344 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 29, 1887. 
THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 
Your remarks anent the Royal Horticultural Society, 
in your last issue, tempt me to offer a few observations, 
which, however, from my ignorance of the general state 
of the affairs of the society, may be irrelevant. Never¬ 
theless, I have my ideas on the subject, and I will 
briefly state some of them. In the first place, when 
we note the past influential position, and the present 
disgraceful condition, of the homeless society, we can 
come to but one conclusion as to the cause of its 
degeneration, and that is mismanagement on the part 
of the council, unbusinesslike conduct of affairs, trusting 
in the chance of something wonderful turning up, and 
continuing too heavy an expenditure long after the 
financial position of the society has ceased to warrant 
it. In attributing want of business qualities to the 
council, I do not imply that the blame rests with that 
body as at present constituted; although the big 
exhibition planned at Liverpool last year, and which 
was the most miserable failure ever brought about in 
the horticultural world, proved it was not unworthy of 
its predecessors. "We know that among the present 
council there are several gentlemen beyond reproach 
in every respect ; but what assistance they will get 
from the new members proposed for this year I cannot 
see, or how far the few good men will be able to control 
the useless ones I am at a loss to conjecture. 
There is one thing in particular I should like to 
know, and I will put it in the form of a query. If the 
gardens at Chiswick are not available for exhibitions, 
&c., and seeing that they have no interest for the sub¬ 
scribing Fellows, why are the} 7 and their expenses 
retained ? Another thing I should think would be 
conducive to the advancement of the society, and that 
is that one or more nurserymen, and one or more gar 
deners, should be elected on the council. 
Your suggestion that the Fellow’s fee should be 
reduced would, if carried out, no doubt give a wider 
scope and greater strength to the society, which, what¬ 
ever its unfortunate position may be, has still the 
material in it wherewith to found a really useful insti¬ 
tution ; but not, I am sure, without a fresh start on 
more popular lines. — V. G. 
-- 
GROS COLMAR GRAPE. 
As the season for starting vineries is at hand, and to 
my own personal knowledge so great a difference of 
opinion exists among our leading men as to the time 
when this Grape is at its best, I venture to ask those 
readers of The Gardening World who may feel so 
disposed to give their practical experience and opinion. 
I should much like for the matter to be thoroughly 
discussed, only, I would ask, that acrimony be sup¬ 
pressed. In the first place it will, perhaps, be wise of 
me to say that I am exceedingly partial to this Grape, 
not only on account of its being so taking on the ex¬ 
hibition table, and so readily (when studied) perfectly 
finished, but also, when well grown, on account of its 
refreshing piquant flavour. 
A short time since, I saw, in a fruiterer’s shop, exposed 
for sale, some miserable bunches of this the most noble 
of all our Grapes, absolutely of the colour of the grizzly 
Frontignan, and, of course, quite unfit to eat. These 
had been grown in a late mixed vinery I was told—a 
house totally unsuited to this variety. My own ex¬ 
perience goes far to prove that a second, or even an 
early house, where the Grapes are required to be ripe 
at the end of June or the beginning of July, is the 
exact place for it. Ripened about that time, it will 
hang and keep its colour, and be of really good flavour 
till quite the end of September. So far, I do not 
attempt to grow it as a late keeper, feeling satisfied 
that from the thinness of its skin it must have special 
treatment—that is, grown in a house by itself, with 
the borders all inside. In this way, and started early 
n the season, 1 do not doubt it may be kept and placed 
on the table in good condition till the beginning of the 
new year, or even as long as Muscats are expected. 
A case once came under my notice at a show where a 
class was provided for any other black Grape, and in 
which were staged some first-rate Gros Colmars, and 
also some very moderate Madresfield Court, in com¬ 
petition, with the result that the last-named were 
awarded the first prize. One of the judges made use 
of anything but complimentary remarks upon the man 
who staged the Gros Colmars, as being out of season ; 
this was the middle of August, the fruit was perfectly 
coloured, quite ripe and in every way commendable, and 
for my part I am quite at a loss to understand why 
such classes should be made unless to introduce to the 
show Grapes other than the Black Hamburgh. Probably 
the same judges would highly commend a man who, 
under favourable and exceptional circumstances, could 
produce a few bunches of well-coloured Muscats by the 
middle of June, as I have frequently seen ; but, in my 
opinion, they are even more out of season then than 
Gros Colmars in August, because, as a rule, the only 
white Grapes then in season are of the Sweetwater 
type. Should these few notes tend to some kind of a 
rule being aimed at for the guidance of Grape growers 
and exhibitors in general, I shall be much gratified.— 
Vitis. 
-- 
TOP-HEATING GLASSHOUSES. 
Applied to houses devoted to the winter-flowering 
of Pelargoniums, &c., top-heating, in addition to the 
usual heating arrangement, is, doubtless, an excellent 
plan, as warm dry air among the flowers in the dull 
days of winter is most beneficial. But top-heating alone 
will not answer ; we must keep the roots at least as warm 
as the tops, and heat will not descend to a sufficient 
extent from pipes fixed near the roof. Mr. Cannell 
seems to have been the first to adopt this plan, and it, 
no doubt, greatly assists him in the production of 
those splendid blooms of Pelargoniums, &c., which he 
has been for years in the habit of exhibiting at the 
winter meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society at 
South Kensington. But not only in the production of 
flowers in the winter season is the plan desirable. 
A very common, because very simple and very useful, 
form of house for nursery work is roughly indicated 
below, and a very common mistake is to place the 
whole of the piping for heating the same on the floor 
or pathway, as at A B. Then, in severe weather, 
unless covering up be resorted to, it is almost impossible 
to keep the frost out at the points C D. Now, if any¬ 
one who has made this mistake will run a 2-in. pipe 
along each side near the roof at about C D, connecting 
the 2-in. with the 4-in., or w 7 hatever it may be in the 
pathway, he will find it economical in more ways than 
one, and beneficial to the plants too. 
I visited Mr. Cannell’s nursery some two or three 
years ago, and ever since I have had a notion that it 
was with the object of remedying a mistake similar to 
that indicated that he was first led to try the plan, and 
then, observing its beneficial working in other ways, 
and being a thoroughly practical man, he made good 
use of the idea ; but in this I may be wrong.— Q. 
[ Mr. Cannell had the plan of top-heating in work at 
Woolwich some time before he went to Swanley, where 
he has applied it on a more extensive scale.— Ed.] 
A very ancient proverb runs, “thatch your house 
with dirt, and you will have more teachers than 
reachers.” This was, no doubt, intended as a sarcastic 
reference to the abundance of critics who are always 
more ready to assail some new idea, than to help it into 
practice. George Stephenson proved that critics were 
far more ready to pronounce his railway scheme a folly, 
than to assist in its development, even though he had 
some tangible evidence of the practicability of his scheme 
to show them. Just so is it in reference to this sugges¬ 
tion as to the top instead of the bottom-heating of 
glasshouses, and evidences of the apparent practicability 
of the plan, now to be seen in some places, are quoted 
uselessly in its favour. 
The critics demand an example of the plan in full 
operation : I advise them to be brave and try for them¬ 
selves, using their faculties of common sense and 
observation in adopting it. If found practically im¬ 
practicable or unsafe, there is an end to it, but existing 
partial examples favour its being found eminently 
successful. If bottom heat be needed in forcing houses 
the number of roof flows can be increased ; and the 
returns, concentrated into larger pipes, be made pro¬ 
ductive of the bottom heat. The plan is, however, 
chiefly suggested for ordinary plant and fruit houses. 
Naturally, when all existing heating stock or apparatus 
is constructed on the old lines, there is little hope that 
hot-water people will adopt new designs. Some 
practical amateur, building and heating his own houses, 
should take the hint and try the plan.— A. D. 
-- 
THE SNOWDROP TREE. 
(Halesia tetraptera.) 
When planted in suitable soil, I know of no shrub 
that is more gracefully effective than the above. To 
see a well-grown plant, of say 12 ft. high, during the 
months of April and May, when covered with its pretty 
Snowdrop-like blossoms, is a sight that one is not likely 
to forget. For peat-soil this handsome North American 
shrub is particularly well adapted, for we have never 
seen it in finer form, attaining to such a size, or 
.flowering more freely than in a reclaimed boggy soil, 
and where the situation might be considered as fairly 
well sheltered. 
The pretty white flowers, which remind one of nothing 
so much as the Snowdrop, are produced in lateral 
panicles of from eight to a dozen, and hang gracefully 
down all along the branch tips. The Halesia is readily 
enough propagated either by division of the root, or 
from cuttings, but as seed is produced in great abun¬ 
dance in this country, this method is to be preferred as 
at once getting up a good stock of so beautiful and 
desirable a shrub. 
Sandy peat is the best mixture in which to sow the 
seeds ; but it is well to bear in mind, to avoid disap¬ 
pointment, that but a very few vegetate during the first 
season, it usually requiring two years to produce a crop 
from seeds.— A. D. Webster, Llandegai, Bangor. 
-- 
RUELLIA MAORANTHA. 
It is gratifying to learn that this beautiful Acanthad 
has found its way into cultivation in this country. As 
recently as 1881, when it was figured in the Itevue 
Hortkole, p. 410, the botanist, Carriere, states that 
M. Yan Houtte appeared to be the only cultivator who 
announced the introduction of this plant to European 
gardens. Considering the numerous forms of this 
natural order of plants, whose cultivation is annually 
being extended for winter-flowering purposes, it is 
rather remarkable that this handsome plant should 
have been ignored or neglected so long. It is herb¬ 
aceous, and under certain conditions would attain a 
height of 4 ft. to 6 ft., but by annual propagation can 
be flowered in a comparatively small state. 
The flowers are solitary, axillary, of a beautiful clear 
or rosy purple as they appeared in the dim foggy atmo¬ 
sphere of Catherine Street recently, while some con¬ 
tinental author describes them as of a beautiful carmine- 
violet. The individual flowers have a firmer attachment 
than is usual amongst Ruellias, and are accordingly 
stated to last about fifteen days, while a succession is 
kept up for some considerable time during winter. 
They are about the size of the flower of a Foxglove or 
unimproved Gloxinia, which is a decided advance over 
those species already more common in cultivation. It 
is a native of the shady woods and forests of various 
parts of Brazil, and does not require a very high 
temperature in which to flower. Besides the treatment 
accorded it, in the notes below by “ J. F., Dorset,” who 
sent it to our office, it may be grown from cuttings in 
a prepared soil in the open air, and transferred to a 
warm greenhouse on the approach of cold weather in 
autumn after being put in pots. 
“ Among winter-flowering plants, we find this one of 
the most useful, being of free growth, floriferous 
character and of easy culture. It should command 
more extensive cultivation, and where winter-flowering 
plants are in such strong request, as is the case with us, 
I am sure a good batch of the above—propagated and 
grown under the same conditions as the Poinsettias and 
Euphorbias—will be found a most valuable acquisition 
and companion to the same. Their deep rose-purple- 
tinted, erect, trumpet-shaped flowers are very effective 
when grouped with other plants, and possess good 
lasting qualities in a cut state. "With us, in an inter¬ 
mediate temperature, it commences flowering in Decem¬ 
ber and continues till February, after which the plants 
are cut back and retained in heat until a sufficient 
