June 27, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
683 
In the windows the favourite occupant would appear 
to be the large and ornamental-leaved Rice-paper plant, 
a common name for Aralia (Fatsia) papyrifera. This 
is also much beloved by the French, and perhaps the 
comparatively close proximity of Dover to the Gallic 
coast may in some measure account for this predilection. 
Ficus elastica is, of course, present, and flowering 
subjects are represented by Begonias, Fuchsias, Pelar¬ 
goniums, &c., while one window contained a fine 
specimen of Campanula Portenschlagiana, otherwise 
known as the dwarf, light purple Bellflower. Connaught 
Park, Granville Gardens, and other public or semi¬ 
public resorts cannot be touched on here. This paper 
has already exceeded the bounds of propriety, but if 
Mr. Editor would care to be further burdened next 
week, I should have much pleasure in contributing 
some notes respecting the native flora.— C. B. G., 
Acton, JV. [Please do.— Ed.] 
- ->$« - 
FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
In a paper read before the Chicago Florist’s Club, Mr. 
F. F. Bentley said :—Let us now take the liberty of 
having a peep at the ladies’ private boudoir and 
dressing-rooms ; as the whole house is thrown open to 
the guests we are at liberty to enter. Here is where 
we should use the more delicate kinds of flowers, such 
as Lily of the Valley, Violets, and the smaller varieties 
of Roses, choosing such shades only as will harmonize 
with the surroundings. Never use large or coarse 
flowers. If plants are used at all, choose only a few 
choice specimens, not large, and set them in handsome 
jardinieres ; never allow a dirty pot to show. 
But a decoration of this kind is not an every-day 
affair. Carte blanche orders are .the exception, not 
the rule. In nine cases out of ten you are not allowed 
to choose your own flowers. The purchaser will choose 
them for you, and you are expected simply to arrange 
them in good taste. It is with orders of this kind that 
the florist is put upon his mettle. To make an artistic 
display of a dozen kinds of flowers, in a couple of 
rooms, is not such an easy matter as most people 
imagine, and the greatest care must be taken in the 
grouping, in regard to color as well as the size of the 
flower. Never put more than two varieties of flower in 
one vase, one kind is better. The use of Smilax or 
other Vines for draping should be very judicious. 
The draping of doors, windows or pictures gives an 
artificial effect, and should not be countenanced. 
And now one word about displaying flowers in your 
show window artistically : It is here we have the best 
chance to show the public what can be done in display¬ 
ing a flower to the best advantage, a chance too often 
neglected by many of us. Most florists seem to think 
that stock a day or two old is good enough for this 
purpose. The stuff is piled into the window every 
way and anyhow—only have plenty of it. I think we 
make a bad mistake by pursuing such a course. It is 
far better to have a single vase filled with a few 
specimen flowers than a big lot of poor stuff. I am 
glad to say that some of our floral artists here are fully 
alive to the importance of this matter. You will 
probably have noticed that some of our enterprising 
contemporaries have adopted a novel idea in their 
window display by placing coloured cloth in the window 
for a background and then displaying flowers of a corre¬ 
sponding shade upon it. The idea is a good one, and 
in the hands of men of good taste the effect will 
he striking and artistic ; but let a novice attempt it 
and the result is often the opposite from that 
intended. 
When I saw such an exhibition the other day it 
brought to mind a remark made by our president on a 
former occasion : “ In striving for the original be very 
careful not to run into the grotesque.” It is compara¬ 
tively easy to match a Perle Rose with a yellow back¬ 
ground, and not very difficult to match a Mermet, 
but when you attempt to match a Wootton or a Jacque 
with a red background you will surely run against a 
snag. Imagine a brick-red cloth with a vase of Jacques 
upon it, especially when the latter are beginning to 
show that peculiar shade of purple we all know so well. 
But why must the shade of the flower be the same as 
your background 1 There are certain shades of yellow 
that would set this flower off well. Take a pink flower 
of the right shade against a sea-^reen or pea-green and 
your effect is far better than pink itself. 
Speaking of matching flowers with different coloured 
fabrics brings up the matter of ribbons on bouquets and 
baskets once more. I do not approve of ribbons at all, 
and try to discourage their use. But our patrons will 
often insist on having them put on. Now you have all 
had orders in your time to tie a bouquet of Jacque 
Roses with a red ribbon to match, and you have failed 
in the attempt. In all my experience I never found a 
red ribbon yet that would not spoil the bouquet. But 
why attempt to match it in red when you can so 
effectively use an apple-green, especially when you use 
Adiantum Ferns for edging, the shade of which can be 
matched to a nicety ? 
Let us look at our conventional bridal bouquet for a 
moment. You have all read in the papers descriptions of 
fashionable weddings. “ Miss Upperton, the bride, was 
arrayed in a gown of the softest silk, trimmed with the 
daintiest of laces.” Never mind what else she wore, it 
does not concern us ; but she “carried an immense 
bouquet of Bride Roses.” “ An immense bouquet ”— 
the size, shape and weight about that of a good sized 
Drumhead Cabbage ! I cannot compare it to anything 
else. This monstrosity has to be lugged round by a 
dainty bride ! But to cap the climax it has to be tied 
with about 4 yards of 4-in. ribbon. Just note the 
artistic effect of the heavy ribbon against the airy 
raiment of the bride. Truly here is a good field for our 
artist to do some missionary work. From an artistic 
standpoint, the large and cumbersome bouquet must 
go, and so above all must the ribbon. 
Now, just one word more about the arranging of 
flowers in baskets—let us say an every-day basket of 
mixed flowers. A basket of this kind can be made in 
very good taste even if we use a variety of colours. 
True, from an artistic standpointjwe would not advocate 
too many colours, but with the aid of a liberal use of 
good foliage a very good piece of work might be 
produced. One thing we have to guard against, and 
that is the indiscriminate jumbling of colours and va¬ 
rieties, and above all avoid glaring colours. What would 
you think of a basket of mixed Roses and—Delphinium 
formosum ? I have seen a basket of this kind put up 
by one of our best florists—a basket arranged to per¬ 
fection except for the unfortunate use of some of this 
same Delphinium. Look at such a basket and you 
will see nothing but the intense blue. This flower, 
while very handsome and striking by itself, is certainly 
not adapted to combine with yellow, pink or red Roses. 
The use of foliage in floral decorations is not fully 
appreciated by many of us, and yet it is just as 
important a factor in floral arrangements as the flower 
itself. We should be careful to select foliage in form 
and shade of color to harmonise with the flowers we 
intend to use. But I hear you say there is not much 
to choose from, which is very true. Alas, we are 
handicapped right here. A few varieties of Ferns, 
Asparagus plumosa and the everlasting Smilax about 
comprise the list to draw from. But we must make 
the best of what we have. Suppose you have a bunch 
of Callas to arrange in a vase, you certainly would not 
use Adiantum Ferns ; there is nothing that suits this 
flower better than its own foliage, and the same is true 
of Lily of the Valley. Let nature be our guide in 
selecting our types of foliage and we can hardly 
go amiss. —'American Florid. 
-- 
THE GENUS ACHILLEA. 
Theue are a great many species and varieties of 
Achillea, and it includes among them the Common 
Yarrow of our fields—A. millefolium—an herbaceous 
perennial bearing flat corymbs of flower heads, con¬ 
taining very few florets, which are either white, pink, 
or purple. One of the best varieties is that known as 
rubrum, and it has deservedly found a place in the 
hardy border in our gardens. The Common Achillea— 
Milfoil or Yarrow—was long considered to be a noxious 
weed, but now reckoned as a grateful food for sheep 
when mixed with common pasture grasses, and is 
therefore generally sown along with such other seeds as 
are reckoned best for permanent sheep pasture. 
One of the best known cultivated forms in the 
border is A. ptarmicail. pi., a very useful plant indeed, 
but of a somewhat straggling growth, and produces 
dense masses of white flowers, suitable for cutting from. 
It is a plant that will adapt itself to almost any soil. 
A. tomentosa, which produces golden yellow flowers, 
is a dwarf species, with a somewhat creeping habit, and 
very free blooming. But the most beautiful species is 
A. mongolica, a somewhat loose-growing kind, with 
elegant foliage, and carrying heads of pure white 
flowers. I think we are indebted to Messrs. Kelway & 
Son for bringing this species into notice, and it could 
have been seen at the last exhibition of the Royal 
Botanic Society in several collections of hardy flowers. 
I saw a fine clump of it a few days ago in the garden 
of Mr. Joseph Lakin, at Temple Cowley, and it is his 
intention to grow it largely for cutting purposes. It 
appears to do well in any good garden soil.— R. D. 
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--j-- 
Ripe Rot of Fruit. —The disease of ripe Apples 
and Grapes, to which the above English name is giveD, 
is caused by a fungus named Gheosporium fructigenum, 
closely allied to G. keticolor, which often proves very 
destructive to the fruit of Peaches and Nectarines, as 
well as to the fruit and stems of Cucumbers in our 
hothouses. The life history and description, together 
with some woodcut illustrations of the Ripe Rot of 
fruit, is given in the Journal of Mycology of the United 
States Department of Agriculture, vol. vi., No. 4. 
The fungus first makes its appearance on ripening 
Apples in the form of brown or even whitish spots on 
the skin ; and when the latter is removed the flesh of 
the Apple appears decayed for some distance inwards. 
This is not the case with the Scab of Apples and Pears, 
which is purely a skin disease. After a time small 
black pustules appear on the diseased spots, and are 
due to the presence of spores. The latter may be pink 
if the Apples are kept in a moist place. The least 
portion of the diseased tissue imparts an intensely 
bitter taste to the Apple, and every particle should be 
cut away before the fruit is eaten, whether in a raw or 
cooked state. The pustules that arise on diseased 
Grapes from the same cause are hardly observable on 
purple or black berries, but on white varieties the 
affected portions are reddish brown, becoming covered 
with pustules exuding flesh-coloured spores. Paradoxical 
as it may seem, the fungus does not impart a bitter 
taste to Grapes, although another fungus does. 
Diseased ffuits of either kind should be separated from 
those that are sound at gathering time. Spraying two 
or three times during the course of the season with a 
solution of J oz. of potassium sulphide to a gallon of 
water has been found to check the disease to a great 
extent. 
Golden-foliaged Plants in Season.— Trees and 
shrubs with golden foliage or a golden variegation are 
seen to the best advantage during June, July and 
August. The reason for this is that the young or 
expanding foliage of many trees exhibits various green¬ 
ish yellow, golden bronzy or reddish tints, but after a 
time deepen to green of darker or lighter shades, 
giving prominence to those that are permanently 
golden. The latter should always be planted in front 
of other trees or shrubs that present a dark back¬ 
ground, and the contrast will greatly enhance the effect, 
especially when seen from a little distance. Single 
trees or clumps of the false Acacia (Robinia Pseud- 
Acacia aurea), of the Golden Elder (Sambucus nigra 
aurea), or Populus candensis aurea should be so planted. 
At present they appear to great advantage by contrast 
to others with dark green foliage. The Golden Privet 
(Ligustrutn ovalifolium aureum) has a broad, golden 
margin to the leaves, some of which are wholly yellow, 
and masses of it are now highly effective. The same 
may be said of the golden Philadelphus coronarius 
aureus, and the golden Weigela rosea Looymansii aurea, 
and various others. 
The Narcissus Fly.—This insect has long been 
known as a native of southern and western Europe,, 
from whence it lias been conveyed to various other 
countries, both in the Old and New Worlds, wherever 
Daffodils are cultivated. The Daffodil fields in the 
Scilly Islands are now being ravaged by it, causing 
considerable alarm. Scientifically it is variously 
known as Merodon clavipes, M. Narcissi, and other 
names. It has been compared to a small humble-bee, 
but has only two perfect wings. The body is variously 
variegated with black, orange and yellow in different 
individuals. The perfect insect makes its appearance 
during March and April, laying its eggs soon after 
somewhere near the base of the plants, and the larva 
eats its way into the bulbs, completely destroying the 
centre. All bulbs should be closely examined before 
planting or potting them in August, and those that 
feel spongy about the neck, or exhibit a hole by whiph 
the larva entered should be destroyed. The latter is 
more evident towards the end of November, when the 
grubs are about full fed. Suspected bulbs should be 
submerged in water for eight or nine days about 
August, while the grub is still small, and the latter will 
be drowned before they have had time to do much 
damage. The fly may also be caught in numbers 
by placing saucers containing some strong-smelling 
syrup about the ground during April and May, when 
the perfect insects are on the wing. 
