T - 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
15 
1883 .] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
URING the season of 1883, the various 
Meetings of which the dates are sub¬ 
joined, are announced to take place :— 
Royal Horticultural Society, South 
Kensington: — The Trait and Floral Committees 
will meet on the following Tuesdays—January 9, 
February 13, March 13 and 27, April 10 and 24 
(also National Auricula Society’s Show), May 8 and 
22 (also Summer Show, continued on 23rd), June 12 
and 26 (also Pelargonium Society’s Show), July 10 
and 24 (also National Carnation and Picotee Society’s 
Show on 24th, and National Rose Society’s Show on 
3rd), August 14 and 28, September 11, October 9, 
November 13, December 11.— Royal Botanic So¬ 
ciety, Regent’s Park, will hold Spring Exhibitions 
on Wednesday, March 28, and April 25; Summer 
Exhibitions on Wednesday, May 16 and June 13; 
and an Evening Fete on Wednesday, June 27.— 
Royal Botanical and Horticultural Society 
of Manchester will hold Spring Exhibitions on 
March 20 and April 14; National Whitsun Show, 
May 11—18; Rose Show, July 21; Cottagers’ Show, 
September 8; Chrysanthemum Show, November 20. 
■ —National Rose Society, in addition to the 
above Show at South Kensington, will hold a Northern 
Exhibition at Sheffield, July 12.— Royal Cale¬ 
donian Horticultural Society announces Shows 
for April 4 and 5, July 11, and September 12 and 
13.— Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland 
will hold three Shows, on May 17, July 5, and 
September 6 respectively.—The Quinquennial Exhi¬ 
bition of the Societe Royale de Botanique 
et d’Agriculture de Gand, April 15—22. The 
Societe Imperiale d’Horticulture de Russia 
proposes to celebrate its 25th anniversary by a great 
International Exhibition, to be held at St. Petersburg 
in May next. 
— Che following Veitch Memorial Prizes 
have been allotted for competition by the Veitch 
Memorial Trustees during the present year, 
namely, three Medals with £5 prizes added, to be 
competed for by gentlemen’s gardeners, for the fol¬ 
lowing subjects:—Best Stove or Greenhouse Plant, 
in flower; Best Orchid, in flower; and best Dish of 
Grapes. These are to be selected from subjects 
staged at the shows of the Royal Horticultural 
Society (Summer Show), the Royal Horticultural 
Society of Ireland, and the Grand Yorkshire Gala 
Floral Fete (June Show), the latter being the 25th 
anniversary of the establishment of the Show. 
. — 3£he juice of Mimusops Balata has 
been the cause of an extraordinary fatality in 
British Guiana, as we learn from The Colonies 
and India. An ^experienced traveller having, as is 
the custom in tropical countries, taken a refreshing 
draught from the stem of one of the many water¬ 
holding plants which thrive in the forests, qualified 
his cold refreshment by a “nip” of rum. Shortly 
afterwards be died in excruciating agony, and a 
post-mortem examination showed that his internal 
organs were literally sealed up with indiarubber. 
He had imbibed the sap of the Mimusops, the juice 
of which coagulates and hardens in alcohol. 
— CThe pretty Erica Sindryana ought, it 
appears, to be called E. propendens tuhiflora. 
It is a seedling from propendens crossed by • 
Linnacoides, and was raised by Mr. Turnbull. Before 
it was named, however, he sent plants to two friends, 
which never reached their destination, and when a few 
years after E. Sindryana made its appearance he 
recognised in it an old friend. A seedling from this 
has gone back to something like the original pro¬ 
pendens, except that the tube is rather longer and 
darker. 
— 5The rare and interesting Cystopteris 
Montana, one of the rarest and choicest of our 
native Ferns, grows very freely in the garden 
of Mr. Atkins, of Painswick, in a pan plimged in coal 
ashes under a north wall. In this position it has 
been undisturbed for years, and grows vigorously. 
Mr. Atkins iuforms us that he uses only a moderate 
quantity of earth, to grow it in, but plenty of 
shattered oolite stone from the neighbouring 
quarries—full half, and the rest decayed vegetable 
mould and peat. It does better out doors than in. 
— "Che charming South African Asparagus 
plumosus does well in an intermediate house 
treated as a climber trained to the rafters, for 
which purpose the plant is in every way adapted. So 
trained it has a beautiful effect. Independent of its 
suitability for being so used, and its elegant appear¬ 
ance in any form, it ranks second to nothing yet 
employed for mixing with cut flowers, not only for 
its plume-like form and beautiful green colour, but for 
its enduring properties in water, which are unequalled; 
even the young pale green leaves when not fully 
grown, will keep quite fresh for two or three weeks. 
— @The new Anthurium Andreantjm, now 
it is thoroughly established, is improving in 
character in the same way that A. Scherzerianuni 
did. Mr. D. Thomson, of Drumlanrig, in au inter¬ 
esting note on this magnificent Aroid states, that 
during the past summer he had grown spathes 
measuring 7 inches by 5 inches ; and so late as the 
middle of October there were some measuring 6 
inches by 4J inches, with stems over 3 feet high. 
“ The foliage of the plant producing these flowers is 
much larger than any other we have met with. We 
grow this plant in the East Indian Orchid house, and 
find it does best in a compost of equal parts fibry 
peat and sphagnum, with a dash of dry horse 
droppings and horn shavings mixed in ; and, like all 
similar plants here, it is growing in a glazed pot.” 
— jtN House’s Stimulator we are told we 
have a fertiliser which will take the place of 
Dung for Fruit Trees, Vines, Vegetables, and 
Flowering Plants. It is said to far exceed any 
Farm-yard Dung in increasing the production of a 
crop, and at a much less cost. 
— (Barter’s Vade-Mecum for 1883 is, as 
usual, one of the most complete and tastefully 
got up of the many catalogues which are 
annually issued in connection with Gardening. In 
fact, it is much more than a mere catalogue, and 
may claim to be a Table-book, so numerous are its 
attractions and so highly is it embellished inside and 
out. One of the illustrated pages is particularly 
interesting, as it represents four different Royal 
visits to Messrs. Carter’s & Co.’s Exhibitions. The 
coloured plates represent Carter’s Emperor strain of 
Petunias, Select Primulas, Godetias, Mimulus, &c\, 
and “ the three best Peas in the World.” 
—- JfJftESSRS. Routledge & Sons send us 
Town Gardening, a Handbook for Amateurs, 
