March 16, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
451 
Doronicum, to keep well they must be put in water 
immediately after being gathered. 
“Corydalis tuberosa alba is another of my spring 
favourites, which I have never seen anywhere except 
in nurseries and our own garden. You may remember 
noticing it as it stood on our high mantel-shelf, its 
greeny white transparent flowers looking so delicate, 
and set off to advantage, arranged in a simple specimen 
glass. Well worth planting also, of the same class, are 
Corydalis nohilis and C. lutea, the first to grow in 
damp shady places, where in late spring its handsome 
foliage, and yellow flowers, are not at all to be despised. 
Corydalis lutea is in some places a great boon, suc¬ 
ceeding as it often does wliere^almost no other plant 
can be coaxed to grow. It makes itself at home 
everywhere, in the shade under trees where it mostly 
runs to leaves ; on sunny old walls, and in bare exposed 
borders and banks it will spread, covering spots which 
otherwise, would probably be destitute of vegetation, 
and brightening them with its delicate green Fern-like 
foliage and small yellow flowers. Though the latter 
are of no use for cutting purposes, yet nevertheless 
all flower lovers must appreciate such a useful little 
plant, living and thriving as it does in almost any soil 
or situation. Only try dibbling bits of it into the 
crevices of an old wall, and you will be delighted with 
its graceful habit of growth. 
“ An old-fashioned plant we grow to fill glasses is the 
drooping yellow Tulip (Tulipa sylvestris) ; if placed 
high up its drooping flowers will then show themselves 
to perfection. Mixed with a few upright yellow Tulips 
or with heads of Luzula sylvestris, it makes a lovely 
glass to look at from below. Unlike other Tulips, once 
planted it can take care of itself and be left in the 
ground all the year round. Also uncommon is the 
white Fritillary (Frittillaria meleagris alba). In our 
soil they die out always after the third year, but they 
might be more permanent elsewhere, and are very well 
worth giving a trial. 
“As to all Narcissi and Lent Lilies, gather them 
when only just in full bud, and arrange them with a 
very few of their own leaves. Gathered at this stage 
they keep very much longer, and any other foliage 
than their own spoils the effect of their flowers. White 
Squills which look exactly like wild Hyacinths except 
in colour, are bought under the name of Scilla nutans 
alba, and are not so common as they ought to be. I 
arrange them with their own foliage, as nothing else 
sets them off so well.' Let me caution you to be 
economical in picking the leaves of all bulbous plants, 
as it is through perfect growth of the foliage that the 
roots become ripened, therefore indiscriminately robbing 
a plant of all its leaves must be avoided. 
“ Polyanthuses are such common things that you will 
wonder at my naming them, but of late years we have 
grown Barr’s large yellow, and the giant yellow and 
white strains of Hartland’s, of Cork, and all three have 
been such a success that I advise you to get seed and 
raise a collection for your own garden. As a rule, rich 
as are the colours of the Polyanthus, they look too 
sombre when cut to show well as a flower for room 
decoration ; but these three strains are different. The 
yellow especially are most perfect as cut flowers, being 
so rich in colour and so large as to be almost as floe as 
Campernelle Jonquils, and with the advantage of 
lacking their faint overpowering smell. When the 
Princess of Wales visited Cork I read that Mr. Hartland 
sent her a bouquet of them, with which she was greatly 
pleased. 
“A plant still little known, but which will repay a 
good deal of trouble in procuring it, as only a few 
nurserymen have it, is Heuchera lucida. The flowers 
are quite insignificant and worthless, but the foliage is 
most exquisite, both in colour and form, resembling a 
zonal Pelargonium, only serrated at the edges and 
extremely lustrous. As it is perfectly hardy, and the 
foliage lasts well on into the winter, I rarely cut it 
much till late in the season, when a few of its leaves 
make a most charming addition to autumn and early 
winter blooms. It arranges exquisitely with the white 
autumn Japanese Anemone (A. japonica Honorine 
Jobert), China and Christmas Poses, and yellow and 
white Chrysanthemums. As a permanent edging to a 
bed cut out on grass it is particularly suited, the rich 
lustrous crown leaves showing so well against the 
bright green turf ; and then for cutting from, nothing 
could be better. 
“You also noticed that pretty pale green Fern-like 
foliage I used so much last summer. It is Dielytra 
eximea, and we grow quantities of it merely for foliage 
to cut from, as the flowers are really not at all pretty. 
It often lasts for a fortnight as a green for dinner-table 
flower glasses. It is so delicate that it withers directly 
it is cut, and how I manage is to take an empty mar¬ 
malade pot when I go to gather it, and as I cut each 
spray put it at once into the pot, which, of course, is 
filled with water. If I did not do this it would not 
carry fresh even into the house. It is quite as delicate 
iu colour and habit as many Maidenhairs, but gathered 
as I describe, has the advantage of lasting a long time. 
If grown in the shade, it spreads more rapidly and 
grows larger and deeper green in colour, but some 
should be grown in the sun, where it grows more 
delicate and paler in colour, and it may even be got to 
come variegated and blotched with yellow by growing 
in a sunny spot in soil slightly mixed with lime rubbish. 
It is quite the best green I know to replace Maidenhair, 
and generally even a single clump has both upright and 
drooping leaves, the latter being so useful to fall over 
the edges of glasses, and its keeping so long is a very 
great recommendation. 
“Believe, me, yours truly, 
“Gladys Wood.” 
-- 
ffoTES from Scotland. 
Honour to a Scottish Botanist. — The 
Senatus of Aberdeen University on Saturday resolved 
to confer the LL.D. degree on, among others, Mr. 
John Roy, headmaster of Dr. Brown’s School, Aberdeen. 
Mr. Roy is a native of Perthshire, but he has been 
connected with Aberdeen for thirty years. His merits 
and success as a teacher have been duly recognised by 
his being admitted a Fellow of the Educational Institute 
of Scotland. The University Senatus, while not over¬ 
looking his qualifications as an instructor of youth, 
conferred the LL.D. degree upon him mainly in respect 
of his scientific attainments. In connection with the 
Earl of Crawford and Balcarres’ Observatory at 
Duneeht, near Aberdeen, Mr. Roy did much valuable 
work, which was only known at the time to a very 
limited circle, as the results were printed for private 
circulation, and did not have Mr. Roy’s name 
attached to them. It is as a botanist, however, 
that Mr. Roy has established his reputation. At 
the present time he is president of the Natural History 
Society of Aberdeen, of which for more than twenty 
years he acted as secretary. His contributions to that 
society’s papers and his aid to young members have 
always been greatly appreciated. His researches have, 
however, gone far beyond what might be regarded as 
the popular side of botanical science, and the results of 
his investigations into the general botany of the north¬ 
east of Scotland will very shortly appear in the form of 
a “ Botanical Guide,” the joint production of Mr. Roy 
and the Rev. John Ferguson, formerly of New Pitsligo, 
Aberdeenshire, now parish minister of Fearn, Forfar¬ 
shire. Mr. Roy’s specialty is microscopic botany, and 
in that wide department he has chiefly, though not 
exclusively, engaged himself in the examination of the 
Desmids of this and other countries. For the benefit 
of non-scientific readers, it may be mentioned that the 
Desmids are amongst those lowest organisms which 
seem to connect the animal and vegetable kingdoms at 
their common starting point, and that they are usually 
found in stagnant or slowly running water. Mr. Roy 
has written on the result of his investigations in the 
Scottish Naturalist; has published the Desmids of 
Japan in conjunction with Mr. Bisset, of Wyndum, 
Banchory, near Aberdeen, who was for several years 
resident in that country ; and has examined the 
Desmids of Leicestershire for the recently issued Flora 
of that county. The labours thus undertaken, and 
other work in which he has been active, have brought 
Mr. Roy into communication with many scientific men 
alike in Britain and on the Continent, and has made 
his name known among students of botany in every 
country in Europe. It has only to be added that great 
satisfaction is being expressed amongst the wide circle 
of Mr. Roy’s friends, at his long and valuable services 
to science being so kindly recognised by the Senatus of 
Aberdeen University. 
Scottish Horticultural Association.—The 
annual general meeting of this association was held on 
the 5th inst., at No. 5, St. Andrew’s Square,Edinburgh. 
The twelfth annual report (which was submitted by 
Mr. Robertson Monro, the secretary) stated that the 
association had made steady progress during the session. 
Having offered a summary of the different papers read 
to the association, and alluded to the interesting features 
they presented, the report went on to mention that 
during the session fifty-five members (three of them 
being life members) had been added to the roll. The 
treasurer’s report showed a small balance on the right 
side of the association’s accounts, and also those con¬ 
nected with the Chrysanthemum Show. The reports 
were adopted, and the meeting proceeded to the election 
of office-bearers, which was carried out as follows: — 
Honorary president, the Duke of Buccleuch ; president, 
Professor Bayley Balfour; vice-presidents, Mr. 
Alexander Mackinnon and Mr. James Grieve ; secre¬ 
tary Mr Robertson Monro; treasurer, Mr. A. 
Mackinnon ; new council, Mr. Grosart, Mr. M'Hattie, 
Mr. M. Dunn, Mr. Laing, Mr. Tod, and Mr. Macmillan. 
The Edinburgh International Centenary 
Chrysanthemum Show.—We are pleased to 
observe that the Edinburgh Town Council, at their 
last meeting, agreed to guarantee the sum of £100, and 
to give a silver cup, value £20, for competition at the 
proposed Centenary Exhibition, to beheld in November 
next. 
North of Scotland Horticultural Asso¬ 
ciation, Aberdeen. —At the usual monthly 
meeting of the members of this association, held on 
the 6th inst. (Mr. D. M. Smith, the vice-president, 
presiding), a paper on the cultivation of hardy fruits, 
by Mr. A. Chisholm, gardener, Duffus House, Moray¬ 
shire, was read by Mr. William Reid, the secretary. 
The paper dealt exclusively with the growing of Apples 
and Pears. Although Mr. Chisholm would by no 
means recommend the planting of extensive orchards 
in Aberdeenshire, yet, as Peaches, Nectarines and 
Apricots did very well in Morayshire with merely the 
protection of a fold or two of an old net, when they 
were in flower, it was not too much to expect that 
Apples and Pears would succeed in Aberdeenshire. He 
had been asked by many persons why it was that 
Apples were so much inferior nowadays to those they 
used to get when they were young, and his reply to 
that was simply that it had to be remembered that a 
slice of a raw Turnip was considered first-class then. 
His employer had given close attention to the 
cultivation of Apples and Pears for a great number of 
years, and he denied that there was any falling off iu 
quantity or quality. He, however, complained of the 
seasons, and that some of the varieties did not ripen so 
well as they did formerly. It might be that our fore¬ 
fathers had not to contend with canker. That disease 
was a great pest, and he was sorry to say he could 
recommend nothing new as a cure. In Mr. Chisholm’s 
opinion, the reason why Apples and Pears did not get 
more attention than they did was that there was such 
a large amount imported annually from America and 
elsewhere. These varieties of fruit could be grown 
and sent to Britain at so small a cost as to almost 
defy home competition. At no season of the year were 
Apples in such a state of perfection as in September 
and October, and this fact, Mr. Chisholm thought, 
might be worth the attention of those growing for 
profit, so that their fruit might be sold off before the 
foreign Apples glutted the markets. Several very 
practical hints were given as to the planting and 
pruning of trees, and the affixing to each tree of a 
permanent label bearing the name of the variety was 
advocated. 
A discussion followed, which was taken part in by a 
goodly number of those present, and at its. close the 
secretary was authorised to convey to Mr. Chisholm 
the hearty vote of thanks of the association for his 
instructive paper. A model of a fruit-protector was 
exhibited by Mr. Fairgrieve, Dunkeld, and received a 
good deal of attention. Mr. Auld, The Firs, Murtle, 
was awarded a Cultural Certificate for well-grown and 
beautifully flowered Cinerarias and Cyclamens. 
Grafting- to Cure Canker.—It would be 
interesting to know how many years trees keep in a 
healthy condition after they had been grafted by other 
kinds. The practice is well known to and familiar with 
the writer, but looking over a number of trees which 
had all gone wrong after they had been grafted and 
grown vigorously, were grafted again with another 
kind and appeared quite rejuvenated, and saved by the 
manipulation practised on them. But alas ! time again 
shows how often one may be allured into a false faith 
when one has become confident that success is 
complete. There are, however, other causes of canker 
than the roots becoming inactive, over-active, or poisoned 
with improper food, viz., if allowed to become 
“ snaggled ” by improper and superfluous pruning in 
their earlier stages of growth ; planting into rich soil, 
causing unnatural sappy growth which did not become 
matured, and rendering the tissues liable to injury by 
frost; cutting out large branches of vigorous trees, 
and leaving the stumps exposed to rain and frost, while 
slanting the wounds would have saved them. Some 
kinds (Cellini and Blenheim Orange especially) are very 
liable to canker. We cut a number of cankered trees 
back some years ago, which have made splendid growth, 
but we fear canker will again attack them. — M. T. 
