708 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
July 6, 1889. 
n » a 
" ♦ - 
Pinks at the Royal Botanical Gardens, 
Manchester. 
At the Rose show to be held in the above gardens on 
Saturday, July 20 th, special prizes will be given for 
Pinks if they are exhibited in good form. The arrange¬ 
ment of prizes does not appear in the schedule, and I 
would suggest that each exhibitor should show a 
collection. The exhibitor of a small collection of well- 
grown and nicely-marked varieties need not be afraid 
of being overshadowed by a larger exhibition, more 
numerous in flowers, but of inferior quality. The 
Pinks will be judged by competent men, and quality, 
with dissimilarity, will be the first consideration in 
making the awards. 
The Pink, like the Tulip, has suffered much from 
the almost total cessation of exhibits by local societies. 
This is much to be deplored, but at the present time it 
is not easy to suggest a practical remedy ; it is easy to 
say, “rehabilitate these societies,” but who is to do 
it ? A knot of men like our enthusiastic Reading 
florists, can do in their locality almost anything. 
Thirty to forty years ago there were scores of such 
localities kept alive by hundreds of enthusiastic florists. 
In 1850 The Midland Florist records the meetings of 
nineteen Pink and thirty-three Tulip societies. Where 
are they now ? Is enthusiasm dead, or only latent ? 
However this may be, it is most earnestly to be 
hoped that all who love the Pink, and wish its restora¬ 
tion to its old place in the esteem and affection of 
florists and the public, will do everything possible 
to make the exhibition of Pinks at the Botanical 
Gardens on July 20th as extensive in quantity and as 
fine in quality as possible.— S. Barlow, Stakehill 
House, July 1st. 
--— 
THE GIANT AROID. 
During the growth and before the expansion of the 
huge spathe of Amorphophallus Titanum at Kew, we 
gave a description of it as it then appeared, with the 
recorded description of other authors as to what it 
should be like when in full bloom. At p. 673 we 
stated that the spadix was pale green, but “should 
ultimately become of a blackish purple.” Whether or 
not this was a mistake on the part of those describing 
the plant in its native habitats is not quite clear, but 
now that it has matured and faded it is evident that 
the Kew plant has not a purple spadix. It remained 
of a pale green colour until the spathe was about to 
expand, when it suddenly changed to a pale or chrome- 
yellow, and remained so till it shrivelled and assumed 
a dusky yellow hue. 
On the 14th of June the whole inflorescence, together 
with its peduncle, stood exactly 5 ft. above the surface 
of the soil ; on the 20th it measured 6 ft. 5 ins. ; and 
on the morning of the day on which the spathe expanded 
the spadix was 6 ft. 7 ins. above the soil. It ultimately 
reached 6 ft. 9 ins.; so that although we have not kept 
a regular record the above figures will give an idea of 
the rate of growth. The spadix alone measured 5 ft. 
in length, leaving 1 ft. 9 ins. for the peduncle, and the 
thickness of the attachment of the basal and fleshy part 
of the spathe to the floral axis. The base of the 
spadix was somewhat swollen and bulb-like, and 
measured about 10 ins. in diameter there ; then it 
suddenly became thinner and tapered gradually to a 
blunt point. A day or two before the expansion of the 
spathe it shrunk at the sides considerably, showing 
unmistakeably the soft spongy tissue of which it was 
composed. 
On the morning of expansion a quantity of some 
liquid oozed out from the base of the spathe, but if of 
the nature of nectar it was not sweet. The base of the 
spathe externally was pale green; the upper part 
fading almost to white. This was strongly plaited and 
folded to accommodate itself to the spadix which it 
surrounded, resembling a huge closed umbrella. It 
commenced to expand about 10 a.m. or a little earlier 
on Friday 21st, and kept opening till 7 p.m. of the 
same day, when it might be described as in full bloom. 
The total length of the spathe was then 3 ft., and was 
funnel-shaped, with a spreading mouth and recurved 
edges, measuring 4 ft. in expanse. The interior of the 
upper portion was of a rich claret-purple, with a velvety 
bloom, and might be described as handsome ; the lower 
portion was greenish white, slightly tinted in places 
with purple, and as it began to fade away became more 
deeply stained with that colour. 
During the afternoon of its expansion it stank horribly, 
and the smell might be compared to that of sewer gas 
greatly intensified, or, as the Saturday Preview described 
it, “a stink such as all the fish condemned at Billings¬ 
gate on a summer day raise at noon on the morrow.” 
Very few people, however, were annoyed with it in this 
condition, and few witnessed it when fully expanded, 
as it commenced to close again soon after 6 a.m. 
on the morning of the 22nd when we examined it. By 
this time the smell was much less offensive. It 
therefore remained less than twenty-four hours in full 
bloom. On Saturday last (29th June) the greater part 
of the spathe had still retained its colours, though 
somewhat faded. The lower portion was still quite 
rigid, but all the thinner portions of the upper edge 
were flabby, shrivelled, and hanging down loosely 
over the firmer portion. The spadix had shrivelled and 
fallen on one side. 
The male flowers occupied a small portion of the 
axis, forming a ring just beneath, and sheltered by the 
bulb-like basal portion of the spadix, and consisted of 
small yellow bodies opening by a pore at the apex, 
from which the pollen was ejected plentifully in thread¬ 
like strings, and dropped on the stigmas beneath. The 
female flowers are far more numerous, forming a broader 
ring on the axis beneath the stamens. The little bulb¬ 
like ovaries tapered into styles about 1 in. in length, 
the whole resembling a densely-packed pin-cushion. 
Whether the plant will develop and mature seeds 
remains to be seen. 
-- 
BEES AND FERTILISATION. 
The bees have surely been stinging some people that 
we find such a crusade made against them lately, and 
if they have it is not the fault of the bees, poor things, 
but rather the treatment they have been receiving. 
Much, no doubt, will be said for and against the useful¬ 
ness of the bee as a means of fertilisation, and its 
profitable management, but if such tend to make their 
utility and management better understood amongst the 
masses, and among gardeners in particular, a good point 
will have been gained by this discussion. Without doubt 
many failures will be brought forward to prove that 
they are useless both for profit and as aids to fer¬ 
tilisation. But let us consider the matter fairly. If 
we saw a mechanic leave the work he had been used to 
all his life and take to gardening, should we wonder if 
he failed to be successful, and because of such failure 
should we believe that gardening did not pay ? 
Certainly not. Yet this is much the case with respect 
to bee-keeping, which is taken to by people who know 
little or nothing about them, except what they may 
have read or heard a so-called bee expert say, or what 
they have seen him do with bees in a manipulating 
tent at some exhibition. Such lecturing has done more 
harm than good to bee-keeping. It has been the means 
of inducing bee-keepers to handle their bees far too 
much, and wherever we find this continual handling 
and examining of the hives going on we are sure there 
will not be much honey stored away. 
That bee-keeping can be made a profitable speculation 
is proved by the case recorded by Mr. Osborne (p. 673), 
and plenty of similar instances could be given. The 
first hive of bees I purchased I paid £1 2s. for, and the 
next [season I sold £3 worth of honey, and then had 
the stock to go on with. I have now a stock which 
was a late swarm about the end of July last year. It 
has ten bar-frames well filled with brood and honey, 
and about 40 lbs. of honey in supers, and for feeding it 
has not cost me more than about 3s. There may be 
this connected with bee farming—there may be more 
bees in the neighbourhood than there is food for, and 
so be a failure from that cause. Bees require to be 
near their food, and given every convenience for storing 
when it is plentiful. 
I trust that you, Mr. Editor, may yet see that 
you erred in joining in the cry raised by the few who 
got their fingers burnt in the bee craze, and that you 
may yet be the means of spreading useful information 
through the columns of The Gardening World 
among the bee-keepers who are readers of the paper, as 
by so doing I am sure you will do more to earn the 
thanks of the readers than in trying to expose the 
fallacies of bee-keepers, which do not exist except in 
the minds of those who have mismanaged them or 
attempted to keep them in some part of the country 
unsuitable for them. 
It is not often that we find such an able writer as 
“A. D. ” (p. 609), committing himself to such a 
statement as the following:—“What I am certain of 
is that Nature has not done her work so imperfectly 
that it is needful to call in the help of bees or other 
fortuitous aids in the shape of insects to perfect her 
operations.” Does it not occur to “A. D.” that the 
bees, insects, flowers, wind, &e., are all part and parcel 
of nature, working harmoniously together for man's 
good ? If we take man as the highest form of animal 
life, and the most perfect, what would he be without 
the other parts of nature ? It is as a whole that we can 
admire nature ; no part is complete without the other ; 
the one depends on the other for assistance to make a 
harmonious whole. 
Referring now to bees and fertilisation, let me 
briefly allude to the flowers themselves. We may 
divide these into two great classes, first, those having 
male and female organs in different flowers, such for 
example as the Oak, Cucumber, Melon, Hazel, Poplar. 
Aucuba, &e. Self fertilisation in these plants would 
be impossible, and here the aid of the wind or insect 
agency is necessary to fertilisation. Secondly, male 
and female organs (stamens and pistils) produced in 
the same flowers, the stamens reaching maturity before 
the pistil, or, in some cases, the pistil maturing before 
the stamens. Here again wind or insect agency is 
necessary. It is to this class that most of our spring¬ 
flowering fruits belong, such as the Apple, Pear, Peach, 
Plum, and Cherry. The stamens being longer than 
the pistil, are well adapted for wind fertilisation as well 
as by insect agency. May we not look to the absence 
of wind this spring, when the fruit trees were in 
flower, as well as to the scarcity of insect life, as the cause 
of the failure of the fruit to set, instead of always having 
recourse to the old story of unripened wood from the 
previous year ? 
Can any of your readers say whether the stamens 
in the flowers of the Scarlet Nonpareil Apple are shorter 
than the pistil ? I have found it set very badly indeed, 
only a few fruits on three trees, although they were 
covered with blossom. The second class may again be 
divided into those where the stamens and pistil both 
reach maturity at the same time. Such cases would be 
most favourable for self-fertilisation, but they form the 
exception to the rule. 
Will “A. D.” say to what agency he attributes 
the fertilising of all diclinous plants if not to wind and 
insect agency ? The Orchids, with few exceptions, 
would form a large class where insect agency was 
necessary to fertilisation. We have all heard of the 
Moth and Angraecum sesquipedale, and Darwin’s 
opinion thereon, and I think most Orchid growers who 
are familiar with the curious construction of the organs 
of the flower will favour the idea of fertilisation by 
insect agency.— A. Wright, The Gardens, Devonhurst, 
Chiswick . 
-- 
PROPAGATING STRAWBERRIES. 
It is an old adage that “ ’tis an ill wind which blows 
nobody good,” and it seems that the wet summer of last 
year has so built up the Strawberry plants to justify 
the adage, as the crop certainly is prodigious, and the 
bright dry weather that we are now having is favourable 
to ripening, especially so to young vigorous beds, that 
have something under them for the roots to work in. 
Probably those having old worn out beds find their 
plants flagging, and would gladly welcome a nice rain 
to swell up the later fruits. The abundant crop will 
probaby act as an inducement to increase the stock, 
and where it is desirable to do so, no time should be 
lost in getting in the runners, whether for pot plants 
for forcing or planting in beds. 
There are various methods in vogue for raising a 
stock of young plants, perhaps the most universal 
being to fill a number of 60-sized pots, carry them out 
to the bed, standing them wherever convenient to 
layer a runner on the pot, keeping such in position by 
a stone or peg ; but at this busy season, when the 
water-pot is incessantly going, it takes some time to 
water the runners, especially where thousands are 
required. It is also difficult to keep the pots upright, 
and such a plan is awkward for gathering fruit from 
the beds, for be as careful as you may some are sure to 
get upset. Others again prefer layering them in their 
fruiting pots, but with such a body of soil for them to 
start rooting into they stand a very good chance of 
getting soddened and soured by too much water ere the 
young plants have formed sufficient roots in the soil, 
and I cannot say that such a plan is to be recommended; 
for keeping plants in a healthy state I am no believer 
in the one-shift system. 
The plan of raising Strawberry runners that I prefer, 
and which I have successfully practised for some few 
years, I will endeavour to describe, though I do so 
with some little diffidence, because when writing on the 
subject a few years ago in The Garden I was taken to 
task by a correspondent whom I looked upon as an 
excellent cultivator, but he did not grasp the idea, 
probably owing to his being more pleasantly situated 
