318 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 31, 1891. 
and red petals. On the whole the plant is of neater 
habit than T. majus, less inclined to ramble and 
smother down everything in its way, so that it would be 
preferable for particular and select places, where it 
might be trained over a fence or trellis-work to form a 
screen. The tubers might be lifted and preserved in a 
greenhonse during winter, and planted out in spring. 
Fumigating Insecticides. 
I should like to direct the attention of your numerous 
readers to a new fumigating material, Gardner & 
Smithson’s “Nicotina Fumigator,” which I have tried 
in a house containing Callas, Carnations, Bouvardias, 
Libonia 0 , Heliotrope, Roses, Maidenhair Ferns, and 
many other plants in flower, without injuring either 
the flower or plants. I found every insect killed, and 
at a cost of less than 84L per 1,000 cubic feet. The 
house contained 6,500 cubic feet, and we used three 
packets, at a cost of Is. 6d. per packet. It is more 
economical and easier to use than tobacco paper, and 
being perfectly safe must come to the front when better 
known. It is free from flame, which is one of the 
chief dangers arising from tobacco paper, and when 
once started can be left without further attention.— 
Thomas Glen, Worth Pari Gardens, Crawley. 
Cereus Claudianus. 
It being by no means a common thing to see a Cereus in 
flower in mid-winter, I am fortunate in having the 
pleasure of sending you a bloom that you may deem 
worthy of notic°. This variety was raised in the 
Channel Islands some thirty years ago, and was pre¬ 
sented to me by a friend of the raiser, who used to 
reside at Clapham, and whose gardener, Mr. Over, was 
a very excellent plant grower and successful exhibitor. 
The late Mr. McMullen, the gentleman alluded to, 
wished me to name this variety in honour of one of his 
sons, then of tender years ; this was done as shown, the 
young gentleman’s name being Claude, and it was at 
that time figured in The Floral Magazine, conjointly 
conducted by our late friends, Mr. Thomas Moore, and 
Mr. William Port Ayres, worthy men, who very 
materially contributed to enrich garden literature. It 
will be seen that the specimen submitted is by no 
means a finished flower, having been, as it were, con¬ 
ceived in an uncongenial and unnatural season. Its 
texture is flimsy and thin, and wanting the rosy violet 
shading seen in perfectly developed flowers, thus 
showing that in the absence of solar rays the natural 
character of the flower is kept in abeyance. O .ving to 
the fact of the plant being kept in a greenhouse tem¬ 
perature, although at the warmest end of the house, 
where the hot-water pipe is carried underneath a 
stratum of coke breeze, it is curious that it should 
flower now, when the plant is supposed to be naturally at 
rest. A melancholy incident is connected with the 
plant, as the young gentleman after whom it was named, 
when arrived at manhood, was with his brother 
very seriously injured in a collision on the railway. 
— Geo. Fry, Lewisham. 
Reinwardtia trigynum. 
Going through the plant houses at Caversham Park, 
Reading, a few days since, I was struck with the 
bright, cheerful appearance imparted by a few healthy 
plants of this Flax, generally seen under the name of 
Linum trigynum. In a temperate house were about 
twenty plants, very healthy, dwarf and flowering freely. 
At this dull season, when bright Sowers are so much in 
request, these are doubly welcome, and certainly 
deserve more extensive cultivation. I have no doubt 
the pure fresh air from the Berkshire hills greatly favours 
its successful cultivation at Caversham. I noticed a 
striking contrast between the flower spikes of Calanthes 
here, and at Reading. There I saw good long spikes of 
C. Yeitchii and C. vestita rubra, with every flower as 
fresh as when first expanded, and of good colour and 
substance ; but here we are seized by that terrible 
scourge, London fog, before the flowers can properly 
expand ; sometimes whole spikes are taken as with a 
blight.— A. T., Paling, W. 
Dinner-table Decoration. 
I think your correspondent “W. A.” would find a book 
entitled Floral Designs for the Table, by John Perkins, of 
great assistance to him, especially as he seems to have 
had no previous experience. Though I agree with 
“A. D.” in your last week’s issue that imitation is the 
worst style of art, yet many of us are glad to have 
other people’s experience, either in writing or by means 
of drawings, as a basis to work upon, for it is easy 
euough to deviate from given instructions to suit 
individual taste. — W. M. _ 
Some amount of space is usually left in the centre of a 
dinner table for the decorator to fill up with plants and 
cut flowers, and the decorator’s first consideration is 
how to create variety night after night. This may be 
done in many ways, such as using flowers of one colour 
one night, a different shale the next, and so on ; the 
centre piece only b:-ing dressed with mixed colours. 
Supposing the centre to be a large silver vase, fill it 
with moss, then wire Lrpigeria rosea and albi, and a 
few Gardenias on to very thin stakes, and stick them 
into the moss tastefully, filling up the spaces with 
Fern fronds. The berries of Rivina humilis, or Callicarpa 
purpurea, and also of the Berberis, may be placed here 
and there. A few heads of ornamental grasses, such as 
Agrostis nebulosa, look pretty when clear of the 
flowers. More handy than tracing designs on the 
cloth are crescents of glass, with a certain number of 
glasses to match. Lay four crescents arranged round 
the centre with the ends pointing inwards, four tall 
glasses within the curves, and four in the open spaces 
where the ends of the crescents touch each other. The 
whole may be filled with Begonia flowers one night, 
Gloxinias another, and so on, whatever one may have 
plenty of and most suitable for effect. They may be 
dressed with leaves of Pheasant’s-foot Geranium, or 
coloured leaves of Strawberry, &c. Grasses and 
Panicum variegatnm may be mixed with the flowers in 
the glasses, always bearing in mind to arrange them 
loosely and not to crowd them, or the effect is spoiled. 
The Messert dishes and glasses may be placed upon 
coloured Tine leaves, or nice Fern fronds. The centre 
may be varied by using a Palm or other ornamental 
plant, with a few very small Ferns arranged round it, 
then the crescents and glasses added ; this looks well 
on a round table. The same will hold gooa on a square 
one by placing a neat plant at each end if the Grapis 
are not hung there.— J. S. Pi. 
MANCHESTER ROYAL 
BOTANICAL AND HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 
The annual report of the council of this society, pre¬ 
sented to the sixty-third annual meeting of the 
proprietors this week, states notwithstanding a wet and 
unfavourable season, the financial position of the society 
is in a fairly satisfactory state, the ordinary receipts 
during the year having been sufficient to pay the 
ordinary expenses incurred during that period. It will 
be in the remembrance of the proprietors that at the 
last annual meeting the council recommended that the 
single subscription be reduced from 1 guinea to 15s. 
This recommendation was adopted in the hope that it 
would increase the number of ticket holders, but they 
regret to say that these anticipations have been dis¬ 
appointed. Some years ago the family season ticket 
was reduced from 2 guineas to 1 guinea. This 
experiment, too, was a failure, and the family season 
ticket was again fixed at 2 guineas, and the council see 
no reason to recommend any further change—the 
individual ticket will still remain at 15s. The council 
are most anxious to give the greatest amount of in¬ 
struction and pleasure to the greatest number, and 
they trust that the public of Manchester and the 
surrounding districts wiil supply the means to bring 
about this result. The subscription to the society is 
small compared with the benefit it confers, and the 
council respectfully ask those who are already sub¬ 
scribers to exert themselves to get additional one3, and 
to bear in mind that every additional subscription 
affords the means for more extended benefits to the 
community. 
The horticultural and floral exhibitions held during 
the past year have been highly satisfactory. Two 
exhibitions of spring flowers were held in the Town 
Hall, and the Chrysanthemum Show in the same 
place. The annual Whitsuntide exhibition held in 
the gardens was of a high order of merit, and the 
same remark applies to the autumnal fruit and flower 
show held in September, and the Rose Show held in 
July. In connection with the latter an interesting 
show of Pinks took place by the newly-formed National 
Pink Society. For many years the average annual 
surplus on the Whitsuntide show was £600 ; for the 
last three years the receipts have just about paid 
expenses. The council attribute this change to the 
facilities given by the railway companies to the 
people to visit various parts of the country, and they 
feel sure that it would be a great loss to the inhabi¬ 
tants of this locality, and a matter of deep regret to 
many thousands, if this exhibition, which has been a 
delight to oil and young for so many years, were 
abandoned. For the last twenty-five years the annual 
expenditure upon horticultural exhibitions has been 
£1,200 given in prizes, and much emulation is caused 
among exhibitors by the desire to obtain them. Tnis 
healthy competition has tended to raise the standard 
of horticulture, floriculture, and pomology, thus 
carrying out the main object for which the society 
was established. Since the acquisition by the society 
of the buildings put up by the committee of the 
Jubilee exhibition, the council have for the last 
three years provided high-class musical entertain¬ 
ments at an average cost of £2,003 par annum. This 
was a bold experiment, to which the residents of 
Manchester should heartily wish success, when it is 
remembered that the provision of rational, innocent, 
and elevating recreation is one of the most important 
factors in the well-being of a great community ; and 
its necessity is probably more apparent; now under 
modern conditions than it has ever been before. The 
long range of glass unier the garden wail, which had 
been standing forty years, has been palled down and 
a new one erected at a cost of nearly £230. Another 
example of the society’s usefulness, and one which 
the council are at all times happy in noting, is th8 
large number of students who veil - by year apply for 
admission for purposes of stuly, as well as for speci¬ 
mens to assist them in their studies. 
-—>3*e—- 
EALING&DISTRIGT GARDENERS’ 
MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY. 
At the weekly meeting of this society, held in the 
Victoria Hall, Ealing, oa the 14th insc., the exhibits, 
although not so numerous as usual, were meritorious in 
character. Mr. Denison, gardener to T. A. Glsdstaues, 
Esq, exhibited some choice Orchids. D.airobium 
nobile was remarkably well flowered. Calant'ne bella 
had a flue arching raceme of flowers : it is a cros3 
between C. Turaeri and C. Veitehii, aad as it becomes 
more plentiful it wiil make a good companion to these 
useful winter-flowering Orchids. The one great draw¬ 
back to its more extensive cultivation in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of London is its liability to be damaged 
during the flowering period by the fogs usually so pre¬ 
valent at that time, and this year most disastrous. 
Dendrobium crassinode was also well flowered. 
Mr. Griggs, gardener to A. G. Dixon, Esq., exhibited 
a fine plant of Cypripedium Lawrencaanum, having 
four flower stems, with seven flo wers, three of the flower 
stems being twin-flowered, which show that the plant’s 
requirements are well attended to. With proper treat¬ 
ment, most of our Cypripediums ought to be twin- 
flowered, and no doubt will be as their culture gets 
better understood. 
Mr. Wythes, Syon House, Brentford, intended to 
read a paper on “Calanthes, their Culture and Value as 
Vinter Decorati we Plants” ; owing to illness, however, he 
was unable to attend, but seat one of his young men to 
read it. The paper treated very exhaustively on both 
the evergreen and deciduous species, but most attention 
was given to the deciduous winter-flowering species, the 
writer giving minutely the treatment he followed, and 
judging from the flower spikes exhibited, which were 
4 ft. long he was successful in getting good results. 
Good plants could b3 grown ia a mixed plant stove, 
care being taken to keep the syringe from them, slight 
shade being necessary in very bright weather. He 
strongly recommended them for indoor decoration, as 
they lasted a long while in perfection. He also com¬ 
plained of the ruinous effect the fog had upon them this 
season, many of the flowers never opening, and those 
which did open were deficient in colour. 
A lengthy discussion took place on the value of bones 
placed in the bottom of pots as manure, several 
members having great faith iu applying them in this 
way, pointing out that they hal seen the roots clinging 
to them when turned out of the pot. Mr. A. "Wright 
took exception to using bones ia this way, where the 
full value of the manure was desired, aud recommended 
the bones to be used in the form of bone-meal mixed 
with the soil, his reason for this being that all plants 
took up their fool in solution in water. In watering 
the plants, the bones as they dissolved would be 
washed to the roots, and so used ; the meal being 
finer, it would dissolve quicker than larger pieces, and 
where a plant was only a short time ia the soil, as the 
deciduous Calanthes were, it was essential to get the 
hones decayed as soon as possible. Again, if the bones 
were placed at the bottom of the pot, most of their 
manurial properties would be lost by being washed out 
