196 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
November 29, 1890. 
TsTable Plants. —We seem to be at a dead 
^ standstill in the matter of table plants 
so called, or, as better understood, plants for 
dinner-table decoration. Let any oile wlio is 
interested in this class of plants but take 
note of the customary exhibits at almost all 
shows in the table-plant classes, and they 
will find, no matter the time of year, the 
ordinary number of Crotons, Dracaenas, 
Aralias, the inevitable variegated Pandanus, 
Palms, and some few other odd things, and 
thus the selection stands, and, so far as 
appearance goes, may be so till the end of 
time. Why should flowering plants be so 
regularly ignored for table uses 1 Are there 
none which are not as acceptable as foliage 
plants 1 Yet, probably, did any exhibitor 
place flowering plants in his competing collec¬ 
tions, he would be injuring his prospects. 
We saw the other day both Bouvardias 
and scarlet Carnations in moderate-sized pots, 
and admirably flowered, which were unques¬ 
tionably as pleasing, if not more so, than 
were the best of the stereotyped foliage 
plants. But the continued selection of the 
foliage things named above leads to the 
inference that no one can devise or design 
table decorations other than those which 
already exist. It seems as if our decorative 
capacity is indeed at a low ebb, when 
so little of originality is found, where taste 
and refinement should be so prominently 
displayed. 
It may be asked, What better plants for 
table decoration have we than those referred 
to! That is rather a matter for those who 
have the responsibility of providing table 
decorations to determine. A bold dash for 
something new would doubtless provoke 
criticism, but ought also to ensure copying. 
The decoration of dinner tables had a 
beginning, but it is hardly desirable that it 
should exhibit no advance. 
pples. —There seems to be an impression 
growing up that the Apple-producing 
business is pretty well played out already, 
that it has been puffed into a prominence which 
is unjustifiable, and will end in the production 
of grave disappointment to many. That is, 
undoubtedly, a very pessimistic view, and one 
in which we could hardly be expected to share; 
but, without doubt, the. fruit-growing agitation 
has proved a good thing for the trade, and if 
likely to produce some later failures, should 
certainly not be without its ultimate success. 
The present chief phase of the great Apple 
question is to be found in our large imports of 
the fruit—for we have admittedly little fruit at 
home, and but for the imports should be in a, 
condition of Apple famine. 
As a result of these imports, we see on every 
hand wherever- we go, in the metropolis or 
other towns, wherever there are shops, markets, 
or coster’s barrows, vast quantities of American 
Apples, red as roses, as a rule soft as pith, and 
generally just about as pleasant eating. The 
Americans beat us hollow in the production of 
Apples, especially in cheapness; so they do in 
sample and in colour. There the comparison 
ends. For. real quality we have the pull by a 
long way when we have fruits, and our only 
hope of making Apples pay is that we may be 
enabled to cultivate 'the consumers’ palate so as 
to prefer the home-grown quality, when we 
have Apples, to the soft, pithy, handsome fruits 
of America. 
If next year we have a really big crop of 
Apples, and everything points to that con¬ 
clusion, we shall see the bottom largely 
knocked out of the Apple culture agitation, 
because with our great abundance on the one 
hand, and the importations on the other, 
Apples will be disastrously cheap. It is the 
small farmer, the amateur, the cottager, and 
allotment holder who should grow Apples and 
other hardy fruits for our home consumption. 
It is with these we most desire to begin, 
because no delusive prospects of trade profits 
are held out. For them, as for all others, now 
is the planting time, and the sooner the trees 
are in their permanent places, the better for 
future performances. 
TIThe late Mr. Shirley Hibberd. — Not darkly 
^ and in the dead of night, but in such 
broad daylight as a dull November afternoon 
affords in the environs of London, did we lay 
to eternal rest in Abney Park 'Cemetery, on 
Saturday last, all that was mortal of our late 
esteemed friend, Mr. Shirley Hibberd. It was 
distressing to note that in spite of the brilliant 
talents of our dead friend, his powers of speech, 
his great force as a writer, his capacity to 
delineate and to instruct, yet that with a large 
surrounding of old friends and admirers, of men 
who had known Mr. Hibberd so well in life, 
and deplored his death, not a word grateful to 
their ears was uttered by anyone, for the 
ordinary funeral service was as cold, bloodless, 
and irksome to listen to for the short time it 
lasted, as could well have been conceived. 
They order these things better in France, 
where the highest and the lowest has his grave¬ 
side eulogist, and well would it have been could 
someone who knew of the many virtues and 
capacities of the deceased, have referred to 
them kindly and generously but for a few 
moments. Our funeral rites, as a rule, are as 
dead and cold as are the corpses interred. We 
are a cold unsympathetic race, and the cold¬ 
ness of our funeral rites seems to chime 
in with our national peculiarities. We may 
well hope that someone will feel a call to 
pronounce over the death of Mr. Shirley 
Hibberd a funeral eulogy. It should be warm, 
earnest and eloquent, and perhaps the Rev. 
W. Wilks could do it better than most others. 
Let it be but known that such an eulogy will 
be pronounced at the Drill Hall on the 9th 
proximo, and there will be a large gathering 
to show respect and sympathy. 
- -*>$<■» - 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution.—At the 
meeting of the committee, held on the 20th inst., it 
was resolved to place twelve pensioners on the list on 
the loth January next, three under Rule 6, without 
election, and nine by election, out of an approved list 
of twenty-five candidates. It was also resolved to 
purchase £1,700 of 2f per cent, stock, making the total 
reserve in Government securities £24,700. The voting 
papers for the coming election will be in the hands of 
the subscribers on or about the 15tli December. 
The Double White Camellia at The Henhurys, 
Birmingham.—“ D. S. H. ” writes:—The grand old 
tree of which you gave a notice last year is in the best 
of health and vigour, and after Mr. Bluck, the 
gardener, had picked off this season fully 7,000 buds, 
more than 5,000 were allowed to remain on, and finer 
blooms than those on the plant now were never seen, 
even in Covent Garden. 
A Late Swallow.—Mr. "William Thomas, of Haver¬ 
fordwest, writes It may interest some of your readers 
to know that I and others saw a swallow here to-day, 
November 21st. 
The late Mr. Shirley Hibberd and the National 
Chrysanthemum Society.—At a largely attended 
meeting of the committee of the N. C. S., held on 
Monday evening last, at Anderton’s Hotel, Fleet Street, 
E.C., Mr. R. Ballantine in the chair, the following 
resolution was unanimously agreed to:—“The com¬ 
mittee of the National Chrysanthemum Society desire to 
place on record their recognition of the service to flori¬ 
culture, and to the cultivation of the Chrysanthemum 
in particular, rendered by the late Mr. Shirley Hibberd; 
their grateful appreciation of his valuable co-operation 
in reading a paper at one of the conferences, and speak¬ 
ing at the banquet held in connection with the recent 
Centenary celebration ; and their sense of the great 
loss to horticulture and horticultural organisations 
through his lamented death.” 
Chrysanthemum Culture in New South Wales.— 
We have received from Mr. C. Bennett, of the Standard 
Nursery. Homebush, a practical treatise on the Culture 
of the Chrysanthemum, suitable for the climate of 
New South Wales. It seems to have been written— 
briefly and to the point—by our old friend “ J. H. H.,’’ 
and is distributed free. 
The Forthcoming Royal Visit to Reading.—About 
the middle of December, H. R. H. The Prince of 
Wales will install H. R. H. The Duke of Clarence and 
Avondale, in the large Town Hall, at Reading, as 
Grand Master of the newly constituted (Masonic) 
Province of Berks. It is expected that at least 
I , 000 brethren will be present at the ceremony, and 
about 700 at the luncheon which is to follow. The 
question where to serve the luncheon has been a 
difficult one to deal with, but has, we understand, been 
overcome by Messrs. Sutton & Sons placing one of 
their large seed stores at the disposal of the festival 
stewards. 
Tuberous Begonias as Bedding Plants.—Our Bir¬ 
mingham correspondent writes :—Mr. Bell’s note as to 
his success with these plants at Baroncourt, Ireland, in 
your last issue, is identical with the experience gained 
in the immediate neighbourhood of Birmingham by 
Mr. Cooper, in the pleasure grounds at Highbury, the 
residenceof the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P. Two 
beds of these were bright with flower late into October, 
when the Pelargoniums were comparatively without 
flowers and shabby ; and Mr. Cooper told me that for 
the future he should rely a great deal more on Begonias 
and Violas than he had hitherto done. Of course it is 
necessary to grow the plants on in a cool house slowly 
and get them thoroughly hardened before planting out, 
and to select situations where the soil is not cold and 
heavy. The more the beauty and usefulness of both the 
Begonia and Viola becomes known, the more generally 
will they be used for summer and autumn decoration. 
York Municipal Honours.—The present Lord Mayor, 
Mr. Alderman Mathews, has for many years been an active 
member of the committee of the great York Gala 
and Horticultural Exhibition, and Mr. Councillor 
Mil ward, who has just been selected for the important 
office of sheriff of the good old city, has for a 
long number of years been an active worker and 
member of the committee too. The nursery and seed 
trades, as a rule, do not seek municipal honours, 
although occasionally we find members of our pro¬ 
fession honoured by their fellow townsmen in this way. 
Such has just been the case by the election of Mr. Gray 
as a city councillor, who for a long number of years 
has taken a leading part in the management of Messrs. 
James Backhouse & Sons’ extensive nursery and seed 
business. 
A Curious Action about Seed Potatos has just 
been heard at Macclesfield County Court. A farmer 
bought a quantity of seed, which he understood to be 
Scotch Regents ; but he alleged that when he came to 
dig the crop he found it to consist of mixed sorts, of 
very inferior quality to Regents, and much less saleable. 
He therefore sued the person from whom he bought the 
seed for the estimated amount of his loss. Experts 
who had examined the crop were produced on both 
sides ; and while one set swore the Potatos were Scotch 
Regents, the other set swore that they were not. As 
one of the solicitors remarked, there was as much 
difference of opinion as if it were a horse or a cow case. 
In the end, Judge Hughes took the experts outside the 
court, where a load of the Potatos was on view, and 
asked them to pick out any of the Potatos which were 
not Regents ; and after diligent search they could only 
find about half-a-dozen. This decided the matter, and 
judgment was given for the seed merchant. 
A Fine Bouquet.—At a morning concert lately 
given at Exeter, Madame Adelina Patti was pre¬ 
sented with a most magnificent hand-bouquet by 
Miss Katherine Gel], the youngest daughter of the 
Reverend A. H. Hamilton-Gell, of "Vinslade, near 
Exeter. The bouquet was made by his gardener, Mr. 
J. .T. Ebbutt, whom some of our readers may remember 
as a successful exhibitor at the Derbyshire and Northern 
Counties shows a few years ago. As it was a perfect 
masterpiece of the bouquetist's art, and looked grand 
in every way, it may not be amiss to give the names of 
the flowers composing it. The bouquet was over 
20 ins. in diameter, and about 18 ins. high, but 
although so large, looked, as it really was, light to 
handle and exceedingly graceful in “build.” There 
were in it Odontoglossum crispum, O. Pescatorei, O. 
Rossii majus, Oncidium splendidum, Maxillaria picta, 
M. venusta, Cypripedium insigne, Eucharis amazonica, 
Dipladenia boliviensis, Sophronitis grandiflora, white 
Roman Hyacinths, white Azaleas, L;elia autumnalis, 
L. anceps alba, Asparagus plumosus, and Adiantum 
gracillimum. The Oneidiums springing out of it here 
and there gave it a most graceful effect, and while 
Madame Patti was, as she could not help being, 
delighted with it, Mr. Ebbutt had much reason to he 
proud of his handiwork. 
