May 21, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
505 
B. S, WILLIAMS 
Begs to intimate that his 
New and General Plant 
Catalogue for 1887 
Is now published, and will be forwarded, GRATIS and 
POST FREE, to all applicants. 
VICTORIA and PARADISE NURSERIES, 
UPPER HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. 
THE HOME OF FLOWERS, 
The Greatest Floral Treat in or near London I 
\ WAYS IX FULL BLOOM. XEW 
xA- AND STARTLING NOVELTIES meet the eye at every 
turn. A whole house of Calceolarias, and same with yellow 
Carnation Pride of Penshurst—a grand sight. The many species 
of Tulips, shapes, and colours are a surprise. Begonias and 
Gloxinias present such size and colour as never before seen. 
Pelargoniums—Show, Fancy, Regals, Spotted, and Zonals— 
show a vast sheet of colour; must be seen to be believed. 
Our stock of Bedding Plants (quantity immense) and Annuals 
of every description is the finest and most complete in Europe. 
Violas and Pansies one cannot conceive the slightest idea of 
their breadth of colour and beauty. Numerous Hardy Her¬ 
baceous Plants and Bulbs, which present a charming display. 
SPECIAL PRICES FOR LARGE QUANTITIES, Loaded 
Direct into Trucks. SEND FOR A CATALOGUE. 
PRIMULAS AND CINERARIAS, 
C AXXELL’S varieties are well known to be 
by far the best in the world. Strong Seedling Plants 
now ready for posting of!' to all parts of Europe. 
PRIMULAS . Is. Gil. per dozen; 11s. per 100. 
CINERARIAS . Is. Od. „ ; 7s. „ 
H. CANNELL & SONS, 
THE HOME OF FLOWERS, 
SWANLEY, KENT. 
Cut Specimen Flowers 
OF 
BARR’S 
BEAUTIFUL 
DAFFODILS 
IBY POST. 
In Spring we have numerous applications for these, 
hut hitherto have been unable to attend to such ; now, 
however, since the naming and arranging of our ex¬ 
tensive Collection of Daffodils has been completed, we 
are prepared to send, on application, during May, Cut 
Specimens, correctly named, and carefully packed, at a 
charge of 3s. Gd. per dozen flowers (not less than one 
dozen). ¥e estimate that this charge will cover all 
expenses of postage, boxes, and labour, as we desire no 
profit in sending these flowers to the public, but are 
only desirous that these floral beauties should be more 
widely known. The flowers cannot be sent in hud, as 
this v r ould prevent us proving our “ Stocks,” which is 
done annually ; but they will be fresh, and packed so 
as to ensure their arriving in good condition. 
DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE of BARR’S 
DAFFODILS free on application. 
BARR & SON, 
12 & 13, King St,, Covent Garden, W.C. 
New Zonal Pelargonium. 
UEEX OF WHITES IMPROVED.—It 
VaJ is without doubt the best White Zonal ever offered. It 
has been in flower all the winter at our Nurseries, and 
will Tie ready to send out May 1. £1 per dozen, strong plants. 
Certificate Royal Botanic Society, May 19, 1886. 
PHILIP LAUDS, The Nurseries, Bexley Heath, and Swanley. 
TA LIVER 
New Zealand. Agency. 
EEVILL is desirous of acting as 
V .A Agent for English Nurserymen, Horticultural Sundrie«- 
men, Engineers, &e., wishing to introduce good things and 
specialities into New Zealand, where an increasing demand for 
such exists.—Apply to OLIVER REVILL, Fairwood, Spring- 
field Road, Christchurch, New Zealand. 
R OYAL BOTAXICAL and HORTICUL¬ 
TURAL SOCIETY of MANCHESTER. 
The ANNUAL WHITSUNTIDE HORTICULTURAL EX¬ 
HIBITION will open at Manchester on FRIDAY, the 27th inst. 
For particulars apply to the undersigned. 
BRUCE FINDLAY. 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Manchester. 
N ATIOXAL rose SOCIETY OF 
ENGLAND’S 
GRAND EXHIBITION will be held in the Waverley Market, 
EDINBURGH, on Wednesday, July 13tli, 1SS7, in connection 
with the Summer Show of the ROYAL CALEDONIAN HOR¬ 
TICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
For Schedules, &e., apply to Secretary, Royal Caledonian 
Horticultural Society, 18, Waverley Market., Edinburgh. 
TXDYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
XL SOUTH KENSINGTON, S.W. 
NOTICE !—COMMITTEE MEETINGS: Scientific, at lp.m., 
in the Lindley Library, and Fruit and Floral, at 11 a.m., in the 
Conservatory, on Tuesday next, May 24th. 
Admission free to Fellows at 12 o’clock ; and to the Public at 
1 o'clock, upon payment of One Shilling. 
N.B.—Entrances, N.E. Orchard House, Exhibition Road ; and 
Exhibitors’ Entrance, east side of Royal Albert Hall. 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Monday, May 23rd.—Special Sale of Flowering Orchids at 
Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Tuesday, May 24th.—Royal Horticultural Society: Meeting of 
Fruit and Floral Committees at 11 a.m. Sale of Imported 
Orchids at Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Wednesday, May 25th.—Sale of Greenhouse and Bedding Plants 
at Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Thursday, May 26th.—Horticultural Congress commences in 
Paris. Sale of Imported Orchids at Stevens’ Rooms. 
Friday, May 27th.—Annual Whitsuntide Horticultural Exhi¬ 
bition opens at Manchester. Sale of Imported Orchids at 
Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Amateurs’ Garden. 599 , 
Annuals in Cottage Gardens 603 
Cabbages, notes on . 602 
Caltha palustris flore pleno 602 
Cattleya Mendeli,monstrous604 
Coelogyne Massangeana .. 604 
Coxyanthes macrantha.... 604 
Curious Plants . 597 
Dahlias, single. 006 
Dendrobium pulchellum .. 604 
Epidendrum falcatum .... 604 
Floriculture. 606 
Flowering Trees and Shrubs COO 
Frost, P., the late. 602 
Gardeners’ Calendar. 603 
Greenhouse Borders. 600 
Horticulture at the Man¬ 
chester Exhibition. 596 
Horticultural Societies .. 604 
Ixia craterioides. 603 
PAGE 
Lycaste pubescens . 604 
Mignonette . 600 
Orchid Notes . 604 
Pansies, Seedling . 603 
Phlox nivalis . 597 
Photinia japonica . 602 
Phrynium variegatum .... 600 
Plants, New, Certificated 59S 
Primula Sieboldii . 603 
Rating of Market Gardens 596 
Rose Nursery, a. 601 
Roses, pot . 606 
Royal Horticultural Society 595 
Scottish Notes . 599 
Selaginella caulescens .... 602 
Stephanotis floribunda.... 603 
Strawberry - Growing at 
Bath ....: . 602 
Trachelospermum jasmin- 
oides . 597 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1887. 
The Royal Horticultural Society.— Those 
of our readers who are interested in the Chry¬ 
santhemum societies will have learnt with 
satisfaction of the intention of the Council 
of the Royal Horticultural Society to with¬ 
draw their proposed Chrysanthemum show in 
Xovemher next. A more needless or useless 
suggestion in relation to exhibitions could 
hardly have been made, or, indeed, one more 
mischievous; whilst it is absolutely certain 
that no step taken by the Council could so little 
conduce to the interest of the Society as that 
one would have done. However, it is so far 
satisfactory on this head to find the Council 
wise in time. Had their proposal applied to a 
fruit or vegetable exhibition in the autumn, or 
specially to a Grape exhibition and conference, 
as was once suggested, we should have been 
only too pleased to have rendered such sug¬ 
gestions very hearty support; but Impend 
discretion—which we trust has, in this special 
case, been the operating cause—it is, alas ! too 
well known that finance, with all its troubles, 
sits like black care on the shoulders of the 
Council, and that the Society’s terribly-reduced 
income is crippling the action of that body on 
every hand. 
When, in reply to the recent complaint of 
a well-known Fellow, it was stated that there 
were no funds for the promotion of exhibitions, 
that was said which was but too true ; yet still, 
with the proposal to hold an autumn Chry¬ 
santhemum show put forth at the moment, it 
was difficult to understand the soundness of 
the excuse. However, there is no question as 
to its soimdness now, and week by week sees 
the Society shorn of its capacities for usefulness 
through lack of means. It is with deep pain 
we learn that not only has the staff at Chiswick 
been materially reduced, hut that the possibility 
of those famous old gardens—associated as they 
have been with all that is best in the history 
of the Society—being given up altogether is by 
no means a remote contingency. It need 
hardly he said that such an act would he a 
horticultural calamity, for Chiswick is, after all, 
the only purely horticultural home of a public 
kind which the country possesses. Still farther, 
we feel that with the loss of Chiswick goes the 
prestige of the Society and its reputation. 
Somehow—and unhappily so—its association 
with South Kensington seems to have always 
been disastrous, and the longer it is continued 
the greater the failure ; hence, with only South 
Kensington associations to rely upon, the 
Society has no prospect hut that of collapse. 
The present Council have a most serious 
responsibility resting upon tlieir shoulders. If 
they permit matters longer to drift, on the 
Micawber principle that something may turn 
up, they will soon bring their charge to absolute 
grief. The ship is slowly hut surely drifting 
upon the breakers, and not long will it be ere 
she is wrecked, unless some strong effort be 
made to avert such a calamity. How is it to 
he accomplished 1 The Council are in command, 
and may not be disposed to take suggestions 
from outsiders ; hut if they are really attached to 
the Society, and are truly anxious for its welfare, 
they will come down speedily from the high 
and mighty dignity of Councilship, and call 
together not Fellows only, but, as far as pos¬ 
sible, the whole of the horticultural public, and 
invite advice and support. The Fellows are 
very fast becoming a diminishing body; the 
South Kensington rats have scuttled off now 
that they have nothing more to gain from the 
Society ; and beyond their money—which was, 
of course, as useful as that from any other 
source—their association with the Society and 
the Society with them seems only to have been 
disastrous. 
It is no longer a question of retaining South 
Kensington Fellows or support ; there is but 
one resource, and that is, the horticulturists of 
England, and but one appeal, and that is to the 
same body. Are the Council willing to make 
it 1 But ere that is done, some tangible pro¬ 
posals must be put before the country, which 
shall command sympathy, and form a basis 
upon which to build up future action and 
confidence. The society is now absolutely 
hampered by its Royal Charter, which sits 
upon it like the old man of the sea upon 
the shoulders of Sindbad, and there seems to be 
no means of release from its burthen hut 
thorough dissolution, and of course, reconstruc¬ 
tion. If the Council can show to tlie country 
that its Royal Charter is advantageous, then 
it will have good cause to ask for its retention, 
but we must say that it seems utterly impossible 
