March 7, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
428 
THE LATE MR. E. R. CUTLER. 
In our last issue we briefly announced the sudden death, 
on the 24th ult., in his seventy-second year, of this old 
jind well-tried servant of the Gardeners’ Royal Benevo¬ 
lent Institution. The sad event took place at his 
residence, Bonwicks, The Downs, 'Wimbledon, soon 
after mid-day, and was quite unexpected. Mr. Cutler 
was at his office on Monday morning, and went to 
Mark Lane in the afternoon with the object of privately 
collecting subscriptions in aid of a former supporter of 
the institution now in indigent circumstances, and 
returning home through the fog caught a chill, which 
induced him to keep his bed the next morning. 
Towards noon he seemed to get worse, and suddenly 
expired while Mrs. Cutler was away from his room for 
a few moments, the primary cause of death being heart 
disease. The funeral took place at Brookwood, Woking, 
on Saturday last, in the presence of many of his old 
personal friends, among whom were Mr. N. N. 
Sherwood, Mr. G. Cavendish, Mr. Kalkin Lewis, 
Messrs. J., W. N., and A. Meston, Messrs. James H. 
and Arthur J. Yeitch, Mr. Barron, Mr. H. Williams, 
Mr. H. Turner, Mr. W. G. Head, Mr. J. A. Laing, 
Mr. T. A. Dickson, Mr. J. Webber, Mr. Osborn, Mr. 
J. Wheeler, Mr. Cutler, Mr. W. 
Haynes Gibbs, &e., &c. Present 
also, at the expressed wish of the 
deceased, was his favourite collie 
“Clyde.” The coffin was com¬ 
pletely hidden with lovely wreaths 
sent by sympathising friends, among 
the more notable being a large one 
with the letters G. R. B. I. worked 
out in blue Violets in the centre, 
from the committee of the Insti¬ 
tution, and other beautiful examples 
from The Knights, and the St. 
Andrew’s Lodge of Freemasons. 
Edward Roger Cutler was born in 
London, on November 28th, 1819, 
and soon after leaving school, at the 
age of fourteen or fifteen years, he 
entered the service of the East India 
Company, in the marine depart¬ 
ment, and was stationed for some 
months in the Hoogley, at Calcutta. 
He returned to London in 1837, to 
-find his father dead ; and in 1838, 
thanks to the influence of good 
friends in Messrs. W. & J. Noble, 
seedsmen, of Fleet Street, he became 
clerk, and subsequently assistant 
secretary to the Scottish Cor¬ 
poration. He left this institution 
in 1842 to enter the Westminster 
Fire Office as junior clerk, and 
having worked up to the position of 
chief clerk, he retired in May, 1877, 
on a handsome pension granted by 
the board of directors. In 1840 he 
was induced by the Messrs. Noble 
and other founders of the Gardeners’ 
Royal Benevolent Institution to 
take up the honorary secretaryship 
of the institution in succession to Mr. Bowley, and in 
January, 1843, he became paid secretary, at a salary of 
£20 per annum. When he first took office the insti¬ 
tution had only four pensioners on its books, an 
annual income of about £120, and £200 invested in 
Consols. At the present time the institution has a 
reserve fund of £25,000, and last year the amount paid 
in pensions and gratuities was £2,648. 
Only those who intimately knew Mr. Cutler 
and were closely acquainted with the work of 
the institution, can realise the immense amount of 
energy and labour that it cost him to raise the insti¬ 
tution from a state of impecuniosity into the noble 
position it now holds among the London charities. For 
many years the official office of the institution was a 
small letterbox in the seed shop of Messrs. Charlewood 
& Cummings, in Covent Garden, the work of the 
institution being done at Mr. Cutler’s private residence, 
in Cavendish Place, while the committee meetings 
were held at the Bedford Hotel, now with the seed 
shop before mentioned cleared away for the extension 
of the market. In those days the committee meetings 
were very poorly attended, and only some ten or a 
dozen used to attend the annual friendly supper. 
When the institution established an office in Parliament 
Street, and Mr. Cutler had more time on his hands to 
devote to the work, a great change came over the 
scene, and the last ten years has seen a marvellous 
growth in the amount of interest manifested in the 
institution and all belonging to it. It is earnestly 
hoped that a good man may be found to succeed him ; 
but the institution can hardly hope to get another 
Roger Cutler. Mr. Cutler was a member of The Knights 
and Junior Athenteum Clubs, and a Past Master of the 
St. Andrew’s Lodge of Freemasons, in which institutions 
he had for fellow members many warm supporters of 
the charity for which he for fifty years worked so hard 
and so persistently. 
-- 
VEGETABLE NOTES-BROOCOLI. 
Among other novelties announced in one of the 
numerous seed lists to hand this season, we observe a 
new late Broccoli named the Missing Link, which it 
is to be hoped will turn out a valuable acquisition. 
The name is a very suggestive one, and it reminds me 
that there is a missing link not only in the late 
spring and early summer varieties which requires to 
be furnished, but also, and of even more moment, in 
the mid-winter section. Of course when an early and 
long-continued rigorous winter occurs, such as southern 
cultivators have recently experienced, we are not 
The Late Me. E. R. Cutler. 
surprised to learn that scant supplies of other vege¬ 
tables besides Broccoli is the rule. 
Here in the west of Scotland, however, we have had 
by no means a very severe winter ; and our two sections 
of Broccoli, namely, winter and spring, seem as if they 
would both come into use about the same time. The 
writer’s opinion, which is based on experience, as to 
the cause of much inconvenience in this respect, is 
that there is not sufficient care exercised in sending 
out seed true to name. And need I say that it would 
certainly be to the mutual interest of both vendors and 
cultivators if by better supervision such mistakes 
could be rendered impossible. I was one season rather 
amused, but more annoyed, on discovering that a 
breadth of what was understood to be winter Broccoli 
were heading in the end of July, and of course they 
proved to be Cauliflowers. 
Again, we have been agreeably disappointed, in having 
heads turning in at Christmas which were not expected 
till about April. Added to this, I have the testimony 
of a noted vegetable grower, who informed me that 
after planting the principal winter sorts quoted in a 
certain catalogue, in small lots on the same plot, the 
experiment, so far as testing their seasonable value 
was concerned, turned out a failure in the case of every 
variety. A year or two ago, reference was made in one 
of the gardening papers to some fine winter Broccoli, 
the seed of which h id been sown in the autumn previous 
to the year in which it was transplanted. Possibly 
some of the readers of your esteemed journal may be 
able to afford some information as to the above mode 
of culture, and if by resorting to it time may be gained. 
Sow thickly, thin quickly, and keep friendly with tho 
cook was an injunction offered to his fellow workers 
by one of England’s greatest gardeners ; and as there 
are few things more calculated to disturb a gardener’s 
peace of mind than to be in strained relationship with 
that individual, we are the more desirous that an 
inquiry should be instituted as to whether it is 
possible to lessen the difficulty indicated in the fore¬ 
going remarks.— M., Ayr. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES 
FROM AMERICA. 
It may interest your readers to know something of the 
way in which exhibition blooms are grown here. The 
process is, like everything American, simple and easy, 
as it should be, and climatic conditions help. Cuttings 
are taken in May and planted when rooted, which will 
be in about three weeks, in greenhouses on benches in 
10 ins. to 12 ins. of good rich loam, about 10 ins. to 
12_ins. apart. The above date applies to varieties of 
which crown buds are required in 
August. Cuttings are taken as late 
as the end of June for those varieties 
which produce better flowers on 
“terminals,” the'most important 
being Cullingfordii and Wm. H. 
Lincoln. This late date seems to 
bridge over the time at which crown 
buds form, as 75 per cent, develop in 
every way the same as “terminals.” 
I may here add that I saw better 
blooms on “terminals ” of Mrs. H. 
Cannell last year than on crown 
buds, and a friend informs me from 
England that Etoile de Lyon is also 
good on “terminals,” and conse¬ 
quently should be a very valuable 
variety here. 
All the ventilation possible is 
given throughout the summer, and 
heat is applied in the autumn only 
to dry the atmosphere. When well 
rooted the plants are given an 
abundance of water and liquid 
manure frequently until the flowers 
begin to open, when the latter is 
almost altogether discontinued, as it 
affects the colouring of some va¬ 
rieties, especially the reds. Hitherto 
flowers have been exhibited at 
the Massachusetts Horticultural 
Society’s shows in glass bottles made 
for the purpose, with a short neck 
and flange-like top, well enough 
adapted for exhibiting Roses, but 
altogether too dumpy for Chry¬ 
santhemums. All the flowers are 
shown sitting on the top of the 
bottle, no attempt being made to 
vary the monotony of equal 
height, as, in order to get long-stemmed flowers to 
stand up decently, the bottle neck would have to be 
plugged, which would not be very effective in ap¬ 
pearance. One or two enterprising florists, however, 
have tried, apparently unsuccessfully, for the last two 
or three years to shame the society into producing 
decent receptacles at exhibitions, by special exhibits 
of bold, long-stemmed flowers of various lengths, 
gracefully and effectively arranged in elegant vases, 
sometimes of one variety only, and sometimes of six. 
Specimen plants are exhibited in groups of twenty, 
twelve, six, and single specimens. There are also 
classes for plants in smaller pots (8-in.) with four 
blooms, and for next year there is a new class of forty 
plants in 6-in. pots, each bearing one flower, which 
will be an important and interesting feature. Forty I 
consider too many, and fear it has been got up for 
a friend of some interested member of the committee. 
(I have a good mind to give him, at any rate, a close 
shave the first year.) A curious feature of last year’s 
show was an artistic combination of peculiarly trained 
and untrained specimens, by an artist who desired to 
shew the thing done in real Japanese style. This 
display was appreciated by many of the visitors. The 
prizes and certificates awarded to seedlings was an 
entirely farcical business. It is compulsory to award 
these prizes, no matter how poor the exhibits are. 
None meritel recognition last year, in my opinion. 
