August 27, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
819 
WEBBS' 
EARLY FORCING 
BULBS. 
ggr THE FINEST SELECTED BULBS OF 
ROMAN HYACINTHS, 
POLYANTHUS NARCISSUS, 
TULIPS, SNOWDROPS, &C. 
® arsEE WEBBS’ 
BULB CATALOGUE, 
Beautifully illustrated, and containing complete cultural 
instructions. 
NOW READY, GRATIS AND POST FREE. 
Seedsmen by Royal Warrants to H.M. the Queen and 
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. 
WORDSLEY, STOURBRIDGE. 
R oyal jubilee exhibition, 
Manchester. 
A GRAND EXHIBITION of FRUITS and FLOWERS will 
be held on SEPTEMBER 10th and 17th. For Schedules, apply 
to the undersigned. BRUCE FINDLAY. 
Royal Botanical Gardens, Manchester. 
National Chrysanthemum Society, Royal 
Aquarium, Westminster. 
E arly chrysanthemums, dah¬ 
lias AND GLADIOLI EXHIBITION, September 
14th and 15th. 
Schedules free on application to Mr. WILLIAM HOLMES, 
Frampton Park Nurseries, Hackney. 
The Floral Committee will meet Sept. 14th, Oct. 12tli and 26th, 
Nov. 9th and 23rd, and Dec. 7th. Medals are offered for com¬ 
petition at each meeting for New Chrysanthemums. See 
Schedule. 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Monday, Angust 29th.—Sale of Bulbs at Stevens’ and Protheroe 
& Morris’s Rooms. 
Tuesday, August 30th.—Sale of Orchids in Flower at Protheroe 
& Morris’s Rooms. 
Wednesday, August 31st.—Newcastle-upon-Tyne Horticultural 
Society’s Show (3 days).—Sale of Dutch Bulbs at Stevens’ 
Rooms. 
Thursday, September 1st.—Sale of Bulbs at Protheroe & Morris's 
Rooms. Sale of Imported Orchids at Stevens’ Rooms. 
Friday, September 2nd.—Sale of Imported and Established 
Orchids at Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Saturday, September 3rd.—Bulb Sales at Stevens’ and Protheroe 
& Morris’s Rooms. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Abronia umhellata. 825 
Allamanda, floriferous .... S26 
Allotment Gardens . 825 
Amateurs’ Garden, the.... S23 
Clianthus Dampieri . S27 
Conifers at Dropmore .... S21 
Dahlias. 829 
Dry Season, the. 819 
Fern Wall, a. 827 
Gaura Lindheimeri . 826 
Heaths, select.S22 
Laelia elegans . 828 
Lselia Turneri Littleana .. 828 
Literature, gleanings in old 
garden . 824 
Lychnis chaleedonica .... 820 
Masdevallia Peristeria .... S28 
PAGE 
Meconopsis nepalensis .... 827 
New Plants Certificated .. 826 
Orchids at Birdhill, Clon¬ 
mel . 824 
Painting and gas-tarring 
hot-water pipes . S24 
Pea, Royal Jubilee .827 
Peach, au early . 824 
Pears. 823 
Plumbago capensis . 827 
Schomburgkia tibicinis .. S21 
Solanum jasminoides. 827 
Stanhopea oculata. 828 
Syringing Orchids. 822 
Tomatos .S20 
Violas. 827 
Wasps . 820 
OUR BEGONIAS. 
A LL those who take the greatest interest in 
this very wonderful family pronounce not only onr 
display hut our whole strain is much the nearest perfection in 
existence. No disease or mildew- ever been seen and such 
remarkable dwarf quick growth, that there is no difficulty in 
getting fine plants covered with immense blooms like Holly¬ 
hocks from seed the first year, and many distinct colours 
altogether different from those usually seen and shown. 
Although onr display of other flowers is wonderful, and lar 
exceeds 0 any other establishment, the collection of Begonias 
alone is more than sufficient to repay the journey. 
H. CANNELL & SONS, 
FLORISTS, 
S W A.NLEY, 
KENT. 
DUTCH BULBS CHEAP! 
FRENCH BULBS CHEAP! 
ENGLISH BULBS CHEAP! 
See our Special Wholesale Catalogue of Bulls, 
Containing list of all the best varieties of Hyacinths, Tulips, 
Crocus, Liliums, Daffodils, Snowdrops, Iris, &c., &c., free on 
please compare our prices lefore sending your orders alroad. 
■WATKINS & SIMPSON, 
SEED AND BULB MERCHANTS, 
EXETER STREET, STRAND, LONDON , W.C. 
FRUIT TREES forthe NORTH 
and SCOTLAND. 
Purchasers cannot do better than consult 
GEORGE BUNYARD & Co.’s 
CATALOGUE (illustrated and descriptive—free for six 
stamps, gratis to buyers), and purchase their TREES 
from Kent—“The Garden of England.” 
W. B. & Co. have a stock of nearly half a million 
splendidly grown, finely-rooted and well-ripened stuff 
in 800 sorts, true to name. 
The Old Nurseries, MAIDSTONE. 
ESTA BUSHED 1796. _ 
15,000 TEA ROSES, 
In all the leading varieties, fine plants, in 5j-in. and 6-in. pots, 
12 /-, 15 /- and 18 /- per dozen, according to size. 
THE COMPANY believe their TEA ROSES to be unsur¬ 
passed by any in the country. List, with full particulars, post 
free on application. 
Price to the trade on application. 
TheLIVERPOOL HORTICULTURAL Co. 
(JOHN COWAN), LIMITED. 
THE VINEYARD AND NURSERIES, 
GARSTON, near] LIVERPOOL. 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
fcSarWijtjUDd&t, 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1887. 
The Popular Topic. —The English summer 
has at length redeemed its reputation from 
slander, and no longer can the old inhabitant 
assert that summers are not as in his youthful 
days. It is true that we had some cold, cheer¬ 
less summers—so-called—a few years, hut for 
the past three years, at least, there has been 
little cause for complaint ; the present one 
especially showing what an English summer 
can be when, as it were, put upon its mettle. 
What sort of summers may presently succeed 
this one is a problem yet folded in the 
bosom of time, a mystery which only the 
recurring seasons will make plain ; hut the 
present one will remain indelibly fixed in our 
minds for life, associated with the Jubilee, as 
being hotter and drier than any known for 
many years previously. After sighing so 
strongly for more of the old-fashioned heat and 
sunshine of summer, it is now very doubtful 
whether we have not sighed for too much and 
do not like the form in which our prayers have 
been answered. "Warmth is pleasant, and fine 
weather is so delightful, that we can but repeat 
the old saying, “pity it should do any harm.” 
Why for weeks past we have been anxiously 
wishing for rain, and the whole country is 
literally covered in dust and sackcloth in 
penance for sins, which causes the sun not to 
hide its face nor shine less abundantly. 
Seldom has such a wealth of consecutive sun¬ 
shine been registered as during the past three 
months, in any English summer, whilst the 
rainfall, till recently, has been proportionately 
trifling. We have had as dry spells of summer 
weather before, hut rarely such continuous 
great heat, and thus it comes that all vegetation 
has suffered as much from the atmospheric 
heat as from the terrestrial drought. We have 
now reached the last week of August and have 
experienced some twelve weeks of torrid 
weather; from time to time the sky has been 
overcast or hung with dark clouds, and the 
nights have promised rain, which promises the 
mornings have duly dissipated. Just in the 
midst of the harvest as we have been, we 
should, as a rule, regard the continuity of sun¬ 
shine and dryness with equanimity, hut that 
there is a season to he regarded after harvest— 
a long, cold, and too often a painful season— 
for which it is needful that due provision 
should he made. To that effect we shall find, 
probably, but moderate crops of cereals at 
home ; hut the harvest of the world is ours 
also, and there is little fear of scarcity as long 
as we have money to buy. 
Then our Potato crop, upon which we ad¬ 
versely remarked recently, shows no signs of 
amendment; whilst the continued drought 
rather tended to check tuber development. 
Except in the case of northern and late cold 
districts, and very late varieties, in spite of the 
thunderstorm of last week we must have a 
very moderate Potato crop, indeed, that is now 
inevitable; and that will present a calamity 
which will come home far more closely than 
deficiencies in the cereal crops. We all grow 
Potatos ; indeed, the poor man’s allotment or 
cottage garden is given over more to the growth 
of this important esculent than to the culture 
of any other vegetable, so that there is hardly 
a home in the kingdom in which the assured 
shortness of the Potato crop will not he 
severely felt. The more favoured north and 
some continental countries may make good our 
deficiencies ; but when we see Potatos quoted 
in the market 40 per cent, higher than at this 
time in past years, we find abundant proof that 
the scarcity is general. The fine warm summer 
has, therefore, done us a sorry turn in regard 
to our cherished and noble tuber, and we now 
find after all that warmth-loving as is the 
Solanum tuberosum, still that element may be 
overdone. 
Turning to garden, and specially to market 
garden crops generally, we. see a by no means 
pleasant prospect greeting us. All winter 
crops, whether of plants or from seed, will he 
secured only at exceeding cost of labour in 
watering. It is true weeds give no trouble, 
they too are having a long resting time, hut if 
weeds grow so also do garden plants, hence we 
have some compensation. But this season it is 
hard to induce plant growth even with the aid 
of laborious watering. Till recently, only by 
its aid could winter plants he got out and 
established. As a crop, all of the Brassica 
family will be small and moderate, indeed, it 
can hardly be otherwise than dear. If not 
well paid for, the labour bestowed in watering 
will be worse than wasted. As for Turnips, 
gardeners and farmers alike have to mourn 
their absence ; where seed has been sown and 
it has germinated, the plaguey Turnip-beetle 
has feasted luxuriantly, whilst in the present 
scarcity it now has to feed off vegetation which 
in more plentiful seasons it would despise. 
If these pests could—through the drought and 
scarcity—he starved to death, and thus re¬ 
moved from doing farther evil, some valuable 
compensation would he obtained for our present 
deficiencies. Unless rains come speedily, in¬ 
deed, we may say instantly, it will he useless 
for us to hope for white Turnips of any sort 
of use during the coming winter, and that will 
be a severe deprivation. Onions will be small, 
and Carrots and Parsnips unshapely—especially 
