April 24, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
531 
New Catalogue now ready, free on application. 
NEW VARIETIES. 
Many very charming novelties. 
SHOWS AND FANCIES. 
A grand collection, including every variety worth 
growing. 
40 most charming varieties. 
SINGLES. 
The largest and finest collection in the world. 
CACTUS OR DECORATIVE VARIETIES. 
Many most showy and attractive sorts, these are most 
effective in the borders, and are invaluable for cutting. 
Thomas s. Ware, 
gale garni ipurhcricA, 
TOTTENHAM, LONDON. 
CHOICE FLOWERS OF STERLING 
MERIT. 
MY COLLECTION, which consists OF ALL THE NEWEST 
AND CHOICEST FLOWERS FOR THE GARDEN AND 
CONSERVATORY, being now UNANIMOUSLY PRO¬ 
NOUNCED THE BEST, MOST SELECT, AND COMPRE¬ 
HENSIVE EXTANT, all intending purchasers should be in 
possession of my NEW DESCRIPTIVE PRICED CATA¬ 
LOGUE, of nearly 100 pages, FOR 1886, before ordering from 
any other source, free on application. 
JOHN FORBES, Nurseryman, HAWICK, N.B. 
S E E ID S.. 
All in want of good genuine Seeds should give me a small trial 
order; they are sure to be pleased; everything of first quality 
only. Fourteen two-penny packets of Flower Seeds, post free, 
for 2s. All different, and carefully selected. Send for Catalogue, 
post free. 
GLADIOLUS BRENCHLEYENSIS, 6 d. and 9 d. doz., 3s. 6 d. 
and os. 100 ; Gladiolus Gandavensis, mixed hybrids. Is. Gd. doz.; 
ditto, splendid mixed, 2s. doz. Hyacinthus eandicans. Is. Gd., 
2s. 6d., and 3s. doz.; Single Dahlias, fine ground roots, mixed, 
id. each, 3s. 6<1. doz. ; Anemones, single, mixed, 2s. 6d. 100. 
All orders over Is. carriage free. Cash with order. Seed Cata¬ 
logue gratis. 
J . HISCOCK, 
107D, Queen’s Road, Peckham, London. 
PANSIES 
FOR 
EXHIBITION. 
Orchid Show. 
B irmingham botanical & horti¬ 
cultural SOCIETY.—£150 in prizes. For Schedules 
apply to W. B. LAT HAM, Curator, at tiie Gardens, Edgbaston. 
National Chrysanthemum Society, Royal 
Aquarium Westminster 
E XHIBITIONS : September 9th and 10th > 
November 10th and 11th ; and January 12th and 13tli. 
Schedules now ready, and may be had on application to— 
Mb. William Holmes, Hoii. Sec., Frampton Park Nurseries, 
_ Hackney. _ 
T> OYAL AQUARIUM, WESTMINSTER. 
—In consequence of an extension of time for holding the 
Exhibition by the Kennel Club, in June next, the Rose Show 
announced for June ‘25th and ‘26th, is unavoidably withdrawn, 
and the Strawberry Show and Fete, on July 2nd and 3rd, is for 
the same reason postponed until July 9th and 10th.— Richard 
Dean, Superintendent of Exhibitions, Ealing, W . _ 
OYAL BOTANICAL AND HORTICUL¬ 
TURAL SOCIETY OF MANCHESTER. —FLORAL 
MEETING at the Town Hall, Manchester, on Tuesday the 
27th inst. 
THE GRAND NATIONAL Horticultural Exhibition of 18S6, 
will open at the Gardens on the lltli June. Schedules may be 
had from the undersigned. 
BRUCE FINULAY. 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Manchester. 
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, April 27th. 
FOURTH PROMENADE SHOW and Small Band of the Royal 
Horse Guards, from Half-past Three o'clock p.m. Admission 
2s. Gd. 
N.B.—Entrance for Fellowsand the Public, North-east Orchard 
House, Exhibition P.oad ; and Exhibitors’ Entrance, East side of 
Royal Albert Hall. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Aberdeen Horticultural As¬ 
sociation . 532 
Amaryllises. 539 
Amateurs’ Garden, the.... 535 
Annuals, hardy . 532 
Anthurium varieties. 539 
Asters . 537 
Auricula Show, the . 542 
Auricula, the Florist’s_534 
Carnation, Pride of Pens- 
hurst. 532 
Chrysanthemum Culture.. 537 
Cattleya Mendelii . 541 
Daffodil, the. 532 
Floriculture . 542 
Flowers for the Poor. 537 
Gardeners' Calendar. 541 
Horticultural Societies.... 542 
PAGE 
Jack's in the Green . 530 
Lindenia . 536 
Myosotidium nobile. 539 
Odontoglossum, a high 
priced. 540 
Orchid Culture, hints on.. 541 
Plialsenopsis and vErides .. 539 
Poiusettia, the. 536 
Primulas and Auriculas_ 531 
Primula Conference, the .. 533 
Primula, improvement of 
the . 537 
Roses, piuning. 539 
Scottish Gardening . 535 
Soot and the Onion Maggot 539 
Stra wbei ry, Keen's Seedling 539 
Tiger Flower. 541 
Tobacco Cultivation. 531 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
J^/j'Y Pansies, Fancy and Show, and also 
Violas are now ready for sending out. 
The plants are remarkably strong and 
healthy, and, devoting as I do considerable 
time and care to the improvement of these 
flowers, my customers may rely upon re¬ 
ceiving - none but the best. "It is my 
aim now, considering the numberless varie¬ 
ties put into commerce, not to offer a 
Collection of Plants, but a Selection of 
the really first-rate and most highly 
deserving in their respective classes, and 
such as are worthy of a place in any 
collection. 
Plants 3s., 6s., and 9s. per dozen. 
Catalogues free on application. 
JOHJM DOWN IE, 
BEECHHILL NURSERIES, 
^^RgAYflg^g„ 
EDINBURGH. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1886. 
Primulas and Auriculas.— These lovely plants 
are quite in the ascendant this week, and it is 
very appropriate that they should have received 
the honour of a special show and conference, 
such as was held at South Kensington on 
Tuesday and Wednesday. From the sweet and 
graceful Primrose, which adorns our fields and 
gardens so early in the year, with its delicately 
tinted flowers, to the perfection of the florist’s 
art, as shown in the best forms of the edged 
Auriculas, there were many grades of beauty 
at the exhibition in question, and the most 
fastidious must have found something to please 
them. Some object to the formality or rigid 
symmetry of the exhibition Auriculas as un¬ 
natural ; but let the objectors cultivate these 
plants for a time, and they will soon love them 
as do the enthusiasts who make them a speciality, 
and who have done so much to increase their 
popularity. There is a beauty in the highly 
developed or modified Auricula which very ferv 
other flowers possess, and which only those can 
fully appreciate who are familiar with their 
characters and distinctions. 
It might seem like trifling to be so exact 
about the relative proportions of paste, body, 
colour and edge, or the colour of the tube; but 
the value attached to these in their due degree 
is by no means merely fanciful, it is founded 
upon a closer observation and nicer discrimina¬ 
tion than those who are not well acquainted 
with the plants can bring to hear upon them 
without some training. It is only necessary to 
carefully compare a few of the highest types of 
Auriculas with those considered inferior by the 
florists, to instantly perceive the superiority of 
the former; though it will not be so readily 
observed upon what this depends. A really 
good edged Auricula possesses an exquisite re¬ 
finement—a delicacy or richness of tints that 
all must admire, even though these tints are in 
concentric circles, the dimensions of which are 
fixed with mathematical exactness. 
In the Alpine class we have a little more 
nature and less of art, and these, consequently, 
please many who raise objections to the show 
varieties; they are unquestionably extremely 
useful, beautiful and fragrant plants, that can 
be grown by anybody, either under glass or out 
in the borders. Lor either purpose they merit 
high commendation. All who have a few 
dozen pots of Alpine Auriculas for the conser¬ 
vatory at this time of year can fairly estimate 
their value, both for decoration and flower 
yielding; while out in the border, later in the 
season, they delight hundreds who have not 
glass houses or frames to devote to such plants. 
In the great genus Primula, represented on 
this occasion by collections from the Botanic 
Gardens at Kew, Edinburgh and Glasnevin, 
and from various trade and private growers, we 
have innumerable lovely forms, the acme of 
grace in habit and colour, and the popularity 
which has led to the conference this week can 
lie readily understood, for it is founded on sub¬ 
stantial qualities. Indoors the Primula sinensis 
and its numerous varieties is now almost indis¬ 
pensable, P. cortusoides, P. japonica, and the 
more recently introduced P. poculiformis or 
obconica, are charming plants for pots and 
cannot he too extensively grown. Out of doors 
there is still greater selection, commencing with 
the common Primrose, the P. acaulis varieties 
in numerous colours, the lovely P. rosea, P. 
denticulata, and leading on through the present 
and following months with scores of varieties, 
some of which are too little known in gardens, 
hut all alike are beautiful. That little gem, 
P. nivalis, must not he omitted from this brief 
enumeration, for both in pots and on the rockery 
it is exceptionally attractive, producing its pure 
white flowers in dense clusters almost concealing 
the plant. The old yellow and powdered-leaved 
P. verticillata is also a useful plant for the 
greenhouse. 
Then there are the Polyanthuses, which 
seem to constitute such a distinct group of 
Primulaceous plants, with their rich brown and 
black ground flowers, edged and laced with 
gold, exquisitely beautiful. The variation in 
the genus is indeed amazing, and many of those 
who inspected the show at South Kensington 
on Tuesday, must have come away with the 
determination to include a greater number of 
Primulas in their gardens. 
-—- 
GARDENING MISCELLANY. 
Meetings for Next Week. — Tuesday :—Royal 
Horticultural Society’s Fruit and Floral Committees, 
at 11 a.m. 
The Colonial Exhibition. —We are pleased to 
bear that the council of the Royal Horticultural 
Society have granted the services of Mr. J. Douglas 
Dick to the Royal Commission of the Colonial and 
Indian Exhibition, to act as superintendent of entrances 
during the exhibition. 
Tobacco Cultivation in England.— Under 
authority from the Lords of the Treasury, the experi¬ 
mental cultivation of Tobacco is to bs permitted in the 
United Kingdom. Any occupier of land intending to 
plant Tobacco must, on or before the 5th May, give 
