May 26, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
613 
Sermon,’’ took his text from the Song of Solomon, 
chap. ii., y. 13; “The Vines are in blossom; they 
give forth their fragrance.” Addressing himself to a 
consideration of the Vine, he said that there were many 
spiritual lessons to be gathered from it. The first was 
that a Christian child resembled the Vine in its cling¬ 
ing and climbing nature. He was filled with a desire 
to climb higher and higher, so as to get nearer to Jesus, 
but being spiritually weak, like the Vine, he clung to 
all those things that helped him onwards in his 
Christian course. Again, a consideration of the tendrils 
of the Vine suggested to the preacher the reflection 
that the quiet graces of the Christian life were as 
needful as its most fruitful energy. Other lessons to 
be gathered from the Vine were that the most fruitful 
Christian life had its small and inconspicuous begin¬ 
nings ; that a Christian child was intended to show his 
piety chiefly at home ; that there was something very 
sweet and precious in early consecration to Christ; that 
the sun’s light and heat, with the soft dew and gentle 
breeze, were essential to the ripening of the Grapes ; 
and finally, that Jesus was the true Vine, and children 
who loved Him were the little branches. 
-•**<-- 
BLUMENBACHIA CORONATA. 
The flowers of the various members of the family to 
which this belongs are singularly curious and beautiful. 
The chief objection to their presence in the garden is 
due to the stringing hairs on the leaves and stems. 
With this exception they greatly recommend them¬ 
selves to the cultivator, whether for the decoration of 
the greenhouse, conservatory, or the open garden, 
where many of them form beautiful objects during the 
summer. The dwarfer kinds may be used in the rock 
exhibits ! The lad with his first pair of long trousers 
on, the bottoms turned up, did not equal the successful 
amateur gardener,—when he asked his mother, as he 
stood lingering underneath the best lighted gas lamp in 
their street an hour after bed-time, for “just another 
half hour, as all the people have not passed yet.” No, 
our amateur friend, if the show committee would only 
let him, would exhibit his achievements for a week, and 
linger by them during the whole time ; so that you will 
conclude that he is enthusiastic as well as important— 
and so he is. 
There is no member of the gardening world that can 
better distinguish rubbish from merit than a good 
amateur gardener ; and when he once sees a meritorious 
variety of the flower that he favours, he ne’er will rest 
till he has got it. He goes to great trouble and to the 
full extent of his pocket to possess the object of his 
heart’s love ; and in his garden, what would be called 
work if he were at business, he counts but pleasure, so 
enthusiastic and in sympathy is he with his favourite 
occupation. He goes on a cold night to light his 
greenhouse fire—it would be slavery to get up to light 
his domestic fire ; he will bear the cold and brave the 
rains ; he will stand the winds and ignore the heat, in 
the hope that his reward may be a winning stand, or 
the expressed delight of one to whom he presents the 
results of his labours. In fact, he is like Barham’s 
Sir Thomas, the entomologist— 
“ He will pore by the hour o’er a weed or a flower, 
Or the slugs that come crawling out after a shower ; 
Blackbeetles and bumble-bees, bluebottle flies 
And moths are of no small account in his eyes ; 
While an old Daddy-long-legs, whose long legs and 
Pass the common in shape, in colour or size, [thighs 
He is wont to consider an absolute prize.” 
Blumexbachia coeoxata. 
garden or the ordinary border, and the taller and 
twining species may be trained to stalks or trellis 
work. The species under notice grows from 12 ins. to 
18 ins. in height, and is close and compact in habit, as 
our illustration shows, with finely divided or bipin- 
natifid leaves. The flowers are produced singly in the 
axils of the leaves, which are of large size, being pure 
white with a shining lustre, and measure from 1J ins. 
to 2 ins. in diameter. To their beauty we must add 
the singular appearance (in this case quadrangular) of 
the flowers themselves, together with their curious 
internal structure. It is biennial, and if sown now 
and potted off when fit to handle, the seedlings will be 
ready to plant out next season, or may be retained in 
pots and flowered in the conservatory. It is a native 
of Chili, which, together with Pent and other parts of 
South America, is the native home of several other 
species. __ 
THE AMATEUR GARDENER.* 
The two words, “Amateur Gardener,” are very com¬ 
prehensive; they embrace nearly all sorts and conditions 
of men in the floral and horticultural world, a few 
ot which we will observe later on in this short paper. 
The amateur gardener is a very important personage : 
he has caused whole libraries of books to be written for 
his learning—a host of printing presses to be set up, to 
supply him with weekly serials ; he has put hundreds 
of acres (under the charge of nurserymen) in till, to 
satisfy his demands for plants, and to raise and pro¬ 
pagate new varieties, for his never-to-be-satisfied 
appetite ; but it is at the local shows where his impor¬ 
tance is best seen. For a moment, in your mind’s eye, 
just look at him there : he has taken three “firsts” and 
a ‘second” or two. How he hangs about his successful 
win P a P1 r Mr. J. TV. Jarvis, read at a recent meeting of the 
walKley Amateur Gardeners’ Society. 
And so will our amateur gardener with his pets ; if he 
has only the good fortune to cultivate an extra large 
Red Cabbage, a long spike of Gladiolus, or a superfine 
wire-edged Picotee, his enthusiasm knows no bounds. 
There is another kind of amateur, known as the 
“ summer gardener,” but he only plays second fiddle 
to the genuine amateur, just treated of. He only enters 
the arena of the beautiful, 
“When nature looks gay, 
And on tree-top and spray, 
The dear little dickie birds carol away.” 
He enters his garden after the rosarian has pruned his 
trees, and he leaves it a little before half-past twelve 
o’clock on a Sunday morning, or before the precious 
beauties of the florist are put to bed in winter. 
It is this kind of amateur that produces that great 
“bug-bear” to the genuine exhibitor, viz., the “ranger.” 
What an awful fellow that is, with a low mind, and no 
true satisfaction for his pains—filching away from the 
honest stager the just rewards of his fair showing I But 
let him be tolerated, he had better link his baseness 
with things of beauty than with dirty vice ; he may 
get the better of the one, but he would only get lower 
into the other. I will not dwell any longer on this 
fellow. 
For a moment we will consider the amateur in con¬ 
temporary with his brother the professional. Well, as 
a rule, the amateur has generally the acquaintance of 
one or two, which he greatly values, and as a matter of 
experience, always obtains that knowledge which is the 
outcome of experience and practice when he asks for it, 
and which he could not get from the garden literature 
of the day. There is a bond of friendship which, I 
thiuk, is peculiarly the outcome of flower growing. I 
have heard it stated that it is not so in music, for the 
sons of harmony are never so right as when eating the 
apple of discord ; but the gardener—the true gardener— 
is the most unselfish man I know of. His best products 
he is proud to exhibit to the public and give to his 
friends, and to his garden colleagues cuttings and 
divisions are given without stint. To show that the 
love and practice of gardening is conducive to better 
fellowship not surpassed by the bonds of Freemasonry, 
I will just relate to you a true incident that occurred in 
a manufactory in this town. Billy Wheelswarf, in the 
absence of the right way to get on with his manager, 
Mr. Snipe Pickinhole, remarked to a fellow workman 
that try all he knew, he could not get on with “ owd 
Pickinhole.” “Ah!” said his mate, “tha doesn’t 
kno’ ha to get at him; tha’s a gardin, ’asn’t ta?’’ 
“Ha, to be sure oi ’ave.” “As ta ony Carnations?” 
“ Ha, oi ’ave, an’ Picotees anole.” “ Wha then, when 
owd Pickinhole comes intat t’shop agean, jist thee 
broach aba’t gardenin’, an’ tha’ll get on wee ’im.” 
Billy acted on the wise counsel, came off triumphant, 
and for the future Billy Wheelswarf suited Mr. Snipe 
Pickinhole first-rate, and they were good friends, and 
flowers begat the better understanding. 
Another case where judge and witness were made 
akin, and breathed out to each other the bonds of 
friendship, will be quite fresh in your minds. It was 
at Leeds, where one of Her Majesty’s judges was sent 
to administer justice in a very dirty case, that one of 
the witnesses appeared before him with a florist’s flower 
in his coat. Mark the effect: the judge and witness 
were at once friends ; the flower had done it, and the 
witness was handed a bouquet of flowers by the judge 
from off the bench, on which he was presiding. So I 
think you will agree that flowers have a wonderful 
influence, and that is why there is such a good feeling 
existing between the amateur and professional, notwith¬ 
standing that they appear as rivals friendly rivals, on 
the show stages. 
Unfortunately the experience of the amateur gardener 
is not quite of a roseate hue ; he has many enemies— 
insectiverous and very large animalculee, and I do not 
know which is the greater evil of the two ; the former 
is certainly a great pest, but the latter is absolutely 
wicked. How naughty to go into the greenhouse of 
the beginner, and whilst there enjoying his unsuspecting 
confidence, to change the labels in the pots, thereby 
causing him to astonish his better informed friends, 
and to bring chagrin into his own pate ! Methinks it 
was the latter enemy who strongly recommended a 
“ besom shaft ” as a suitable tool with which to dibble 
in Crocuses; and the amateur, taking that “suitable 
tool” along with the maxim, “that whatever thine 
hand findeth to do, do with thy might,” he nearly 
impaled himself on the one end, whilst the other laid 
the foundation of his floral expectations so low, that 
he might as well have gone to the expense of a 
heathenish tombstone without an emblem of resurrec¬ 
tion, for the Crocuses never came up. Another 
experience is consequent on the modern science of 
likeness-taking and painting, coupled with the enter¬ 
prise of the modern seedsmen. Thirty years ago, when 
tradesmen dealt in realities and wrote on the packets 
of seeds they vended, you might expect, after sowing, 
that something would come up according to name ; but 
now that you get the portrait of the article along with 
the seeds, what dire disappointment does it cause the 
amateur when he finds that nearly all his plants and flowers 
belie their own likeness ! But still the picture-book 
packet of seeds has its advantages, as the amateur will 
know who was desirous of having a useful edging of 
Parsley along-side his garden walk, but, owing to the 
writing, sowed Parsnips. And now, with your per¬ 
mission, I will notice the amateur gardener more 
particularly, as before we have dealt with him generally. 
Most of you have come across the amateur whose 
tool-house is like the depot of a horticultural sundries- 
man—a tool for every plant, and twice as many plants 
as he has space in which to grow them ; he goes to 
much expense to have everything, and so surrounds 
himself with a chaotic medley, believing he can lay his 
hands on everything he wants, but nobody else can. 
He may rejoice in the quantity of his possessions, but I 
am afraid it is sadly marred by the results. How very 
different is the amateur who, with quiet mien and 
steadfast purpose, weighs up the suitability of the plants 
and vegetables that the garden under his control will 
bring to perfection, and gets them, and them only. 
He has barely the necessary tools, but a large amount 
of contrivance, and when the time comes for the pro¬ 
ducts of his labour to be put into competition, so far 
as second and third prizes are concerned, they might be 
non est, as firsts generally’ fall to such an one. 
The next amateur in particular to be observed, is 
that dilettante who, unlike the parson, 
