August 29,ISfii. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
82,9 
ARTERS’ TESTED SEEDS for 
Present Sowing. 
C ABBAGE.—CARTERS’ EARLY 
HEARTWELL.— Pronounced to be the finest early 
Cab bage in cultivation. Very distinct. The heads are extremely 
firm, weighing from 4 to 6 lbs. In sealed packets only — price 
per pacKet, is. and 6 d.\ per ounce, is. 6 d. Post free. 
T ETTUCE.-—Carters’ Giant White Cos, 
JL/ price 2s. 6 d. per ounce, is. per packet; Dunnett’s Giant 
Winter Cos, price 2s. 6 d. per ounce, is. per packet; Carters’ 
Longstander Cabbage Lettuce, price 2s. 6 d. per ounce, is. per 
packet; All the Year Round Cabbage Lettuce, price is.6d. per 
ounce, 6 d. per packet. All post iree. 
O NION.—Carters’ Golden Globe Tri- 
poli, price 2s. 6 d. per ounce, is. 6 d. per packet; Giant 
Rocca, price is. per ounce, 6 d. per packet; Giant White Tripoli, 
price is. per ounce, 6 d. per packet; Early White Naples, price 
g d. per ounce ; Giant Madeira, price is. per ounce. All post tree. 
ARTERS’, Seedsmen by Royal War¬ 
rants to H. M. the Queen and H. R. H. the Prince of 
Wales.—237 & 238, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON. 
For Index to Contents & Advertisements, see p. 835 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
NEXT WEEK’S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Monday, Aug. 31st.—Trade Sale of Bulbs at Protheroe & 
Morris' Roofns. 
Tuesday, Sept. 1st.—Trade Sale of Bulbs at Protheroe & 
Morris’ Rooms. 
Wednesday, Sept. 2nd.—Dumfries Flower Show. Reading 
Flower Show. Trade Sale of Bulbs at Protheroe & Morris' 
Rooms. 
Thursday, Sept. 3rd.—Trade Sale of Bulbs at Protheroe 
& Morris’ Rooms. 
Friday, Sept. 4th.—Stowmarket Flower Show. Sale of 
Orchids at Protheroe & Morris’ Rooms. 
Saturday, Sept. 5th.—Trade Sale of Bulbs at Protheroe & 
Morris’ Rooms. 
{^iUlfiiljl ijLt'liI, 
Edited by BRIAN WYNNE, F.R.H.S. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29 th, 1891. 
Wlower Show Attractions. —In a short 
paragraph on this topic in our last 
issue a valued correspondent gave expres¬ 
sion to his views as to the holding in 
association with Flower Shows other but 
hardly allied attractions. It does perhaps 
somewhat grate on our professional pride 
to find that the British public after all has 
such stinted love for horticulture as 
presented at Flower Shows that even 
good floral exhibitions fail to attract in 
sufficient numbers to produce a pecuniary 
success. We have, however, to face facts 
as well as to deplore them. 
Still all who have to do with country 
Flower Shows soon learn to understand 
that the day set apart lor the Show 
becomes to be regarded as a sort of local 
holiday, and the committees find it needful 
to retain public support to add to the 
ordinary attractions of a Flower Show 
others of a somewhat more exciting 
kind. Undoubtedly to ordinary, or if 
we may so term them, disinterested 
observers, Flower Shows soon become 
very satisfying. They are quiet, slow, 
and as it were, very quickly absorbed. 
Unless therefore some additional and more 
striking attractions are added there is 
danger that the public will gravitate else¬ 
where in search of something worth satis¬ 
fying the holiday with. 
Why, if it be correct to have horse 
leaping or racing, etc., in connection with 
Agricultural Shows, should it be held 
incongruous for a Horticultural Committee 
to organise for the enjoyment of its too 
little amused patrons some Athletic Sports 
or similar pastimes, or have a little 
dancing, or add a balloon ascent, or a fine 
display of fireworks, etc. ? These are 
amusements pure and simple, but it is 
better to get the people to see the Flower 
Show by their aid than not to get them to 
the Show at all. The public is not so 
easily amused now as it could be a genera¬ 
tion or so ago. We must give them bona 
fide, enjoyment or leave all our catering to 
those who understand the business. 
indow Boxes. —If the Royal Horticul- 
'■* tural, the Royal Botanic, or some 
other Society wishes to organise an 
exhibition that shall have the merit as 
a specialty of being novel, and yet 
remarkably attractive, they have but 
to promote one for floral window 
boxes, and we are sure a most beautiful 
display would be the result. Those 
whose duty and pleasure it is to have 
to award prizes at rural Shows, and 
especially at those limited to cottagers, 
can tell enthusiastic stories of the very 
beautifully dressed boxes which occasion¬ 
ally come under their notice. One was to 
be seen last week at Maiden Erleigh, near 
Reading, composed chiefly of Fuchsias 
and Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums, which it 
would apparently have been most difficult 
to excel, and yet possibly many that would 
have done so may have been exhibited 
elsewhere. 
But then we should have at least several 
different sections of window boxes. There 
is first that of the professional plant deco¬ 
rator, which almost always wears an 
artificial aspect because so evidently 
composed of market plants, the colours 
of the flowers usually badly blended, 
and the plants much too crowded. These 
may be seen in the windows of town 
houses in plenty during the spring and 
summer. A much more artistic and 
interesting window box, because invariably 
naturally grown and the outcome of the 
taste of the lady head of the house, may be 
found in some villa windows in town and 
in country. Then there are the always 
capital window boxes of the rural cottagers, 
so finished and complete, if the colours 
sometimes fail in harmony. 
Finally, there are the window boxes of 
the poor town dweller found in the 
windows of houses or “models” which 
abut on to narrow courts and alleys, and 
often wonderfully made, and not less 
wonderfully planted. These invariably 
bring up in our minds melancholy reflec¬ 
tions as they seem to have been created 
amidst poverty and pain. Yet they should 
form a prominent feature in a great window 
box Exhibition. Who will give to us this 
novel Show ? Surely thousands of persons 
would flock to see such evidence of the 
love for flowers which permeates humanity 
in all conditions of life. 
iSf arly Chrysanthemums. —The blooming 
^ of the early or summer varieties of 
Chrysanthemum indicum presents the first 
indication that the season of that flower 
is again with us. We have for it a long— 
and as it advances—always a busy season, 
terminating finally in a burst of exhibition 
excitement which no other season or 
flower can rival. It is perhaps yet a far 
cry to November, and we have had so 
little comparatively of summer that even 
for the sake of seeing the Chrysanthemum 
in all its later beauty we have no desire, to 
hasten its coming. 
Still its coming is inevitable, and those 
who look for the month with anticipation 
because growers of the Chrysanthemum 
for exhibition will do well to remember 
that success is as much dependent upon 
the doings of now as upon what is done 
then. Somehow from the cutting inception 
until the flowers are finally staged in the 
