660 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
June 18, 1887. 
note the stilted and deplorable examples of 
these plants we are sometimes treated with, just 
as it is satisfactory to meet now and again, hut 
too rarely, with noble specimens. Fuchsias 
make quick growth, and a couple of years’ care 
will produce a noble example; so that the 
objections do not apply to big plants of these 
that are fair to offer in the case of stock giants 
which have done a weary round of shows for 
several years. There is also considerable variety 
in Fuchsias, which is being constantly added 
to, so that there is appreciable inducement for 
exhibitors of these to be constantly reproducing 
good specimens. Turning to such good stock 
stuff as show and zonal Pelargoniums, we find 
that remarkable quality and brilliancy of effect 
can he obtained more readily from small plants 
than from large ones, and the absence of big 
pancakes of old sorts of these effective plants 
is not to be deplored. 
It matters not what kind of plants we are 
dealing with. In most cases it is evident that 
moderate dimensions, allied to first-class culti¬ 
vation and great variety, offer the exhibitor far 
more effective exhibition material than do big 
plants, and the spectator is the more highly 
gratified. Cut flowers, fruits, and vegetables 
are all easily displayed in effective methods if 
skill in that direction he encouraged. As a 
rule, tables covered with fruits and vegetables 
are terribly monotonous and devoid of effect. 
All that might easily he changed for the better, 
and we hope in time it will be. Those who 
would retain popular support for their flower 
shows must march with the tastes and require¬ 
ments of the times. 
-- 
We understand that Me. Jaques, gardener to Mrs. 
Perrin, Davenham Bank, Great Malvern, has been 
engaged by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, M.P., as 
gardener at Waddesdon Manor, and Me. Jennings, of 
Waddesdon, succeeds Mr. Jaques at Davenham Bank. 
A list of the Awards of the Fruit and Floral 
Committees of the Royal Horticultural Society, made 
between February 12th, 1884 and May 24th, 1887, has 
just been published, and can be obtained from the 
Society’s office at South Kensington. 
Mr. T. Edington, who for the last nine and a half 
years has been gardener at Woodthorpe Grange, 
Nottingham, has left that place, and taken an 
old-established florist and fruiterer’s business at 32, 
Leinster Terrace, Lancaster Gate, Hyde Park, W. 
Messes. Dobbie & Co., the well-known florists of 
Rothesay, Scotland, have secured the stock of the 
New Fancy Pansy “Syren,” which has been twice 
recently referred to in our columns. The raiser is 
Mr. James Simkins, of King’s Norton. 
At the meeting of the Floral Committee on 
Tuesday last, votes of condolence with the families of 
the late Mr. George Jackman and Mr. Francis R. 
Kinghorn (former members of the committee) were 
ordered to be sent to the respective families, and 
recorded on the minutes of the meeting. 
We are requested to state that through a clerical 
error, the award of a First Class Certificate to Messrs. 
James Carter & Co., for their Jubilee Mimulus, at the 
late Crystal Palace show, was omitted from the 
published list of awards. 
It is understood that a scheme for the Botanical 
Survey of India has been arranged by the Govern¬ 
ment. The country will be divided into four charges, 
for the purpose of botanical investigations, each under 
a botanist of eminence. It is believed that by such an 
arrangement as that now contemplated, botanical 
investigations will be more systematically carried on 
than they have been up to the present time. 
A Rose Show will be held in connection with the 
Manchester Botanical and Horticultural 
Society, on July 22nd, and it is Mr. Findlay’s 
intention to arrange the flowers in the huge central 
hall of the Manchester exhibition palace at Old Trafford. 
A more fitting place for such an exhibition can scarcely 
be imagined ; and Mr. Findlay will have a good 
opportunity of displaying his well-known skill in 
arranging exhibits in an artistic manner. 
Mr. F. C. Goodchild, secretary of the Nursery and 
Seed Trade Association, requests us to state that as 
the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society has 
called a meeting of the Fellows for the 28th inst., at 3 
o’clock, he has—with the view of consulting the con¬ 
venience of nurserymen and others, who are desirous of 
attending the meeting, called by the association to 
discuss the question of the rating of nurseries—arranged 
to postpone the hour of meeting from 4 till 6 o’clock. 
In our report of the recent Horticultural Exhi¬ 
bition held at Manchester, we omitted to state that 
a First Class Certificate was awarded to Pelargonium 
Duchess of Teck, exhibited by Messrs. Fisher, Son & 
Sibray, of the Handsworth Nurseries, near Sheffield ; 
and that a Medal was also awarded to the very fine 
collection of Masdevallias exhibited by Mr. Blair, of 
Trentham. 
The committee of the Gardeners’ Orphan Fund 
met at South Kensington on Tuesday last, and agreed to 
the rules and regulations, which will be recommended 
to the subscribers for adoption at the forthcoming 
general meeting. We are much pleased to record the 
fact that the amount promised in donations and sub¬ 
scriptions has been largely augmented since the 
previous meeting, and the list is now headed by'a 
most handsome contribution from Messrs. James 
Veitch & Sons, viz., £100. Baron Schroder has also 
assured the committee of his sympathy with the objects 
of the movement, and promises it his support. We hope 
shortly to publish the proposed rules, and also the 
list of subscribers, and in the meantime shall be glad 
to hear from anyone who has not yet replied to the 
circulars they have received. 
In a paper recently contributed to the Chemical 
Society, Mr. R. Warrington, F.R.S., shows, as the 
result of sixty-nine experiments with clay or loamy soil 
from various depths, that the nitrifying agent in 
the soil is present almost without exception down to 
3 ft. from the surface ; samples of soil from below this 
depth did not always exhibit the power of causing 
nitrification, and none of the samples of soil taken 8 ft. 
from the surface produced nitrification. The nitrifying 
organism present in the sub-soil is apparently in a feeble 
condition, nitrification starting much later in solutions 
seeded with sub-soil than in those seeded with surface- 
soil. Mr. Warrington adduced reasons for believing 
that in agriculture, nitrification is practically confined 
to the surface-soil. The nitrogenous matter present in 
the sub-soil is, however, nitrifiable if exposed to 
favourable conditions. 
-->X<-- 
FLOWERING TREES AND 
SHRUBS.—I. 
The Lilacs. 
We owe much to the members of this genus during 
the months of May and June, for are not the shrubberies 
resplendent with them at present wherever we may 
turn our eyes ? In most cases, however, they are con¬ 
fined to the lilac or purple and white varieties of the 
Common and Persian Lilacs, which have been grown 
in British gardens for 290 and 247 years respectively. 
It seems rather paradoxical when we talk of red, 
purple, violet and white Lilacs, but such is the 
pliability of language. The botanical name comes 
from syrin, syringos, a pipe ; and in Barbary the 
native name is Syrinx. This was applied to the Lilac 
from the fact that the tubes of the best Turkish pipes 
were made from this shrub, hence the English name of 
Pipe Tree. Syringa was, however, originally applied 
to Philadelphus, the Mock Orange, because the wood 
of P. coronarius was used for the same purpose, and 
Syringa is often used as an English name, causing con¬ 
fusion amongst the uninitiated, and should, therefore, 
be dropped. 
Happily, the Lilacs are perfectly hardy, their propa¬ 
gation easy, and their cultural requirements of the 
simplest. Any moderately-good garden soil will grow 
them to perfection ; in rich soil they grow vigorously, 
producing large thyrsoid panicles of bloom, but in those 
of a sandier or poorer nature, they grow less rampantly 
but live much longer. All the older and commoner 
sorts are readily propagated from suckers, which they 
produce in abundance ; and budding and grafting are 
only resorted to in the case of new and rare varieties, 
of which it is desirable to increase the stock. Seedlings 
may be raised for the purpose of obtaining new varieties, 
and as stocks ; these are better than suckers, as the 
latter are liable to throw up others and rob the graft. 
The Lilac can be grown'as a smalktree by training it to 
a single stem and removing all suckers ; this might 
more often be done than is at present the case, planting 
the trees as isolated specimens on the lawn or pleasure- 
ground. All of the varieties are said to succeed grafted 
on the common Ash, which might, therefore, be used 
as stems for the smaller-growing kinds. 
The Common Lilac, S. yulgaeis, is undoubtedly 
the finest of all the species, and we have evidence of it 
both from its frequency and. the number of distinct 
varieties that have been raised from it. This must be 
accounted for partly from the size and fine appearance 
of its heart-shaped leaves, for the flowers are generallv 
not much superior in point of size to those of S. persiea, 
but more given to variation. The flowers are produced 
in immense terminal and lateral thyrsoid panicles, and 
appear to occur in shades of lilac, purple and white in 
a wild state. All tints occur in our shrubberies in a 
nameless condition ; but a few old varieties have 
been named, together with some of the finer recent 
productions, especially doubles. Curiously enough the 
common white variety has much smaller flowers than 
the purple, but S. v. alba major and S. v. a. grandi- 
flora are white varieties, with larger flowers. The same 
is applicable to S. v. a. virginalis, a fine variety for 
forcing, but which, however, does not seem to flower 
with equal freedom at different places. A double 
white is also a very desirable variety. 
The varieties ccerulea, purpurea, and violacea have 
blue, purple, and violet flowers respectively. Manv 
Continental varieties, apparently all of French origin, 
have been introduced lately. Charles X. is a large 
deep purple variety, producing white flowers when 
forced in a warm cellar, or other dark place. Lemoinei, 
pale lilac ; Alphonse Lavallee, sky-blue ; La Gaulois, 
dark peach colour ; Renoncule, azure-mauve, and 
finely scented ; and Rubella plena, vinous-red, are all 
desirable double kinds, useful to supplement the single 
varieties already grown, and prolong the season of 
flowering. The above is only a selection, and does not 
exhaust the number of varieties that have originated 
from Syringa vulgaris. 
Syringa persica. —Next to the common Lilac, S. 
persiea is of most frequent occurrence in British 
gardens and shrubberies, and comes from Persia, as its 
specific name implies. It is the dwarfest-growing of all 
the species, with small lanceolate leaves, and panicles of 
lilac, and bluish purple or white flowers. There is not 
that variation to be found in S. vulgaris, but owing to 
its dwarf and twiggy nature, it is more easily accom¬ 
modated when desired for forcing purposes or to be 
flowered in pots. Forced in a cellar or other dark 
place the flowers are white, but unaccompanied by 
foliage. On vigorous-growing specimens the flowers 
are as large as those of S. vulgaris. A singular variety 
named S. p. laciniata, with laciniated leaves, is some¬ 
times grown in gardens. 
S. J osikjea is a large-leaved species from Hungary, 
and merits a place amongst other tall shrubs for its 
distinct appearance. The leaves are oblong-elliptic, 
wrinkled, and several inches in length, and with the 
exception of S. Emodi, perhaps the largest of all the 
species. Large old plants produce fine panicles of 
bluish purple flowers, which, however, are devoid of the 
fragrance of the common Lilac. It is figured in several 
botanical works, such as the Botanist, 24 ; Botanical 
Magazine, t. 3278 ; and occurs in botanic gardens as 
well as some old-fashioned private establishments. 
S. Emodi is a native of Mount Emod, in the 
Himalayas, and bears some resemblance to S. Josikaea 
in size and general appearance. The leaves are ovate 
or elliptic, about 3£ ins. in length, and nearly 2 ins. 
broad. The stems are stout and much less twiggy 
than the common or Persian Lilacs ; but the species is 
wonderfully hardy in the southern parts of the country 
at least, producing terminal panicles of pale purple or 
white flowers. There is a figure of it in the Botanical 
Register, 31. 6. 
S. chinensis, variously known in gardens as S. 
dubia and S. rothomagensis, seems intermediate in 
character between S. vulgaris and S. persica, having 
flowers of a deep violet colour, and ovate-lanceo¬ 
late, smooth leaves, combining within themselves 
the ovate or heart-shaped leaves of S. vulgaris, and the 
lanceolate ones of S. persica, with the habit of the 
latter, but somewhat more vigorous. 
S. japonica is a comparatively recent introduction 
from Japan, bearing terminal thyrsoid panicles of 
