640 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
June 8, 1889. 
But apart from Baron Schroder’s, the Duke 
of Marlborough’s, and some few other collec¬ 
tions, real specimen plants were rare, even 
among the Orchids; whilst Mr. George Paul, 
almost alone in his huge and finely-flowered 
Roses, presented to us bond fide specimen 
plants. Our London shows, or at least those 
of the Royal Horticultural Society, seem now 
to have dwindled down to a battle of masses, 
rather than of individual merit in plants. The 
prevailing idea seems to be to captivate the 
eyes of the public rather by creating a 
crowd of flowers than by showing how the 
highest art of the gardener can be applied in 
the production of noble specimens from single 
plants. This may be the proper thing for the 
society to do, but mindful of the immense 
gain to horticulture, from an educational point 
of view, which accrued from the grand shows 
of specimen plants at Chiswick and South 
Kensington, we beg leave to doubt it, and in 
any case we are still thankful that they think 
differently at some other places, as our grand 
provincial shows—Manchester to wit—testify. 
The almost entire absence of the market 
growers from the show, although classes were 
specially provided for them, shows that their 
alliance with the Royal Horticultural Society 
was but a broken reed, and that Mr. Bourne, 
the Duke of Bedford’s agent, as a represen¬ 
tative on the Council of the market trade is a 
failure. After all, it may be as well to put 
the matter boldly—there is no affinity between 
Covent Garden and the Royal Horticultural 
Society. 
pfHE Fruit Prospect.— It really looks, after 
all, as if the rich promise of bloom on 
fruit-trees, Apples and Cherries especially, 
will prove to have been but a temporary 
illusion. There will evidently be but a thin 
Apple crop, although we hope that thinness 
will be compensated for by the fineness of the 
fruits. Generally, on all standard trees the 
fruit is very thin, and the earlier anticipations 
that imperfectly ripened wood could not pro¬ 
duce perfectly matured fruit-buds is evidently 
justified. Bush fruits will be fair crops where 
the caterpillar is not ravaging, but this pest 
is unusually rampant this year, and is a perfect 
terror to growers in many directions. Our 
finest fruit crop promises to be found in 
Strawberries, which is a profitable fruit in 
fine weather, but a sadty troublesome one in a 
wet season. On the whole the outlook for 
fruit growers is anything but hopeful, indeed 
it is a very depressing and disappointing one. 
Year after year goes by, and still the average 
fruit crop is so moderate that decent profits 
are impossible. Either our climate is griev¬ 
ously out of gear, or else our cultural 
methods are wrong. Certainly, there will be 
no great profits made in fruit-growing crops 
this year, whilst some backs will be severely 
tried. 
pTHE Yeitch Memorial Medals.— Amongst 
horticultural innovations the new arrange¬ 
ment of the Yeitch Memorial Trustees, by 
which one medal yearly—which has hitherto 
been given to some form of horticultural 
produce—is now to be given to some dis¬ 
tinguished horticulturist, claims attention. The 
selection of Mr. A. F. Barron, of Chiswick, 
as a recipient of this undoubted honour, is 
one which will meet with. universal appro¬ 
bation, as did the award to Mr. Seden a few 
years ago. Mr. Barron is so highly esteemed 
universally, and has made his mark in so 
many ways as a horticulturist, that the 
granting to him of one of the handsome 
and coveted medals is one of the most appro¬ 
priate things yet done under the auspices of 
the Royal Horticultural Society. Mr. Barron 
has been at Chiswick for many years and still 
remains, the right man fn the right place. 
During the troublous times the society has 
lately passed through, his wide experience and 
consummate tact was of the greatest value in 
keeping supporters of fhe society together, 
and with others of the same way of thinking, 
we should be glad if he had a larger amount 
of control over the society’s proceedings, as 
his experience is, after all, of little value 
unless it is freely exercised. 
But the question remains, how, henceforth, 
arc other recipients to be selected, for it is hardly 
to be assumed that the Memorial Trustees will 
place the medal at the disposal of the Royal 
Horticultural Society annually 1 ? Probably the 
thoughts of many will turn towards Man¬ 
chester, where there is one of the foremost of 
horticultural leaders and administrators. But 
some method or basis of selection must be 
adopted, which shall satisfy not merely the 
Trustees, but the whole of the horticultural 
communit}^ if the awards are to carry with 
them absolute satisfaction. 
Will the Trustees indicate each year that 
the most acknowledged leader, or representa¬ 
tive worker in connection with some special 
section of horticulture, will be selected for 
the honour, and invite nominations from those 
specially concerned in that branch of garden¬ 
ing? Whatever course be taken henceforth, 
it is earnestly hoped that whilst the recipient 
of the medal shall be a first-class man, the 
award shall carry with it popular approbation. 
ROFESSOR ReICHENBACH’s HERBARIUM. - 
Judging from the terms of this German 
botanist’s will, an extract from which will be 
found in another column, the distinguished 
Professor seems to have left behind him rather 
a big grudge against his scientific brethren, as 
he practically shuts up his great collection of 
dried Orchid specimens and drawings for the 
next quarter-of-a-century, and, as far as this 
country is concerned, has left no hope of our 
ever having the collection among us. What 
could have been his real motive for so delibe¬ 
rately cutting his English friends we shall not 
attempt to discover, though, perhaps, not far 
to seek, but in leaving his collections subject 
to certain, perhaps impossible, conditions to 
German, or Swedish, or American, or, finally, 
to French botanical establishments, he has 
acted in the most selfish manner, and ill 
requited the generosity for many years shown 
to him in this country, whence he must have 
obtained a very large portion of his specimens 
at no cost to himself, and at the same time 
found a market for his descriptions of the 
same which, in a pecuniary sense, must have 
been of some importance to him. 
The Orchid craze, which the old Professor 
condemns, and which, strangely enough, in life 
he so strenuously fostered, will not die out 
because his labours are over and his collections 
are closed for a generation. There was more 
of real encouragement to the continuance of 
the Orchid craze—if craze it be—seen in the 
grand show of the lovely flowers in the Inner 
Temple Gardens, than the spleen of any dead 
botanist can counteract. To a whole host of 
people the Orchid display in the City came 
as a sort of revelation, so little conception had 
they of the wondrous variety and beauty found 
in these plants, and the cultivation of which 
plenty of English gardeners are now compre¬ 
hending. England, indeed, can hold its own 
with the -whole world, as the superb Orchids 
staged last week testify, and the death of a 
Professor or two will make no difference, nor 
will the locking up of Reichenbach’s her¬ 
barium. People will continue to grow and 
admire Orchids, because they are the most 
beautiful of flowers, and the dry details 
attached to their nomenclature and classifica¬ 
tion may be left to be wrangled over by 
crusty scientists. 
‘|1)eripatetic Exhibitions.— The Daily Neivs, 
<j~ in its report of the Temple Show, advised 
that, having regard to the immensity of London, 
it was worthy of consideration whether the 
Royal Horticultural Society should not creep 
out of the Westminster Drill Hall shell and 
hold it£ exhibitions here and there about 
London, as places suitable for the purpose may 
be found. Now, whilst we hold that- the pro¬ 
posal is well worthy of all consideration, yet 
that a specified and permanent place for the 
holding of the society’s ordinary meetings is 
indispensable, although the Drill Hall seems 
to be about the most unfortunate one to be 
found. 
But if it is well to hold a summer exhibition 
in the Temple Gardens, it may be equally 
worthy of consideration whether districts like 
Clapham or Streatham in South London may 
not be served, or aristocratic Kensington may 
not have its show in Holland Park, or whether 
the Royal Botanic Gardens, Regent’s Park, 
may not be borrowed by the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society for the holding of an occasional 
exhibition in that most fashionable quarter. 
Then the Royal Horticultural Society may, 
perhaps, organise a fruit, vegetable, and cut- 
flower show amongst the plebs of East London, 
say at the People’s Palace, or at the Agricul¬ 
tural Hall in the north. That w take to be 
the desire of our eminent daily contemporary. 
The danger would be that with so many 
diverse habitats, it would be hard to light 
upon the right one at the right moment, and 
the taking of the mountain to Mahomet might 
for this reason fail. Perhaps it is wiser to 
have a fixed show centre, and to bring 
Mahomet in the shape of the masses of London 
to the horticultural mountain at the Temple. 
The society’s one swallow, however, don’t make 
a summer, nor its one chicken, over which 
there is so much cackling, a poultry yard. 
We should like to see several really good 
shows held in London annually if possible. 
-- >x - < -- 
The Mansfield Horticultural Society will hold its 
fourteenth annual exhibition on Monday, August 5th, 
and has just issued a schedule of prizes, which embraces 
a great number of subjects. This is one of the few 
provincial societies which holds monthly meetings all 
the year round, and gives prizes for some flowers and 
vegetables at each gathering — good practical work 
which we are glad to see meets with liberal recognition. 
Gardening Engagement.—Mr. G. Potts, late of 
Hill House, Morden, as gardener to Sir Edmund 
Hardinge, Bart., Fowler’s Park, Hawkhnrst, Kent. 
The Finchley Chrysanthemum Society has fixed 
the date of its next exhibition for November 5th and 
6 th, and has just issued its schedule of prizes. 
A New Departure in Special Prizes.—An interesting 
feature in connection with the Reading Horticultural 
Society’s Show on the 29th ult. was the institution of 
a series of premiums by Messrs. Sutton & Sons, by 
which the first prizes given by the society in certain 
classes are augmented, with the object of inducing 
larger competitions. Thus in a class in which the first 
prize is, say, £8, the premium of £2 goes to the 
amateur or gentleman’s gardener winning it, the value 
of the prize being in this way raised from £8 to £10. 
The new departure will no doubt greatly tend to bring 
about the desired results. 
Presentation to Mr. A. Dean.— On the 20th ult., 
at a vocal and instrumental concert given in the 
Feltham Public Hall, and at which Mr. John Ashby, 
J.P., of Staines, presided, and Mr. Alexander Dean 
and several members of his family most ably assisted, 
Mr. Dean was presented with an admirable portrait of 
himself in acknowledgement of valuable services ren¬ 
dered during a long period as honorary secretary of the 
Feltham and Bedfont Liberal Association, from which 
office he has now retired. In making the presentation 
Mr. Ashby remarked that, “he had always admired 
Mr. Dean as a thoroughly honest and consistent poli¬ 
tician, and as a man who always acted up to his 
principles. ” 
The Railway Rates Question.—The objections to 
the proposed revised lists of railway rates formulated 
by the committee of the Nursery and Seed Trade 
Association were, we understand, duly lodged with the 
Board of Trade on Saturday last. In the House of 
Commons on Tuesday evening Sir M. Hieks-Beaeh 
stated that over 3,000 objections had been received, 
and that he was of opinion that in the first instance an 
attempt should be made to settle such points as were 
capable of solution without a formal hearing by the 
Board of Trade. The railway companies had therefore 
beep directed to arrange for interviews with objectors, 
