December 19, 1889. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
535 
The most notable is Mr. Blair’s success at Hull, when he won the coveted 
challenge vase and also a silver cup in another important class, which 
is a stroke of business seldom equalled at a similarly important exhibi¬ 
tion. About 3000 plants have been grown at Trentham this season. Of 
that number 700 were grown for producing large blooms ; the remainder 
consisted chiefly of dwarf plants 2 to 4 feet high, but the bulk of them 
3 feet, with three to six good flowers, and suitable for general decorative 
purposes ; and a large number of specimen plants fit for any exhibition, 
the remainder, comparatively few in number, roughly grown for cut 
flowers. Such a large quantity of plants occupy a considerable amount 
of space, and numerous houses were filled with them. Collectively 
they have made such a show that probably could not be seen in any 
other private garden in the kingdom, and possibly in very few trade 
establishments where the plant is a specialty, if quality as well as 
quantity is taken into consideration. Many of the newest have had a 
good trial, and most of them have turned out all that could be desired. 
Among the incurved may be mentioned Violet Tomlin, Miss Haggas, 
Mr. Shoesmith, W. K. Woodcock, and Lord Eversley as new and of good 
quality; whilst older varieties were represented by hundreds of first- 
class blooms of Empress of India, Golden Empress, Queen of England, 
Alfred Salter, Emily Dale. Lord Alcester, Bronze Queen, Lord Wolseley, 
Prince Alfred, Mr. Bunn, White Beverley, and John Salter. Amongst 
the Japanese, the new varieties were well represented by Stanstead 
White, Buttercup, Condor, Etoile de Lyon, Mrs. J. Wright, and C. 
Cannell; and quantities of first-class blooms of Belle Paule, Mad. C. 
Audiguier, Meg Merrilies, Ralph Brocklebank, Mdlle. Lacroix, Avalanche, 
Fair Maid of Guernsey, Balmoreau, E. Molyneux, Criterion, J. Delaux, 
Golden Dragon, Lady Selborne, Mad. J. Laing, Val d’Andorre, and 
Thunberg, Much credit is due to Mr. Murk, who has attended to the 
requirements of the Chrysanthemums from first to last. 
In the walled-in kitchen garden all the quarters are occupied with vege¬ 
tables and salads for winter consumption ; not a square foot of ground is 
allowed to be unoccupied. Thousands of Celery are grown, and Major 
Clarke’s Red is the favourite. Three or four thousand plants are grown 
in pots for forcing, and a fine batch they are, with fat plump crowns. 
The kitchen garden near the American garden is a novelty in design. 
There is nothing elaborate about it, but is simply a circular piece of 
ground which, until recently, had a tank in the centre ; but this is now 
filled up, and forms a central turning point for the small waggons used 
in these extensive gardens ; the paths radiate from the centre, and the 
ground is thus divided into segments of a circle. This ground is also 
occupied with winter vegetables, chiefly Brussels Sprouts and Broccoli. 
Potatoes are grown in a field, and the staple supply of Apples comes 
from an orchard at a distance from the gardens. The total area of 
gardens, including orchard, under the charge of Mr. Blair is nearly 
100 acres, and all departments prove that he is master of his work. 
The pretty house in which he dwells is shown in the engraving on 
page 533.— Visitob. 
POINCIANA REGIA. 
Thebe are two well-marked varieties of this magnificent flowering 
tree in the East Indies, though I cannot say whether they are permanent 
or not. One has scarlet and yellow blossoms, and the other crimson and 
white. The former seems to be th most common, and is abundant at 
Madras, Secunderabad, Rangoon, and other places, while the other prevails 
chiefly at Bangalore. Whether due to the climate or not I am unable 
to state, but it appeared to me that the foliage of the Bangalore plants 
was richer and more profuse, and consequently much more beautiful, 
than any thau 1 saw elsewhere. Indeed, the luxuriance of the trees 
generally on the Mysore plateau seemed to indicate that there they had 
found conditions of soil and climate eminently favourable to their most 
perfect development. There are, however, many large and noble speci¬ 
mens at Coimb tore, near the foot of the Nielgherries, and in May the 
road close to tl town was all aflame with their gorgeous flowers. No 
object in the whole vegetable kingdom can, in my opinion, vie with this 
splendid Poinciana in the radiant wealth of its peerless bloom—not even 
the far-famed and glorious Amherstia nobilis, which I have seen in 
great perfection at Rangoon and Moulmein, in Burmah. 
I have now and then heard the Poinciana regia called the Ostrich- 
feather Tree, without doubt on account of its beautiful foliage, which has 
much the appearance of broad spreading plumes ; and at Bangalore it is 
occasionally known as the Flame of the Forest; but this name, though 
by no means inappropriate, is the prior property of another brilliant 
plant, the Ixora coccinea, to which it is also very applicable. Sometimes 
in India the term Gold-MohurTree is used to specify the Poinciana under 
notice, though it seems to be really owned by the yellow species Poinciata 
elata ; and the name of Flamboyant is familiar to those who have seen 
the tree at the Mauritius. 
Poinciana regia has apparently only been found in a wild state in 
Madagascar, whence it made its way many years ago to the Mauritius, 
and subsequently further east. It belongs to the Natural Order Legu- 
minosae, and the genus was named by De Candolle in honour of M. de 
Poinci, once governor of the Antilles.—G. 
CIVILISATION AND PLANT LIFE. 
At a recent weekly meeting of the Richmond Athenaeum, Mr. R. A. 
Ttolfe, A.L.S., read the following paper on “ Civilisation Viewed in its 
Influence on Plant Life.” Mr. E. King presided. 
If we reflect for a moment on the number and variety of the products 
derived from plants which minister to man’s daily needs, as food 
clothing, and medicine, we can form some little idea of our indebted¬ 
ness to the vegetable kingdom for the very means of subsistence. Our 
own supplies are brought from almost every clime under the sun, and 
we have become so accustomed to existing conditions, and regard them 
so much as a matter of course, that I question whether any of us can 
realise what the efEect would be if England were isolated from the rest 
of the world for a few short weeks. The production of these vast 
supplies of food, and other necessaries and comforts of life, entails the 
laying under cultivation of large areas of the earth’s surface, and a 
corresponding displacement of the plants which would otherwise occupy 
the ground. How great this displacement really is would be difficult 
to estimate, and perhaps it can best be expressed in few words by saying 
that agriculture is the greatest and most important of all industries. 
There is no tradition, no written history, to tell us at what time man 
began to till the land, but fortunately there are other data from which 
pretty satisfactory evidence can be obtained. In order to discover the 
first distinct traces of the culture of the fields we must go back to the 
time of the builders of the Swiss lake-dwellings of the neolithic age. 
At this epoch we have evidence of the cultivation of five distinct kinds 
of Wheat and three kinds of Barley, also two other cereals. Apples— 
wild and cultivated—have also been found, together with remains of 
the Pear, Cherry, Plum, the wild Sloe, Peas and Beans, Hazel and Beech 
nuts, Acorns and Chestnuts, the Blackberry, Raspberry, and Strawberry, 
the Poppy, Flax, and possibly of two or three other plants of economic 
use. Even remains of bread and carbonised cakes of Poppy seed have 
been found,and in one locality several bushels of Wheat were discovered 
heaped up in one place, evidently the provision of some family or tribe. 
Flax was extensively cultivated, for pieces of rudely woven cloth and 
balls of flax thread, string, and cord, have been found, also the rude 
looms in which the cloth was woven. Numerous hand mills for pound¬ 
ing and grinding the various cereals are among the relics of these ancient 
cities. The bread had evidently been baked between hot stones, and 
was found in the form of little circular cakes, 4 to 5 inches in diameter 
by 1 to lj- inch thick. It was unleavened, and I need scarcely add 
that wholemeal bread was then the order of the day. A cake made 
from the seed of the garden Poppy has also been found, reduced to a 
cinder. By whatever means agriculture was first instituted, it has 
certainly progressed and multiplied enormously, and even before the 
historic period several plants were very widely cultivated, of which may 
be noted especially Wheat, Maize, the Sweet Potato, several Millets, and 
Tobacco. 
Having spoken of the three great centres in which agriculture appa¬ 
rently originated—namely, the East, China, and Tropical America, the 
lecturer said the indirect effects of the extension of agriculture are of 
two kinds—first, the diffusion of a host of weeds, which in various ways 
are introduced with the plants cultivated by man, though much against 
his will; and second, the spread of certain economic plants beyond the 
area in which they have been planted, owing to the climate and situation 
being especially suited to their requirements. Perhaps the two classes 
are not strictly separable ; at all events, our European Watercress is an 
example of a useful plant introduced into New Zealand with the best 
intentions, but which* like the rabbit in Australia, has increased to so 
prodigious an extent as to choke up the streams, and altogether has de¬ 
veloped into an unmitigated pest. It is clear that if any given plant, is 
found to be useful to man, and to become the subject of extensive 
demand, then the natural supply at once tends to diminish, and the only 
way to keep up the supply is to bring the plant under cultivation. In 
the second place we see that man’s requirements are so extensive, and 
have such a tendency to increase, that more and more land is continually 
being brought under cultivation, with the inevitable result—however 
much we may regret it—that many of the most charming spots on the 
face of the earth are being destroyed by the axe and plough, many of 
Nature’s wildlings are gradually becoming more restricted in area, and 
some of them must eventually become as extinct as the dodo ; indeed, 
there are grounds for believing a few are already extinct. In the third 
place we see that others of their fellows benefit by the operations of the 
agriculturist, filling up the ground prepared by him for more useful 
crops, and generally defying him to do his worst—hence the unrelenting 
war waged against them. And lastly, we see how the great law of evo¬ 
lution comes into play, and in the hands of the cultivator becomes one 
of the most useful servants of mankind by increasing his food supplies 
or adding new beauty to the plants he cultivates for ornament. 
In conclusion, a few thoughts as to the needs and possibilities of the 
future. The world’s timber supply is rapidly becoming one of the 
burning questions of the day. The utter recklessness with which whole 
districts have been denuded of their splendid forests has been universally 
regretted, and especially when this destruction has been followed by a 
distinct deterioration of climate—a fact which has been recognised over 
and over again, both in America and elsewhere, Perhaps much of this 
destruction was inevitable, though none the less to be regretted on that 
account, especially when one remembers the vast quantity of valuable 
timber which has been committed to the flames simply to get rid of it, 
and thus practically wasted. The question of reafioresting certain dis¬ 
tricts is now one of the questions of the day, and one which must be 
solved in the near future. Indeed, much good work has already been 
done and one cannot help viewing with admiration the practical recog¬ 
nition of this need of the future by the Indian Government, the success 
with which the Indian Forest Department has been organised, and the 
good work it has already efiected. It is perhaps not too much to say 
that in the near future arboriculture will take its place beside its sister 
industries, agriculture and horticulture, in a way that has never been 
