August 7, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
771 
_FLOWE R SH OW . 
R oyal horticultural society, 
SOUTH KENSINGTON, S.W. 
NOTICE !—COMMITTEE MEETINGS, Fruit and Floral, at 
11 a.m., in the Conservatory, on Tuesday next, August 10th. 
SHOW OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS. 
N.B.—Open to Fellows at Twelve o'clock, and the Public at 
One o’clock. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Amsden Peach . 77S 
Bulbs for the Parks. 771 
Carnation & Picotee Union 771 
Carnations and Pinks .... 772 
Chrysanthemum culture .. 772 
Deepdene, the. 776 
Earwigs and Chrysanthe¬ 
mums. 77S 
Edge Hall Gardens . 77S 
Floral Fashions. 779 
Flowery Railway Embank¬ 
ments. 774 
Fruit Crops, the. 774 
Fuchsia Island . 772 
Herbaceous borders. 775 
Liliums, notes on . 772 
PAGE 
London Gardening. 776 
Orchid Grower's Calendar. 779 
Potato Harvest, the. 771 
Preston and District Show 7S1 
Reinwardtia tetragyne .. 777 
Roses and Rose growing .. 773 
Roses, Bennett's New .... 771 
Scottish Gardening . 775 
Southampton Show . 780 
Strawberry, Marechal Mac- 
mahon . 77S 
Tomatos in the open-air .. 77S 
Vegetable Sowing . 775 
Violas, cultural notes on .. 775 
Wiltshire Hort. Soc. 7S1 
Window and Table Plants.. 778 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man." —Bacon. 
SATURDAY r AUGUST 7, 1886. 
The Potato Harvest. —-Very shortly ive shall 
he, if not reaping at least lifting, our annual 
Potato harvest. We have not now before us 
the necessity of demonstrating the great value 
and importance to the nation of an abundant 
Potato crop. Prior to the appearance of the 
fell Potato disease, we had, perhaps, hardly 
thought about the matter. When, however, in 
1844, the crop seemed almost as if struck and 
blasted by some unseen and unrecognised agency, 
creating alarm and distress, then we realised to 
the full the importance of the Potato crop to 
the nation, and its value to us as an article of 
food. The disease was with us more or less 
destructive for some forty years, hut during that 
time we not only awoke from the kind of stupor 
which its disastrous appearance generated, hut 
have become so far accustomed to it that its 
annual attacks upon our Potato crops were re¬ 
garded with varying degrees of philosophy, 
though never with unconcern. 
Presently, too, we began to battle with the 
disorder by the raising of new and robust kinds 
of Potatos, and these have proved wondrously 
helpful during the later years of the fungoid 
visitation. We also diagnosed the disease fully; 
and, thanks to the patient labours of the fun- 
gologist, were at length able to comprehend it 
fully. Its life history has been written, the 
disease has been found out, and just as we 
became familiar with its nature and operations, 
so did we become bolder and, perhaps, more 
confident. It is true that little has been done 
in what may he termed a scientific or remedial 
way to check the ravages of the Potato disease. 
Beyond giving advice—too often difficult or 
impossible to follow—little indeed has been 
done in a scientific point of view to check the 
disease. Some compositions were to have 
destroyed the fungus, but those failed in the 
hour of need; whilst the introduction of the 
protective earthing system, so interestingly 
described for our benefit by Mr. Jensen, very 
oddly has been followed by seasons in which 
the weather rendered its practice of no avail. 
Still, we have gone on not merely growing 
Potatos, but largely increasing the acreage 
cropped, and raising from year to year, as a rule,- 
enormous crops, sometimes badly, but sometimes 
comparatively healthy, and latterly exceptionally 
healthy, until now, in this year of grace 1886, 
we find ourselves entering into the autumn and 
ripening month of August with, so far as can 
be learnt, not a complaint of the appearance of 
the disease anywhere. That it might have been 
looked for, having regard to the abundant rains 
and often low temperature which marked the 
past month of July, was but natural. Remem¬ 
bering, as we do well, how with just such 
weather in past Julys the Potato-tops have 
becomealmost universallyblackened and blasted, 
and the tubers destroyed by the accompanying 
rot, what more natural than that reminiscences 
of those disastrous times should be recalled by 
rains and storms such as have of late so largely 
prevailed, and the disease expected 1 ? Still, it 
does not seem to have presented itself anywhere, 
or if so in such a mild and mitigated form as to 
alarm no one. 
Practically, our Potato harvest bids fair this 
year to be a grand one, and gathered in without 
any blot or blight. If the plant was rather late 
because the season was late, the heat of the 
earlier summer-time promoted rapid growth, and 
universally the haulm has been robust and 
healthy, and their tuber produce abundant. 
There is just now every reason to believe that 
we shall lift this year one of the finest and 
cleanest of Potato crops we have been favoured 
with for some years. But what has become of 
the disease 1 Is the snake detected—the fungoid 
monster killed 1 That is too much to hope for, 
and yet it would seem as if its fangs had been 
drawn, and its power quite minimised. To 
what causes do we attribute this apparent good 
fortune 1 Has the fact that the disease has 
been “found out” driven it from our shores'? 
Does it detest microscopical examination, 
analysis, and illustration 1 Does it fear the fun- 
gologists so far that, like the famous swine of 
old, the fungus has rushed down steep places into 
the sea from very fear, and perished in the 
waters 1 If that cause for its disappearance 
seems too romantic, may we look for the phe¬ 
nomenon in the influence exercised by the recent 
comparatively dry summers, and that of last 
year especially, when the drought literally 
■withered up not merely those moisture-loving 
spores, hut the very food in the young Potato- 
plant life upon which they existed 1 
That the attacks for some few years past have 
been weaker and weaker has been evident, and 
it may be that the aridity of the previous 
summer gave to the detestable Peronospora its 
coup de grace. If so, may it remain deceased 
till the end of time, or at any rate till humanity 
has ceased to grow and partake of Potatos and 
Tomatos. That the Apple of the earth is a 
considerable blessing to us we all believe, and 
long may it flourish and be amongst the most 
honoured of garden products. 
-- 
GARDENING MISCELLANY. 
Meetings for Next Week. — Monday: 
Darlaston Horticultural Society’s show (two days). 
Tuesday : Fruit and Floral Committees of the Royal 
Horticultural Society meet at South Kensington ; Show 
of Plants, Clay Cross Horticultural Society’s Exhibition 
Wednesday: Hastings Horticultural Society’s exhi¬ 
bition. Saturday: National Carnation and Picotee 
Society’s exhibition at Old Trafford, Manchester. 
The Carnation and Picotee Union. —The 
meeting and annual exhibition by the members of the 
union at Oxford on Tuesday last, of which we publish 
a report in another column, was one of the prime 
floricultural events of the past week, and its success 
must have compensated the veteran Mr. E. S. Dodwell 
for the labour and anxiety cast upon him. The day 
was brilliantly fine, there was a remarkably fine show, 
the average of quality being exceedingly level. Mr. 
Dodwell’s wonderful Carnation and Picotee garden was 
seen to the best advantage ; as many as twenty-five 
exhibitors competed, a number almost unparalled at 
any previous exhibition in the country, and a great 
many visitors were attracted to see it, rich and poor 
alike being admitted without charge ; among the 
visitors being the Mayor and Mayoress of Oxford. 
Friends and sympathisers with the Union came from 
all parts of the country, and the gathering was in every 
respect most agreeable. After the awards were made 
many of the visitors, including several ladies, sat down 
to luncheon provided by Mr. Dodwell, in the Hall of 
Cowley, St. John’s High School, the Mayor of Oxford 
presiding ; the vice-chairs being filled by Mr. Shirley 
Hibberd and Mr. Rippon of the Oxford Tiroes. The 
Mayor made an excellent chairman, and the leading 
toasts were proposed and spoken to by Mr. Rippon, 
Mr. R. Dean, Ealing, Mr. Shirley Hibberd, Kew, Mr. 
J. S. Hedderly, Nottingham, Mr. E. S. Dodwell and 
others, in a series of pleasant and genial speeches. The 
toast of the Horticultural Press, given by the Mayor 
in a very able address, lvas admirably responded to by 
Mr. Shirley Hibberd, who gave some apt and very 
interesting information as to the rise and progress of 
the gardening press of the present day. That this 
pleasant gathering may be an annual one was the 
hearty wish of all present, coupled with the hope that 
Mr. Dodwell’s health will enable him to receive his 
floricultural friends in the Stanley Road for many 
years to come, to partake of the floricultural “feast” 
he so bountifully provides. 
Bulbs for the Parks. —We understand that Her 
Majesty’s First Commissioner of Works have accepted 
the tender of Mr. B. S. Williams, Victoria and Para¬ 
dise Nurseries, Upper Holloway, London, N., for 
supplying Hyacinths, Tulips, Crocus, Daffodils, &c. for 
the following royal parks :—Hyde Park, Regent’s Park, 
Victoria Park, Bethnal Green Museum, Battersea Park, 
Kennington Park, and Hampton Court Gardens. 
Bennett’s New Roses.— Of Bennett’s pedigree 
Roses we like the following very much :—Lady Mary 
Fitzwilliam, delicate flesh colour, sometimes of a light 
rosy pink ; a grand constant Rose and very free, one 
that promises to become very popular as a show variety ; 
this is classed with the hybrid Teas. Grace Darling, 
the base of the petals creamy or pale yellow, deeply 
tinted and edged on the petals with pinkish peach, 
quite a new colour, very distinct and remarkably free ; 
classed with the Tea-scented varieties; and V 7 . F. 
Bennett, deep bright rosy lilac, and a sweetly fragrant 
Rose. It is recommended by the raiser as the finest 
red Rose yet introduced for winter blooming, and for 
growing for cut flowers at all seasons, as it combines 
the continuous blooming qualities of the Tea Rose with 
the richness of colour and quality of the crimson 
hybrid perpetuals ; it is classed with the hybrid Teas. 
Royal Bouquets. —Miss Cypher, of Cheltenham, 
had the honour of presenting the Princess Beatrice with 
a bouquet of choice flowers on the occasion of Her 
Royal Highness’s visit to the Royal Horticultural 
Society of Southampton’s show last Saturday. 
Auricula-eyed Sweet Williams. —A showy 
bunch of flowers of a very fine strain of Auricula-eyed 
Sweet Williams, has reached us from Messrs. Dobbie & 
Co., florists, of Rothesay. The flowers are of good size, 
and smooth, and the large white centres which charac¬ 
terise this section are very pine. Beautiful as are the 
old-fashioned Sweet Williams, the Auricula-eyed forms 
are even more so, and their fine form, and general air 
of “ quality,” always commands admiration. 
Peter Lawson & Son, Limited. —The second 
annual report and statement of accounts of this com¬ 
pany, presented to the general meeting of shareholders 
on Thursday last, show a surplus on the past year’s 
trading, after providing for discounts, abatements, &c., 
sufficient to pay 17J per cent, on the paid-up capital, 
and then leave a balance of £5,233 to be earned 
forward. The directors, however, resolved on paying 
a dividend of 10 per cent, per annum, free of income 
tax, and devoting £400 towards writing-off machinery 
and fittings account, and £750 from seed stocks, &c., 
carrying forward a balance of £5,386 4s. 11(7. 
Tropical Fruits. —In a lecture on “Tropical 
Fruits,” delivered in the Conference Room at the South 
Kensington Exhibition, Mr. D. Morris said, that for a 
long time the tropical fruits were not cultivated ; but 
now the West Indies were paying attention to the work 
and were exporting various fruits to America to the 
yearly value of a quarter of a million sterling. The 
people of the States were much larger consumers of 
fruit than we were, but that was because we were not 
sufficiently acquainted with the merits of tropical fruits. 
The orange was one of the few fruits with which we 
