776 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 4, 1838. 
FLORICULTURE. 
■White Pink, Mrs. Sinkins. 
As this is undoubtedly one of the finest white Pinks 
in cultivation, I should be glad to hear from some of 
your readers the best method of cultivating it. It is 
now some three years since I commenced growing it, 
and I have been hoping that it may improve year after 
year. It flowers profusely and roots readily, but un¬ 
fortunately it has the one great drawback of bursting 
its pod, and unlike many other Pinks, it will not 
suffer tying, as the buds are so globular in shape that 
the tie slips either up or down, How I have been 
thinking seriously of growing it in pots, but as the 
orthodox practice with Pinks has been to plant them 
out, I have not hitherto tried it. Your correspondent 
“ R. D.,” in the last issue of The Gardening World, 
mentions some varieties which he is growing in pots, 
and which gives me some hope that I may be successful 
in checking that luxuriant growth which causes the 
pods to split. There is nothing like experience, and if I 
thought the blooms would not suffer in size I would 
try it. Perhaps “ R. D. ” would give us his experience 
(if any) in an early issue.— R. V. 
Exhibiting 1 Carnations and Picotees. 
The singularly late,[untoward, and I may truthfully 
add, awkward character of the Carnation season is 
demonstrated from the fact that Mr. E. S. Dodwell has 
found it necessary to postpone the annual exhibition 
of the Oxford Union Carnation and Picotee Show from 
August the 7th to the 14th ; an unusually late date for 
the south of England. I suppose the Northern Show at 
Manchester will be the end of the same week, or that 
following. 
Happy are they who have a glass roof over their flowers. 
I envy Mr. Dodwell his glass-roofed stages, open at 
the sides, for the blooms can thereby be preserved from 
the drenching showers which fall daily. A good deal 
of cheap sentiment is occasionally written about florists 
making the Carnation a greenhouse plant. If the 
Carnation is to be enjoyed this year it needs to be in a 
greenhouse, for in the open air the flowers are soddened 
and the colours blurred by pitiless storms. Those who 
have them in beds in the open find it difficult to see 
their flowers ; it is necessary to shade them closely if 
the blossoms are to be kept clean and pure, and the 
soil is so wet with moisture that getting on it and 
about the plants is almost out of the question. I have 
made two or three attempts to layer a few favourite 
sorts in the open ground, but the soil is so wet and 
sticky that it cannot be attempted. I can only do as 
many others are no doubt doing—waiting and hoping 
for the fine weather that seems very loth to come. 
When looking over some of the stands of competing 
florists at the recent Carnation and Picotee Show at 
South Kensington, I could detect a want of harmony 
in the way in which the flowers were set up, and in 
more than one instance I noticed flowers of the same 
class placed side hy side. At the exhibition of the 
Oxford Carnation and Picotee Union, the leading shades 
of the flowers are almost always admirably arranged ; a 
good eye for harmony of effect detects this at once. 
Exhibition blooms should in the first place come up to 
Mr. Dodwell’s description of them, as “ possessing high 
quality, symmetrical form, and brilliant and distinct 
markings.” Given these, how can they best be 
harmoniously arranged ? Mr. Dodwell endeavours to 
answer by laying down some very useful rules. He 
remarks: “As the florist would reject or place low down 
in his estimation a flower in which the colour largely 
preponderated on one side, so it is equally an offence 
to the educated eye to find the colours ill-balanced in a 
collection. ” Again, as symmetry of form is required in 
a flower, so it must be equally found in a collection ; 
therefore the florist will carefully avoid extremes of 
size—either very large or very small, and if compelled 
to resort to their use, will so place them, by putting the 
large ones as far from the line of sight as may 
be, and the small immediately beneath it, that the 
disproportion shall be reduced to the least noticeable 
limits, in accordance with the law that as objects are 
removed from or are near the line of sight, they diminish 
or increase in appearance. 
“To come to the arrangement of flowers for effect, it 
may be safely predicted that that mode will be the best 
which, with a uniform appearance, shall most largely 
develop the beauties of contrast or combination in 
colours. Contrast in the individual flower forms one of 
the most important of its elements of beauty, and it is 
of equal value in a collection. Indeed, we may say 
it is of greater importance, as, dealing with a larger 
quantity, its effects may be made so instantly apparent. 
Thus the boldness and effect of a broad-edged Picotee 
may be enhanced by judiciously placing it by the side 
of flowers lightly edged, and the brilliancy of a bright 
scarlet-flaked Carnation is increased when seen im¬ 
mediately in the neighbourhood of a soft purple flake. 
Uniformity will be secured by choosing flowers 
even in size, and by so arranging the blooms that 
the colour shall be fairly balanced on every side. 
Colour will be imparted to the collection by the 
use of scarlet bizarres, or da~k crimson bizarres, 
brilliancy by bright scarlet flakes, and softness by 
clear purple flakes, rose flakes or light pink bizarres. 
In all cases care should he taken that the corner flowers 
be distinct and decided in their character, and the 
fuller and deeper they are. consistent with distinctness, 
the better. 
“In Picotees, heavy-edged forms have a far better 
effect at the corners than those of a lighter character. 
In these, as with the Carnation and every other flower, 
the colour should be nicely balanced, so that the eye 
may be carried easily over the whole.” 
These suggestions are so timely and so good that I 
am sure they will be acceptable to many of the 
Carnation-loving readers of The Gardening World. 
At country shows flowers are often badly set up, which 
is no doubt owing to want of knowledge. I trust the 
foregoing information'may reach those for whom it is 
specially intended. —R. D. 
-- 
SALVIA HORMINUM. 
The flowers of this species are of no special beauty, but 
the bracts which form a tuft terminating the stem are 
invested with special interest, inasmuch as they are 
coloured, and constitute the chief ornament or value of 
the plant for horticultural purposes. The wild and 
typical form seems to be terminated with blue bracts ; 
but under cultivation the species has given rise to 
several varieties, notable amongst which are some with 
red and white bracts. The flowers in themselves are 
insignificant and inconspicuous, but it is interesting to 
note that they vary in a corresponding degree with the 
flowers. The plants with blue bracts have the upper 
lip of the corolla blue and the lower one white ; on 
those with red bracts the upper lip of the flower is 
red and the lower pink ; while those with white 
bracts have the upper lip of the corolla creamy yellow 
and the lower white. The species is an annual, and 
seems to depend upon the bracts for attracting insects 
from a distance. It seeds freely in this country, 
scattering itself over the ground w T here the plants have 
grown, as is evidenced this season by a fine bed at 
Chiswick, in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural 
Society. These plants were obtained from seedlings 
that had germinated in the spring, and were planted 
in lines on a bed where there had been some the previous 
season. 
-»h>3K«- 
THE DATE PALM. 
Dr. Bonavia, writing in the Society of Arts Journal, 
says :—The Arabs of northern Africa have a notion 
that, in order to have good Dates, the roots of the tree 
must be in water and its head in the fire—that is, sur¬ 
rounded by a hot dry atmosphere. This may perhaps 
be true in order to produce and ripen the sweetmeaty 
varieties of the European shops, but it is certainly not 
true that a good edible and palatable Date cannot be 
produced without these conditions. Recently I sent 
from India to the Director of the Royal Gardens at 
Kew a collection of Oudh Dates from seedling trees. 
They averaged from 2f ins. to 3| ins. in girth, and 
from in. to 2 ins. in length. Some of them reached 
me perfectly ripe and sweet in the stage of “khoorma.” 
Now Lucknow, the capital of Oudh, has an average 
annual rainfall of upwards of 36 inches, so that at the 
ripening time, about September, the atmosphere there 
is usually very damp. The Oudh Date trees to which I 
refer were raised from seeds of the best varieties from 
the Persian Gulf. One particular tree from which I 
received specimens had two kinds of fruit on it, one 
consisting of fine large specimens, among which were 
ripe and perfect ones ; these evidently had been ferti • 
Used, as their seeds were perfect. The other consisted 
of small worthless specimens without seeds ; these 
evidently had not been fertilised. This particular tree 
had received a good deal of cultivation, and its perfect 
Dates were the best of any I had received. Here, 
then, is a tree producing perfect Dates, and at the 
same time also worthless ones. How many of the 
popular errors about Dates have been caused by ob¬ 
servers not taking into consideration that unfertilised 
female flowers give nothing but worthless Dates it is 
impossible to say. In the Persian Gulf these unfer¬ 
tilised Dates are called ‘ 1 shis,” They are s mall , totally 
insipid, and only fit for goats. 
-- 
THE LATE MR. PITMAN. 
Many gardeners located throughout the country will 
have happy recollections of the tuition they received 
while employed in the Fulham Nurseries of the late 
Messrs. Osborn & Sons, which for many years retained 
their fame for the finely managed fruit trees grown 
there. The masterly handling of the knife, careful 
naming, perfect training, even growth, and well- 
ripened wood, formed for the late Mr. Charles Pitman 
a character notable among the records of horti¬ 
culture ; and if those employed in nurseries, raising 
fruit trees for the supply of private and other establish¬ 
ments, received their cultural instructions under Mr. 
Pitman, and made the best use of them, their useful¬ 
ness at the present time is deserving recognition, and 
should he turned to the best account. My acquaintance 
with nurseries widely apart in England, as well 2s with 
many in Scotland, does not raise, in my estimation, the 
present system of fruit tree manipulation. To see 
trees with regular, even shoots, of equal length and 
thickness, straight as gun barrels, and in perfect health ; 
is the exception and not the rule ; and being nine 
months an employe in Messrs. Osborn’s nurseries I 
had ample opportunity of noticing the excellent man¬ 
agement of the late Mr. Pitman. One thing observable 
in many fruit trees in nurseries at the present time is 
the detestable snags, so unsightly in appearance and 
injurious to the trees. I would prefer purchasing 
maidens to receiving these snag dotted things for 
nothing. Gumming, canker, uneven growth can 
readily be traced to this bad knife management. It 
forms a pleasing reflection to note the care which Mr. 
Pitman took to keep trees true to name, and he was 
not easily mistaken, as the foliage and habit of growth 
was almost a certain guarantee with him as to their 
true name. If any tree was suspected of wearing a 
false name, it was taken to a place for the purpose and 
broken up; and woe be to any of Mr. Pitman’s 
assistants who by inadvertence committed an error.— 
Caledonian. 
-- 
CACTUS DAHLIAS. 
When the old and typical Cactus Dahlia (D. Juarezii) 
first made its appearance before the general public, it 
was immediately received into favour, and we were not 
surprised, considering what a bold advance had been 
made upon the formality and stiffness of the florists’ 
type. The latter of course serve a purpose, but for 
decorative effect there is a boldness about Juarezii, 
that is most fascinating. Growers, as a matter of 
course, hastened to possess it, but soon found that showy 
as are the individual flowers,they are sparingly produced, 
while the plant is very vigorous vegetatively, and 
develops a great quantity of stems and foliage. Since 
first disseminated, however, great numbers of new 
varieties have been raised by cross-breeding, so that we 
have now obtained a beautiful race differing consider¬ 
ably from the type, but withal more floriferous. 
Whether they are improvements upon the original is, 
of course, a matter of taste that must be decided by the 
flower-loving public. There are certainly some very 
beautiful forms, and our illustration of Prince Albert 
Victor shows a very bold and distinct flower head, 
which has long involuted pointed florets of a deep 
crimson-red, shaded with orange. The habit is also 
close and bushy. A novel and pretty form is A. W. 
Tait [see p. 773), a white variety that has been imported 
from Portugal, having curiously and deeply bifid or trifid 
florets. These and other varieties are largely grown by 
the Messrs. Cannell, to whom we are indebted for our 
illustrations. 
-- 
AGAVE AMERICANA. 
This plant, a native of tropical America, seems to be 
constitutionally adapted to bear an indefinite amount 
of the rigours of a northern winter, under certain 
circumstances. Last winter I left one standing outside 
in a vase in this rather exposed place, to test what frost 
or exposure it would withstand with impunity. At the 
time I had no hopes of it surviving the vicissitudes of a 
northern winter, on account of a case at one time I saw, 
when a few nice plants were made soft as soap by not 
more than 8° of frost. Now in the case at issue my 
surmises were entirely overthrown, for it not only 
survived 8°, but actually withstood 20° apparently in 
good humour. Not only that, but it often had to 
