January 15, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
30M 
meeting that he had already received £5, and other 
sums are promised towards the Cup fund. It is hoped 
that a sufficient amount will be forthcoming to enable 
the committee to offer a cup worthy of the town and 
district. 
At a meeting of the trustees of the Veitch 
Memorial Fund, held at South Kensington on the 
11th inst., it was decided that a £5 prize and Medal 
should be offered for competition at the principal shows 
of each of the following societies :—York Gala, Liver¬ 
pool, Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford, Derby, and 
Royal Horticultural, May 24th (Cypripediums). Also 
at the National Dahlia Show, to be held on September 
2nd, prizes of the value of £2 10s. each and a Medal 
in each of the following classes :—Self show, parti¬ 
coloured show, Pompon, decorative and single ; and, 
further, at the National Chrysanthemum Society’s show, 
to be held in November, prizes of the value of £3 3s. 
each and a Medal for twenty-four incurved Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, distinct, and for twenty-four Japanese kinds, 
distinct; also prizes of the value of £2 2s. each and a 
Medal for each of the following:—Twenty-four re¬ 
flexed, twenty-four large-flowered Anemone, twenty-four 
Japanese or hybrid' Anemone-flowered, and twenty-four 
Pompon, including Anemone-flowered. The object of 
the Trustees in the tw T o latter competitions is to make 
the exhibitions as complete as possible, by inducing 
exhibitors to bring together specimens of all the best 
sections of Dahlias and Chrysanthemums in cultivation. 
The number of prizes offered during the year are, there¬ 
fore, seven special, five Dahlia and six Chrysanthemum 
prizes, or eighteen in all, each being accompanied by a 
Medal, and open to competition amongst amateurs only. 
"With reference to the “ Turner Memorial ” fund, 
we understand that the amount subscribed twelve 
months ago, viz., £182 18s. 6c?. was invested in 
Consols, and that £20 w T ill be available for prizes every 
year for a period not exceeding ten years. During the 
ensuing season this amount will be given in prizes at 
the following exhibitions :—The National Auricula and 
Primula Society (southern section), at South Kensington 
on April 26th, 1887 :—for six Show Auriculas to be 
competed for by amateurs who do not employ a gardener 
regularly. The exhibits must contain at least one 
representative of each of the four classes, green, grey 
and white-edged, and self-coloured. Four prizes, 40s., 
30s., 20s., 10s. The National Carnation and Picotee 
Society, to be held at South Kensington on July 26th, 
1887 :—six distinct Carnations and Picotees, to be 
competed for by amateurs who do not employ a 
gardener regularly. Four prizes, 40s., 30s., 20s., 10s. 
The Newcastle-on-Tyne Botanical and Horticultural 
Societies exhibition, to be held in the Jubilee Grounds 
on August 30th and 31st :—twelve distinct Roses, 
three prizes, 50s., 30s., 20s. ; twelve distinct Dahlias, 
three prizes, 50s., 30s., 20s. To be competed for by 
amateurs or gentlemen’s gardeners. 
Mr. "William Kelway, of the firm of Kelway & Son, 
Langport, entertained the whole of the Nursery cm- 
ployes on the 4th inst. at his new house, “Brooklands.” 
MIMULUS CUPREUS, BRILLIANT. 
For spring and summer-flowering the old and well- 
known garden plant M. cupreus is second to none in 
point of numbers of flowers produced. The whole 
plant seldom exceeds 6 ins. in height, and branching 
freely, covers the ground with a rich profusion of 
flowers. The brilliancy of the latter renders the plant 
a favourite with hardy plant lovers, who delight in 
free-flowering subjects ; and the variety under notice, 
when properly disseminated amongst the gardening 
community, cannot fail to become a favourite. The 
flowers are rich salmon-red, and produced in great 
abundance. In size, the flowers are comparable to those 
of the hybrid M. Harrisoni, but are possessed of more 
attractive colours, and the foliage is not scented. The 
plant is perfectly hardy, easily propagated from seeds 
or division, and should be grown in a light, rich moist 
soil. Any good garden soil will grow it to perfection, 
if a sufficiency of moisture is ensured. On dry parched 
soils the individual flowers will be short-lived, and the 
duration of the blooming period curtailed, so that a 
tolerably moist soil should be taken into consideration 
in selecting a position for the plant. It may even be 
grown on a shady border, and being of dwarf compact 
habit may appropriately be introduced about the lower 
and moister parts of the rockery. The accompanying 
illustration has been placed at our service by Messrs. 
James Carter k Co. 
AN OLD GARDENER’S JUBILEE 
NOTES. 
It is no mean privilege to be enabled to take a retro¬ 
spective view of all that has taken place during upwards 
of half a century ; and those gardeners who have 
survived that important period, and who possess their 
entire faculties and also a vivid recollection of what 
has transpired —of the many changes and improvements 
in everything appertaining to Horticulture, have most 
certainly great cause to be thankful. It is only such 
who can realise and fully estimate the vast strides that 
have been made in every branch of their profession ; 
and I may truthfully assert that the science of gar- 
deninghavingbeen so extensively disseminated, everyone 
at the present time, whatever his or her avocation in 
life may be, has ample means at disposal to become 
readily conversant with plant cultivation. 
All kinds of appliances are obtainable at very small 
cost as compared with that of fifty years ago. o w vastly 
have things altered since that time ! Why, many a city 
clerk and artisan at the present time can boast of 
possessing more convenience in regard to glass structures 
than could many a worthy gardener, who professionally 
held what was considered a very important position. 
Comparatively few possessed glasshouses, and many ot 
these were of the most rude construction. But the 
progress that has been made subsequently is of a 
stupendous and extraordinary character, as viewed by 
gardeners of the old school. To my mind it appears 
that since the introduction of steam locomotive power, 
every transaction that is undertaken, whether intellec¬ 
tual or commercial, has assumed a similar impetus or 
ratio, universal intercourse and pecuniary advantages 
having most decidedly resulted therefrom. 
The Gardening World and its contemporaries are 
now published for the sum of one penny. Fifty years 
ago, on the 7th January, 1837, the first gardening news¬ 
paper was published, under the title of the Gardeners' 
Gazette, and it was edited by the late George Glenny. 
I became a subscriber in the autumn of the same year, 
and continued to take it until it became incorporated 
with the Gardeners’ ami Land Stewards Journal, some 
years after, and which was conducted by Mr. Robert 
Marncck, then Curator of the Regent’s Park Botanic 
Garden. The Gardeners' Gazette was never of a very 
high-class order, and was more patronised by the growers 
of florist flowers than by professional gardeners and 
nurserymen. Growers of Dahlias, Tulips, Carnations, 
Picotees, Pansies, Pinks, Auriculas, &c., designated as 
fanciers, were a class scarcely recognised by the pro¬ 
fessional gardeners, who were at that time very 
conservative in their general deportment. There were 
many amongst them, however, who devoted their 
attention to the raising of seedling Dahlias, and thus 
became associated with the interest of the florist with 
good old English familiarity. Upwards of forty years 
ago I witnessed some very great gatherings at my old 
friend George Glenny’s annual meetings. I will 
not stop to enumerate their names ; but many of their 
faces are very vividly pictured at present in my mind’s 
eye, although they have long since passed away. 
Perhaps few were more interested than the writer 
in the perusal, a short time since, of your leader 
on our old friend, the Gardeners' Chronicle. I became 
a subscriber to that paper at the time of its birth, 
1841. Under the editorship of Professor Lindley, “The 
Chronicle” became a lion in strength, and essentially 
a gardener’s paper, to say nothing of the agriculturists 
and the general body of scientific men of those times 
who contributed to its pages. How familiar even 
now are the names of the departmental writers, 
and other contributors, to my memory ! Although they 
have long since ceased to wield the pen, I have pleasure 
in reverting to the changes that have taken place, but 
it is with a degree of sadness, because one is apt to feel 
that we shall never look upon their like again. "We do 
not for a moment deplore the fact of these great 
changes, as time rolls on. Progress becomes a necessity, 
and competition must inevitably sweep away friends, 
and much that was considered good and useful in their 
day. Compared with old times, we now live in a new 
world. Gardening has become a favourite pastime 
with the generality of people, let their professions be 
what they may, and is tending very materially to elevate 
the minds of all classes in whatever sphere they may 
move. I fully endorse the words of Bacon, that 
“Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the 
greatest refreshment to the spirit of man.” 
The year 1837 was to me a very memorable one, and, 
I may add, an important one in the history of this 
country, as in that year Princess Victoria ascended 
the throne of the United Kingdom. I -well remember, 
when a boy, the time when the Princess Victoria 
resided with her august mother, the Duchess of Kent, 
at Mount Pleasant House (now the Calvery Hotel), 
Cal very Park, Tonbridge "Wells. 
It was during the summer of 1837 that I was first 
employed to thin a house of Grapes in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Tonbridge Wells ; and in the autumn of that 
year fate ruled that I should leave my native soil never 
to return, except as an occasional visitor ; but there is 
no spot, after the lapse of so many years, that affords 
me so much soul-stirring interest as does that charming 
place where Her Most Gracious Majesty spent some of 
her young days.— Man of Kent. 
NOTES ON PENTSTEMONS. 
These may fairly bo classed among the most beau¬ 
tiful flowers which enrich our collections of hardy and 
half-hardy plants. Planted singly in flower borders 
among other things, or in beds by themselves, they 
stand unrivalled by any class of plants of similar habit 
of growth; and they afford a diversity of colour 
exceeded by none, while very useful for cutting to 
decorate flower vases. They should be put into water 
with the least possible delay after being cut, because 
they soon droop. I think it a matter of regret that 
little or no advance has been made among them for 
some time. Mr. J. Laing, of Forest Hill, before he 
got absorbed in the improvement of tuberous-rooted 
Mimulus cupreus, var. Brilliant. 
