December IS, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
245 
higher position among the leading horticultural insti¬ 
tutions of the country, and, for his own part, he would, 
in all sincerity, assure them that he would ever do his 
best. 
Other toasts followed, including “ The four Com¬ 
mittees,” “The Affiliated Societies,” “ The Visitors,” 
and “The Press,” and the proceedings were brought 
to a close, when the Vice-President announced that the 
subscriptions to the special prize fund for the next 
annual show showed an increase of £10 on the amount 
promised at the previous annual dinner. 
-- 
CHRISTMAS ROSES AND 
LENTEN LILIES. 
Popular names are very much appreciated by a 
large class of people, and there is no harm in them 
when applied to a few well-known and widely-culti¬ 
vated plants ; but when popular names are applied 
to every flower we meet, they become extremely con¬ 
fusing and misleading. The botanist, as a rule, ignores 
popular names. Alas for the latter and his classifi¬ 
cation ! The Christmas Bose, as popularly applied to 
Helleborus niger and its varieties, is not a Eose at all; 
neither is Lenten Lily a Lilium. The latter name is 
applied to the other species of Helleborus in some 
nursery catalogues, to distinguish them from those 
generally recognised as Christmas Koses. The whole 
genus contains about a dozen species inhabiting 
Southern Europe and Western Asia. Popular as 
H. niger will always be, a collection can never be 
complete without a good sprinkling of the other repre¬ 
sentative types ; and hardy plant-lovers cannot fail to 
recognise this on becoming acquainted with H. colchicus, 
H. Olympicus, H. orientalis and H. atrorubens. 
There are, at least, three distinct varieties of H. niger 
worthy of a place in gardens and the attention of the 
cultivator. The commonest form in cultivation may 
be regarded as the type H. niger, whose serviceable 
qualities it would be superfluous to laud. No season¬ 
able flower could be more prized and appreciated in the 
dull winter months than this hardy subject. H. n. 
altifolius—variously known as H. n. major, maxiinus 
and by other names—is a large form of great merit. 
The flowers attain a diameter of 4-5 ins. under good 
cultivation, are pink in bud, but expand of a pure 
white, with the exception, perhaps, of the edges and 
backs of the sepals. The flower-stalks and the petioles 
of the large handsome leaves are spotted with purple, 
and the leaves themselves, when growing with their 
wonted vigour, form a canopy over the expanding 
flowers, affording them that protection necessary to 
bring them out in their greatest purity. The other 
variety—H. n. angustifolius—has smaller flowers than 
H. n. altifolius, with much narrower leaf-segments, and 
is valuable on account of its flowering about two months 
later, thus prolonging the blooming season considerably. 
It was described by Gerard and Parkinson as the true 
Christmas Eose, flowering about the end of December 
and the beginning of January. 
Notwithstanding the great purity of the flowers of 
H. niger and its varieties when in their prime, there is 
a special charm and a delicacy of their own about 
several species and varieties that flower from January to 
April, and are sometimes described as Lenten Lilies. 
These may be conveniently divided into two groups, 
according as their leaves are evergreen as in H. orientalis, 
or strictly deciduous with few-flowered stems. The 
deciduous species lack the protection and the attraction 
afforded by the leaves of evergreen species, but are 
greatly assisted in that respect by the large foliaceous 
bracts accompanying the flowers. LI. odorus may 
represent the deciduous type, and if the green flowers 
are unattractive in themselves, they have the recom¬ 
mendation of being sweet-scented. Its variety H. o. 
purpuraseens, with purplish red flowers, may find more 
favour with the general public, and also flowers in 
spring. The interior of the sepals is green, but this, if 
defect it may be called, is unobservable while the 
flowers retain their natural drooping position. There 
are several other species or forms belonging to this group, 
such as H. viridis and intermedius, but that of H. 
cupreus presents such a peculiar and indescribable slaty 
purple hue, as to merit a place in a collection on account 
of its distinctness, or out of mere curiosity for its 
strange and unusual colour. 
The second group of Lenten Lilies with persistent 
leaves and numerous-flowered stems, undoubtedly 
possess greater variet} 7 of character both in the leaves 
and the flowers. The latter in the different species run 
through all the colour variations—green, white and 
purple—common to the genus, and often exhibit such a 
delicacy and blending of hues, as to compare or contrast 
favourably with many popular and much cultivated 
Orchids. "Whoever has seen H. colchicus and has any 
sympathy w 7 ith hardy flowers, could not fail to admire 
the deep plum purple colour of the blossoms when fully 
expanded, and still in their prime ; for it must be 
borne in mind that the flowers of all Hellebores, 
not even excepting that of H. niger, ultimately become 
green or greenish. This refers to the sepals, as even 
the inconspicuous petals of H. niger are always green. 
The flowers of H. atrorubens are pale purple, more or 
less tinged with green during expansion, but deepen 
to a dark purple more or less pronounced, and ulti¬ 
mately fade again considerably. H. caucasicus is a 
graceful plant with glossy leaves and green flowers, but 
there is a garden hybrid, H. c. punctatus, with rose- 
coloured and spotted sepals superior in that respect to 
the type. Comparable to H. c. punctatus, but sur¬ 
passing it in value, is H. orientalis guttatus, with white 
flow 7 ers spotted with purple, and 2 ins. in diameter. 
They are large white or rose-coloured, and numerously 
produced in H. orientalis itself, and altogether the 
plant recommends itself to cultivators. Numerous 
seedlings and hybrids of these types are now in 
commerce, and let us hope the day is not far distant 
when all the best of them, at least, may enjoy an ex¬ 
tended cultivation like that of II. niger. Two other 
species should be grown for the beauty of their foliage 
on the margin of shrubberies, by the side of shady 
paths, or even in the herbaceous border itself where the 
conditions are suitable to their welfare. I refer to H. 
foetidus and the Corsican H. lividus.— J. F. 
-- 
THE CHINESE PRIMULA. 
Birmingham is certainly the stronghold of this 
popular plant, and there is always a great display of 
excellently-grown specimens at the Chrysanthemum 
exhibition of the Birmingham Society, and this has 
been going on for thirty years or more. It is quite that 
number of years since the first Chrysanthemum show 
was held in Bimiingham, at the Navigation Inn, in 
the Wherleys Eoad, and, at least, tw 7 o of the promoters 
are still alive, who take a very great interest in the 
present society, viz., Mr. Henry Pope, the late senior 
partner in the firm of Messrs. Pope & Sons, and Mr. 
Henry Lea, a well-known gardener in the neighbour¬ 
hood, who is always an exhibitor of fruit at the 
November exhibitions. From this small society grew 
the present one, which has a wide reputation, in the 
Black Country especially, and at which, as we have 
already stated, the Chinese Primula forms an attractive 
feature of the exhibition. 
Some few years since, Mr. Eose, who was then the 
house foreman at the late Mr. Tomkins’s nursery at 
Sparkbrook, Birmingham, began hybridising the 
Primula sinensis, and at last took the town by storm by 
the production of those two grand popular varieties, 
“Princess Louise,” a splendid white of large size, and 
fine form and substance ; and “Marquis of Lome,” a 
grand rosy-red kind of exactly the same character, both 
having very stout distinct foliage. This nursery, with 
a continuance of the culture of the Primula, has since 
been purchased by the Messrs. Thomson, sons and 
successors to the well-known seed business carried on for 
so many years by the late Mr. T. B. Thomson. Mr. 
Eose left the nursery, and for some time has been with 
Messrs. Pope & Son, at their King’s Norton nurseries, 
as Primula grower, and a recent visit there has con¬ 
vinced us that some further very fine varieties will, by- 
and-bye, be introduced into commerce. At the late 
Chrysanthemum show, Messrs. Pope & Son “swept the 
decks ” in the nurserymen’s class for Primulas ; and in 
virtue of this, we notice their collection first. 
Of the new kinds which will shortly be sent out, a 
premier place must be given to Lady Eandolph 
Churchill, which in form, colour and substance closely 
resembles Princess Louise, but is much finer and larger, 
and is the result of a cross between Princess of Wales (a 
variety now 1 extinct) and Princess Louise ; it has sturdy 
fine foliage, flowers pure white, a robust habit, and is 
truly a splendid variety. From the same batch of 
seedlings there is another very fine variety closely re¬ 
sembling Lady Eandolph Churchill, only that the colour 
is a lovely tint of white tinted with pink. There is 
also an improved Marquis of Lome, not yet named, 
even of more robust and more compact habit, with finer 
flowers, and of a darker and more beautiful colour. 
This will prove to be a telling variety. There is also a 
very fine Fern-leaved variety, The King, a seedling 
from the Marquis of Lome, with an enormous flow 7 er 
which is somevffiat coarse in form, but bright in colour, 
valuable in a collection, and of excellent habit. 
Emperor is another of the newer kinds, somewhat re¬ 
sembling The King, also a very fine variety. 
The Queen is a splendid white, with large, very stout 
well-formed flowers, and fine foliage ; a truly superb 
variety, which should be in every collection. They 
have also, at King’s Norton, by far the best blue-tinted 
Primula we have yet seen, a seedling not yet named, 
but of which they are getting up stock, It is a 
decided improvement on all other existing blues. 
Other older kinds are grown ; in fact, the Primula 
is considered a speciality here, and is grown in large 
quantities, whilst many unbloomed seedling plants are 
being grown on. Amongst recently introduced kinds, 
Webb’s Purity, white with pale greenish yellow centre, 
is a very free bloomer, and good for decorative work ; 
the flower is thin in substance, but is very free in pro¬ 
ducing seed. Sutton’s Beading Scarlet closely resembles 
Chiswick Eed in colour, and a bright charming shade 
The Christmas Eose. 
