84 
THE GABDENING WORLD. 
October 11, 1890. 
is given to the exhibition, there can be on 
doubt. The nursery trade generally made a 
wonderful display, which had the merit also 
of being purely honorary ; whilst the samples 
from Kent and some others of the more 
favoured counties showed that in selecting 
sites for hardy fruit culture, especially for 
market purposes, we must look southwards 
rither than elsewhere. Should the show be 
repeated next year it will be possible to hold 
it only on condition that the schedule is 
greatly modified, unless some such vast area 
as St. Paul’s Cathedral can be placed at the 
disposal of the Fruiterers Company. If the 
grandest show of Apples ever seen at once 
can be produced in a non-fruit year, what 
may be looked for when we have fruit in 
plenty and in the highest perfection 1 But 
if the Company is really anxious to benefit 
the tenant farmers and cottagers of the country 
by promoting the more extensive and better 
cultivation of fruits among those classes, it 
must not confine its operations every year to 
an exhibition in the City. It must go to the 
country—carry the war against ignorance and 
neglect into the enemy’s camp as it were, and 
really give the persons we are most interested 
in, some encouragement, by confining all the 
competitions but one or two to the inhabitants 
of the particular districts in which the exhi¬ 
bitions may be held. An arrangement of this 
kind, with one, or perhaps two all-England 
classes, which should bring out the best we 
have from any quarter, would be calculated 
to do an immense deal of good, and we 
sincerely hope that this may be the line of 
action which will ultimately be adopted. 
‘TT'utumn Leafiness. —In spite of the dry 
autumn, there can be little doubt but that 
we shall see a fairly luxuriant leafage on most 
trees until November is well in. The summer 
moisture was so unusual and went so deep into 
the soil that roots were saturated beyond anti 
cipation. As a result all trees made strong 
growth and produced luxuriant leafage. Those 
of our successors who shall fell as mature 
timber the growing trees of to-day, will have 
no difficulty in noting, because of the broad 
ring of wood found in the stems, that 1890 
was emphatically a growing year. 
But so much may not be said of all trees 
especially those growing in towns and streets 
under somewhat artificial conditions. Where a 
breadth of sward or open soil surfaces the 
roots of a tree, so that moisture and air can 
freely penetrate, all is well. It is the poor 
trees which have for root surface asphalte foot¬ 
paths and macadamised roads, through which 
it is hardly possible for one drop of rain to 
penetrate, all surface rvater being carried 
through drains into the sewers, Avhich are in 
bad case. The moist season has helped them 
little, Avhilst the dry, rvarm autumn has told 
upon the roots disastrously. 
Planted often in soil of dubious character, 
which has the merit usually of having been 
nervly made, the street trees thrive for a few 
years pretty well, subsisting on Avhat moisture 
is found in the soil. But frequently the hard 
surface, in shutting out rain and air, prevents 
moisture being supplied, and the roots languish 
for food, the trees grow sickly, the leaves fall 
early, and the lingering is evidence of the end, 
which is not so far off. It is a pity the mania 
for street-tree planting is not more often 
governed by common sense. 
of the once energetic but noAV, alas, dead 
secretary Avill be universally missed, at least 
the beautiful floAvers, of the worship of Avhich 
he Avas a high priest, will be present in grand 
form and Avondrous abundance. 
The autumn thus far has been so favourable to 
the maturation of the Avood and the production 
of plump, firm, robust buds, that it Avould be 
difficult to define a season more acceptable. 
The dry weather which so long prevailed, if 
it did mature the Avood, kept the Avater-pot in 
active use, with the excellent result that arti¬ 
ficial and liquid manures could be applied and 
utilised to the best advantage. The prevalence 
of pleasant Aveather and the absence of frost 
has some what checked early housing, but 
generally the best of the plants Avere got under 
cover in good time. 
Whilst Ave hope for a continuance of the dry 
Aveather, Ave Avould prefer, in the interests of 
the blooms, that the days should not be too 
Avarm, as forced blooms benefit no one. That 
all plants Avill bloom freely in the proper 
season there can be no doubt. Damping 
should so far give little trouble. Altogether 
the promise of a fine Chrysanthemum bloom 
seems to be one demanding the fullest con¬ 
gratulation. 
Pansy.—W e cordially welcome the little 
discussion, trifling as it may seem to be, 
Avhich has taken place in our columns on the 
Pansy. There is such a Avealth of beauty 
in this hardy floAver; it it is so readily 
produced from seed; and is usually of so 
enduring a kind that it seems hard to realise 
the fact that in our gardens generally, especially 
southwards, Pansies of a good type and pro¬ 
ducing the finest blooms are indeed scarce. 
We fear the Pansy suffers somewdiat because it 
cannot easily be used as a bouquet or ordinary 
decorative cut floAver. There is no position 
Avhere the blooms are more in place or more 
effective than on the plants. Still, all floAvers 
are not necessarily groAvn to furnish cut blooms; 
indeed, Ave may rejoice that some—and very 
beautiful ones too—are not acceptable for the 
purpose, and therefore escape the all-devouring 
maAv of the fioAver basket. 
So far as the Pansy is concerned, from an 
exhibition point of vieAV, Ave have seen ample 
evidences of its beauty and fitness in old days, 
Avhen good blooming plants in pots Avere groAvn 
in abundance and staged at floAver sIioavs in the 
south, as they still are in the midland counties, 
A\diilst, so far as cut floAvers are concerned, no 
blooms are perhaps more easily, if not effec¬ 
tively displayed. If the blooms are flat AAdien 
shoAvn, they are at least AA r onderfully coloured 
and strikingly beautiful. The variations in 
marking found in the fancy straius are so 
Avonderfully bold and effective that it seems 
difficult to find on any stand of cut flowers 
more of beauty than these Pansies give. 
Perhaps the formition of a Pansy society, 
provided it comprised members not already 
overburdened Avith engagements in connection 
Avith other of the old florists’ floAvers, Avould do 
much to popularise Pansy cultivation. We 
want to see the floAver in its A^ery best form 
in the south. Recent seasons have favoured 
its Avide cultivation, and myriads of plants of 
common kinds have sold and done well It is 
the superbly marked fancies, Avith some of the 
best of the old sIioav section, Ave hunger to 
meet Avith in our gardens, and as fine strains of 
Pansies may noA\ r be produced readily from 
seed, Ave ought to find their culture universal. 
he Chrysanthemum Promise. —All groAvers 
of the Chrysanthemum seem to agree in 
the opinion that the promise of bloom is a 
lemarkably good one. Should anticipations be 
realised, it Avill indeed prove a fortunate 
circumstance that the National Society should 
have fixed the Centenary celebration for a 
season when a really grand display of the very 
finest floAvers may be looked for. If the face 
-->03<-- 
Memorial to the late Mr. William Holmes.—We 
may remind the members of the National Chrysan¬ 
themum Society, and personal friends of the late hoD. 
secretary, that a meeting will take place at the Royal 
Aquarium, Westminster, on Wednesday, October 15th, 
at 4 p. m., to consider the expediency of promoting a 
memorial to the late Mr. William Holmes. 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution.—An addi¬ 
tion will be made to the pension list of this institution 
as usual, in January next, and intending candidates 
should make a note of the fact that applications 
must be made to the committee on or before the 8th of 
November. 
The Florida Orange Crop.—We learn from an 
American exchange that the Orange crop of Florida will 
be about half a million boxes less than last year, in 
consequence of heavy frosts last March. 
Ealing Gardeners’ Improvement Society.—At the 
annual general meeting of this society, which com¬ 
menced the winter session on the 1st inst., Mr. Gregg 
exhibited a plant of Odontoglossum grande having 
forty-five blooms on eight spikes. 
Plane Trees in London Thoroughfares. — The 
Metropolitan Public Gardens Association, 83, Lancas¬ 
ter Gate, has offered £100 each to twenty Metropolitan 
Vestries and District Boards, to be expended in 
planting Plane trees in suitable public thoroughfares 
in each district, on condition that the local authorities 
agree to maintain the trees when planted, replacing 
such as may die. The Association is willing to do the 
planting itself should any vestry so prefer. The chief 
requisites for success are thoroughfares of sufficient 
width (say not less than 40-ft.), plenty of good soil to each 
tree, and the avoidance of gas mains as far as possible. 
A Garland from Hesperides, woven in prose and 
verse, is the title of a work to be published by sub¬ 
scription, by Mr. Percy T. Ingram, of Belvoir Castle 
Gardens, Grantham. The contents will include lyrical 
and descriptive poems and comments on religion, 
Christianity, immortality, and science, and also some 
verses by the Misses H. F. and H. E. Ingram. 
The Fruiterers Company and Sir. Barlow.—We 
understand that the Master and Wardens of the 
Worshipful Company of Fruiterers have decided to 
recommend to the Court of Assistants that the honorary 
freedom of the Company be conferred on Mr. S. Barlow, 
J. P., of Stakehill House, Castleton, in consideration of 
the special merit of his collection of fruit exhibited at 
the Guildhall, and especially of his dish of fine 
Peasgood’s Nonsuch Apples, which weighed 8 lbs. 14 ozs. 
The framed Certificate of the Company has also been 
awarded to him. 
The B. S. Williams Memorial.—We are informed 
that, although a large list of promises of contributions 
has been secured, the total amount promised is still 
insufficient to carry out the resolution that forms the 
basis of the operations. It is hoped that friends of 
the movement will renew their efforts to augment the 
list, the more especially as the fund is to be wholly 
devoted to the sustenance of the oiphans of gardeners, 
and the encouragement of excellence in the cultivation 
of plants. Those who have promised and not as yet 
paid are requested to do so as early as convenient, as 
the treasurer desires to advertise all contributions in 
the order in which they are received. The chairman 
of committee is Mr. Shirley Hibberd, Kew ; treasurer, 
Mr. H. J. Veitch, 544, Ring’s Road, Chelsea, S.W. 
Death of Mr. Enoch Harvey.—Very deep regret will 
be felt by Orchid growers on receiving the announce¬ 
ment of the shocking death of this eminent Liverpool 
solicitor, and well-known amateur Orchid cultivator. 
Mr. Harvey, who was on his way to business on the 
1st inst., from his residence, Riversdale Road, Aigburth, 
was crossing the line at Mersey Road Station, Avhen he 
was knocked down by a Manchester express, and 
instantly killed. Mr. Harvey, who Avas in his sixty- 
fourth year, was the senior member of the firm of Messrs. 
Harvey, Alsop, Stevens, and Harvey, solicitors, of 
Castle Street, Liverpool, and was a man of high 
culture and refined tastes ; and some few years ago was 
well known as a collector of rare and curious Orchids, 
of which he had a rich collection. He was also a 
devoted lover of herbaceous and Alpine plants ; and 
was for many years chairman of the Liverpool Horti¬ 
cultural Company. 
Birmingham Gardeners’ Improvement Society — 
The programme of this flourishing association of 
Midland Counties Gardeners for the present session is 
as follows :—October 20th, exhibition of specimens and 
discussion. November 3rd, a paper on the cultivation 
of Masdevallias and Disas, by Mr. H. A. Burberry. 
November 17th, a paper on zonal Pelargoniums for 
exhibition and for the conservatory, by Mr. E. Burden. 
December 1st, a paper on the National Federation of 
Gardeners Associations by the secretary, Mr. J. Hughes; 
also an exhibition of specimens and discussion. 
December loth, a paper on evergreen shrubs for winter 
bedding and window boxes, by Mr. J. R. Petc’n, of 
Worcester. January 12th, 1891, annual meeting. 
