64 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[Apeil, 
GAKDEN GOSSIP. 
— ^T is announced that the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society have made arrangements 
with the Council of the International Health 
Exhibition to hold, in addition to the fortnightly 
meetings, Monthly Exhibitions of fruit and 
vegetables in the Conservatory on the following dates, 
when prizes amounting in the aggregate to £1,000 
will be offered for competition : May 27, June 24, 
July 22, August 12 (cottagers’ show), August 26, 
September 23, October 14, October 28. The 
schedules may be had on application. 
— ^ Presentation has recently been 
made by the Richmond Horticultural Society 
to Mr. George Eyles, their late Honorary 
Secretary, in recognition of the successful manner in 
Avhich he had discharged the duties of that office. 
Tne Testimonial consisted of a silver tea kettle, 
stand, and lamp. 
— SInder the title of Roses : History, 
Culture, and Exhibition, Mr. Eyre has 
published, price 2d., a lecture delivered in 
January last, to the St. Luke’s Young Men’s Society, 
Leek. The lecture is brief and its tone practical, 
for as Mr. Eyre told his hearers it represents the 
successful experience of twenty years. Its object 
was to induce .young men to value their gardens and 
especially to tend their roses wiih loving care ; and 
we may therefore hope it made a due impression on 
those who heard, as it doubtless will upon those who 
read it. 
— St this season the following note on 
Double Grafting Pears, published some time 
since by Mr. Graham, in the Journal of Horti¬ 
culture, may be of interest. He writes: “ Double 
working pears has long since been proved a great 
succe'S. Some fifteen years ago I dismembered a 
large pear of the old, useless honey sort that covered 
the gable of my house, and grafted thereon Comte de 
Lamy, Beurre d’Aremberg, and Easter Beurre, 
October, January, and March varieties. These far 
surpass in quantity and quality (and both are excel¬ 
lent) anything I have or see around me on the 
quince. 
— ilTHE old but interesting Browallia 
Jamesoni was shown recently in fine con¬ 
dition under the new but authorised name of 
Steeptosolen Jamesoni, by Messrs. H. Cannell & 
Sons. It is a fine subject lost, but now reintroduced. 
It is a suffrutioose plant of tall growth, givino- off 
numerous slender branches, which are pendulous, and 
terminated by clusters of briiiht orange-red flowers 
each about the size of a shilling. As a warm con¬ 
servatory plant it is most valuable, as it flowers in 
winter and early spring. It was awarded a 1st- 
class Certificate by the Iloyal Horticultural Society 
on March 11. The genus belongs to the order 
Solanacem. 
— 5n reference to the question Amateur 
OR what ? propounded at p. 23, the following 
reply to Thomas Alliston, in Gossip of the 
Garden (iii. 246), has been sent to us as being the 
current opinion some quarter of a century ago:— 
“If any person propagates his stock notoriously 
beyond his Requirements, as for instance, if he pro¬ 
pagates two hundred roses, well knowing he has 
convenience only for the growth of one hundred, 
hut knowing the surplus will form a valuable pro¬ 
perty and will sell, then to all intents and purposes 
he becomes a dealer. But if he simply takes the 
natural increase from his flowers, whether Auriculas, 
Carnations and Picotees, Pinks, Tulips, or other sub¬ 
jects, and disposes of so much as is in excess of his 
own requirements, whether by excliange, for cash, 
in one lot to a trader, or in many lots to others, we 
think he remains an Amateur, and as such we shall 
invariably classify him.” The crucial test is the 
growth for profit. 
— ^T no distant date we are likely to 
have Bedding Begonias, crimson, scarlet, 
white and yellow, the bright, sturdy leaves and 
immense flowers of which will leave the opponents 
of bedding-out little to complain of, for a bed of 
Begonias will never be a glare, because leaves and 
flowers are produced in about equal proportions. 
Mes,'rs. Laing & Co. have wintered the tubers in 
beds with very good results, their plan being to cover 
the surface of the bed with cocoa fibre refuse, 
laving on galvanised covers to keep out the wet. 
When, however, Begonias come to be commonly 
used in the flower ga'den, as they assuredly will be 
before long, the tubers wid have to be lifted in the 
autumn, stored away like dahlias, and then brought 
forward in pots in the spring before planting out. 
It is really surprising how little they are affected 
by stormy weather. 
— Jn the new weekly journal. Woods and 
Forests, a paper very opportunely issued, we 
find Sophora japonica crispa noticed as one 
of the prettiest and most singular of hardy trees. 
Like the common Sophora, it is quite hardy, a free 
grower, and is dent-ely furnished with dark green 
leaves that adhere to the branches till late in the 
season. Its singularity consists in the curious and 
uniform manner in which the leaves are curled, the 
points of all the shoots resembling, as it were, 
clusters of ringlets. It may also be occasionally 
met w ith in private gardens. 
$tt JBeinoriam. 
— JBr. George Engelmann, of St. Louis, 
Missouri, died on February 4, aged 75 years. 
Dr. Engelmann was born at Frankfort-on-the- 
Main in 1810, graduated in that city, but soon took 
up his residence in the United States. It thus hap¬ 
pened that he was almost as well known to British 
bo' anists as his associates and fellow-labourers, Torrey 
and Gray, and those of a younger generation. He 
had for many years resided at St. Louis, taking a 
leading part in all matters relating to his profession, 
to science generally, and botany in particular; indeed, 
he has helped forward in divers ways the botany of 
his adopted land, so thair on the Conifers, the Oaks, 
the Agaves, the Cactuses, the Vines, the Cuscutas, 
and sundry other groups, he had come to be looked 
up to as the leading authority. 
— i®lR. John Cutbush, Sen., died at Har- 
rietsham, Kent, on February 23, in his 89th 
year. He was for nearly forty-five years 
gardener and confidential servant in the family of 
the late W. W. T. Baldwin, Esq,, of Stede Hill, and 
for thirty-six years clerk of the parish churoh of 
Harrietsham, and was greatly respected and esteemed 
by all who knew him. 
