516 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 16, 1887. 
intendence of the publication, the burden 
of the editorial dirties fell on Mr. H. Trueman 
Wood, their secretary, who may be congratu¬ 
lated on the superior finish and general 
excellence of the work. 
The mining industries of our dependencies 
necessarily attracted a great amount of interest, 
and the report concerning them was drawn up 
by Mr. C. Le Neve Foster. The more impor¬ 
tant subjects are dealt with in fullest detail. 
It is important to note that coal, gold and stone 
are sources of great wealth to the Dominion of 
Canada, and that no other Colony exhibited 
such a number of dressed blocks of stone. 
Coal, gold, silver and tin, the statistics of 1885 
show to be of great importance to New South 
“Wales; but the quantity of gold raised in 
Victoria, and valued at .£216,000,000, shows 
the vast importance of the latter colony as a 
source of mineral wealth. Copper is the most 
important metal of South Australia, and gold 
yields by far the greatest return in Queensland. 
Coal, gold, and the fossil Kauri Gum are most 
important in New Zealand ; and diamonds at 
the Cape of Good Hope. Mr. Foster concludes 
his report by a general summary of the leading 
statistics. The minerals and gems of the 
Colonies are treated in a separate paper by 
another author, in which it is shown that 
extensive and valuable displays were exhibited 
by Canada, New South Wales, Victoria, Queens¬ 
land, and other divisions of Australia, together 
with the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon ; but 
it is impossible here to do more than make 
passing allusions to them, and we heartily recom¬ 
mend the book to the perusal of our readers 
who may be desirous of more copious informa¬ 
tion ; for every page, owing to the condensed 
nature of the reports, is brimful of facts that 
must interest a wide circle of readers. Statistics 
are frequently given, but its pages are not 
burdened with them, seeing that they are 
generally given in a pleasant and readable form. 
The details concerning the meat and dairy 
products of the Colonies are of a most interest¬ 
ing kind, and show the close intercommunication 
that has existed between the Dominion of 
Canada and the mother country. Cheese ranked 
amongst the most valuable of the products at 
the exhibition; while meat was exhibited only 
in a small quantity, owing to the facility with 
which large quantities of live meat can be 
imported and sold in the markets of the 
United Kingdom. Ho other colony sends us 
so many live cattle as Canada. The frozen 
carcases of mutton from Hew Zealand, kept in 
this condition by action of refrigerators driven 
by steam, was a feature of immense interest in 
the exhibition, and is again vividly recalled by 
the details of the report; while the exhibits 
from Victoria and other Colonies receive due 
attention. 
A large amount of importance, as might be 
expected, attaches itself to the importations of 
grain to this country; but the repiorts serve to 
recall the fact that, with the exception of the 
magnificent grain trophy exhibited by Canada, 
the exhibits failed to excite much public 
interest, owing to the absence of novelty, or 
any features calculated to attract the attention 
of the sight-seeing multitude. Canada, as the 
oldest colony, claims and receives due attention, 
while wheat is considered the most important 
grain for the Anglo-Saxon race. Demand, sup¬ 
ply, qualities, transport and prices are all 
detailed in a most interesting manner. The 
improvident nature of the system of cultivation 
is also vigorously handled. The details con¬ 
cerning the exhibits and importations of foreign 
fruit, whether of temperate or tropical countries, 
are of a most interesting character; but owing 
to their extent, variety, and the fact that 
gardeners generally and growers attach much 
importance to fruit growing, we may on a 
future occasion refer to the subject, showing 
the nature and extent of the various fruit-grow¬ 
ing industries, and how they affect home 
growers and consumers. 
As we have already notified, India is included 
in the report on Tea, an industry which, in the 
latter country, is yearly assuming greater pro¬ 
portions, and attracting almost universal 
attention in this countiy, from the fact of its 
adding so materially to our national prosperity, 
and affording a means of subsistence to so many 
of our fellow subjects. The produce for the year 
1886 in India alone amounted to 75,000,000 
pounds, valued at £4,000,000. Besides those 
already mentioned, chapters are given on coffee, 
cocoa, sugar, vines, tobacco, cotton, wools, silk, 
leather, timber, drugs, musical instruments and 
various other industries, all of which are of the 
most varied character. The text and printing 
of the book leaves nothing to be desired, while. 
the information given, from its having been 
compiled by authors well versed in the different 
subjects, may be relied upon as correct. Fur¬ 
thermore, besides constituting itself a readable 
manual, the book will form a useful momento 
of the exhibition, and also be valuable for 
reference to statistics in all time to come. 
-->3W-- 
Me. George Maw, Beuthall, Kenley, Surrey, has 
been appointed a member of the Council of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, in the place of Mr. A. B. Mitford, 
who has resigned. 
The Council of the Royal Horticultural Society 
have decided to hold a Chrysanthemum Show, on 
November 8th and 9th, and have abandoned the idea 
of holding a Grape Conference in the autumn, as was 
proposed a few weeks ago. 
Me. James Smith, at present gardener at Moredun, 
Midlothian, has been appointed gardener to the Right 
Hon. the Earl of Hopetoun, Hopetoun House, West 
Lothian. 
Me. Joseph Godseff, who for the last sixteen 
years has been chef de culture at Mr. William Bull’s 
nurseries, Chelsea, has been engaged as manager of 
Messrs. F. Sander & Co.’s extensive Orchid-growing 
establishment at St. Albans. 
The Scottish Pansy Society will hold its forty- 
third annual competition in the Odd-Fellows’ Hall, 
Forest Road, Edinburgh, on June 17th. 
Messrs. Blackwood & Sons have just issued the 
fourth edition, revised and brought down to the present 
time, of that admirable work, The Handy Book of 
the Flower Garden, by Mr. David Thomson, 
Drumlanrig. 
The honorary secretary of the Grand National 
Dahlia Show requests us to state that corrected 
schedules as regards amateurs’ special prizes have been 
forwarded to subscribers and growers ; and should any¬ 
one not have received a copy, an early application will 
secure immediate attention. 
The Committee appointed to draw up a scheme for 
carrying out the proposed Gardeners’ Orphan Fund 
met at South Kensington on Tuesday, and adopted a 
circular letter embodying the main features of the 
Committee’s proposal, which will be circulated among 
gardeners during the next few days. 
We are requested to state that the authors of the 
reports furnished for the compilation of the “Frost 
Report,” can obtain a copy of that work free of charge, 
as well as the Fellows of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, on application to the Secretary of the Society. 
The Report can also be purchased by the public, price 
5s., from Messrs. Macmillan & Co., 29, Bedford Street, 
Co vent Garden. 
The American Gardeners' Monthly announces the 
death, on March 3rd, in his ninetieth year, of Mr. 
William Carvill, a highly educated English 
gardener, who went to Philadelphia early in this 
century, and to whose ability, as a landscape gardener, 
many of the older places in the vicinity of that city 
owe the beauty and good taste for which they are 
famous. 
Great diversity of opinion exists with regard to 
the advisability of growing the native Lily of 
the Valley for forcing purposes ; but, with judicious 
management in the matter of cultivation, there is 
no reason why satisfactory results may not be 
attainable. Mr. Bones, gardener at Tower House, 
Chiswick, prefers growing his own rhizomes, and 
believes in flooding them with water during the 
growing season in the open ground. His forced 
and flowering specimens are now well furnished, 
both with foliage and flowers ; he dislikes leafless 
plants. 
-“>X<—- 
GROUPING PLANTS AND 
FLO \VEHrS. 
The methods of arrangement that can be pursued in 
the grouping of plants are almost endless, as are the 
number and diversified forms of the plants themselves, 
aud the intelligence and taste of the individuals who 
engage in this kind of work. In private establish¬ 
ments there is, perhaps, the freest scope for the de¬ 
velopment of individual taste in all matters relating to 
the grouping of plants in pots and the arrangement of 
cut flowers. Here the designer is not, or need not be, 
fettered or hampered by the conventionalities of public 
taste, or of exhibitions where grouping, in many in¬ 
stances, of a rigidly formal character is not only 
tolerated but encouraged. 
At flower shows, where grouping is a prevalent 
feature of the present day, the groups are limited as to 
size ; and owing to their arrangement along the sides 
of the show-room or exhibition tent, they are almost 
certain to take the form of a semi-circle or crescent, so 
as to be literally one-sided masses of plants. In such 
an arrangement a large central specimen forms the 
nucleus, and on each side of this the dominant idea is 
to have each plant the exact counterpart of the other, 
and so on for each corresponding nook and corner of 
the whole group. Around this it is almost certain 
there will be two or three lines, each consisting of one 
kind of plant, and all these are as densely packed and 
formal as possible. 
Now, novelty of design should be more often en¬ 
couraged at such exhibitions than is at present the 
case, and prizes should be offered for novelty of design 
coupled with graceful curves and free and easy arrange¬ 
ments of rigid or massive and broad-foliaged plants to 
show off, by contrast, the airy gracefulness of such 
things as Palms, Cycads, Ferns, Aralias, and numerous 
subjects of that nature, that could readily be furnished 
by any collection of moderate extent. To obtain 
tasteful novelty of design, everything lumpy or massive 
in its nature should be discouraged in the assurance 
that the public taste will appreciate, enjoy, and support 
features of artistic merit unencumbered by formality of 
design. Of course, this is quite another matter to the 
production of florists’ flowers, which will always find a 
good percentage of admirers, notwithstanding the 
unsettled and changeable nature of fashion. 
In public or private gardens, where the arrange¬ 
ments are left to the men in charge, much may be 
done in the way of grouping plants of a class or 
group having a family likeness or characters in 
common. The system has been both lauded and 
condemned ; but, if intelligently conducted, it offers 
a great improvement on the old-fashioned dot and 
pudding style of arrangement or, rather, indiscriminate 
medley. When plants are naturally of a leggy 
character, or the foliage is of such a nature that it 
affords insufficient density to screen the background, 
other kinds must be employed to obtain the desired 
end. Nothing is calculated to give better effect to any 
kind of flowering plant than by exhibiting a group or 
mass of it, showing its range of variation in the matter 
of colour. Each group may have its component parts 
arranged so as to harmonise and constitute a separate 
floral picture in itself. 
The arrangement of cut flowers at exhibitions may 
be calculated to show the effect of masses of any given 
colour or colours, but the lumpy nature of the individual 
bunches destroys any graceful or artistic feature the 
different kinds may possess. The elimination of the 
stony, indestructable-looking blacking bottles that 
used to constitute a salient and not very attractive 
feature in groups of cut flowers at London exhibitions 
is very satisfactory, and it is to be hoped that im¬ 
provements will be effected from time to time. Surely 
a graceful and less lumpy arrangement of individual 
bunches would be more natural, more striking aud 
attractive to the public, and, at the same time, equally 
convenient to exhibitors.— Observer. 
