January 9, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
291 
R oyal horticultural society, 
SOUTH KENSINGTON, S.W 
NOTICE !—COMMITTEE MEETINGS, Fruit and Floral, at 
11 a.m,, in the Conservatory; Scientific at 1 p m., in the Lindley 
Library, on Tuesday next, JANUARY 12tli. 
N.B.— Exhibitors’ Entrance, East side of Royal Albert Hall. 
R oyal horticultural society, 
SOUTH KENSINGTON, S.W. 
DATES OP THE MEETINGS 
SCIENTIFIC, FRUIT. 
OF THE 
and FLORAL COMMITTEES 
in 1S86. 
SCIENTIFIC 
Tuesday, January 12th 
Tuesday, February 9th 
Tuesday, March 9th and 2:3rd 
Tuesday, April 13th and 27th 
COMMITTEE. 
Tuesday, May 11th and 25th 
Tuesday, June Sth and 22nd 
Tuesday, July 13th and 27th 
Tuesday, November 9th. 
Tuesday, December 7th. 
FRUIT AND FLORAL COMMITTEES. 
Tuesday, January 12th 
Tuesday, February 9th 
Tuesday, March 9th 
Tuesday, March 23rd 
Tuesday, April 13th 
Tuesday, April 27th 
Tuesday, May 11th 
Tuesday, May 25th 
Tuesday, June Sth 
Tuesday, June 22nd 
Tuesday, July 13th 
Tuesday, July 27th 
Tuesday, August 10th 
Tuesday, August 24th 
Tuesday, September 7th 
Tuesday, September 21st 
Tuesday, October 12tli 
Tuesday, October 26th 
Tuesday, November 9th 
Tuesday, December 7tli. 
National Chrysanthemum Society. 
PRIZES are offered for LATE FLOWERING 
I CHRYSANTHEMUMS (Cut Flowers any varieties) to be 
exhibited at Royal Aquarium, Westminster, on Wednesday, 
January 13th, 1886 Full particulars on application to Hon. Sec., 
MR. WILLIAM HOLMES, Frampton Park Nursery, Hackney. 
CONTENTS. 
PAOE 
Birds and Winter Berries.. 291 
Carrot Crops, the . 296 
Celery Growing. 29S 
Chrysanthemum, Boule de 
Neige (illustrated) . 296 
Chrysanthemum Cultiva¬ 
tion. 296 
Clover and Grass Seeds .. 301 
Committees of the R. H. S. 301 
Corisande’s Garden . 292 
Cottage Gardens. 292 
Dahlia, propagating the .. 301 
Floral Committee Meetings 291 
Fruit Tree Management .. 294 
Gardeners’ Calendar. 299 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevo¬ 
lent Institution . 291 
“Ginger-beer” Plant under 
the Microscope . 293 
Hedychium coronariuin .. 298 
Liberton Mains Nursery .. 293 
Libonias . 298 
Obituary . 302 
PAGE 
Odontoglossum Alexandra 299 
Orchid Album. 292 
Orchids at Oswald Road .. 299 
Orchids at Priorwood _ 299 
Orchid Society, an. 292 
Orchids, Sweet-scented .. 300 
Orchids, Syringing. 300 
Palms, on potting. 29S 
Plants, hardy-flowering .. 294 
Plant Parasites . 291 
Potato Experiments at 
Chiswick . 295 
Potatos, on Storing . 296 
Rainfall of Liverpool .... 292 
Scottish Gardening . 294 
Spring, preparing for .... 29S 
Stoke Newington Chrysan¬ 
themum Society. 291 
Strawberries’ Protecting Pot 29S 
Vegetables, early . 297 
Winter Gardening.291 
Y T ork Florists, Ancient 
Society of. 292 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1886. 
Winter Gardening. —Ho doubt there are a 
vast number of those who garden in a small 
way who would be very pleased, if it were pos¬ 
sible, to blot out from the calendar the months 
of December, January, and February; that after 
a very brief rest from their garden labours and 
recreation, they might start afresh on the year’s 
round of work and pleasure without halting. 
Aature. however, prescribes in gardens a long 
period of rest, and in small gardens that period 
must also be rest from labour. There is some¬ 
thing ludicrous in the adjuration to the amateur 
who has some half-dozen rods of ground in which 
to garden to perform this work in December, 
that in January, and something else in February, 
for the simple reason that, wishing to leave his 
garden as tidy as possible whilst nature is at 
rest, he makes all taut and neat in December, 
and during the rest of the harsh months of 
winter he has nothing whatever to do. 
Perhaps it is good for gardens that they should 
have their periods of enforced rest; perhaps it 
is good for gardeners of all classes that they, 
too, should have that rest enforced on them, 
because with rest comes soon the inevitable 
renewed desire for life and activity ; hence the 
spring labours in the garden always seem the 
freshest and the most invigorating. But we 
have many, especially in the amateur class, who 
find in gardening almost their only recreation, 
and to these the smoking-room and billiard- 
table offer hut poor substitutes. Gardening 
gives pleasure not only because it brings into 
play all the physical attributes, and hence is 
real recreation, but it has an intelligent and 
possibly profitable aim. The man who has hut 
one poor Rose-bush is devoutly and gratefully 
repaid for all the care and attention he may 
lavish upon it if some pleasing flower-buds are 
forthcoming for his coat in the summer, or a 
handful of blooms to decorate his parlour ; or if 
his tastes are of a more prosaic order, he will 
be equally satisfied if his few rods of ground 
shall give him an occasional dish of Peas, Beans, 
or other pleasant edibles, or of a fair crop of 
Potatos. 
These things, simple as they may be, will 
bring to men, even of the loftiest imagination 
and intellect, considerable pleasure just because 
they represent recreation well and beneficially 
employed. But all the Avishes in the world will 
not enable anyone to get rid of the dead months 
of winter. They must be endured by those of 
moderate means, but may be made pleasant to 
those who have wealth by means of greenhouses, 
hothouses, and conservatories; indeed, Avealth 
hardly exhibits its luxuriousness more effectively 
than Avdien it constructs its heated glasshouses, 
in A\diich Avinter, Avith all its intensity and its 
bitterness, may be changed into summer AA’armth, 
and if the electric light be but added, to summer 
brightness. Certainly it is easy enough noAv to 
have floAvers gay and plentiful all the Avinter. 
Wealth has not been the single instrument pro¬ 
ducing that, for professional energy and enter¬ 
prise, and the continuous efforts of earnest 
Avorkers in horticulture, have done far more to 
help us to bridge OA r er the gulf which once 
existed betAveen autumn and spring even in our 
greenhouses. 
We have, in Chrysanthemums alone, a class of 
plants that carry us florally avcII through one- 
half the Avinter, reaching even to the early 
Camellias, Azaleas, and myriads of other plants 
giving life and beauty to the opening, if dull, 
months of the year. But thanks to good ex¬ 
amples, Ave have Zonal Pelargoniums, Chinese 
Primroses, Cyclamens, almost Cinerarias, and 
similar plants Avith us all the long Avinter, and 
these are floral trophies our fathers, w T ith all 
their Avealth, could only indifferently command. 
JustnoAv there is something of a check, perhaps, 
to horticultural expansion, especially in the 
direction of glasshouses ; hut it is evident that 
the more we suffer from climatic conditions that 
are provocative of gloom and discomfort outside, 
the more must Ave look for alleviation of our 
discomforts in the expansion of Avinter glass¬ 
houses and indoor Avinter gardening. 
-—>S5=>- 
GARDENING MISCELLANY. 
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Meet¬ 
ings for the current year are announced to be held on 
January 12tli, February 9th, March 9th, March 23rd, 
April 13th, April 27th, May 11th, May 25th, June Sth, 
June 22nd, July 13th, July 27tli, August 10th, 
August 24tli, September 7th, September 21st, October 
12th, October 26th, November 9th, and December 7tli. 
G-ardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institu¬ 
tion. —We learn Avith great pleasure that at the annual 
general meeting of the subscribers of this flourishing 
institution, to be held at “ Simpson’s,” 101, Strand, 
on Friday next, at five p.m., it is the intention of the 
committee of management to recommend that the fol- 
loAving tAventy-five candidates be placed on the pension 
list Avithout the trouble and expense of an election :—- 
John Andrews, Astley Abbotts, Bridgenorth, aged 60 ; 
William ElsAvorthy, Wandsworth, aged 70 ; Frances 
Elizabeth King, Salisbury, aged 62 ; Mary Ann Parker, 
Southport, aged 70; Jacob Rose, Stoke, Guildford, 
aged 62 ; James Snow, Wandsworth, aged 66 ; Edward 
Spary, Brighton, aged 82 ; William Archer, Stratford, 
Essex, aged 81 ; Maria Austin, Sfourport, aged 68 ; 
Joseph Beilis, Whitchurch, Salop, aged 68 ; Thomas 
Best, Clapton, aged 70 ; William Cowles, East Sheen, 
aged 68 ; Richard Daphne, Ealing, aged 76 ; George 
Dawson, Worcester, aged 73 ; John Day, Teignmouth, 
aged 67; Sarah Drummond, East Sheen, aged 65 ; 
William Harman, Denham, Uxbridge, aged 60 ; Plliza- 
beth HoAve, Lowestoft, aged 67 ; Peter Lowe, Chel¬ 
tenham, aged 67; Edward J. H. MacGuiness, Gravesend, 
aged 73 ; Susan Mills, Walthamstow, aged 78 ; Robert 
Pryor, Brixton, aged 75 ; Joan Boyd Rintoul, Man¬ 
chester, aged 67 ; Eliza Skinner, Cudham, Kent, aged 
73 ; Sophia Ware, Midhurst, aged 69. These are the 
Avhole of the applicants, and their addition to the list 
Avill bring the number of pensioners up to 118, viz., 
52 men at £20 per annum, and 66 Avomen at £16 per 
annum. Instead of the usual annual supper, it has 
been arranged that a friendly dinner of the members 
shall take place at “ Simpson’s,’’ at six p.m., Avhen the 
treasurer, Echvard Tidswell, Esq., Avill preside. 
The Birds and Winter Berries.— With 
reference to a statement in our last issue, Sir Charles 
W. Strickland, Hildenley, Malton, Avrites :—“You 
mention blackbirds and thrushes as eating the fleshy 
cup of the Yew berry and leaving the stone ; on the 
contrary, the blackbird certainly eats the stone and 
leaves the fleshy envelope ; I cannot ansAver for Avhat 
the Thrush does, but I suspect that he too does the 
same.” 
The Spring 1 Exhibitions of the Royal 
Botanic Society Avill be held on March 24th, and 
April 14th. Amaryllis growers should make a note 
of the fact that on the first named date a Veitch 
Memorial Medal and £5 is offered for tAA r elve distinct 
varieties, a prize that should bring forward a strong 
competition. 
The Floral Committee Meetings of the 
Royal Horticultural Society.— “S. H. A.” 
Avrites:—I believe at the next meeting of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, the new committees are appointed 
and the floral arrangements made for the year. It 
appears to me to be desirable that the council should 
consider whether it Avould not be a good plan to hold a 
Floral Committee meeting every third Aveek during the 
a\ inter months, instead of having only one meeting 
in the month. Exhibitors of Orchids are frequently pre¬ 
cluded from showing any new or rare species Avhich they 
may flower at that season of the year, 0A\ r ing to the 
long interval Avhich elapses between each meeting.” 
The society’s arrangements for the season are so 
far complete that the committees are appointed (see p. 
301), and the dates of the meetings fixed, but it may 
not he too late for the council to take this matter into 
consideration. Such an arrangement Avould meet Avith 
as much faA r our among Chrysanthemum groAvers, as 
among the special class on Avliose behalf “S. H. A.” 
makes his admirable suggestion. 
The Stoke Newington Chrysanthemum 
Society.— A special general meeting of the members 
of this society Avas held on the 1st inst., at the High¬ 
bury Athenaeum, Highbury Nerv Park, the chair being 
taken by Mr. J. Hicks (one of the Auce-presidents). 
The meeting was called to consider the advisability of 
holding the next exhibition at the Highbury Athenaeum. 
Letters Avere read from several gentlemen, Avho Avere 
all of opinion that if the next exhibition is held at the 
above-named place it Avould be greatly beneficial to the 
society. The matter AA'as freely discussed, and the fol- 
loAving resolutions Avere agreed to, viz. (1st) that the 
society should in future he called the Stoke Newington 
and Highbury Chrysanthemum Society, and that the 
next exhibition should be held at the Highbury 
Atlienreum ; (2nd) that the days on which the exhibition 
shall be held be the 4th and 5th of NoA'ember next. 
Another general meeting Avill shortly be held, when 
the rules and schedule aauII be entirely reused. 
Plant Parasites. —The Italian Minister of Agri¬ 
culture, Industry, and Commerce, in order to encourage 
the invention and manufacture of implements for the 
application of remedies in solution, powder, or mixture 
against the parasites of cultivated plants, and especially 
of 1 ‘ milk calx ” against the mildew of Vines, has decided 
that an international exhibition of pumps, watering 
implements, &c., shall be held in the Royal School of 
