November 13, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
173 
it will grow well in any good garden ground, does 
certainly love a soil that is stiff and deep. A well- 
worked clayey heavy soil—that is, if I may so express it, 
coarse in grain, roughly granular, enabling water and 
rain to pour through it freely—is good, irrespective of 
colour, so long as it is not peaty or impregnated with 
any metallic oxides. Soil that will grow good Wheat 
and Beans will do admirably for Tulips, and a dressing 
of turfy chopped-up sods from a heavy old pasture, is a 
capital help. But many a variety, lighter or heavier, 
of good kitchen-garden soil is suitable. I never had 
any Tulips better than where once, by change of, 
residence, I had to plant them after Potatos in a clayey 
soil, well-drained and worked. If the soil is in good 
heart, there is no occasion to dig any ‘ well-rotted 
manure ’ into it; that nourishment, if the beds must 
have it, is safest as a surface mulching after planting. 
One point worthy of note is, that the Tulip, like the 
Carnation, is very fond of salt. I use the same ground 
every year for Tulips, and nearly every summer, just 
after taking them up, give the beds a fair sprinkling of 
common salt, till they seem as if whitened by a slight 
fall of snow not quite enough to cover the ground. This, 
however, is not a necessity, only an advantage ; and if 
ihe space is wanted afterwards for other flowers, such 
as half-hardy plants and annuals, or for other crops, a 
salting would not be seasonable.” 
“ Is it wet or cold that kills Tulips ? ” is a question 
that used to be hotly discussed among florists a quarter 
of a century ago. Undoubtedly wet, in the shape of 
water that cannot get freely away from the ground, 
causes the death of the Tulip, and is its very worst 
and almost only foe. Therefore, it is necessary, if the 
natural drainage of the bed be deficient, to put down 
an artificial bottom of rubbish, or other pervious 
material to the Tulip bed ; and it is the usual plan to 
have the bed raised 1 ft. or so above the level of the 
ground, with boarded sides, and a good surface of 
fertilizing soil could then be laid upon the beds without 
danger of rain washing it off. 
Tulip beds, like those of Mr. Samuel Barlow’s at 
Stake Hill House, Castleton, near Manchester, have 
seven bulbs planted in a line across the bed ; thus 
a bed long enough to admit of 100 lines in seven rows 
would contain 700 bulbs. 
More than three bulbs large enough to flower should 
not be placed in a hole ; some growers put two in a 
hole, some only one. “For a couple of full-sized 
bulbs, in each place, the rows on the bed may be 7 ins. 
apart, and the places in the row across 6 ins. from 
centre to centre. The width of the bed should allow 
both of these spaces, and a clear margin of 3 ins. or 
4 ins. on each side. 4 ins. is a fair depth at which to 
plant the bulbs, allowing the top to be 3 ins. or so 
below the surface. Early planting is much safer than 
late ; for when the base of the bulbs is very “proud” with 
fibres, and it is pushed, in the act of planting, against 
any hard substance, such as an unnoticed pebble in the 
soil, the points of the growing fibres behind this thin 
shield of skin may easily be broken ; such injury is 
irreparable, for the bulb is not capable of forming any 
more than are already produced, and no broken fibre 
in this bulbous plant has the power of producing 
laterals.” 
So much for the present. I will return to the subject 
again shortly. — H. D. 
-- 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL. 
The meeting held on Tuesday—the last but one of 
the present year—proclaimed the beginning of the end, 
both in the lesser number of subjects sent for exhi¬ 
bition and the smallness in the attendance of visitors. 
But for a very extensive display of Apples, Gourds, 
Pumpkins, and other garden and agricultural produce 
from Canada, the display would have been very poor, 
as contrary to expectation, the queen of autumn 
flowers was represented only by a few new varieties. 
The new plants certificated were:—Angracum avicu- 
lare, a small plant with two good spikes of long spurred 
white flowers, from Sir Trevor Lawrence’s collection. 
Primula capitata major, a species with large trusses of 
rich light purple flowers, shown by G. F. Wilson, Esq. 
Amaryllis Lady Mayoress, a pretty variety of the 
evergreen section, raised from a cross between A. 
reticulata and A. Leopoldii, with reticulated flowers of 
a rich rosy crimson colour ; Zygopetalum Leopardinum, 
a pretty and interesting hybrid (the probable parents of 
which are Z. maxillare and Colax jugosus), r with sepals 
and petals cream colour and heavily barred with purple- 
brown, and the lip rich violet-purple; Chrysanthe¬ 
mum gloriosum, a new American variety, belonging 
to the improved Japanese type, with large and finely 
formed flowers of a straw-yellow colour ; and Chrysan¬ 
themum White Ceres, a Japanese variety, with large, 
compact, white blossoms, distinguished by fine broad 
florets ; all from Messrs. James Veitch k Sons. Pon- 
tederia crassipes var. delicata—a remarkable pretty 
stove aquatic with a spike of lovely pale flesh-coloured 
flowers, with a lilac blotch on the upper petals—shown 
by Mr. Frank Ross, gardener to Sir George Macleay, 
Pendell Court. Clerodendron nutans, shown by Mr. 
Head, garden superintendent at the Crystal Palace 
(seep. 171). Chrysanthemum Admiral Sir T. Symonds, 
a most remarkable novelty which we shall not attempt 
to classify, the monster yellow flowers more closely 
representing a double Sunflower or Helianthus than 
anything else it could be compared -with ; and another 
variety, named Jane, a good, white Anemone Japanese, 
which, with the first-named, was certificated as a deco¬ 
rative variety. Both of these good novelties came from 
Messrs. H. Cannell & Sons. Chrysanthemum Coquette 
de Castile, one of Delaux’s novelties of last year, and a 
very fine thing, the large, neat flowers being of a 
pleasant shade of rose-pink ; this came from Mr. W. 
Holmes’s Frampton Park Nursery, Hackney, and 
was well shown in dwarf, compact plants. Amongst 
other subjects exhibited, mention must be made of 
a nice group of Cyclamens from Mr. R. Clarke, 
of Twickenham, which included some highly-coloured 
flowers of fine quality. Mr. Wright, gardener to 
Sydney Courtauld, Esq., Booking Place, showed the 
new Masdevallia acrocordonia, a species resembling 
M. ephippium (trochilus) with some of the features 
of M. Schlimii. The Scientific Committee awarded 
it a Botanical Certificate. Mr. Cowley, Orchid-grower 
to F. G. Tautz, Esq., Studley House, Goldhawk Road, 
showed fine forms of Cypripedium Leeanum and C. 
Lawrencianum, the large white dorsal sepal of the 
former being very striking. Mr. R. Owen, Maidenhead, 
sent some cut blooms of new varieties of Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, and also of Marguerite Cloth of Gold, a 
wondrously free and continuous bloomer of a very rich 
golden yellow colour. Mr. William Bull also showed 
several new varieties of Chrysanthemums, one of which, 
Madame Ghys, certainly deserved recognition ; it be¬ 
longs to the large Anemone-flowered section, and is very 
pretty, the upper surface of the florets being pale pink, 
and rose-pink beneath. Mr. Simkins, gardener to R. J. 
Measures, Esq., contributed, with some cut flowers, a 
plant of a deep rose-coloured form of Lfelia prsestans. 
The Fruit Committee had before them, amongst 
other things, bunches of the Winter King Grape from 
Mr. Bowman, gardener, Hylands Park, Chelmsford, 
which was decided to be identical with Gros Maroc. 
Mr. E. Woodhall, St. Nichol’s House, Scarborough, 
showed a “new seedling Grape, Miss Clarke,” which 
could not be distinguished from Gros Colmar. Messrs. 
Rivers & Son, Sawbridgeworth, showed a fine sample 
of the Wyedale Plum, a valuable late, medium-sized, 
oval-shaped, purple-coloured variety, which appears, 
besides, to be a very free bearer. Good examples of Cox’s 
Emperor and Coe’s Late Red Plums also came from 
Mr. Divers, gardener at Ketton Hall, Stamford. Mr. 
Toogood, Alvalton Hall, Peterborough, sent handsome 
fruits of a yellow Apple, closely resembling Frogmore 
Prolific. Messrs. H. Lane & Son again showed superb 
samples of their famous Prince Albert Apple ; and 
Messrs. Veitch & Sons had very fine fruits of the fine 
new variety, Bismarck. 
MANCHESTER HORTICULTURAL IMPROVE¬ 
MENT. 
The annual meeting of this society was held on 
Thursday evening, November 4th, in the Memorial 
Hall, Albert Square ; Mr. Bruce Findlay, the president, 
was in the chair. Mr. Robert Tait, the honorary 
treasurer, submitted his financial statement for the 
past year. He said the members had every reason to 
congratulate themselves on their financial position. 
In the session 1884-5 the total number of members 
was 108, from whom £13 10s. had been received in the 
way of subscriptions ; the present number was 117, 
and the amount of subscriptions £14 13s. The balance 
in hand last year amounted to £4 2s. Id. The pay¬ 
ments during the past session had been heavier than 
in the previous two years, and, in consequence, the 
present session began with a smaller balance than 
last year—namely, £2 14s. He was pleased to find the 
society had a small balance, and he hoped that the new 
session would end with a larger amount than it had 
now. The statement was adopted by the meeting. 
Mr. Bruce Findlay was unanimously re-elected pre¬ 
sident for the coming year ; Mr. Robert Tait, treasurer; 
Mr. W. B. Upjohn, honorary secretary; and the 
following gentlemen again form the committee of the 
society:—Messrs. William Plant, J. Briddon, F. 
Robinson, J. S. Butterworth, and E. G. Hughes. 
The president then delivered an address. He took 
as his subject “ Horticulture,” which, he said, whether 
regarded as an art, a science, a pursuit, or a profession, 
now occupies more of the attention of the educated 
classes than at any previous period. Horticulture is 
the parent of agriculture, inasmuch as it determines on 
a small scale the value of those principles upon which 
a more extended cultivation of the soil depends. It 
essentially consists in subjecting living organisms to 
the wants, tastes and caprices of man, who obliges the 
plant he wants or admires in its natural conditions 
to live where he pleases, however far from its native 
haunts, and who requires the plant which he does not 
want or admire in that condition to change its form, 
colour or habits, and assume such as will render it 
valuable to him or beautiful in his eyes. The tendency 
to produce variable offspring is inherent in the consti¬ 
tution of every plant, and is, indeed, a necessity of its 
existence. There is no such thing as a repetition of the 
parent in the progeny. Nature supplies the gardener 
with varieties, and all he can do is to exert his skill in 
deciding which of them is best suited to his wants, 
again selecting from its progeny that which is still better 
suited, and so on till his wants are satisfied, It is to 
this inherent power of variation and its apparent uni¬ 
versality that the attention of horticulturists is now 
directed in a very marked manner. 
Every gardener knows how difficult it is to keep the 
progeny true to its parents, that the same garden 
variety does not originate in two independent nurseries, 
and that the race of a plant raised in Belgium differs 
from the race of the same plant raised in France, 
Holland or England. There can be no doubt that 
vegetables, as well as animals and plants, are liable 
to an almost unlimited diversification, regulated by 
climate, soil, nourishment and new commixtures of 
already formed varieties. Mr. Findlay referred briefly 
to the state of horticulture at the present time in the 
country. He could go back for a period of thirty-five 
years, and he was bound to say that in some branches 
of plant culture little or no progress has been made. 
Where are the magnificent collections of Cape Heaths, 
that used to be exhibited by Fairbairn, of Clapham ; 
Rollisson, of Tooting ; Pince, of Exeter ; and Barnes, of 
Camberwell ? They are not to be met with in these 
days. Where are the magnificent specimen Azaleas 
that used to be the glory of our exhibitions 1 They 
don’t exist. Then again there were the New Holland 
plants formerly shown by Mrs. Laurence, of Ealing 
Park ; Mr. Collier, of Dartford ; and several other 
exhibitors. One seldom sees well-grown specimens of 
this class of plant now. No doubt reasons can be 
assigned for this ; one, he thought, was that the atten¬ 
tion of gardeners had been directed to other channels, 
and another, no doubt, is that, owing to the commercial 
depression, the class of plants to which he referred 
had not received that special attention accorded to 
them in former days. 
He believed, on the whole, that horticulture has 
made rapid strides in this country during the past 
fifty years. Not a year passed over, but every country 
in the world was searched and ransacked in order that 
new plants, flowers and seeds might be brought to 
this country. Thus we are able to congratulate our¬ 
selves on the advanced state of our gardening. We 
ought to feel grateful for the science, skill, enterprise 
and knowledge which had all been brought to bear in 
order to produce these splendid effects, and to arrive 
at the present high position which horticulture enjoys. 
Next year is the jubilee year of the Queen’s reign, and 
a paper on the progress of horticulture during that 
period would be a subject pregnant with interest. He 
hoped that the subject would be taken up by some 
member of the society. A vote of thanks was passed 
to the President for his address. 
