September 26, 1885. 
THE GAEDENING WOELD. 
51 
SHOWS. 
T he grand national potato 
EXHIBITION will be held at the CRYSTAL PALACE, 
Sydenham, London, S.E., on October 7th, 8th, and 9th, 1SS5. 
For Schedules and particulars apply to P. McKinlay, Headley 
Lodge, Croydon Road, Anerley, S.E. 
Entries close on September 30tli. 
RYSTAL PALACE.—INTERNATIONAL 
POTATO SHOW and GREAT AUTUMN EXHIBITION 
of HARDY FRUITS, October 7th to 10th. 
For Schedules apply to Mr. W. G. HEAD, Garden Superinten¬ 
dent, Crystal Palace, S.E. 
National Chrysanthemum Society, Royal 
Aquarium, Westminster. 
G RAND EXHIBITION, November 11th 
and 12th. Schedules (free) on application. 
N0TICE.—Floral Committee Meetings at the ROYAL 
AQUARIUM, on October 14th, 28th, November 11th, 25th, and 
December 9th, at 2.30 p.m. precisely. (Regulations see Schedule). 
WILLIAM HOLMES, Frampton Park Nurseries, Hackney, 
London. 
National Chrysanthemum Society's Catalogue, 6d, each. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Amateur’s Garden, the .... 55 
Auriculas, new. 62 
Begonias as bedding plants 51 
Chrysanthemums, disbud¬ 
ding . 60 
Chrysanthemums, exhibit¬ 
ing. 56 
Chrysanthemum Shows.... 51 
Cork dust for drainage .... 52 
Dendrobium Pierardii. 62 
Disa grandiflora . 62 
Exotic Plants in the Isle of 
Wight . 60 
Floral Grief. 51 
Floriculture . 62 
Fruit-judging. 60 I 
Gardener’s Calendar . 61! 
Hollyhocks and the disease 5S 
Hollyhock, a fasciated _ 61 : 
Hyacinths in Glasses (illus¬ 
trated) . 52 
Industrial Exhibitions .... 51 
Kitchen Garden. 62 
Lachenalias . 52 
Laelia Wyatt iana .. . 62 
Lancashire Market Gardens 59 
PAGE 
Lily of the Valley. 60 
Maurandya Barclayana .... 52 
Mignonette “ Machet ” _ 60 
Mutisia decnrrens . 61 
Nicotiana affinis . 60 
Oncidium Jonesianum .... 62 
Orchid Conference Report.. 51 
Orchid Notes and Gleanings 62 
Peach, Royal George . 60 
Pentstemons. 61 
Perennials, select. 53 
Phcenix Park, Dublin. 61 
Plants for forcing. 59 
Plant-houses, the. 61 
Plums, White Magnum 
Bonum and Coe’s Golden 
Drop. 61 
Roses for winter flowering.. 60 
Saccolabium Heathii . 62 
Scottish Gardening. 5 
Tree-digger, a cheap . 52 
Tulips, Florists’ ( illustrated ) 56 
Tweed Vineyard . 58 
Vegetables, notes on . 54 
Violas, notes on . 61 
Violets for winter. 56 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.” —Bacon. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1885. 
Floral Grief. —Funeral reformers are just now 
awakening to the conviction that the present 
fashion of smothering the coffins of our dead 
with costly wreaths, crosses, and other floral 
devices is developing into a serious evil, and 
altogether the reverse of reform, or of any regard 
for simplicity, purity, and refinement. If we 
were writing solely in the interest of flower- 
growers and wreath-makers, we might exclaim 
the more of this sort of thing the better for the 
trade, because it does but bring grist to the 
flower-grower’s mill. It is, however, very diffi¬ 
cult to see in what way tiue horticulture can be 
benefitted by any continuation of a practice 
■which must of necessity be fitful, and associated 
only with the most nervous forms of sensation¬ 
alism. It may be well to banish from funerals 
the lugubrious and costly cortege, the feathers 
and sashes, and the mutes and other official 
aspects of mourning, because not only is all this 
kind of thing very costly, and a tremendous in¬ 
fliction upon those left behind, but it is, after 
all, but an exhibition of pride and vanity of the 
most depraved kind, for it is but an attempt to 
show to the world that grief, v r hich is not deep, 
and sorrow that is not poignant, can find no 
other solace than in this attractive way. 
From grave to gay seems, however, to be as 
easy a leap as from lively to severe ; hence 
there is now seen a reaction from the masquerade 
in doleful black to one hardly less meritorious 
in glass and gilded panoplys, with exposed 
coffins yet smothered in floral devices, and thus 
pride and vanity are still as much gratified and 
appeased now, in these so-called days of funeral 
neatness and reform, as when the nodding 
feathers, solemn mutes, and lugubrious proces¬ 
sions held sway. It is not a matter for surprise, 
therefore, to find that some who really have at 
heart the purifying and simplifying of our 
funeral fashions—for, after all, these ceremonies 
are but fashions—should feel alarmed at the 
progress of the new state of things, and perceive 
that costliness may exhibit itself in wealth of 
floral wreaths and crosses, and vanity be as 
amply gratified now as in days gone by. Even 
growers of flowers for this purpose may well 
feel some alarm at the development thus shown, 
because they must realise that such fashions are 
insincere, sensational, and sickly, and may at 
any moment collapse. 
It really is well worth the consideration of 
funeral reformers, whether the association of 
show or ceremony with the disposal of our dead 
is not a great mistake after all, and that when 
all that is mortal is returned to its mother earth, 
it should not be performed with quietness and 
dispatch. In one respect, the association of 
flowers with funerals have one terrible signi¬ 
ficance, which few seem to realise—they so soon 
fade and die. Their beauty and sweetness is, 
when thus employed, so evanescent, they may 
well serve to show those who are yet left behind 
that mortal life is very fleeting, that the flesh of 
all human kind, rich or poor, is but as grass, 
and that it soon withers and dies. If there is 
one place more than another at which proud 
human nature should feel humbled, it is at the 
grave-side, when we are brought face to face 
with the terrible fact, that whatsoever may 
have been in life our social distinctions or 
differences, death levels all; and even the body 
borne to the grave under a mountain of costly 
wreaths and crosses of flowers reverts to the 
same substance as do that one on whom not a 
flower has been laid or a tear shed. There will 
presently come a revulsion of feeling from 
wreaths and other floral designs, which con¬ 
stitute upon the living a tax such as is becoming 
unbearable, and the sooner our growers realise 
that such a change is inevitable the better for 
them. 
-- 
GARDENING MISCELLANY, 
The Orchid Conference. —We understand that the 
Official Report of the Orchid Conference, held in May 
last, will be issued next month to all Fellows of the 
Society. It will embrace (1) a report of the proceedings 
at the Conference, including a paper read by Mr. 
H. J. Veitch, F.L.S., on the hybridisation of Orchids, 
with illustrations, and a paper by Mr. James O’Brien 
on the cultivation of Orchids, (2) botanical and horti¬ 
cultural reports by Mr. Henry FT. Ridley, B.A., F.L.S., 
Natural History Museum, South Kensington, and Mr. 
F. W. Burbidge, F.L.S., Trinity College Gardens, 
Dublin, (3) an alphabetical List of the genera of Orchids, 
(4) a catalogue of exhibitors and exhibits. It will be 
in book form, octavo size, and contain about 150 pages. 
Mr, J, Cameron, outside foreman to Mr. McKinnon, 
Melville Castle, Lasswade, Midlothian, is engaged as 
gardener to H. Ryder, Esq., Westbrook, Hemel Hemp¬ 
stead. 
Industrial Exhibitions. —Not long since we called 
attention to these in connection with flower shows, 
and advocated their extension as calculated to be the 
means of working great good if judiciously arranged 
and worked. Our friend, Mr. Thomas Sibbald, Nur¬ 
seryman, Bishop Auckland, has just sent us some 
particulars of a show of this character, held in connec¬ 
tion with a Horticultural Exhibition at Shilton, an 
important coal district near Bishop Auckland. This 
exhibition, which is a somewhat varied one, is perhaps 
unsurpassed in the Kingdom. It is stated there were 
3,400 entries altogether—horticultural, mechanical of 
all sorts, needle-work of every description, bread and 
butter making, &c. In addition, there was a capital 
show of poultry, many hundreds indeed. A tent, 120 
feet in length by 40 feet in width was entirely filled 
with articles submitted by school children. There were 
competitions with mechanical works in metals done at 
the show ; and machinery in motion. It is scarcely 
necessary to say this show is eminently successful. 
Here then is a striking proof of the value of Industrial 
Exhibitions in connection with flower shows. 
Essex Field Club.— At the Sixth Annual Cryptoga- 
mic and Botanical Meeting of this Club, to be held at 
Buckhurst Hill, Epping Forest, on Friday and Saturday 
next, papers will be read on “ The Uses of Fungi,” by 
Dr. H. T. Wharton, and on “ Some Botanical Mare’s- 
nests—chiefly Fungologieal,” by Mr. Worthington G. 
Smith. 
IVIr. G. Knight, who for some years was gardener at 
the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, died at Sarishury, South¬ 
ampton, on the l-3th inst., aged 71 years. 
Plants Certificated in Ghent —At a meeting of the 
Belgian Chambre Syndicale des Horticulteurs, held in 
Ghent on the 14th inst., certificates of merit were 
awarded to Mr. A. Van Geert, senior, for a new Cypri- 
pedium ; to Mr. Edward Pynaert, for Tradescantia albo 
vittata ; to Messrs. Desbois & Co., for Dracaena Australis 
fol. var. ; to Mr. Jules Heye-Leysen, for Cypripedium 
Petri, C. Tonsum, C. cenanthum superbum, C. albo- 
purpureum, C. tassellatum porphyreum, and C. 
selligerum majus ; to Messrs. Vervaet and Co., for 
Odontoglossum fachetum ; to Messrs. Dervaes, for Rhus 
cotinus pendula ; to Messrs. Desbois and Co., for Pavonia 
intermedia, and Abutilon chrysostephanus; to Mr. Aug. 
Van Geert, for Gymnotheca Raddiana crenata, Piper 
ornatum, and Arenga Kasarinei ; and to Mr. Louis Van 
Houtte, for double varieties of tuberous Begonias. 
The Election and the Chrysanthemum Shows.— If 
the prorogation of the present Parliament from now, 
till over the 5th of December, means that the General 
Election originally fixed to take place about the middle 
of November is to come off a month later, or at least, 
early in December, then, all Chrysanthemum-growers 
and exhibitors will have cause to rejoice. True, the 
turmoil and strife of an election contest will still be 
proceeding during the Chrysanthemum month, but 
strife of this sort is conducted now with much less of 
strong feeling and bitterness than formerly existed, 
hence, the stage of the contest in November, assuming 
that the actual fight is postponed till December, will not 
be an acute one, and shows will not be interfered with. 
Had the actual election been fixed, as was generally 
anticipated, on or about the middle of November, it 
is most obvious that the shows generally would have 
largely suffered, not only because many who take part 
in them would be actively engaged elsewhere, but also 
because public interest would be greatly excited in 
another and an adverse direction. There seems at 
present no hope that the Chrysanthemum show season 
will expand beyond the month of November, or even 
that it may be possible so to regulate those which 
exist, as to spread them over a longer area of time. 
All want to catch the best flower season, and without 
doubt in the south, that best season is found in the 
first and second weeks of the month. Sometimes it 
happens, owing to the specially forcing nature of the 
autumn, that shows might with advantage be held a 
little earlier, but very seldom later, except farther 
north. We do not want to see them earlier, because it 
should be, as far as possible, the object of the Chrysan¬ 
themum specialists to make their favourite flower one 
less valuable for autumn decoration than for winter 
use. If we could show as fine a display of these trulj r 
popular flowers at Christmas as we can now in Novem¬ 
ber, we should indeed have achieved a great triumph 
over the season of winter. 
Tuberous Begonias as Bedding Plants.—M henit was 
first suggested that these marvellously free blooming 
and showy plants might prove useful for bedding pur¬ 
poses, the idea was derided in many quarters, but there 
can be no room for doubt now, after another season’s 
trial, that the plants have proved their claim to high 
rank as late summer and autumn blooming plants. 
Dry weather or wet, seems to be all the same to them, 
for, given good cultivation in the early stage, and a 
reasonable amount of attention after planting, they 
seem to grow with the freedom of a zonal Pelargonium, 
and yield shades of colour that even the popular “zonals” 
might envy. Grandly as the zonal Pelargoniums have 
