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July 18, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Generally it is felt that too much variety 
both in flower and foliage is introduced. 
Orchids should be unaccompanied by other 
plants,and have only Fernsand small Palms 
to dress them. Begonias now form such a 
host in themselves that they would make a 
brilliant group irrespective of other flowers. 
Liliums and Gloxinias run very well 
together if the former be not too tall. 
When there is an abundance of flowers 
striking foliage is rarely much needed. 
But above all we want diversity in design 
■—there is ample room for breaks away— 
and the sooner some enterprising decorator 
shows the lead the better we shall be 
pleased. Will flower show committees 
help by inviting groups in which special 
weight shall be given by the judges to 
novelty in design ? 
mateurs’ Difficulties. —The novice in 
horticulture who strives to enlarge his 
theoretical knowledge by a perusal of 
gardening publications must often be 
puzzled when he reads in one or other pub¬ 
lications different advice respecting garden 
practice. Gardeners as well as doctors 
claim to differ and often differ materially, 
though perhaps only about small things. 
Still when the learner meets with these 
differences he is troubled to know which 
apostle to follow. An amusing case we 
noted the other day, when one correspon¬ 
dent averred that the only way to combat 
the carrot maggot or fly was to allow the 
plants in the bed to remain thick, as the 
thinning process seemed to specially favour 
the maggot; while another writer declared 
that he could only save his carrots from 
the maggot by thinning. No wonder a 
poor novice reading these diverse recom¬ 
mendations should exclaim, “ A' plague on 
both your houses, how am I to know what 
to do ? ” 
This case illustrates in gardening the 
great importance of practice. Do what 
we may in theory, all is of little value 
unless theories can be put into hard prac¬ 
tice. The amateur troubled with the 
carrot maggot in his garden would do 
well to try both plans, for such is the 
erratic nature of gardeners’ experience 
that it is impossible in all cases to tell 
which course is the best, and only the 
experience of the cultivator can decide. 
Whilst we advise our amateur readers 
never to fail m asking for advice or in 
seeking it from any quarter, yet they should 
always bear in mind that difference in soils, 
situations, and other conditions do so 
much necessitate diversities in practice 
that the best advice will often have to be 
subject to local knowledge, which is, of 
course, limited to the district. 
On the other hand, even to the most 
practical of minds, gardening is ever 
experimental, hence the pleasure found by 
so many in its practice. We can always 
vary our practices or methods according to 
needs, and it is only when the requirements 
of a locality or of a soil are fully mastered 
that gardening becomes less speculative. 
Still that experimental character gives to 
gardening special interest. 
Wruit Drying.— There can be seen just 
^ now in the gardens of the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society, at Chiswick, a Fruit 
Drying or Evaporating Apparatus, which, 
under the control of efficient workers, seems 
capable of performing important things so 
far as relates to the preserving of fruits in 
a state fit for exportation or deferred con¬ 
sumption. The apparatus has a stove 
fixed in front, and from it rises what 
resembles a long box, inside of which are 
four tiers of drying shelves, which are 
moveable and have wire bottoms. The 
fruits to be dried are laid on these and 
placed in the lower tiers first, the pushing 
in of a shelf at the bottom forcing all the 
others higher up. The greatest heat is at 
the top,and gradually as the fruits approach 
the higher temperature, they are finished 
off. 
Whether such an apparatus is likely 
to get into general use or to become 
profitable in this country has to be proved. 
We have very much less of surplus fruits 
for drying than is the case in America, or 
in the Australian colonies. We greatly 
prefer to use it in the ripe or natural con¬ 
dition, and far better than any dried fruits 
are those bottled or canned, as found in 
such great abundance at all the grocers’ 
shops now at such comparatively low prices. 
The drying process is said to extract the 
water only from the fruit, and when soaked 
the water is returned to it before using for 
cooking. But fruit contains not so much 
water in a natural state as a pleasant 
flavoured juice, which, once abstracted, can 
never be replaced. That soaking may 
replace the juice with water there can be 
no doubt, but to replace natural flavour is 
out of the question, and yet in canned and 
bottled fruits all that is strictly preserved. 
We shall watch the evaporator from 
time to time with interest, but shall on no 
account allow ourselves to be led away by 
dazzling or optimistic descriptions of its 
powers. Last week the material being 
dried was Tasmanian apples, but these are 
like those of America always rather too 
dry for our taste. The dried product, 
represented by flat thin rings of apple 
flesh, was not particularly tempting, and 
howsoever soaked would, we fear, make a 
poor substitute for good fresh apples. 
Wloral Orgies. —We have so much 
^ objection to the prostitution of beauti¬ 
ful flowers to mere purposes of parade or 
improper competition, that it is with some 
degree of satisfaction we learnt. of the 
comparative failure of what was at Rich¬ 
mond the other day organised as a river 
floral fete. Not so long since we commented 
strongly on displays of a somewhat similar 
nature, but which were perhaps even more 
objectionable, held under the auspices of 
the Royal Botanic Society. If the floral 
fete so-called held on the river Thames at 
Richmond recently was less objectionable, 
it .was because it was less ostentatious, but 
still the same objection holds that flowers 
are being prostituted from their high pur¬ 
poses in nature and in life to uses which 
are gross, vulgar and displeasing. 
Those who are true lovers of flowers will 
learn with no satisfaction that at the fete 
referred to prizes were offered for the 
most florally decorated boats, or other water 
craft—whilst they will not be dissatisfied to 
hear that but few put in an appearance, and 
of those few were found to possess any 
special merit even from the most perverse 
point of view. Aquatic sports have their 
fitting associations in flags and fireworks, 
but flowers are in such connection unseemly 
when utilised as proposed at Richmond. 
We have often admired the very beautiful 
displays made of plants in flower on house 
boats on the Thames, and at Henley, for 
instance, the floral decorations of these 
floating structures are almost wonderful to 
behold. Still these are not placed in com¬ 
petition, but fairly represent the different 
floral tastes of the owners who for the 
season love to have their aquatic homes 
literally gardens so far as the restricted 
area will allow. These flowers are not, 
however, cut, tied into all sorts of grotesque 
forms and then allowed to die. They are 
rather tended with exceeding care, and if 
their hours of gaiety are few at least all 
that is possible is done to make them 
sweet and joyous. Plants and flowers have 
their legitimate uses, especially in promot¬ 
ing human happiness, but floral orgies are 
hardly calculated to conduce to that end. 
Gardening Engagement. —Mr. Thomas Wilson, 
foreman for the past 3J years in The Gardens, 
Glamis Castle, Forfarshire, as gardener to the Duke 
of Grafton, at Wakefield Lodge, Stoney-Stratford. 
Mr. Alexander Dean requests us to state that he 
is leaving Bedfont after nearly 21 years’ residence 
there, and after the 25th inst. will be located at 62, 
Richmond Road, Kingston-on-Thames. 
United FIorticultural Benefit and Provident 
Society. —The quarterly meeting of this Society was 
held on Monday evening last, at the Caledonian 
Hotel, Mr. E. Berry presiding. The principal 
business consisted of the election of new members, 
of whom no less than twelve w r ere added to the roll. 
The sick list has been rather heavy, but at the present 
date there are only two members on the fund. It may 
not be generally known to new members that a 
convalescent fund was established last year, for the 
purpose of assisting members to get a change of air 
after illness, and 10s. per week is allowed for three 
weeks. The subscription to this fund is not less than 
is. per year, payable in July. The fund is voluntary. 
Moorish Turf. —The keeper of the Moor’s cafe, 
in a park near Moscow, Russia, has sowed the bare 
places in his garden with a mixture of summer¬ 
flowering annuals, which has made a brilliant effect 
and has been given the name Moorish turf. A firm 
of seedsmen is now offering mixtures of suitable 
kinds of flower seeds with that of perennial grasses. 
One mixture is as follows : Bartonia aurea, Gilia 
tricolor and other varieties, Clarkia pulchella, C. 
elegans, Collinsia bicolor, Convolvulus tricolor, 
Grepis, Leptosiphon, Linaria, Linum, Lupinus, 
Malope, Nemophila, Nigella, Reseda, Portulaca, 
Saponaria, Silene, Centaurea, Eschscholtzia, Iberis 
in variety, and Papaver Rheas vars.— American 
Florist. 
“ Floral Ingenuity.” —In a certain florist’s shop 
on the Bowery, crowded in among the numerous 
festive and funereal designs which are temptingly dis¬ 
played with a view to beguiling the unwary passer¬ 
by into purchasing, is one monument of floral 
ingenuity truly awful. It is a baby’s high chair 
made of white immortelles. Upon the back of the 
chair, in purple flowers, is the word " Baby,” upon 
the seat is the inscription “ Vacant.” Doubtless as 
soon as there occurs an appropriate bereavement in 
the family of some Bowery aristocrat it will be 
removed from its present quarters to cheer up the 
hearts of the mourners.— New York Recorder. 
American Notes. —Who shall be the Chief of the 
Horticultural Department of the World’s Fair is 
still undetermined. Mr. Charles P. Anderson, who 
has been so long connected with the John Hender¬ 
son Company at Flushing, severed his connection 
with that firm June 13th. It is understood that Mr. 
Patrick Brogan, who also has been there a number 
of years, will assume the management of the green¬ 
houses. A New York paper says that a part of the 
education of Japanese girls is the art of arranging 
flowers, aifd adds that this is something for American 
girls to learn. With the Japanese the front of a leaf 
is masculine, the back is feminine. The buds are 
also feminine, but the full-grown blossom is masculine. 
Their forms and colours also have meanings, which 
a J apanese woman sometimes studies over for years. 
—American Florist. 
Edinburgh. — Botanical Society. —A meeting of 
this society was held on the 9th. inst., at the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh—Mr. R. Lindsay pre¬ 
siding. Mr. Alex. H. Gibson read a paper on the 
phanerogamic flora of St. Kilda, and he exhibited 
140 specimens which he had collected during a stay 
of five weeks on the island. A communication on the 
cotyledonary glands of some species of rubiaceae was 
sent by Mr. Thos. Berwick, St. Andrew’s. He said 
there were 30 species in which he had discovered 
glands in the embryos before germination. Dr. John 
H. Wilson read a note on a new species of Cape 
bulb, T ritonia Wilsoni, which had continued to pro¬ 
duce flowers on one inflorescence for seven months 
and a half. 
