600 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
May 23, 1891. 
occasions. Somehow we not infrequently find 
that hardy plants, because so gloriously 
coloured and effective, seem to be the chief 
competitors with the Orchids for public ad¬ 
miration. We hope to see both these sections 
of flowers in all their greatest beauty. We 
hope for fine settled weather, and a large 
company. The society has rarely found the 
Temple shows financial successes—a distressing 
fact having regard to the place and position. 
We hope Londoners will see that this year that 
reproach does not exist. 
7JTasi*s. —It was prior to School Board days 
that a child shouted out in school, “ There 
goes a A r ops ! ” “How do you spell vops 1 ?” 
inquired the teacher ; to which the youngster 
very phonetically replied “ V 0 P S.” We hope 
that little ones now have been better taught, 
and call a wasp a wasp, for just recently they 
have doubtless seen plenty of these sting-armed 
insects on the wing—large queen insects, pre¬ 
sumably finding receptacles for eggs which 
they can deposit, thus building up a structure 
that will bring dismay to fruit growers, and 
disaster to the more succulent crops. Yerily 
the early or breeding wasps seem, like vultures, 
to have scented the prey from afar, really very 
far indeed, for it is a long cry yet to the autumn, 
with its anticipated produce of Plums, Pears, 
Cherries, &c., upon which the predatory wasp 
hopes to regale. 
We cannot exactly employ the famous similes, 
“ pulling up by the roots ” or “ nipping in the 
hud,”although both are very much of the garden, 
hut we may try hard to prevent the formation 
of a strong pestilent nest by killing the female 
progenitor ere the mischief be accomplished. 
Queen wasps so often find their reception so 
cool, that they have great partiality for green¬ 
houses, and these afford capital hunting grounds, 
from which the insect should not be allowed to 
escape alive. As high a price as 6 d. per wasp 
has been set upon these insects in the month of 
May, probably not a bad investment on the 
whole, for whilst it is certain, had the wasp 
escaped, it would have laid in a store of trouble 
for the gardener, its death prevents any such 
trouble following. Unfortunate horticulturists, 
especially those engaged in fruit culture, have 
so many troubles, that every wasp which can 
he removed is a great gain. 
Probably the wasp swarms of the autumn 
form one of the greatest of fruit pests—so much 
is ruthlessly impaired without being actually 
destroyed. It is very probable that wasps do 
our soft fruits far more harm than birds do. 
Certainly it is less easy to keep off the wasps 
than the birds. We have very little regard for 
the wasp also, because he seems to he a roving 
insect enemy to man, and naturally finds every 
man’s hand against him. 
he London Parks. —Country visitors to 
London invariably express both wonder 
and admiration when taken to visit our 
Metropolitan Parks, and exhibit surprise that 
such beautiful open spaces or retreats from 
the noise and bustle of the great town should 
he found right in its midst. We are proud 
of our London Parks, and have a right to 
he so. They, perhaps, never wear a livelier 
aspect than during the months of May and 
June, when the verdure and the trees are 
at their greenest, and the flowers are in 
exceeding beauty. To some of our readers 
it is not perhaps known that the Parks 
exist under a very divided authority, as 
the Royal Parks, such as Hyde Park and 
Kensington Gardens, Regent’s Park, and St. 
James’s Park, &c., are under the control of 
the Crown through the Office of Works, 
whilst Battersea, Victoria, Finsbury, and 
several other smaller Parks are municipal, 
and under the control of ‘the London County 
Council. The arrangement may be a had 
or a good one ; with that we as gardeners 
have nothing to do, hut as citizens we may 
have strong opinions. 
How last year the Parks Committee, a body 
which cannot be expected to know much about 
either gardening or gardeners, decided to 
appoint a general superintendent for the whole 
of the Parks and open spaces under the control 
of the County Council, and issued adver¬ 
tisements inviting applications for the post, the 
amount of remuneration offered being £500, 
without allowances or the prospect of a pension, 
a sum small enough in all conscience consider¬ 
ing the duties to be performed, the social 
position to maintain, and the salaries paid 
in establishments under the Office of Works. 
Still, the position is one that any experienced 
horticulturist might be proud to hold apart 
from mere monetary considerations, and conse¬ 
quently there were a great number of appli¬ 
cants, among them being several men of 
undoubted worth and great experience, and 
others of, perhaps, higher social status, but 
utterly lacking the practical knowledge and 
experience which a man holding such a post 
should possess. Each park or garden is an 
isolated estate, and all are now admirably 
managed by their own superintendents, under 
the direction for administrative purposes of 
the Parks Committee ; and so far as we can 
see the only advantage to the present 
responsible officers that the appointment of 
a superintendent above them can bring, is 
that he will act as a buffer between them 
and the Parks Committee, and thus reduce 
to a minimum the amount of friction that 
must arise where there are many masters 
instead of one. 
The proposed new superintendent must, 
therefore, be a man who can not only 
exercise efficient control over those under 
him, but at the same time possess sufficient 
knowledge and tact to manage those above 
him. That is the plain English of the 
situation, and who so likely to be able to 
hold the post efficiently as an experienced 
practical man'? But the Parks Committee 
would have none of it, and after putting 
several of the applicants to considerable 
trouble and expense, the appointment re¬ 
mained in abeyance for several months, 
until last week they went before the 
Council with an entirely new proposition. 
They frant to make the parks and open 
spaces a sub-department of the Council, and 
recommended that £700 a year should be 
offered as salary for a new Superintendent. 
The sum offered is not too much for the 
right man, but the move of the committee 
was too palpable, and the majority on the 
Council are to be congratulated on their 
good sense in nipping the scheme in the 
bud, at all events for the present. 
In the best interest of the parks, and the 
able men who manage them, it is exceed¬ 
ingly undesirable to place any man in 
authority over them, whatever his social or 
military status may be, who is unacquainted 
with the best gardening practice, and it is 
too late in the day for the public to be 
gulled into paying for new sinecure offices. 
We trust the progressive members on the 
Council will insist upon an experienced 
horticulturist getting the appointment and 
no one else. 
he Fruit Bloom. — Without doubt we 
have been enjoying the spectacle of a 
glorious and—so far as human intelligence can 
tell—a fertile fruit bloom. So far as flower 
has been concerned the spring of the present 
year will hold its place with those of the 
most fertile fruit years of the century. 
Literally we have had twenty times more 
of bloom than we need or desire to have of 
fruit. Were the fruit products to be at all 
analogous to the bloom, the trees would be 
literally exhausted with the labour thrust upon 
them. We are just now concerned, however, 
to note what has been the general effect upon 
the bloom of three undoubtedly unpleasant 
causes. First, a few days of exceptional heat— 
literally a taste of July flung into May—which 
sorely tried the enduring properties of the 
flower; secondly, very cold nights and harsh 
northerly winds, which could hardly do other 
than promote insect life if there be such 
abounding ; and thirdly, the unusual drought 
which prevailing seems disposed to mark the 
entire season. 
It may be only traditional fancy, but some¬ 
how we had got to believe that for the pro¬ 
duction of effective bloom setting, nothing was 
so favourable as warm nights, occasional warm 
showers, and a moderately sunny yet humid 
atmosphere. How the trees certainly started 
the season with bloom buds of a very finely 
developed and healthy nature. That was ail 
the previous season could do for the trees, and 
it was well done. The rest had to be left to 
the present spring, and our spring seems more 
than ever uncertain and treacherous. In spite 
of the drawbacks we have mentioned, the bloom 
may all the same, because of its splendid 
robustness, for of that there has been no 
question, have well weathered the adversities 
Hature has furnished, and we may find a grand 
fruit year after all. 
How earnestly do we hope this may be the 
case ! Whilst it is rarely good policy to count 
chickens before they are hatched, yet with what 
seems to be an absolute certainty staring us in 
the face, is it wide of the mark to suggest even 
thus early that something more than ordinary 
forethought should be evidenced by fruit 
growers, as to the most profitable method of 
disposing of their expectant produce. Tt does 
reflect upon our indifference to facts, that whilst 
we have so many scarce fruit years, we should 
find the all-abundant one only resulting in a 
glut, and prices brought down to starvation 
point. 
-•«<-- 
A Chrysanthemum, Fruit, and Flower Show will 
be held at Yells (Somerset), on November 3rd and 
4th. 
Gardening Engagement.—Hr. J. C. Brotherston, 
of Wooden House, Kelso, as gardener to Miss Milne 
Holme, Milne Graden, Coldstream. 
The Abbey Park, Leicester.—The annual exhibition, 
which is under the patronage of the Mayor and 
Corporation of Leicester, and superintended by the 
experienced Curator of the Abbey Park, will be held on 
Tuesday, August 4th next. 
The Bath and West of England Society’s annual 
show will be held this year at Bath on June 3rd and 
the four following days, and the usual horticultural 
display is included in the programme. This depart¬ 
ment will now be under the management of Mr. 
R. B. Cater, in the place of the late Hon. and Kev. 
J. T. Boscawen. 
The Cactus Family.—Though our experience does 
not lead us to accept unquestioned the assertion that 
there is at present “a fashionable taste for Cactus 
cultivation,” and though we regard many of the 
Cactuses as little more interesting than wooden nut¬ 
megs during the greater part of the year, there are 
still many singularly curious and beautiful things 
among them, and we should be sorry to see them go 
out of cultivation in all but botanic gardens. We note 
therefore with pleasure that Messrs. James Carter & Co. 
are making a specialty of- the family, and are offering 
this season an interesting assortment. 
The Lateness of the Season.—The flowering this 
season of one of our common pasture grasses, the Sweet 
Vernal (Anthoxanthum odoratum), in the grass garden 
of Mr. Martin J. Sutton, at Caversham, furnishes a 
forcible illustration of the lateness of the season. Last 
year it was in bloom on March 28th, and this year not 
until May 13th, or 10 days later than in 1SS8, the 
previous latest date on record for very many years 
previously. 
Coming Rose Shows.—The following is a complete 
list of the Rose shows which will be held during the 
ensuing season so far as is known up to date :—June 
23rd, Drill Hall, Westminster (N.R.S.) ; June 24th, 
Richmond (Surrey) and Royal Aquarium ; June 25th, 
Ryde ; June 27th, Eltham and Reigate ; June 30th, 
Canterbury, Diss, and Winchester ; July 1st, Bagshot, 
Brighton, Brockham, Croydon, and Lee ; July 2nd, 
Farningham and Norwich ; July 4th, Crystal Palace 
