October 22, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
115 
WEBBS’ 
CHOICE FLOWERING 
BULBS. 
For prices and full particulars see 
WEBBS’ BULB CATALOGUE, 
BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED. 
Price 6 d., Post Free, or Gratis to intending Purchasers. 
Seedsmen by Royal Warrants to H. M. the Queen and 
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. 
WORDSLEY, STOURBRIDGE. 
FRUIT TREES for the NORTH 
and SCOTLAND. 
Purchasers cannot do better than consult 
GEORGE BUNYARD & Go.’s 
CATALOGUE (illustrated and descriptive—free for six 
stamps, gratis to buyers), and purchase their TREES 
from Kent—“The Garden of England.” 
G. B. <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, 
ESTABLISHED 1796. 
BARR’S 
w» BULBS, 
THE FINEST IN HOLLAND, ’ 
DIRECT FROM THE GROWERS. 
PRICES MODERATE. QUALITY UNSURPASSED. 
Full Descriptive Catalogue free on application. 
Special Illustrated DAFFODIL Catalogue free on application. 
barrITson, 
12 k 13, King Street, Coient Garden. 
FRUIT TREES, 
ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, &c. 
Descr iptive and Priced Catalog ues free. 
J, OHEAL & SONS, grawley. 
LILIES OF THE VALLEY. 
E xcellent crowns, to bloom 
FREELY IN DECEMBER under proper treatment, 
5s. per 100 (by Parcel Post, 6 d. per 100 extra). Cheaper by 500 
or 1,000. 
P. JANNOCH, 
By Special Appointment Lily of the Valley grower to 
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, 
Lily Nurser y, DERSSNCHAM, KI NG’S LYNN. 
N.B.—P. J.'s Book on LILY OF THE VALLEY CULTURE, 
free by post for 6%d. 
Very long experience enables us to offer the BEST QUALITY 
at a moderate price, as proved by hundreds of testimonials. 
ILLUSTRATED LIST, descriptive, select, and comprising 
important NOVELTIES, on application. 
RICHARD SMITH & Go., 
NURSERYMEN & SEED MERCHANTS, 
WORCESTER. 
National Chrysanthemum Society, Royal 
Aquarium, Westminster. 
G RAND EXHIBITION of Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, Fruits, and Vegetables, Wednesday and Thursday 
November 9th and 10th. 
The Floral Committee will meet October 26th, November 9th 
and 23rd, and December 7th. See Schedules, forwarded on 
application to. Mr. WILLIAM HOLMES. 
Frampton Park Nurseries, Hackney. 
Sheffield and Hallamshire Gardeners’ Society. 
T HE tenth annual show of CHRYSANTHE¬ 
MUMS, FRUITS and other FLOWERS will he held in 
the Drill Hall, Glossop Road, November 14th and 15t.h. Open 
to all England. Prizes in the open class for 48 CUT BLOOMS, 
24 Japanese and 24 Incurved, distinct, 1st, £20 ; 2nd, £10; 
3rd, £5. Entries close November 4th. A band will be in 
attendance.—E. AUSTIN, Secretary, Dorset Street, Sheffield. 
Sheffield and West Riding Chrysanthemum 
Society. 
G BAND EXHIBITION OF CHRYSAN- 
THEMUMS, FRUIT and FLOWERS will he held in the 
Corn Exchange, Sheffield, on Friday and Saturday, November 
18th and 19th. THE LARGEST PRIZE EVER YET 
OFFERED FOR FORTY-EIGHT CUT CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
Schedules and entry forms on application to the Hon. Sec., W. 
K. WOODCOCK, The Gardens, Oakbrook, Sheffield. Entries 
close Friday, November 11th. 
Eccles, Patricroft, Pendleton and District 
Chrysanthemum Show. 
T HE first Exhibition of Chrysanthemums 
will he held at the Eccles Town Hall, on November 25th 
and 26th next. Prizes amounting to over £30 will be offered. 
Schedules may be obtained of the Secretary, H. HUBER, 1S3, 
Worsley Road, Winton, Patricroft. 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Monday, October 24th.—National Chrysanthemum Society: 
General Meeting of the Members at 7 p.m. Sale of Nursery 
Stock at Steel’s Nursery, Richmond, by Protlieroe & Morris 
(two days). Sales of Bulbs at Protheroe & Morris's, and at 
Stevens’ Rooms. 
Tuesday, October 25th.—Royal Horticultural Society: Meetings 
of Fruit and Floral Committees at 11 a.m. 
Annual Sale of Nursery Stock at the Milford Nurseries, 
Godaiming, by Mr. J. C, Stevens (three days). Sale of Dutch 
Bulbs at Stevens’ Rooms. Sale of Orchids in Flower at 
Protheroe & Morris's Rooms. 
Wednesday, October 26th.—National Chrysanthemum Society: 
Meeting of the Floral Committee at the Royal Aquarium. 
Sales of Euonymus and small Conifers at Elm Grove 
Nursery, Brighton ; and Wood Lane Nursery, Isleworth, by 
Protheroe & Morris. Sales of Bulbs at Stevens’, and 
Protheroe & Morris's Rooms. 
Thursday, October 27th.—Sale of the Lovatt Collection of 
Orchids at Stevens’ Rooms. Sales of Nursery Stock at the 
Royal Nurseries, Ascot; and Mitcham Road, Streatham, by 
Protheroe & Morris. Sale of Dutch Bulbs at Protheroe & 
Morris’s Rooms. 
Friday, October 2Sth.—Sale of Imported Orchids[at Protheroe & 
Morris’s Rooms. 
Saturday, October 29.—Bulb Sales at Stevens’, and Protheroe & 
Morris’s Rooms. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Amateurs’ Garden. 119 
Angraecum Scottianum.... 125 
Boston House. 117 
Catalpa bignonioides. 122 
Dahlia, the . 118 
Dracaenas and Crotons .... 120 
Edinburgh Apple and Pear 
Congress Report. 122 
Fernclough . 122 
Ferns for Baskets. 116 
Fruit as Food. 115 
Gladioli, faseiated. 124 
“ Granny,” death of. 123 
Horticultural Societies.... 126 
PAGE 
Lselia Turneri Nyleptha .. 125 
Lobelias . 124 
Mylenhurst. 123 
Orchid-Growers’ Calendar 124 
Orchid Growing for Ama¬ 
teurs . 123 
Pears, October . 120 
Peas, old and new . 118 
Peed & Sons’Nurseries .. 117 
Plumbago capensis alba .. 124 
Rosa rugosa. 124 
Shelter for Plants. 124 
Spring-flowering Plants .. 120 
Tomatos . 119 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.” —Bacon. 
Ip §arWwg11(iirftr ( 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1887. 
Fruit as Food. — We published last week an 
appeal from the secretary of the Vegetarian 
Society of London, addressed to fruit-growers, 
asking for samples of fruit for educational 
purposes. Such an appeal merits the most 
generous consideration on the part of those 
who seek for a wider sale of ah kinds of fruit, 
and an increase in the business in which they 
are at present engaged. Whatever may he our 
general or particular views in relation to the 
doctrine of vegetarianism—which, of course, 
signifies total abstinence from all animal food 
—at least there can be no diversity of opinion, 
amongst all engaged in gardening, as to the 
desirability of promoting the widest possible 
consumption by the people of sound, whole¬ 
some fruit and vegetables ; and, meat-eaters as 
we may he, naturally our sympathies he far 
more with the welfare of the fruit grower than 
■with the butcher. 
One of the declarations of the vegetarian is 
to the effect that the general consumption of 
fruit tends to the benefit of the public health. 
That is an incontrovertible position, and can¬ 
not be disputed. Of course, we have been for 
generations bred as meat-eaters, and consuming, 
from childhood upwards, strong stimulating 
foods, often permeated with equally strong 
condiments, there has been bred in most of us 
palates which seek for aliment in strong 
stimulating substances and liquids rather than 
in sweet, wholesome fruit. Still there remains, 
almost in a state of natural purity, in our 
children a love for fruit which it is hard to 
satisfy, and it does seem as if the teachings of 
nature were rather rudely disregarded when 
we refuse to our children the fruit they seem 
so naturally to desire, and feed them upon 
diet for which it is necessary to have an 
educated palate to render it acceptable. 
If we turn for a moment to the difficulties 
which surround fruit culture for market, we 
find that one, but not the least by any means, 
is the too often miserably low prices obtained 
for good, sound, ripe fruit when crops are 
abundant. No power on earth can ensure for 
us abundant crops, or if it were so we should 
have good crops every year. But we are 
absolutely dependent upon the forces of nature, 
and when these are unfavourable fruit is lack¬ 
ing. This state of things is far from being 
infrequent; therefore, if a really abundant crop 
of fruit does come sometimes, and the returns 
reflect a glutted market and a consumption 
which is restricted much below the fairest 
anticipations, the encouragement which fruit¬ 
growers so much need is lacking. 
What the consumption would be if ah were 
to eat but a fair share of fruit, no one can 
estimate ; but, probably, if such were the case, 
quite double the quantity of fruit now placed 
on the London market, in a plentiful season, 
might be disposed of with facility, and at such 
prices as would repay the grower. The con¬ 
sumers are there, but the jmlate is wanting. If 
once we could make fruit a prominent element 
as the food of the people, the demand would 
be illimitable, and the supply would have to 
be vastly increased. Mr. Gladstone, it is well 
known, a few years since, strongly advised the 
increased planting of fruit trees, and the greater 
production of fruit as food. For that advice 
the right honourable gentleman got soundly 
abused; but Mr. Gladstone was right, none 
the less because he spoke of what should be, 
and not of what is. If anyone will calculate 
what would be the requirements of the nation 
for a year in fruit—that is, if every human 
being in it consumed, on the average, one 
pound weight per day, they would find that it 
would be utterly impossible for our gardens 
and orchards at present to satisfy the demand. 
It was because Mr. Gladstone thought that we 
should consume more fruit that he urged 
farmers and others to grow more. 
The vegetarian society may be engaged in 
what some of our readers, perhaps, regard as a 
Quixotic enterprise; but, whatever may be 
the result of their teaching a few years hence, 
at least it is certain that there is, in alliance 
with the progress of education and wider 
scientific knowledge, also growing a taste for 
simpler diet, and the present wide appreciation 
for strong stimulating foods seems to have 
reached its chmax. Whilst we know that 
vegetarianism excites formidable criticism in 
some quarters, it is certain also that broader 
tolerance for its objects is spreading ; and we 
cannot imagine that amongst fruit growers it 
will meet with active opposition. Apart from 
our deep and preformed sympathy with the 
fruit-growing trade, we cannot view efforts 
so unselfish and so kindly meant other than 
with respect; and coupling our respect for 
good motives with our sympathy with fruit 
growers, we can but hope that the efforts now 
being made to render fruit more popular as 
food will meet with the widest success. 
