484 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 30, 1889. 
S^OffrdUXWf^. 
Yellow Hyacinths. 
The remarks of “R. D.” in The Gardening World, 
p. 468, are quite right. In the first part of the present 
century double Hyacinths in general were preferred in 
Great Britain, but on the Continent there was at the 
same time a predilection for single ones. In Germany 
the single sorts fit for very early forcing were always 
sold in quantity. As for single yellows, at the time 
they were not very much valued in England there 
was, however, a good demand for them in France and 
south European countries, where many double yellows 
were sold as well. The old single yellow, La Pluie 
d’Or, was much used, ten or twelve being placed in 
plates filled with water, or in moss. During the last 
fifty years all this has changed, and now everywhere 
singles are preferred to doubles in all colours, the 
reason being that there has been obtained endless per¬ 
fection in the single varieties, and in double ones only 
proportionately very few have proved worthy. 
At the period when double Hyacinths were cultivated 
by amateurs in prepared beds in the open ground for 
their individual beauty, there was a demand for these 
fine late sorts, with large rosy coloured bells, which now 
are scarcely to be found. Among double yellows the 
present century has only brought very few good sorts. 
Among the best are Goethe and William III., both 
obtained from seed by my father. His two double 
yellow seedlings, William II. and Thorwaldsen, are in 
the way of William III., but much finer, only too late- 
llowering for the wants of the present time. In a 
descriptive catalogue issued by my firm in 1874 there 
are ottered thirty-three double and seventy-four single 
yellow varieties. In that publication is also given a 
list of rejected varieties, containing fifty singles and 
nine doubles. I remember this collection of 166 
varieties, but several sorts that were cultivated in 1874 
have been since rejected. On the other hand, several 
novelties have been added to the assortment.— J. H 
Krelage, Haarlem, March 22>rd, 1889. 
Gold-laced Polyanthuses. 
In the editorial column of last week’s issue (p. 464) 
allusion is made to my recent suggestion as to the way 
new varieties of the gold-laced Polyanthus may be 
obtained, and the following remarks appear:—“Mr. 
Thurstan so admirably points the way to the pro¬ 
duction of these finer and improved forms of gold- 
laced Polyanthuses—the paucity of which we recently 
lamented—that no one can but wish he would have 
gone farther, and intimated his intention to do what 
he shows others may do.” 
Now, if reference is made to p. 744 of this journal 
(July 24th, 1886), it will he found that I had then 
already done—and very successfully, too—what I 
advocated might be done by others. In that year I 
raised about 1,000 seedlings ; but very unfortunately, 
my prospective “Polyanthus” viewswere most seriously 
checked, consequent on business necessitating my 
removal from Wolverhampton to Cardiff at the end of 
that year ; and being unable, when I came here, to 
obtain garden ground in which I could grow my plants, 
I had no alternative but to distribute the whole stock 
of seedling Polyanthuses and Pinks, &c., &c. amongst 
kind Wolverhampton friends (not florists) who volun¬ 
teered, in a time of need, garden accommodation, the 
result being that both stocks were eventually lost, 
excepting a few varieties of Pinks which Mr. Barlow 
had previously been growing for me. 
Like most seaport towns, there is hut a limited space 
of ground for gardening purposes allotted to dwelling- 
houses in Cardiff; the Rev. Mr. Horner experienced a 
similar difficulty during his gardening career at 
Liverpool. If I had garden-room I would lose no 
opportunity in trying to improve and increase the 
varieties of Polyanthus, but I have not sufficient 
accommodation for my Tulips, which number about 
10,000 bulbs, big and little, and which compels me to 
grow or pack them together like common Daffodils. 
The reason such little progress has been made in 
regard to the Polyanthus during the last 40 to 50 years 
is that they have, with the florists’ laced Pink, been 
neglected. As Mr. Bolton truly says, in his article last 
week, it is only within the last few years that Gold- 
laced Polyanthuses have met with much support in 
the shape of prizes being offered at the shows. With 
regard to Mr. Bolton’s general remarks as to difficulty 
in growing, and the disaster “a dry summer and the 
red-spider caused him,” I ask all readers who may be 
Polyanthus growers, or intending cultivators of this old 
and beautiful variety of florists’ flower, not to be in 
the least dismayed by this gentleman’s discouraging 
experiences ; the fact is, he must have neglected 
watering his plants and searching .for the red-spider 
at an early period. If he had looked after these 
enemies as closely as he looked after the green-fly and 
white-bug, which naturally infest Auriculas, his report 
as to his success as a Polyanthus grower would have 
been of a different character. The truth is, Mr. 
Bolton’s “ fascinations ” are all cemented to the 
Auricula.— James Thurstan, Cardiff. 
I observe that Mr. Bolton, although writing from so 
cool a district as Warrington, mentions that he is 
unable to preserve gold-laced Polyanthuses in the open 
ground through the summer months. Yery probably 
that is universally the case in relation to the most 
tender and refined of kinds ; but even here in the 
south I have just now some twenty very strong plants 
of William IV. which have been out in the open ground 
for two years, and promise to flower very abundantly. 
John Bright is also fairly strong, but I have very few 
plants of it. It is not at all a good kind ; an exhibitor 
must be hard driven who has to stage it. William IV., 
if a little rough at times, still seems to have a fairly 
good constitution, and may prove an excellent breeder. 
—A. D. 
Floricultural Sinners. 
My uncle Richard and my grandfather had each of 
them gardens at Pike Fold, near Blackley. My grand¬ 
father was a very earnest and sincere Methodist, and 
my uncle Richard was about the reverse. He was the 
leader of the Blackley band, and associated occasionally 
with rough customers. They were both in the house 
when a storm occurred, and the old man came out and 
looked at Richard’s garden in front of the house, and 
as it was in the summer time, the Gooseberries had 
many leaves damaged and knocked off, and the fruit 
was much injured. The old man said “ Ah, Richard, 
this is sin ; it’s sin, lad.” Richard replied, “I don’t 
know about that, but it’s a bad job at any rate ; let’s 
have a look at your garden, now.” The old man’s 
garden was at the back of the house, and had been 
exposed to the full force of the storm, and when they 
came to look at it the old man forgot himself and said, 
“Why, dear, dear me, Richard, mine is twice as bad 
as thine ! ” To which Richard replied, “ Oh, that’s 
because you are twice as great a sinner as me.”— From 
a paper on Garden Gossip, by S. Barlow. 
Auricula, Marcus Aurelius. 
The new Auricula shown under this name recently at 
the Royal Botanic Society’s show by Mr. J. Douglas, 
Great Gearies, Ilford, was a deep maroon self, with a 
well-defined white paste, and a narrow yellow throat. 
The whole plant was only about 3 ins. high, and the 
truss bore numerous flowers which were exceedingly 
pretty but small. They may, however, get larger as 
the plant gains in strength. A Floricultural Certificate 
was awarded. 
New Cinerarias. 
Advance. —Flower-heads very large, with broad over¬ 
lapping ray-florets. The latter are magenta-purple, 
with a white zone at the base surrounding the purple 
disk. Sybil. —The flower-heads in this case are of 
medium size compared with those of Advance, but of a 
bright blue with a white zone round the small blue 
disk. Wonder. —Flower-heads of a deep purple verging 
on violet-purple, with a white zone round the purple 
disk. It is quite distinct from Advance. All of them 
are of dwarf compact habit, and were shown by Mr. J. 
James, Woodside, Farnham Royal, Slough, at the 
Royal Botanic Society's spring show, and were awarded 
Floricultural Certificates. 
-— >X<- - 
“IMPERIAL” PRIMULAS. 
Under the title of “The Imperial Strain” Mr. Robert 
Owen, of Maidenhead, has several times this season 
exhibited blooms of a rich and varied assortment of 
Chinese Primulas, and on one occasion so fine was the 
sample exhibited before the Floral Committee that 
an Award of Merit was voted to it. We have ourselves 
also been favoured with blooms of Mr. Owen’s later 
seedlings, which showed rare quality, and also well 
illustrated the fact that in the hands of the skilful 
hybridist there seems to he practically no limit to the 
endless tints or shades of colour into which the Chinese 
Primula will break. We have selected a few of the 
most novel flowers* for illustration, but unfortunately 
for our readers cannot give any pictorial idea of the 
richness and beautiful combination of the colours dis¬ 
played in them. 
None of the flowers being identified by name, for 
convenience of reference in these notes we must refer 
to them by letters, and first of all comes A, an exceed¬ 
ingly meritorious variety, of which we give a front and 
side view to show the depth of the flower, which seems 
semi-double, owing to the excessive widening and 
lobing of the imbricated and undulated segments, one 
A 
Chinese Primula. 
of which overlapped two others with one of its halves. 
The flower was 2J ins. in diameter without being 
flattened, and from 1 in. to 1J in. in depth. The 
ground-colour was pure white, with a light mauve 
lacing round the margin, and the six-lobed eye was 
golden yellow. The second illustration (B) shows a 
pure white flower with a broad mauve margin, and a 
large yellow eyeforkingin a curious manner on to the base 
of the segments. The next block (C) illustrates an 
exceedingly pretty flower, with a pure white ground 
a broad sub-marginal lacing of delicate peach-pink, and 
white tips to the segments. The lacing was very 
definite in outline, giving the whole flower a charming 
appearance. In D we have a large and much undulated 
flower of a most agreeable rose colour, marked with 
numerous small white dots. Around the five-lobed 
yellow eye, the rose ground colour faded into a pale, 
almost white shade. The flower was of great substance, 
although it did not equal A in the former respect 
The fifth flower (E) was a violet-purp’e self, and a very 
good type, large, flat, and of good substance. The five¬ 
angled yellow eye was surrounded by a broad crimson 
line. Several other self-coloured flowers showed very 
intense vermilion and salmon-red hues. Mr. Owen has 
evidently been fortunate in his crosses to obtain so 
much success as a raiser in so comparatively short a 
time, and we shall look forward with interest to his next 
generation of seedlings. 
-- 
Royal Agricultural Society. —On Tuesday the 
Prince of Wales presided on behalf of the Queen at a 
State Banquet given at St. James’ Palace hy command 
of Her Majesty, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of 
the Incorporation of this society, of which, this year, 
Her Majesty is president. 
