454 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March. 19, 1887. 
C. Impeiati is seldom met with, but is an ex¬ 
tremely desirable winter-flowering species, and 
this is followed by the more common Cloth of 
Gold, C.susianus, readily recognised by its golden 
yellow or orange flowers, with the three outer 
segments revolute and heavily flamed or 
feathered along the back. This is succeeded by 
the Dutch yellow, C. aureus luteus, and finally 
by the endless variety of blue, white and 
purple forms of C. vernus, some of which are 
of remarkable size and beauty. Dorms of C. 
biflorus, the Scotch Cloth of Silver, and C. 
versicolor, also occur in gardens, and are both 
distinct and extremely handsome. 
This by no means exhausts the number of 
spring flowers, whose rnrmhers will, in a few 
weeks, be simply legion, both annual, perennial 
and shrubby. The number of rhizomatous 
subjects belonging to the Crows’-foot family 
will strike the observant, on account of their 
hardiness, earlv-flowering habit and in that 
respect their similarity to bulbs. The yellow 
rvinter Aconite, usually bursting through the 
ground in February, is unusually late this 
spring. In due season a numerous band of 
Anemones grace the spring garden, being repre¬ 
sented by the gloAving A. fulgens, the blue A. 
blanda and A. apennina, with the white A. 
nemorosa and its varieties, both single and 
double, together Avith the rare yellow A. 
ranunculoides. The Hepaticas are evergreen, 
and present a host of brilliant colours in red, 
white and blue shades, both single and double. 
They literally set the garden aglow in spring, 
and constitute a most imposing feature at that 
season in some old-fashioned gardens. The 
Christmas Roses proper usually flower so early 
as to he considered winter rather than spring 
floAvers; hut their congeners, the Lenten Roses, 
create a lasting display that reaches from 
December till March or April, according to 
the mildness or otherwise of the season. The 
leafy bracts subtending the floAvers of the deep 
purple Helleborus colchicus, the white H. 
olympicus, H. orlentalis and others, together 
Avith the spotted varieties of several, lend a 
charm to the striking and A r aried colours, many 
of Avhich are of shades uncommon amongst 
garden plants at any season. Later on the 
Pseonies, belonging to the same family, Avill 
grace the spring garden with their huge purple, 
red, pink and Avhite flowers. 
Previous to this, hoAvever, hosts of hardy 
plants of widely distinct affinities claim atten¬ 
tion, and testify that spring gardening is one 
of the most engaging of the Avhole routine. 
What can exceed the loveliness of Saxifraga 
BuTseriana, Avhether in the crimson bud or 
in full bloom, Avith its large, strikingly hand¬ 
some snow-AA r hite flowers 1 Scilla hifolia, S. 
sibirica and Chionodoxa Lucilise, described as 
the Glory of the Snow, rival one another in 
brilliancy and the intense tints of blue. 
-—>x<-- 
Messes. W. Cutbttsh & Sox, The Nurseries, High- 
gate, have obtained the contract for furnishing, 
planting and maintaining trees, shrubs, &c., at the 
various Board Schools Avithin the London district. 
Mr. Geo. Cliffe, for the last eight years head 
gardener to Lord Belmore, Castle Coole, Ireland, has 
been appointed head gardener to H. B. Mildmay, Esq., 
Shoreham Place, Kent. 
The annual summer exhibition of the Bury St. 
Edmunds and "West Suffolk Horticultural 
Society, of which our old friend Mr. Peter Grieve is 
the hon. secretary, will take place on June 23rd and 
24th. The Chrysanthemum show is fixed for Nov. 
17th and 18th. 
Ix a note upon the School of Arboriculture axd 
Yixe Culture at Geisexheim, Mr. Cli. Joly compares 
the schools of horticulture in Germany with similar 
establishments in Belgium, and the School of Horti¬ 
culture at Versailles. The latter is the only special 
school in France, and has a budget of 90,000 francs, or 
£3,750, with nine professors under the direction of Mr. 
Hardy. The course of study lasts for three years, and 
the instruction is given free. In Germany, thirty-three 
schools of horticulture and Vine culture exist. Mr. 
Joly calls upon England to imitate the schools of the 
Continent. The course at Geisenheim commences on the 
1st April, except for the advanced gardeners, ivho enter 
on the 1st March to learn pruning. An examination 
follows the instruction, Avhen the deserving receive a 
diploma. 
A Chrysanthemum Society has just been formed 
at Pontefract, of which Lord St. Oswald, Nostell 
Priory, has kindly consented to become president. His 
lordship has contributed ten guineas to the prize fund, 
and Ave are pleased to hear that the committee are 
being well supported in the district. 
Messrs. Lucombe, Pixce & Co’s annual Exhibition 
of Hyacinths at Exeter on the 11th inst. proved— 
as Avas expected — unusually successful, the display 
being extensive and the quality first-rate. The first 
prize was again Avon by Mr. J. Daw, gardener to the 
Rev. T. J. Yarde, of Chudleigh ; and equal seconds 
were awarded to Mr. Baker, gardener to Mrs. Rowe, 
Pennsylvania, and Mr. Williams, gardener to W. C. Sim, 
Esq., Clyst St. George. The third prize Avent to Mr. 
Viney, gardener to Mrs. Norris, of Pinhoe. 
At a meeting of the ChisAvick Gardeners’ Mutual 
Improvement Association, Mr. Leonard Barron read a 
paper on Floaa'EP.s and Insects. After enumerating 
and describing some of the general and main features of 
the inter-relations of insects and flowers, and the 
process of fertilisation, he went on to describe special 
cases, elucidating his remarks, and making them better 
understood by the use of diagrams. The paper was 
somewhat lengthy, and listened to with great attention 
throughout. 
-—>33<-=-- 
THE PROPOSED GARDENERS’ 
ORPHANAGE. 
The purport of your leader (see pp. 421 and 422), as 
I understand it, is “ Look before you leap ”—a prudent 
precept, hardly needed among such a canny—that is, 
prudent—race as gardeners. The difficulty has mostly 
been to get us to leap at all, after any amount of looking 
or numbers of appeals to our^ good nature towards any 
objects likely to benefit ourselves or advance our 
interests. If proof of this is wanted, it may be found 
up to the hilt in the whole past history of our one 
charitable society—the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent 
Institution. That history has been one long struggle 
for life and usefulness against the inability or apathy 
of the class it exists to benefit. One can imagine the 
peculiar smile of amused incredulity that would light 
up the face of the venerable secretary as he reads of 
your fears that gardeners might become the prey of 
charitable adventurers, Avho nett ten hundred per cent, 
on their outlay, or of their piling charity on charity 
until one half lived, or tried to live, upon the other. 
I agree with you, however, that the eternal appeals 
and exactions, even for good objects, are a sort of 
social blisterings that ought not to be multiplied, 
unless for good and very sufficient reasons. Grappling 
with these you deny the need for a gardeners’ orphan¬ 
age, doubt the ability of gardeners to establish one, 
and challenge the good effects of such institutions. 
As to the first, it is quite true, as you say, that we 
have had no orphanage in the past, and also that 
gardening on the Avhole is a healthy vocation, though 
the craft so painfully familiar with rheumatism and 
other ailments will hardly endorse your statement that 
it is the healthiest of all vocations. But the fact of 
not having an orphanage is no proof that it has not 
been needed ; and those most familiar with the family 
life as distinct from the mere professional achieve¬ 
ments of gardeners will be the first to admit that a 
gardeners’ orphanage would have mitigated much 
misery in the past, and may prevent an incalcul¬ 
able amount of suffering to gardeners’ children in 
the future. There are few amongst us over fifty 
years of age Avho have not known many young men 
with families suddenly struck down, and leaving their 
loved and little ones face to face with poverty 
and suffering. Illogical as it may seem, I contend that 
the inability of gardeners to sustain their OAvn orphan¬ 
age furnishes a powerful plea for its establishment. It 
is the general poverty of gardeners with families, that 
furnishes the most powerful argument for the establish¬ 
ment of such an institution. Therefore, just because we 
are unable to do the work single handed and alone, we 
launch our scheme now, trusting to the Jubilee tide of 
loyalty and liberality to lead it on to fortune. Possibly 
we may not be able to support it wholly by gardeners’ 
subscriptions ; though Avere all to give the moderate sums 
suggested by Mr. Penny—the aggregate of the os. and 
2s. 6(7. subscriptions might go a long way towards it ; 
but I trust the donations from the trade, the press, 
the aristocracy and the general public, will form a 
considerable endowment in aid of our subscriptions. 
And if our gracious Queen and-their Royal Highnesses 
the Prince and Princess of "Vales will also favour us 
with their patronage and support, the establishment 
of our orphanage on a Avise and permanent basis Avill 
prove one of the most useful of all the Jubilee memorials 
of this eventful year. 
There is great force in your remark as to the evils of 
election, and “ the vicious influences of an orphanage, 
Avhere the children Avould in all probability be reared as 
machines, and not as loving human beings.” Possibly 
elections might be abolished, or their evils greatly 
mitigated, and the vicious influences of orphanages are 
mostly in the ratio of their size. Now as most modern 
experience runs Avholly in favour of cottage home 
orphanages instead of palatial-like establishments, 
in AA-hich, almost of necessity, law rather than love 
must bear rule, gardeners would not be likely 
to sink their funds, or lose home-like touch of 
the children through any foolish attempt to rival 
the size, or outstrip the grandeur of existing insti¬ 
tutions. Though the scheme for convenience may 
be called the Gardeners’ Jubilee Orphanage, we 
should probably have several homes in convenient local 
centres, or place our children in private homes, the 
support or success of our main idea—that is, a home¬ 
like provision for the poor orphan children of gardeners 
—binds us to no one scheme, nor to anything like a 
cast-iron uniformity of procedure. It might be possible 
to work our scheme in connection with some existing 
orphanage, or to link it on in some way as supple¬ 
mentary to the Gardeners’ Benevolent Institution. 
Our main purpose Avill be achieved if, through the 
united support of gardeners, assisted by all lovers of 
horticulture, we are enabled to express our loyalty to 
our beloved Queen in this Jubilee year of her reign 
through the making of suitable and permanent pro¬ 
vision for our orphaned bairns.— D. T. Fish, March 
10 th, 1887. _ 
After the explanation made by Mr. Barron in your 
last week’s issue and, doubtless, with authority, I 
prefer to refer to the subject under discussion as The 
Gardeners’ Orphan Fund. Practically the Orphanage 
disappears with Mr. Barron’s letter, and with it goes 
all objections in respect to buildings, costly manage¬ 
ment, nice berths for officials and, not least, that 
vicious machine-like and pauperising process of training 
which characterises all orphanages and institutions in 
which children are reared in bodies and upon rule of 
thumb principles. 
Whittled down in this Avay, the proposed orphanage 
is no orphanage at all, any more than a hospital is a 
hospital Avithout a building, or an asylum is an asylum 
without a habitation ; therefore, the real proposal is to 
create an Orphan Fund, and the recipients are to be 
placed out in respectable families, and trained and 
brought up as children should be, under the influence 
of domestic life and in a natural AA-ay. That proposi¬ 
tion is so divested of objections that it offers little to 
discuss, beyond the means whereby the money is to be 
raised. Probably, including cost of administration, the 
orphans would cost £20 per head annually ; but much 
would depend upon the administration, as a similar 
institution shows an annual expenditure, compared to 
its subscribed income, of some twenty-five per cent.— 
obviously a lavish and wasteful expenditure; in no case 
should it, for any similar fund, exceed ten per cent. 
The difficulty in obtaining money from gardeners still 
remains, for it is nonsense to write of them as being 
well paid or having ample means for charitable 
purposes ; still, as I have shown, the objective points 
are so reduced that Help may uoav be more readily 
granted.— A. D. 
I like the suggestion of Mr. Barron made on p. 438, 
Avliieh is suggestive of economy, and cannot fail to 
recommend it to all concerned in promoting this 
important and deserving object. If it should be found 
necessary to provide homes for the children in the form 
of an Orphanage, I Avould suggest that it be a few 
