July 13, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
719 
THE GARDENERS’ ORPHAN 
FOND. 
M & fIC *. 
0g*T£RM9 of Subscription.— Post free from the office to any 
part of the United Kingdom, one copy, ljci.; three months, 
Is. 8 d. ; six months, 8s. 3d. ; twelve months, 6s. 6 d. Foreign 
Subscription to all counties in the Postal Union, 8s. 8 d. per 
annum. 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Monday, July 15th.—Royal Botanic Society’s Floral Parade 
from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. 
Tuesday, July 16th.—.Rose Show at Birkenhead and Carlton-in- 
Lindrick. 
T HE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the 
SUBSCRIBERS to this FUND will be held at 
the Cannon Stref.t Hotel, on Friday, July 19th 
next, for the purpose of receiving the Report of the 
Committee and the Accounts of the Fund for 1888-9, 
Electing Officers for the ensuing year, Amending 
Rule XII, and for the Election of Five Children to the 
benefits of the Fund. The Chair will be taken at 
Two o’Clock precisely, and the Ballot will close at 
Four o’Clock. 
THE ANNUAL DINNER 
Will be held the same evening at Five o’Clock. Tickets, 
5s. each. 
A. F. BARRON, 
Honorary Secretary. 
Royal Horticultural Society’s Gardens, 
Chiswick, London, W. 
July, 1889. 
P.S.—The Voting Papers have all been issued ; any 
Subscriber not having received one, is requested 
to communicate with the Secretary. 
GREAT REDUCTION IN PRICE 
— OF — 
Standen’s Manure, 
ESTABLISHED NEARLY 30 YEARS. 
Tlie reduction has been effected through the 
introduction of increased and improved plant 
for manufacturing. 
It is noAv generally acknowledged that this 
highly concentrated Manure exceeds all others 
in general fertilising properties and staying 
powers, thus rendering its money value at least 
double that of any other Manure. 
It promotes a rapid, healthy, and robust 
growth to plants generally. 
It is a clean and dry powder, with very little 
smell. 
It is consequently particularly adaptable for 
Amateurs equally with Nurserymen. 
Sold in Tins of increased sizes, 6d., Is., 2s. 6d., 
5s. 6d., and 10s. 6d. each; and in Kegs (Free) at the 
following greatly reduced prices:—28 lbs, 10s. 6d.; 
56 lbs., 18s.; 112 lbs., 32s. each. 
SOLE MANUFACTURERS ; 
CORRY, SOPER, FOWLER & Co., Ltd, 
16 , FINSBURY STREET, LONDON, E.C. 
Sold, by all Nurserymen, Seedsmen, and 
Florists. 
should have a breadth of 
OAKSHOTT & MILLARD’S 
READING DEFIANCE CABBAGE. 
The Best in the World. Early Compact. 
Fine Quality. Splendid Heart. Awarded 
First-Class Certiticat-i Reading Horticul- 
tu’al Society. Thousands of packets sold, 
and good results everywhere. Price Is. per 
oz. post free. Catalogues Giatis. 
OAKSHOTT AND MILLARD, 
SEEDSMEN TO THE QUEEN, HEADING. 
Wednesday, July 17th.—Bedford Rose Show. 
Thursday, July 18 th.—National Rose Society’s‘Show at Shef¬ 
field. Salterhebble Rose Show. 
Friday, July 19th.—Gardeners’ Orphan Fund ; Annual Meeting 
at the Cannon Street Hotel, at 2 p.m. ; Annual Dinner at 
5 p.m. Ulverston Rose Show. Sale of Orchids at Protheroe 
6 Morris’s Rooms. 
Saturday, July 20 tli.—Manchester Rose Show. 
For Index to Contents & Advertisements, see p.730. 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.” —Bacon. 
SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1889. 
CURRENT TOPICS. 
(Garden Roses as Show Flowers. —The 
recent Rose exhibition at Chiswick has 
had one good result. It has effectually settled 
the cry for the conversion of garden Roses 
into show flowers. Charming and beautiful 
on hushes, walls, or pillars, as most of these 
Cabbage, Moss, Provence, Rugosa, and other 
varieties are, they have no fitness for exhibition 
purposes; and at the Rose conference, although 
the first day was for the season singularly 
cool and cloudy, yet by the afternoon very 
many of the single and semi-double blooms 
had collapsed utterly, whilst the beautiful 
Hybrid Perpetuals, Teas, and even the 
Bourbons—a rare class now—were still fresh 
and pleasing on the second day. 
Whatever fuss we may make over garden 
Roses, so called, and they are very fairly 
well so described, they have no affinity for 
the exhibition table, and the less it is attempted 
to introduce them into places so uncongenial 
for them the better. Without doubt all loose¬ 
growing Roses have their peculiar charms, 
whether seen in masses, on hushes, or climbing 
over walls or the stems of trees, or on arbours 
or arches, and for the short time they are in 
existence they are very beautiful in all and 
every way. But even when uncut the flowers 
have a very fugitive existence, and when cut 
that existence is indeed limited. Compare, 
on the other hand, the massiveness and solidity 
of the blooms of good Teas and Hybrid 
Perpetuals, how boldly they set themselves 
erect, how rich and varied their hues, how 
delicious the perfume emitted, and often how 
enduring, and then let anyone ask why these 
should be forsaken for the fleeting beauty 
found in common varieties. 
Happily, there is no probability whatever 
that any such grave error of judgment will 
be committed. If enthusiasts and faddists 
choose to go wild over certain Roses just 
because they are old fashioned, at least the 
general public will not forsake their cherished 
home flowers, which have been so brilliantly 
beautiful this season, and we trust will yet 
prove to be not less so as the summer wanes. 
Y^ust.—A lthough we have had hut some 
Gv three weeks to a month of absolutely 
hot, dry weather, yet because of the 
continued prevalence of wind, the dust every¬ 
where has been unusually distressing; even 
the inhabitants of towns, where the streets 
are supposed to he frequently watered, not 
escaping the plague. Indeed, in towns the 
roads become so hard and non-porous that they 
dry more rapidly than they do in the country, 
and the effects of an early-morning watering 
all too soon disappears. In the neighbourhood 
of roads where there is large traffic, and there 
is no watering hut such as nature bestows, 
the dust has proved to he a perfect terror, 
rendering life hardly endurable, and so coating 
trees, shrubs, and other plants near as to 
render them hardly recognisable. 
A correspondent mentions that dust has 
been to him more efficacious as shading to 
glass houses than Summer Cloud or whitening, 
for a dense sediment of grit, of the very 
lightest particles, has settled all over the 
roofs, and toned the glare of the hot sunshine 
effectually. To have washed it off would 
have been hut to make matters worse, it being 
better to wait until the rain, so much needed, 
came and washed everything else, thus settling 
the dust effectually. Whit-Monday last will 
long be remembered as a wretchedly wet day, 
and yet how grateful should we all he that 
such rain fell, as, hut for that, having regard 
to the unusual tropical heat which has since 
prevailed, vegetation might have grievously 
suffered. 
So far vegetation in many districts now 
must need washing. A few hours of steady 
rain would he indeed a boon. A fairly good 
soaking would, now that we are between the 
hay and corn harvests, prove to be a veritable 
god-send. In some parts of the country the 
drought is causing suffering, hut we trust it is 
very limited in its effects. So far the season 
has been a grand one, and we hope it will so 
continue. 
^Tiie Giant Aroid at Iyew. —We were, a 
^ few days since, favoured with a view of 
a very superior photograph of this giant Aroid, 
taken, late on the day of its chief expansion, 
by Mr. Henry Little, of Twickenham. The 
picture of this curious and exceedingly evanes¬ 
cent plant is enlarged to some 15 ins. or 18 ins. 
high, and presents a far more life-like aspect 
of the Giant Aroid than any other we have 
seen. Mr. Little is an amateur photographer, 
but a very able one all the same, and it is 
satisfactory to learn that through his kindness 
the Kew authorities are now in possession of 
an admirable illustration of their recent 
wonder, which but for Mr. Little’s activity 
they would not have possessed. 
Every one is familiar with the lords and 
ladies of the hedgerows, but still can hardly 
realise one so monstrous as to be some 7 ft. 
in height, the sheath or spathes opening round 
the enclosed spadix to a width of 4 ft., then 
gradually closing in, as was the case when Mr. 
Little’s picture was taken, to 2 ft., until, next 
morning, having been on view about twenty- 
four hours, the spadix fell over and collapsed. 
Like most of the Aroids, this huge fellow 
emitted a horrid perfume, therefore we may he 
thankful that their lives are so short, as had 
the plant and smell endured, Kew might have 
come under the ban of the local sanitary 
authorities. The bulb of the plant had been at 
Kew ten years, therefore, though a striking 
curiosity no doubt, its evanescent florescence 
hardly repaid for its long idle existence. 
Perhaps the photographic incident to which 
we have referred will induce the Kew authori¬ 
ties to make photography one of their accom¬ 
plishments. We should have imagined that 
it would long have been one of the first objects 
to secure good pictures of rarities of this kind 
for the museum, and hut for Mr. Little’s 
action no such picture might have been 
possessed. If two or three of the numerous 
employes at Kew were to go through a course 
of photographic instruction, no doubt the 
gardens could soon he made independent of all 
external aid. 
