July 24, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
739 
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, July 27th. 
NATIONAL CARNATION AND PICOTEE SOCIETY’S 
SHOW. 
N.B.—Open to Fellows at Twelve o’clock, and the Public at 
One o’clock. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Amateurs’ Garden, the_ 743 
Braintree Hort. Society .. 750 
Carnations and Picotees.. 741 
Carnation and Picotee 
Union. 739 
Cherries, notes on. 746 
Chiswick Hort. Society .. 749 
Disa grandifiora. 748 
Disa saggitata. 74S 
Earwigs. 747 
Floral Enthusiasm . 740 
Floriculture. 747 
Flowers, double white.... 746 
Foreign visitors at Swanley 739 
Fruit crops. 747 
Gardeners’ Calendar. 74S 
PAGE 
Gardens of light and shade 739 
Glen, the, Lewisham. 746 
Hampton Horticultural 
Society . 749 
Latitude v. Climate . 740 
London Gardening. 744 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne 
Flower Show . 749 
Oak Dene, Holmwood _ 743 
Orchids, Manures for. 748 
Roses, Apricot coloured .. 747 
Rose Show at Birmingham 747 
Scottish Gardening . 743 
Shropshire Rose Show .... 750 
Thurston, Mr. James. 744 
Waddon House . 742 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
SATURDAY, JULY % 1886. 
“Gardens of Light and Shade.” —An anony¬ 
mous author, “ G. S. C.,” has written, and Mr. 
Elliott Stock, of Paternoster Row, has lately 
published under this title, a hook of seventy 
pages, devoted, as the preface states, to the sub¬ 
ject of rendering small suburban gardens 
“ pleasing all the year round, and at little cost,” 
which should prove a useful addition to works 
of this class. Whether it will do so, however, 
must needs depend on special circumstances, for 
the book is exceedingly peculiar in laying down 
new rules and principles in landscape gardening 
which seem to us extravagant if not radically 
unsound. It is not a hook for gardeners, nor, 
as it seems to us, for any genuine lover of gar¬ 
dens and of plants. It happens that we have 
seen its doctrines carried into practice. There 
is a chapter entitled, “ Spare the trees,” hut as 
the dimensions of the largest garden, described 
by the author by means of a plan (on which 
“ groups of trees and shrubs ” are marked on 
the lawn, and a “ wild shrubbery ” is introduced 
in the background !) are only 95 ft. by 110 ft., 
we should say, “ Down with them for their own 
sake.” Those who do not understand plants 
may not think so, but overcrowding, to a 
botanist or gardener, seems like intolerable 
cruelty. We have seen woods and shrubberies 
and even gardens ruined by it. 
All must admire the beauties of nature ; hut 
“ G. S. C.” seems to us to misapprehend what 
he calls “ the natural in gardening.” He says, 
“what is unnatural can have but little real 
beauty. If we had not to reckon with con¬ 
sideration of space, we should he disposed to 
say, free nature of all restraint, let her do as 
she listeth.” He admits here that some restraint 
is necessary, and such an admission is fatal to 
his theory. We should challenge his con¬ 
clusions, too, on other grounds, since we cannot 
understand why the bit of fenced ground, which 
a man calls his garden, may not fitly and appro¬ 
priately differ widely from the world outside 
without his being charged with violating those 
“ cannons of natural law ” which our author 
insists upon as rules for our guidance. There 
is scarcely any “nature” left in England, and 
none at all in those suburban places which 
“ G. S. C.” has in view. Setting contour aside, 
or taking the case of a level neighbourhood, 
man really made the country as well as the 
town, forming all the fences, planting all the 
woods, and creating all those “ lines ”—straight, 
curved, natural, or artificial—which the aesthetic 
school are so given to discourse about. All this 
work 'of the field or farm in a long-cultivated 
country has been effected by man haphazard, and, 
therefore, it is a mistake to call it “natural”; 
apd when by pains and much expense he im¬ 
proves on his rough plan, and forms gardens for 
ornament instead of farms for utility, may not 
the result be highly artificial and yet unnatural. 
In our belief, man is a part of nature, and 
the master figure on earth. He went on all 
fours once, it is said, and in those days he was 
far more hairy and hardy than he is now. At 
present, he takes a chair sometimes, and lies on 
a feather bed, aids to repose of a highly artficial 
kind, which are still not unnatural, since they 
are found by man himself, fitting and convenient. 
Common sense must be our guide, and extrava¬ 
gant views of “the natural in gardening,” will 
take no hold, we feel persuaded, on the public 
mind. “ Wild shrubberies ” are not appropriate 
for small gardens, simply because they are less 
beautiful than “ dressed grounds,” and because 
in such gardens the space, at best, is not too 
great for the numerous subjects, which a lover 
of plants will desire to cultivate. “ G. S. C.’s” 
nine month’s “ barrenness.” may be obviated 
without sacrificing the “ life ” in gardens, which 
most of us love for the sake of the wildness 
which he extols. Plants may be shifted and 
borders filled all the year round, as is done in 
many a little garden that we have known. We 
must not fail to acknowledge some useful hints 
in the work before us, and some good lists of 
inexpensive trees and plants. It is a handsome 
book for the table. 
-- 
GARDENING MISCELLANY. 
Meetings for Next Week. — Tuesday: Royal 
Horticultural Society’s Fruit and Floral Committees 
meet at South Kensington. National Carnation and 
Picotee Society’s Show. 
The Carnation and Picotee Union.— The 
schedule of prizes of this association for the Annual 
Feast of Carnations, to be held in Mr. Dodwell’s garden, 
The Cottage, Stanley Road, Oxford, on Tuesday the 
3rd prox., comprises forty-five prizes for collections of 
twelve or six blooms respectively, and seventy-eight 
prizes for single blooms, the total money value being 
some £45. The hon. sec. states: “The object of the 
founder of this association has been to foster interest 
and enthusiasm in the cultivation of the flowers rather 
by free fraternal communion than by the stimulus of 
large money prizes ; therefore, an essential part of the 
programme is a modest luncheon, free to all subscribers, 
an arrangement which many years of experience has 
proved to be good.” Last year, we understand, up¬ 
wards of sixty friends, coming from all parts of the 
three kingdoms, were gathered in this conference, and 
the promises for the present year is of a yet larger 
number. 
Foreign Visitors at Swanley.— On Tues¬ 
day, a party of twelve Belgian, French and Dutch 
horticulturists, now on a visit to this country, and 
among whom are Mr. LI. J. Yan Hulle, of Ghent, Mr. 
E. Lemoine, of Nancy, and M. Delaux, the famous 
Chrysanthemum raiser, went to Swanley, and under 
the guidance of Mr. Cannell, inspected The Home of 
Flowers, and subsequently visited several fruit farms 
in the neighbourhood, including Mr. Philip Ladd’s 
immense fruit-growing establishment under glass. At 
The Home of Flowers, the grounds and plant houses 
were thrown open, and ample time allowed for the 
inspection of everything of interest,- which included the 
construction of the houses, the heating apparatuses in 
use, &c. The visitors were favoured with glorious 
weather, and full justice was done during the perambu¬ 
lation of the nursery, to the supply of luscious straw¬ 
berries which had been thoughtfully provided by their 
host, and for which we may add the Swanley district is 
renowned. Having passed through the various depart¬ 
ments, luncheon was served at the Lullingstone Castle 
Hotel, after which a tour of inspection was made of the 
fruit-growing portion of the district, and which is at 
present “in full pick,” and the visit proved extremely 
interesting and instructive, the visitors being somev'liat 
surprised at the immense quantities which are being 
daily despatched to the northern towns. After a walk 
through Mr. Ladd’s establishment, the visitors returned 
to London, highly delighted with their day’s outing. 
French. Striped Mangolds. —Mr. William 
Caudwell, the Ivies, Wantage, who grows these showy 
old-fashioned autumn flowers in large quantities, has 
favoured us with some blooms of his single and double- 
flowered strains. The colours are very bright, and the 
flowers of good form. We are pleased to see the single 
ones looking up again, for they are very pretty. The 
rich velvety crimson petals, with broad band of clear 
yellow down the centre, are singularly effective. 
A Royal Bouquet of Roses. —During the 
royal visit to the Royal Agricultural Society’s Show at 
Norwich, Mr. Sharrrwu, manager to Messrs. James 
Carter & Co., High Holborn, had the honour of pre¬ 
senting to H.R. H. the Princess of Wales a very hand¬ 
some bouquet of Roses from Messrs. Carter’s Rose- 
grounds in Kent. 
Fruits from “The Garden of England.”— 
In a new descriptive catalogue of fruits grown in their 
nurseries at Maidstone, Messrs. George Bunyard & Co. 
have somewhat departed from their usual custom, and 
besides enlarging their list by giving more detailed 
descriptions and cultural hints, have, in order to meet 
the growing demand for sound information among 
amateurs and possessors of villa gardens, included in 
their pages a few practical articles which we had the 
pleasure of publishing last winter from the pen of Mr. 
George Bunyard ; some pithy observations on Straw¬ 
berry and Apricot culture by Mr. Wildsmith, of Heck- 
field ; and a series of useful little illustrations. As a 
rule we do not undertake to notice trade catalogues, 
but this seems to deserve something more than a 
mere acknowledgement. 
Lychnis vespertina flore pleno. —Perhaps, 
the finest of all the double white-flowered herbaceous 
plants, comes to us in the form of a fine bunch of flowers 
from Mr. M. Cuthbertson, of the Public Park Nursery, 
Rothesay. It grows freely, is quite hardy, and blooms 
all the season ; but Mr. Cuthbertson -states that he ex¬ 
periences some difficulty in its propagation. Perhaps 
some of our readers can give him a useful hint on the 
subject. 
Gloxinias. — These have been remarkably fine 
this season in Messrs. Yeitch’s Nursery at Chelsea, and 
from among the large number of seedlings raised here, 
some novelties have been obtained, which, for hand¬ 
some shape and brilliant colouration, surpass anything 
the firm has raised before. At the present time, a 
flower called The Moor is most conspicuous for the 
depth and brilliancy of its black-purple blossoms ; and 
another purple flower shaded with violet, and named 
Annette, is simply exquisite. The brilliant scarlet 
shades among the seedlings also claim our admiration, 
so bright are the tints as compared with older sorts. 
Mesembryanthemum pomeridianum. — 
If anyone is in search of a good dry weather plant, with 
large bright yellow, starry blossoms, for a dry border 
or rockery, we know of nothing more likely to give 
them complete satisfaction than Mesembryanthemum 
pomeridianum, an old Cape species introduced over 
a hundred years ago, and which Mr. Moore has in fine 
condition just now at the Chelsea Botanic Garden. 
Mr. Edward Pynaert will in October next 
complete the twenty-fifth year of his professorship in 
the State School of Horticulture at Ghent, and having 
during that period rendered good service both to the 
school, and to horticulture generally, by his sound 
teaching in the former, and his valuable contributions 
to the Bulletin du Cerele d' arboriculture, and the Bevue 
de VHorticulture beige et etrangere, of which he was one 
of the founders, his friends propose to celebrate the 
event in a manner worthy of the occasion. To carry 
out the object in view, an influential committee has 
been formed of which Mr. Kicks, director of the school, 
is president ; Mr. G. Van Ecchaute, curator of the 
botanic garden, secretary ; and Mr. Fred. Burvenich, 
of Gandbrugge, treasurer ; and a subscription list has 
been opened for the purpose of presenting Mr. Pynaert 
with an album of portraits and an object of art. Mr. 
Pynaert is so well known, and so much respected in 
