July 11, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
713 
183, Whitehorse Road ; Mr. A. C. Roffey, St. Andrew s 
Villa, Church Road. 
The Royal Horticultural Society of Perthshire.— 
The monthly meeting of this society was held on July 
1st, Mr. Galloway, Ballendrick, presiding. A paper 
was read by Mr. Reillor, gardener, Errol Park, on 
“The Life History of Plants.” Mr. Reillor made his 
subject a thoroughly practical one, and dwelt parti¬ 
cularly on the characteristics and treatment of different 
plants, advising the study of their nature and their 
natural requirements as much as possible. The paper 
showed how thoroughly Mr. Reillor understood his 
subject, and his mode of treating it was much appre¬ 
ciated by those present. Mr. Reillor exhibited a very 
fine Gloxinia, which was much admired, being an 
exceptionally fine plant. The chairman intimated that 
at the next meeting a paper would be read by Mr. 
Barclay Craigie, on “The Fertilisation of Flowers.’’ A 
vote of thanks having been awarded Mr. Reillor for 
his valuable paper, a similar compliment to the chair¬ 
man brought the meeting to a close. 
National Chrysanthemum Society’s Annual Picnic. 
—The annual picnic and outing will, by the kind 
permission of Leopold de Rothschild, Esq., one of the 
vice-presidents of the society, take the form of a visit 
to his charming residence, Ascott Park, Leighton 
Buzzard, which overlooks the magnificent and fertile 
Vale of Aylesbury. The gardens and grounds,- re¬ 
nowned for their high culture and beauty, will be open 
to inspection, together with the breeding stables and 
kennels. In addition, Mr. Leopold de Rothschild has 
most generously promised to provide tea for the visitors 
in the spacious pavilion on the cricket-ground in the 
Park. There is ample convenience for cricket, lawn 
tennis, &c., and the brakes whieh will convey the 
company from Leighton Station to Ascott Park can be 
utilised for drives in the neighbourhood during the 
afternoon, at a small extra charge. The date fixed for 
the picnic is Monday, July 20th, and the cost, 
inclusive of railway fare from Euston, Kensington, 
Addison Road, Camden Town, and Willesden ; Dinner 
at Leighton Buzzard, and conveyances from Leighton 
Station to Ascott Park and back, will be 7s. 6 d. 
each. Mr. Richard Dean, Ranelagh Road, Ealing, 
will be glad to hear from intending visitors by 
Thursday, the 16th of July, at the latest. 
The Chertsey ancl District Horticultural Society’s 
twenty-sixth annual exhibition was held on July 2nd 
in the beautiful grounds of Ashley Park, which were 
placed at the disposal of the society by Mr. J. S. Sassoon, 
J.P. The show was one of the most successful that 
has ever been held in the district. The groups were 
very good, especially those which secured the first and 
second prizes. Although only a small competition, 
the Grapes were good, especially the first prize Black 
Hamburgh, shown by Mr. Osman, Ottershaw Park. 
The first prize collection of vegetables, staged by Mr. 
Sparrow, deserves special mention for so late a season. 
The Carrots were particularly fine. The Duke of 
Albany Pea appears to be a special favourite with 
exhibitors in this district. Roses from Messrs. 
G. Jackman & Son, Woking, were a great attraction ; 
and Messrs. J. Laing & Sons, Forest Hill, Messrs. 
B. S. Williams & Son, Holloway, Messrs. J. Peed & 
Son, Norwood, and the local nurserymen, Messrs. 
Fletcher Brothers, sent miscellaneous contributions, 
which greatly added to the general display. During 
the afternoon, by permission of the committee, two 
little girls made a collection in aid of the Gardeners’ 
Orphan Fund. 
Stawick Horticultural Association.—The members 
met as usual on Friday, the 3rd inst., Mr. Wood, the 
vice-president, occupying the chair. Mr. Greive, of 
Pilrig, Edinburgh, contributed a paper on “The Florist 
and Florists’ Flowers,” and as was to be expected from 
such an authority the paper proved to be a very inter¬ 
esting one, pre-eminently practical in every respect, and 
above all clear and concise all through. A lively 
discussion followed the reading of the paper, and this 
after all is perhaps the most interesting and valuable 
feature of meetings such as these. Mr. Greive -was 
accorded a most cordial vote of thanks for his valuable 
contribution. The following exhibits graced the 
tables : from Mr. Wood, Summerfield Nurseries, a very 
fine lot of new and seedling Violas, most prominent of 
which were Dawn of Day, H. M. Stanley, Mary 
Gilbert, Pythion, &c. Mr. Sam Johnstone, Sillerbet- 
hall Gardens, had. a very nice plant of Pteris tremula 
Smithiana, and five seedling Gloxinias ; the calyx of 
the flower instead of being green was composed of the 
same substance and colour as the flower, giving it a 
semi-double appearance. Mr. Laidlaw, West Stewart 
Place, exhibited Thalictrum adiantifolium and 
(Enothera marginata. The usual votes of thanks 
followed. 
HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIA¬ 
TIONS. 
These most useful gardeners’ associations are, we are 
pleased to think, making steady progress in the right 
direction, notwithstanding the many difficulties they 
have to contend against in their endeavours to create and 
foster a genuine taste for all that is beautiful and useful 
in the various branches of horticulture. Some of the 
people we meet with maintain that these associations are 
of little benefit to the public ; they say that the jealousy 
that is created in the various competitions throughout 
the year are injurious to a greater extent than is 
covered by the good that can possibly be derived from 
them. No true lover of horticulture, we think, can fail 
to see the lameness of this .sort of reasoning. Let us 
for instance but review any district that has a society 
of this kind, even if it is only of a few years’ standing. 
What a contrast there is, as far as horticulture is 
concerned, as compared with the time when no such 
society existed! The waste and barren patches of land 
that surrounded cottages, and which formerly to all 
appearance were useless, is now converted into useful 
and fertile gardens ; and where gardens did exist, what 
a transformation has taken place in their case! The soil 
now is dug and manured quite differently from how it 
had been ; where light shallow digging was considered 
good enough, nothing satisfies now but a depth of rich 
soil. 
In stocking the garden, the very best vegetables 
procurable are sown and planted, and every inch of 
ground is used to the best advantage. Look at the 
poorest and humblest cottager; now he cannot think of 
living without his flower plot to beautify his bit of 
garden, be it ever so small. The fragrant and delicious 
annuals, such as Sweet Peas, Mignonette, Ten-week 
Stocks, Candytuft and various others are found in the 
small garden plot of the humblest peasant, and many 
of them have their window pot flowers also. The 
Fuchsia, Pelargonium and Hydrangea find their way 
first to the homes of the poor, and as taste develops the 
collection augments and latterly becomes one of great 
merit. 
Soon the aspect of the cottage with its entire sur¬ 
roundings change, and each year contributes additional 
floral decorations. At first the Ivy and Honeysuckle 
are found adorning the walls, but soon these are 
superseded by the Clematis, the Gloire de Dijon Rose, 
and many others of the finer sorts of climbers. This 
taste for horticulture as it develops does not rest with 
the mere outward adorning of the cottage, but gradually 
creeps into the interior and gets the homely matron 
under its influence ; she begins to bestir herself, for if 
the outside of the cottage is to look so gay and pretty, 
she is determined that her side of the house shall not 
be one whit behind. And soon horticultural taste has 
the dwelling and its inmates, both male and female, 
entirely under its elevating sway. 
I think if all these advantages have their origin in a 
taste for horticulture, that horticultural societies and 
associations should be encouraged to a far greater 
extent than they have been in the past. I think there 
is no country place that should be without its associa¬ 
tion, however few and scattered the population may be. 
Even with a dozen families it could be easily worked on 
a small scale, as societies of this kind soon assume 
formidable dimensions if once properly under way .—A. 
Mackintosh, Inverness. 
-->$<-- 
VARIABILITY OF THE YELLOW- 
FLOWBRED PAVIA. 
With the decline of the popularity which trees and 
shrubs generally enjoyed thirty to fifty years ago, the 
Pavias have suffered neglect at the hands of planters, 
so that the bulk of those which now exist are trees of 
old standing, even if not very large. They are also 
grafted trees, because the practice in former years was 
to preserve them true to name, which raising them 
from seeds failed to accomplish, on account of their 
natural tendency to vary both in the flowers and leaves 
when propagated in that way. This variability might 
be encouraged rather than otherwise, as new varieties 
of superior merit might be obtained and then perpetu¬ 
ated by grafting if necessary. 
New species and varieties of all kinds of trees and 
shrubs were sought after by the Horticultural Society 
of London, to enrich their collections at Chiswick. The 
bulk of these were lost by the Royal Horticultural 
Society when it parted with the arboretum and pleasure 
grounds some years ago. What remains of the trees 
may be seen in the grounds at Devonhurst, Chiswick, 
now separated from the society’s garden by a brick 
wall. There are several trees of the yellow-flowered 
Pavia, all differing from one another, both in flower 
and foliage. The typical form has small pale yellow 
flowers, and small leaves with narrow, lanceolate 
leaflets that are downy on the nerves on both surfaces. 
On one side of it is a large tree, with much broader, 
nearly smooth leaflets. The two upper petals of the 
flowers are much broader and beautifully feathered 
with red, as in a variety of the common Horse Chestnut. 
This seems to be the tree described by Don as Pavia 
neglecta, and by Lindley as jEsculus neglecta, and 
which was grown in the Horticultural Society’s 
collection at Chiswick. It flowers about a week or ten 
days earlier than the type, the latter keeping up a 
succession for some time after the fruits of the former 
attain the size of Marrow-fat Peas. 
Near by is another tree of quite a different character. 
The leaves are altogether larger, of a deeper green, 
covered on the nerves with reddish down, and some¬ 
what wrinkled as in the Horse Chestnuts. It also 
flowers much earlier than the type, and the general 
aspect of the tree suggests some affinity with the Horse 
Chestnuts proper, as the Pavias are characterised by 
the softness and smoothness of their leaves. The 
separation of the two genera zEsculus and Pavia is an 
artificial distinction, and some authors very properly 
unite them. The species of the latter are distinguished 
by being smaller trees and smoother in all their parts, 
and the fruit is not spiny as in the former. These 
characters are, however, very inconstant. From early 
times numerous forms of both kinds existed in gardens, 
and were either considered as varieties or supposed to 
be hybrids. 
The r e are several trees of iEsculus rubicunda in the 
grounds at Devonhurst, and they vary considerably in 
the intensity of the colour of the flowers. All this 
variability would lead us to suspect that the Pavias and 
Horse Chestnuts could be hybridised, with the view of 
raising new sorts between the red, white and yellow 
kinds, to enrich the parks and pleasure grounds of the 
country. 
-———— 
PANSIES AND VIOLAS. 
Pansies, both exhibition and fancy or Belgian kinds, 
are improved races of Viola tricolor, a native of our 
fields, hilly pastures and mountain sides, but very 
generally in cultivated or partly bare or waste ground. 
Some authorities, however, are inclined to consider 
that they have been improved by hybridisation with V. 
altaica and V. grandiflora. Be that as it may, it is 
quite possible that the great range of colour to be 
found in the cultivated forms has been solely obtained 
from V. tricolor, for it is remarkably variable even in a 
wild state, both in the type and the sub-species 
ranged under it. The wild Pansy and its forms have 
flowers which are longer than broad, but from the fact 
that the florist always aims at getting flowers as round 
as the compass could make them, it is just possible 
that the show Pansies of that form have simply been 
gradually evolved by seed sowing and selection of the 
types that came nearest the ideal. 
Great confusion has latterly arisen amongst amateur 
growers as to the distinctions between the so-called 
Violas and tufted Pansies, or as to what is really 
meant by the terms. The varieties used for bedding 
purposes were at one time spoken of as bedding Pansies 
and Violas. The former were simply a race of Pansies 
with a strictly perennial, branching rootstock, throwing 
up suckers from beneath the ground, and branches 
from near the ground line. These suckers and 
branches kept up a succession of bloom all through the 
summer, and were therefore useful for bedding purposes; 
hence the name “bedding Pansies.” Now, the typical 
wild Pansy has an erect, branching stem, but no 
rootstock. The sub-species V. Curtisii and V. lutea 
have a stoloniferous rootstock, so that the continuous 
flowering character of the bedding Pansies might 
have been derived from them or simply by selection of 
seedlings from the garden Pansy, possessing that habit. 
Here is another element of confusion, for, although 
V. lutea is a sub-species of the Pansy, yet the improved 
forms of it, together with those of the Pyrenean V. 
cornuta, used to be termed “bedding Violas,” and the 
latter part of the name is often now indiscriminately 
applied to all the bedding kinds whether Pansies or 
otherwise ; and more recently “tufted Pansies” (a term 
not very clearly defined) has been used by certain 
growers. 
The earlier improved forms known as Perfection, 
Enchantress, Magnificent, and several others can still 
be traced to V. cornuta ; and V. lutea grandiflora. 
Bullion, Yellow Gem, and several others can easily be 
