 
- The Gardeners’ Orphan Fund.—T he usual meeting of the 
Committee took place at the Caledonian Hotel, Adelphi, on October 25th, 
Mr. George Deal in the chair, there being a good attendance of members 
The minutes of the last meeting having been read, the Hon. Secretary- 
announced there was a balance at the bank of £424 17s. lOd. Some 
receipts from special sources were announced, including £6 10s. from 
Mr. W. Wildsmith, Heckfield Gardens, on the occasion of opening the 
gardens ; £2 12s. from Mr. W. H. Divers, Ketton Hall, on the same 
occasion, but the day was wet; £1, the proceeds of a concert at 
Swallowfield, from Mr. C. W. Allen ; and £1 from Mr. J. Wallis, Keele 
Hall Gardens, a portion of the offertory on the occasion of the harvest 
festival. The following donations were announced :—Mr. J. Broome, 
Llandudno, £5 ; Messrs. Oakshott & Millard, Reading, £2 2s. ; Mr. T. B. 
Potter, M.P., £1 ; and money boxes as follows : Mr. G. Milford, Egerton 
Lodge, Melton Mowbray, £3 ; Wakefield Paxton Society, £2 10s. ; Mr. 
J. Miles, Southampton, 21s.; Mr. R. Greenford, Priory Gardens, War¬ 
wick, £2 Is. 3d.; Mr. C. Sutton, Chevening Park Gardens, 12s.; Royal 
Horticultural Gardens, Chiswick, 5s. 3d.; Mr. W. A. Green, Wolver¬ 
hampton, 3s. 7d. The quarterly allowance to children upon the Fund, 
£61 15s., was ordered to be paid, and a sum of £300 placed on deposit 
at the bank. It was announced that the sum of £3025 19s. lOd. has 
been invested. The proceedings closed with a vote of thanks to the 
Chairman. 
- A Fine Camellia. —There is a wonderful specimen of a double 
white Camellia at The ITenburys, Moseley, Birmingham, the residence 
of G. F. Lyndon, Esq. This tree has been at The Henburys fifty years ; 
and was supposed to be from fifteen to twenty years old when placed 
there. It is growing in a box 6 feet square and 3 feet deep, and stands 
on a revolving plate, so that the tree can be readily moved round to 
face the front of the conservatory. The tree is 18 feet high, and was 
21 feet high, but getting too tall for the house 6 feet of the top was cut 
out some few years since. It is 18 feet through, and is clothed with 
free healthy growth to the bottom. It is in the best of health, with a 
profusion of large dark green foliage, and has at least 3000 buds left 
upon it, a very large number having been taken off. The tree is 
symmetrical in growth, and I doubt if a finer specimen exists.— 
On-lookeb. 
- The fortnightly meeting of the Reading and District 
Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Association was held at the 
British Workman on Monday evening (October 28th), when a good 
number of members assembled to hear a paper entitled, “ How to Pro¬ 
long the Season for Some of the Most Popular Vegetables,” by Mr. 
Chas. Ilott of Wokefield Park. Mr. Wm. Lees presided. The vege¬ 
tables dealt with were Peas and French Beans, Seakale, Asparagus, 
Cauliflower, Horn Carrots, Globe Artichokes, and Vegetable Marrows. 
Some good French Beans and Improved Ne Plus Ultra Peas were 
exhibited, gathered on Monday from the open ground, which proved 
that the season for these vegetables may be prolonged very considerably 
by protection. A discussion followed, at the conclusion of which Mr. 
Ilott was heartily thanked for his able paper. Mr. J. Woolford exhi¬ 
bited some good pans of Pleione lagenaria and P. maculata from Mr. 
Alfred Palmer’s collection. These, int'erspersed with Maidenhair Ferns, 
had a very pretty effect. A vote of thanks was accorded. 
- Flowers in Kirkcudbrightshire.—T he following are in 
flower to-day, 28th October, in my small garden close to the Solway 
Perennials: Dahlias, Phloxes, Pyrethrums, Chrysanthemums, Gaillar- 
dias, Anemones, Violas, Pentstemons, Aubrietias, Alyssum saxatile com- 
pactum, Arabis albida, Hypericum reptans, Linaria anticaria, L. alpina, 
Sedum spectabile, Geum coccineum fl. pi., Asters, Crocus longiflorus, 
C. suaveolens, Roses, Primula cashmeriana, Papaver nudicaule, Cam¬ 
panula pyramidalis, C. carpatica, C. persicifolia alba, Armeria plan- 
taginea, Onosma taurica, Myosotis, Gladioli, (Enothera taraxacifolia alba, 
Polyanthus, Primrose, double Lilac, Oxlip, Rudbeckia Newmanni, 
Potentilla nepalensis, Lithospermum prostratum, Hieracium auranti- 
acum, Antirrhinums, Agrostemma coronaria alba, Erica vagans alba, 
Iberis stylosa, Orobus, Hollyhock, Fuchsias, Jasminum nudiflorum. 
Annuals : Chrysanthemum coronarium, Calendulas, Coreopsis, Nemesia 
compacta, Saponaria calabrica, Tropceolum majus, French Marigolds, 
Mignonette, Alyssum maritimum, and Ionopsidium acaule. The Colchi- 
cums are out of bloom, having flowered unusually early, C. variegatum 
being the first, opening August 18th, and C. autumnale opening 
August 20th. Crocuses Boryi and ochroleucus will be in flower in a 
day or two, and C. Imperati, C. Sieteri, and C. biflorus are all above 
ground. — S. Arnott. 
- Commercial Botany. —It would be impossible to form any 
correct i lea of what has been attained in the knowledge of plants, use¬ 
ful or otherwise, without referring to the results of the principal 
expeditions which have left our shores for different parts of the world 
during the present century, such, for instance, as Ross’s Antarctic Ex¬ 
pedition, which resulted in “ The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of 
H.M. Ships Erebus and Terror, in the years 1839 to 1843,” by Dr. 
(now Sir) J. D. Hooker ; or Captain Kellet’s voyage of the Herald, after 
which appeared “ The Botany of H.M.S. Herald during the years 1845 to 
1851,” by Berthold Seemann ; or in still later times Captain Nares’ Chal¬ 
lenger Expedition from 1873 to 1876, the botany of which occupies two 
large volumes, principally the work of Mr. W. B. Hemsley, F.R.S. Not 
that these expeditions have resulted directly in the introduction of any 
one useful plant either for general culture or commerce, but they have 
been instrumental in imparting a knowledge of the resources of the 
several countries visited, and in this way have awakened an interest in 
them. Important, indeed, as these expeditions have been in elucidating 
the botany of the world, still more so has been the formation of the 
several museums in the principal centres of the United Kingdom for the 
especial purpose of developing the economic resources of the vegetable, 
animal, and mineral kingdoms, such as the food collection, first at South 
Kensington in 1857, and later at Bethnal Green, the Industrial Museum 
at Edinburgh, and the Museums of Economic Botany at Kew, founded 
in 1847. These, together with the Roya 1 Botanic Society of London, 
founded in 1839, and the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 
founded in 1841, must always be considered the centres from which 
knowledge on these points has flowed, and continues to flow. Nor must 
we forget the several International Exhibitions since 1851, where the 
vegetable resources of the globe, especially of our colonies, have been 
prominently brought to the notice of millions of people. Then, in con¬ 
nection with these museums and exhibitions is the literature which 
emanates from them, such as the handbooks and guides, in which, 
though published mostly for a few pence, a mass of valuable informa¬ 
tion is given. We cannot leave this part of the subject without a word 
of hi-h commendation on the handbooks and catalogues issued by the 
several colonies at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886, which 
should be in the library of everyone interested in economic botany.— 
( Cassell's “ New Popular Educator .”) 
UNITED HORTICULTURAL BENEFIT AND PROVIDENT 
SOCIETY. 
The annual dinner of the above Society was held at the Cannon 
Street Hotel on Wednesday, October 23rd, at 6 P.H., N. N. Sherwood, 
Esq., presiding. There was an excellent attendance of members and 
friends, 140 being present, and the Chairman was supported by Mr. 
II. J. Veitch, Mr. W. Nutting, Mr. Cavendish, Mr. J. Laing, Mr. W. 
Paul, Mr. T. S. Ware, Mr. G. Deal, and Mr. E. R. Cutler. Amongst 
others present were Messrs. F. Beny, R. J. Chard, N. Cole, W. Cummins, 
J. George, J. Hudson, S. Mortimer, W. Rapley, S. Summers, E. G. 
Wheeler, G. Wheeler, and J. Wheeler, A. F. Barron, W. G. Head, C. W. 
Goldsmith, G. Stevens, E. Butts, Norman Davis, W. Thompson, G. Gor¬ 
don, L. Castle, B. Wynne, and the Secretary, W. Collins, 9, Martindale 
Road, Balham. The programme was a long one, perhaps somewhat too 
long, and the speeches, with few exceptions, were not correspondingly 
brief, but what may be termed the more serious business of the meeting, 
was most pleasantly varied by an admirable selection of songs well 
rendered by Miss Mary Belval and her friends. 
The customary loyal toasts were duly honoured, and then the Chair¬ 
man proceeded to the toast of the evening. “ The Prosperity of the 
United Horticultural Benefit and Provident Society,” and in the course 
of his speech he reviewed the origin and history of the Society, the 
scope of its work, and its constitution, referring in terms of the highest 
commendation to the respective funds and the rules guiding their 
application. He mentioned incidentally that as a result of the good! 
working of the Institution it was a notable fact that some members had 
£50 or £60 standing to their credit, that there are at the present time 
no sick members on the list, and the total number of paying members is 
now over 300. The Society was doing, he considered, a great amount of 
good in encouraging men to make some provision for rainy days, a duty 
to which everyone should give attention early in life. Mr. Sherwood 
pointed out the respective advantages of the Benefit and Benevolent 
funds, but remarked that he thought another was needed—namely, “ a 
convalescent fund,” which would make some provision for gardeners 
who were not in a sufficiently good state of health to perform their 
duties for a time, and yet not absolutely ill, or when they were recover¬ 
ing from an illness. It was simply an idea of his own, and if 
the Committee thought it desirable to establish anything of the kind 
he would be happy to contribute 25 guineas as a start. He also stated 
that Baron Schroder had offered a 5 guinea donation to the Society, 
and an annual subscription of 1 guinea, both statements being received, 
with loud applause. 
Mr. N. Cole responded to this toast, and Mr. H. J. Veitch followed 
