18G 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[December, 
and these shoots should also be stopped when 
about a foot long, and they will break and 
each throw out two or three additional shoots ; 
these last should not be topped unless in the 
case of a chance one that is growing too 
robust, when it should have its point removed. 
During September and October each of these 
shoots will produce one or more buds each. 
Standards that are kept stopped in this way are 
fine objects in the autumn, being covered with 
buds. When pruning in spring the shoots 
should be well thinned, otherwise the heads 
will get too crowded. Souvenir de la Mal- 
maison is another fine Rose, and is very useful 
for furnishing nice buds.—M. Saul, Stourton 
Castle. 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
^EVERAL of the Florists’ Societies 
held their Annual Meeting at South 
gx, Kensington, on the 14th ult., with the 
° following results :— 
National Auricula and National Carnation and 
Picotee Societies (Southern Section), John T. D. 
Llewelyn, Esq., in the chair. The United Com¬ 
mittee reported “ a continued and an increasing 
development in the operations and influence of the 
Societies,” the exhibitions having brought forward a 
larger number of growers of the plants, whilst the 
interest of the general public, “ keen from the first,” 
had been largely extended. The balance-sheets 
showed for the Auricula an income of £91 Os. 10d., 
and an expenditure of £81 2s. 6 d., leaving a balance 
in the Treasurer’s hands of £9 18s. 4 d .; for the 
Carnation and Picotee—receipts, £154 6.s. 8 d .; ex¬ 
penditure, £129 3s. 6 d., leaving £25 3s. 2d. in the 
Treasurer’s hands. The larger receipts and expendi¬ 
ture of the Carnation and Picotee Society were due 
to the supplementary exhibition held at Oxford on 
August 2, for which special contributions were 
made. The report of the committee was unanimously 
adopted, and with the balance-sheet ordered to be 
printed for distribution to the subscribers. The 
President,Vice-President, Committee, and Honorary 
Secretaries were re-elected. The schedules of prizes, 
slightly varied from those of 1882, were passed, and. 
the dates of exhibition fixed for April 24, and 
July 24, 1883. 
Pelargonium Society, Thomas Moore, Esq., in 
the chair. The report and balance-sheet were ap¬ 
proved. The Treasurer reported a fair balance in 
hand, but it will require some augmentation of the 
fund to keep the schedule up to its present standard. 
The prizes offered for hybrids of Geranium pratense 
and Pelargonium oblongatum will be repeated in the 
schedule adopted, which is very slightly varied from 
that of last year. The exhibition for 1883 is fixed 
for June 26. 
— Che Report of the Edinburgh Inter¬ 
national Show, held recently under the 
auspices of the Royal Caledonian Horticul¬ 
tural Society, shows that the sum taken at the gates 
during the two days of the show amounted to 
£1,106 11s., representing admission money for 
26,250 persons. It was estimated that, including 
members’ tickets, the number of persons who passed 
the gates during the two days was 30,760. The 
total receipts in connection with the show amounted 
to £1,500 7s., including a sum of £393 16-?. received 
as subscriptions. The total expenses incurred, in¬ 
cluding rent of the Waverley Market, advertising, 
judges’ expenses, &c., was £551 7s. 10d., and the 
amount of prizes £800 Is. 6d., making the total 
payments £1,351 9s. 4 d. The receipts of the In¬ 
ternational Show of 1875 amounted to £1,029, when 
there was a loss to the Society of £89, ivhereas on 
this occasion it was estimated that there would be a 
probable surplus, after meeting all contingencies, of 
about £100. 
— Che Proposed Pink Show is aban¬ 
doned for the present, since there appears to 
be no reasonable prospect of a satisfactory 
competition, the cultivators of the flowers being so 
few in number and so widely separated. The pro¬ 
posal has, however, stimulated many to enter on the 
cultivation of Pinks, and may prepare the way for a 
show in 1884. 
— Che Committee of the Yan Houtte 
Memorial Prize Fund met on the 14th ult., 
when it was decided to offer at the approaching 
Quinquennial Exhibition at Ghent, for competition 
among Belgian exhibitors only, two prizes consisting 
of works of art each of about the value of £12, one 
for Stove and Greenhouse Plants in flower remark¬ 
able for fine cultivation (Orchids excepted); the other 
for eight Varieties of Imantophyllum in flower. 
— Che White Clove Carnation Virgo, 
was raised by the late Mr. John Fletcher, of 
North Bierley, near Bradford, in 1878, and 
first flowered in August, 1879, according to a state¬ 
ment in the Journal of Horticulture, by Mr. G. 
Rudd, who adds that Mr. Fletcher partially distri¬ 
buted it to a few friends in the autumn of that year, 
and in 1880 sold the surplus plants of it along with 
other varieties to Messrs. James Hickson & Son, of 
Chester, who have been exhibiting it this season 
under the name of Duchess of Westminster. The 
original plant is still in existence. The flowers are 
said to be beautifully shaped, not too full, perfectly 
smooth, remarkably sweet, and of the purest white ; 
it is a strong grower, very floriferous, and given to 
throw up autumn spindles, which frequently pro¬ 
long the blooming season until Christmas. 
— Co keep off the Potato Disease, M. 
Jensen, of Neuilly, recommends three things : 
1, “protective moulding,” which will secure 
the crop to such a degree that, as a rule, you only 
find a trace of disease on lifting ; 2, “ protective lift¬ 
ing,” or late lifting, which is to lift two or three 
weeks after the complete decay of the leaves, so that 
the tubers may not be exposed to the millions of 
spores on the green potato shaws; and 3, “ protective 
storing,” which means burying the tubers in dry 
sand or dry earth, the sand being useable year after 
year without risk. By adopting this protective sys¬ 
tem, and taking care that it is well carried out, as 
explained in a pamphlet by M. Jensen, that gentle¬ 
man maintains that the potato-grower will be master 
of the disease instead of being mastered by it, as he 
will be so long as he'adheres to the old customs. 
— Che production of Grapes from the Old 
Wood of a Vine is to say the least unusual. 
