November 3, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
145 
might be done by holding a gigantic festival, at which 
most, if not all, of the varieties indicated in the 
recently published catalogue should be exhibited, and, 
perhaps, even some of the quaint customs observed at 
the oft-recurring Chrysanthemum fetes in Japan might 
he introduced. We have had our exhibitions, and 
successful ones too, of various kinds—our Healtheries, 
Fisheries, and so on ; why should not one be organised 
for and devoted to horticulture, with the Chrysan¬ 
themum as one of the special features for the three or 
four last months of the year ? It is a plant that, more 
than any other, has gained immense favour'with our 
people, has adapted itself to our climate and conditions, 
and gives intense pleasure and interesting intellectual 
recreation to a vast number of both cultivators and 
admirers. 
National Chrysanthemum Society.—A well at¬ 
tended meeting of the general committee of this society 
was held at Anderton’s Hotel, on Monday last,when the 
chair was occupied by the president, Mr. Sanderson. 
The secretary, Mr. W. Holmes, reported that numerous 
applications were being made for the National Chry¬ 
santhemum Society’s catalogue. The Eastbourne 
Chrysanthemum Society was admitted as an affiliated 
society, and several new members were elected. Mr. 
Holmes also reported that entries were coming in for 
the Challenge Trophy, and expressed a wish that those 
connected with affiliated societies would do their best 
to make this class one of the chief attractions of the 
exhibition. Messrs. G. Gordon, C. Harman Payne and 
Lewis Castle were presented with the Silver Medals 
which were awarded them at the last meeting in 
recognition of their work in preparing the 1888 
catalogue, and both Mr. Gordon and Mr. C. H. Payne 
in a few well-chosen remarks expressed their thanks 
and at the same time their willingness to do all in their 
power to further the interests of the society. The 
members and friends of the society who propose 
attending the Provincial Show at Sheffield, on the 16th 
and 17th November, have arranged to leave St. 
Pancras for Sheffield on the 15th November, by the 
6.40 train. The annual dinner of the society has been 
fixed to take place at Anderton’s Hotel, Fleet Street, 
on Thursday, the 13th December next. 
-- 
FRUIT CONFERENCES. 
It is generally admitted that a vast deal of information 
has been obtained, and that a great stimulus has been 
given to the subject of fruit farming by the recent 
conference and exhibition of hardy fruits at Chiswick, 
together with the able papers read during the week; 
hut while admitting that an amount of good may be 
done by these national conferences (I think the recent 
one at Chiswick well deserved the title), it occurs to me 
that a still greater amount of information might be 
circulated, while the interest in the subject might be 
both widened and deepened by the various horticultural 
societies holding similar conferences in their own 
districts throughout the United Kingdom. Such a 
conference as this was held at Harpenden last year, the 
immediate object of the Harpenden Horticultural 
Society being to discover as far as possible the varieties 
of Apples and Pears that succeeded best in the society’s 
district. 
The gardeners in the neighbourhood brought in 
collections, one gentleman in particular, viz., Mr. 
Norman, Hatfield House, Herts, staging a thoroughly 
representative collection, which from a ten years’ 
experience he could confidently recommend as being 
likely to succeed in the district. Now this is exactly 
the information that is required. Any person interested 
in fruit growing may go to an exhibition of hardy fruits, 
and perhaps make a selection of a number of varieties 
which he thinks will pay to grow, but it is not always 
possible to find out if all the varieties will succeed in 
his own particular district ; or he may go into one 
of our great fruit tree nurseries, and see some varieties 
exceedingly prolific, but it does not always follow that 
the same variety is going to give him the same returns 
in a different part of the country. 
As a case in point I may mention what occurred at 
Chiswick on the 17th ult. Mr. Bimyard, in an excellent 
paper on the Apple, mentioned a variety named 
Councillor, and if I remember rightly, described it as a 
good market Apple for Kent. In the discussion which 
followed Mr. Pearson took exception to the variety 
named, and in giving his experience of the Apple, un¬ 
hesitatingly condemned it. Now, from this I should 
gather that if a collection of marketable Apples were 
got together by any horticultural society in the 
neighbourhood of Maidstone we should probably find 
Councillor largely represented, while we should look 
in vain for it in any collection of market varieties 
exhibited in the vicinity of Chilwell. It is therefore 
to gain such information as this that I make the 
suggestion to the various horticultural societies in the 
kingdom to hold such conferences as will materially 
forward the good work so ably commenced at Chiswick 
and the Crystal Palace. 
I find on referring back to the committee’s report of 
the Harpenden Congress that about 180 dishes of 
Apples and Pears were entered for competition, and 
these were supplemented by collections from the 
principal gardens in the neighbourhood and two fine 
collections from the Messrs. Cheal, and Lane. I also 
notice that the principal and finest Apples shown were 
Blenheim Orange, Mere de Menage, Hoary Morning, 
King of the Pippins, Hollandbury, Prince Albert, 
Hanwell Souring, Beauty of Hants, Winter Quoining, 
and Cox’s Orange Pippin. — Thomas Nutting , The 
Gardens, Childwickbury, St. Albans. 
-- 
THE POMEGRANATE. 
Those who have walked through the streets of London 
during the past week or two will have noticed the 
barrows of the costermongers laden with Pomegranates, 
and very fine ones too, which were being offered at 
\d. each. They must be grown in great quantities, 
and shipped and sold very cheaply to be retailed at 
this low price in the streets of London, so many miles 
away from the parts where they are grown. The 
Pomegranates we see in the London streets, no doubt 
come from Spain and Portugal. On both shores of the 
Mediterranean the plant grows wild, but it is more or 
less cultivated in all countries where the climate is 
sufficiently favourable to bring its fruit to maturity. 
But what an ancient fruit the Pomegranate is ! There 
is a tradition that the fruit of the Tree of Life presented 
by Eve to Adam was the Pomegranate. It is also the 
opinion of some, that Paris adjudged a Pomegranate to 
Yenus, and not an Apple, and that nearly always 
where the latter fruit is mentioned in legends or 
popular customs relating to marriage, the Pomegranate 
is meant. 
The Pomegranate in point of antiquity reaches 
almost as far back as the Almond. It comes to the 
front in Scripture as one of those delightful orientals 
which at all points touch the earliest recorded life of 
civilised man. “ The places of the aboriginal growth 
of this fruit appears to be north-west India, and the 
countries south and south-west of the Caspian, away to 
the borders of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. 
It became established in south-eastern Europe at a 
very early period, and was conveyed to the coasts of 
Northern Africa by the Phoenicians eight or nine 
centuries before the beginning of the Christian Era. 
It was from Carthage, probably, that the Romans 
received it, their name for the fruit having been Malum 
puniceum ” (Leo. H. Grindon). It is now to be found 
in all sub-tropical countries in both hemispheres, and 
whenever it occurs, when in flower and fruit, it is one 
of the most striking ornaments of the soil. It was 
introduced to this country about 350 years ago. It is 
rather tender, and thrives best when planted against a 
wall in a full southern exposure, in which position it 
produces its beautiful scarlet flowers freely, and in 
some very favourable positions its fruit, which, 
however, never fully ripens in this climate, except 
under glass. Its leaves, just before and while expand¬ 
ing, have a lovely deep scarlet tinge. It ripens its 
fruit at Cleveden Court, Somerset, where there is a 
plant 60 ft. high, leaning against a broad old-fashioned 
chimney, from which it gains the advantage of some 
artificial heat. 
Many curious legends are current hearing upon the 
number of seeds found in a fruit, and the blood-like 
juice it exudes. The sanguineous juice and innumer¬ 
able seeds of the Pomegranate are considered a happy 
augury of fecundity and abundance. The scriptural 
references to it are numerous. The Jews employed the 
fruit in their religious ceremonials. The capitals of 
the pillars of the Temple of Jerusalem were covered 
with carved Pomegranates. On the hem of Aaron’s 
sacred robe were embroidered in blue, in purple, and in 
scarlet, Pomegranates alternating with golden bells. 
The Pomegranate was the emblem of Catherine of 
Arragon, and in one of the masques held in honour of 
her marriage with our Henry VIII., a bank of Roses 
and Pomegranates typified the union of England and 
Spain. Her daughter, Queen Mary, took the Pome¬ 
granate and white and red Roses. 
The Pomegranate is well worthy of being cultivated 
for its flowers, and they are produced at the extremities 
of its young and leafy shoots. Individually they 
consist of a deep scarlet ealycino tube or ovary case 
1 in. in length, with, at the summit, usually five great 
fleshy lobes, between which there are seated as many 
petals of the most brilliant crimson-rose colour, a crowd 
of crimson stamens projecting from the centre. Mr. 
Grindon tells us that in the time of the patriarchs the 
Hebrew ladies employed the opening buds of the 
Pomegranate as eardrops. To dream of Pomegranates 
is a fortunate augury, foretelling good fortune and 
success. To the lover such a dream implies a faithful 
and accomplished sweetheart, and to the married an 
increase of riches and children, and great success in 
trade .—R D. 
-—:>$»■- 
IfoTES ON UrUITS. 
A Frost-Proof Peach. 
We have a variety of Peach here that I think will be 
well worth sending to England. Our first spring 
month is August, and, as a rule, the Peaches are only 
now in full blossom, but this one comes into bloom in 
May and June, and has now fruits on it as large as 
Walnuts ; and what is most strange is that no frost 
seems to affect it. The frost this year that has killed 
the native plants has not affected it in the least, and 
that as standard trees also. From this variety ripe 
fruits have already been gathered, and the other kinds 
are only now coming into flower.— TV. T., Chraham’s 
Town , S. Africa. 
The Hessle Pear. 
After all, this old sort still maintains a good character. 
Mr. Wright was not wrong in bestowing honourable 
mention upon it. As seen in Lincolnshire, true, it 
may lack the size, colour and flavour required in sorts 
for cultivation in private gardens ; but what of that 
when the object is to cater for the million, and as Pears 
are generally eaten uncooked, I consider it quite large 
enough for market purposes. We must remember that 
one-half of the Pears grown are eaten in the streets of 
our large towns, and take the place of many a glass of 
beer. I well recollect, nearly thirty years ago, having 
to annually strip seven trees of this sort, on which 
the fruits hung like ropes of Onions, and so weighed 
down the branches that we had to prop them up ; and 
from those trees generally more money was made than 
from any other seven in the garden. They were never 
allowed to ripen on the trees, but were stored in heaps 
of several bushels together in a light airy house, and 
left to mellow, which brought out both the colour and 
flavour to a remarkable degree, much better than when 
left to ripen on the trees. Were I going to plant in a 
northern county this sort would not he despised.— B. L. 
--»=>*«-- 
THE LITTLE “NATIONALS.” 
There is a good deal in a name, but even a high- 
sounding appellation can hardly be made the means of 
making something very small in its way into a matter 
of national importance. I observe you report the 
proceedings of the recent annual meetings of the 
National Auricula and National Carnation and Picotee 
Societies, at which gatherings some half-dozen persons 
only seem to have been present, and I must say that 
the very moderate attendance hardly gives to them a 
national aspect. But the chief object of my writing is 
to refer to the strange proposal of those bodies to hold 
their future annual displays at the Crystal Palace, and 
the chief matter calling for comment is the fact that 
whereas some of these “National” people, and not the 
least important among them, have been loud in their 
protestations of friendship for the Royal Horticultural 
Society, and how much they had been unlike some other 
bodies in sticking to the old ship, yet now—and under 
the patronage of three members of the R. H. S. council 
and of two or three other gentlemen who have in strong 
terms denounced all other bodies not linked with the 
old society—do these little “Nationals” propose to 
leave the R. H. S. utterly in the lurch, to turn their 
backs like rats upon the apparently sinking ship and 
betake themselves to the huge establishment at 
Sydenham. Delightful gratitude ! Beautiful exhibition 
of support! Charming consistency ! Is Chiswick further 
from London or more inaccessible than is the Crystal 
Palace, and is the fine vinery there less fitted to be the 
show place of the Auricula and the Carnation than is 
the Crystal Palace ?— Leo. 
Disperis Fanninia:. —I am sure this pretty terres¬ 
trial Orchid only needs to be known to be appreciated 
by gardeners. It has slender leafy stems of white 
flowers, the upturned galeas of which are curiously 
inflated. The perianth has a few purple dots, and the 
lateral sepals are saccate. If grown in a light material, 
such as decayed peat or leaf-soil, and put in a shady 
situation in a cold house or frame, it would be very 
easily induced to thrive and bloom well. It is figured 
in Thesaurus Capensis, plate 171 .—R A., Natal, 
