196 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
November 28, 1891. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM 
GROUPS AT EXHIBITIONS. 
I was pleased to note at the recent show of the 
Twickenham Horticultural Society th?.t the groups, 
and very fine ones too as groups go, were each, in 
accordance with the requirements of the schedule, 
edged with Ferns. The best group, one from Orleans 
House Gardens, had a dense edging of beautiful 
. Maidenhair Fern. It is just possible that to get 
the fern edging into the prescribed chalk line, the 
blooms on the plants in the groups seemed to be 
unduly crowded, but still I have found the same 
grave defect plentiful elsewhere, and yet had the 
fronts of the groups as unsightly as possible. 
One very objectionable element in closely packed 
groups is the introduction of too many late struck 
poor plants. I visited a garden at Twickenham, the 
gardener being being one of the plant group com¬ 
petitors. He showed me a quantity of late struck 
single bloom plants in 6-in. pots, provided expressly 
for the packing of groups, as when the large plants 
and pots are put close together these small dwarfer 
plants would stand in thickly on the larger pots, and 
fill up densely. That cannot be a desirable method 
of making prize Chrysanthemum groups, and yet the 
system you have objected to as existing specially en¬ 
courages it. 
If the groups be limited to a certain number of 
plants, the spaces being filled up with Ferns or other 
foliage plants, we should then see every effort made 
to produce strong robust well-grown plants, carrying 
each some three or four blooms. Thus we should 
have quality both in plants and blooms as well as 
good decorative effect.— A. D. 
_ - ■» - _ 
♦ 
CHRYSANTHEMUM 
NOTES. 
New Incurved Varieties. 
Of these, I do not think either M. R. Bahaunt or 
Robert Canned will take a high place as exhibition 
varieties, and for this reason ; I think both have the 
Japanese blood in them, and the difficulty will be to 
have them sufficiently refined. They lack finish in 
the centre, and especially is this true of Robert 
Canned. In these days, a good incurved flower needs 
to be perfectly finished ; the florets should not cross 
each other in any way, and completely fold over and 
close in the centre. Given depth, refinement, and 
freshness, and there is a perfect incurved bloom. I 
have seen some fine blooms of M. R. Bahaunt, but 
not one I could say was perfectly finished ; and 
though Robert Canned has received certificates of 
merit, I have not seen a good bloom of it this season. 
But, as an old Chrysanthemum grower said to me a 
few days ago, three years’ culture is necessary to 
show fully what a new variety of a Chrysanthemum is 
capable of. I think Matthew Russell, a rosy lilac 
and yellow sport from Princess of Wales, will make 
a good, useful and desirable exhibition variety, after 
another year or two’s culture. Rivelyn, a rich golden 
bronze sport from the golden Mrs. Norman Davis, is 
highly spoken of, though I have not seen it in its best 
form. H. Shoesmith, a bronze sport from the yellow 
Mr. Bunn; John Doughty, a bronze sport from 
Queen of England ; John Lambert, a light buff sport 
from the primrose Lord Alcester; Madame Gayral, 
white, heavily tipped with purple-lilac ; Miss M. A. 
Haggas, a beautiful yellow sport from the rosy-tinted 
Mrs. Heale ; and Violet Tomlin, the beautiful purple- 
violet sport from the blush Princess of Wales, are all 
very useful new varieties, the two last-named 
especially ; it is impossible to speak'too highly of the 
two last-named. Violet Tomlin gives us a tint of 
colour that was much needed among the incurved 
varieties. But, just think how much we owe to the 
inherent sportiveness of the Chrysanthemum, the why 
and wherefore of which no one knoweth ; for the 
causes are hidden in the silent mystery of the flower’s 
nature, and no botanist or florist has as yet succeeded 
in making them understood by us. 
Miss Bella Wilson, a new incurved seedling raised 
at the Nurseries of Messrs. James Carter & Co., and 
introduced by them, were shown both at the Crystal 
Palace and Royal Aquarium Exhibitions. It is of 
good size, fine shape, and full substance, the colour 
pale-lilac and satin-grey. At the Crystal Palace, 
several blooms were shown, some from the crown- 
bud, which were rough in build and weak in colour, 
others from the terminal-bud, which were much more 
refined, deeper, and more pleasing in colour, and it 
was commended from the terminal-bud. The floral 
committee of the National Chrysanthemum Society 
did not take kindly to it at their meeting on Nov. 
ioth. The further appearance of this variety will 
be looked forward to with some interest. 
At the meeting of the Floral Committee of the 
National Chrysanthemum Society, on the ioth inst., 
Mr. Robert Owen, nurseryman, Maidenhead, had a 
very fine new yellow incurved variety, named “ Mrs. 
Robinson King.” I am not sufficiently acquainted 
with its origin to be able to say whether it is a seedling 
or sport, but it is large in size, and exquisite in shape 
and colour. On the 13th inst. I was at the Notting¬ 
ham Chysanthemum Show, where a very fine bloom 
of “Mrs. Robinson King” was shown by Mr. P. 
Blair, gardener to the Duke of Sutherland, at 
Trentham, and every grower was delighted with it. 
—R.D. 
Naming Blooms at Exhibitions. 
Now that your pages will be more at liberty, as the 
battle of the 11 Mums ” is nearly over, I wish to draw 
attention to the advisability of a more uniform 
system of showing the names of the flowers on the 
stands, to the names being correctly And legibly 
written, and that every stand should be correctly 
named. At some of the exhibitions I have attended 
I have found names slovenly written and misspelt, 
and when the exhibitor is an illiterate, he should be 
compelled to get some capable person to fill in the 
names correctly for him, or the society provide a 
person to help the illiterate exhibitors on the morn¬ 
ing of the day. I have also noticed that in some 
cases the names are written on cards dropped into 
little recesses on the front of the stands where visitors 
cannot see them. Others write the names on slips 
of paper laid loosely on the stand in front of the 
flowers, and are easily displaced, and not easily 
seen. The best plan I have seen adopted is that of a wire 
support to hold three narrow cards giving the names 
of the three flowers as they are placed in the row 
from front to back, and these supports are firmly 
fixed to the back of the stand, and judges and visitors 
can so easily see the names. As these name sup¬ 
ports must be very cheap, why not make their use 
compulsory? It is a great advantage to the judges, 
who are often pressed for time to get their work done 
before the public are admitted, that the names of 
the flowers should be seen as quickly as possible, 
and it is also a great advantage to the visitors.— Mum. 
Chrysanthemum Mrs. Robinson King. 
This new variety was shown in grand form at the 
recent Leeds exhibition, and promises to become a 
constant flower on the exhibition boards of the future, 
for it is a veritable Queen in the incurved section. 
It is a valuable sport from Golden Empress of 
India, and originated in the garden of the lady in 
whose honour it has been named, at North Ferriby, 
Brough. Mr. Hotham, her gardener, was successful 
in propagating the sport, and fixing it. It is a rich, 
deep golden yellow in colour, with incurved florets 
of fine form. The flower is deep, massive and 
globular—a telling variety as shown at Leeds, where 
it was deservedly awarded a First-class Certificate. 
-—A Yorkshire Gardener. 
An Incurved Chrysanthemum Cullingfordi. 
The normal form of this variety is reflexed as is well 
known to almost every grower of Chrysanthemums. A 
sport has occurred at Devonhurst, Chiswick, where 
the florets are incurved partly hiding the crimson 
upper surface. The reverse is thinly shaded with 
gold, and the short and fine pubescence character¬ 
istic of the type has become developed into well- 
marked, coarse bristles, though not so long as in 
the so-called plumy kinds. Whether it may be 
grown as a true incurved will have to be determined 
another season, as the plants now grown have been 
propagated late and are consequently small. It is 
named Amy Casey. 
St. John’s Nursery, Putney. 
As far as exhibition purposes are concerned, Chry¬ 
santhemums are quite over in the southern districts 
of England, but the late varieties, and especially those 
grovm for cut flower purposes, promise more remu¬ 
neration for the growers than those grown to large 
size for exhibition. The explanation is that the wet 
weather that prevailed during October and the begin¬ 
ning of November caused an unusual amount of 
damping and destruction of the flowers. This is 
particularly the case at St. John’s Nursery, Putney, 
where the situation is low and damp. Mr. G. 
Stevens, nevertheless, managed to secure the second 
prize in a good competition for the large group at the 
National Chrysanthemum Society’s November show. 
The incurved varieties in his group, though really 
more valuable and difficult to grow, were less effec¬ 
tive than the Japanese sorts so prevalent in other 
groups. 
The chief display in one of his houses consists 
of Elaine, Golden Gem, Ethel, and Mrs. H. J. Jones. 
These were stopped once and allowed to grow into 
tall bushes with many branches, which being lightly 
disbudded are now very floriferous. The flowers of 
all are of a useful size, clean, and fresh. Golden 
Gem has naturally rather smaller flowers than the 
rest, and bronzy-orange fading ultimately to a paler 
and more golden hue. The white flowers of Ethel 
are cup-shaped, and very popular for late autumn 
and early winter work. Mrs. H. J. Jones is of a 
beautiful clear yellow, and often spoken of as the 
Yellow Ethel. All the four are of course Japanese 
sorts. Mrs. Geo. Stevens is another which has 
neither been stopped nor disbudded, and has golden- 
yellow flowers ultimately tinted with bronze. A use¬ 
ful variety for late work is Princess Blanche, a 
Japanese sort with medium sized blooms, pink in bud 
but pure white when expanded. Cuttings were 
struck in November and again in February, but there 
is no difference in the behaviour of the two batchts, 
which were only in bud when we saw them last week. 
The plants are very bushy, about 2 ft. high, and were 
neither stopped nor disbudded. Mr. Stevens speaks 
highly of it for cut flowers late in the year. 
Large blooms of Ada Spaulding showed them to 
be pink outside and white in the centre. . The ma¬ 
jority of growers can make [nothing else of it than 
an incurved Japanese variety. A promising variety, 
if grown for exhibition purposes, is Sunbeam.. The 
spreading florets are crimson, edged with yellow and 
often striped along the centre with yellow. The 
form of the flower may be compared to that of 
Hamlet, at least in the early stages, but the colour 
is quite different. Beauty of Castlewood is of the 
same type as Mrs. C. Wheeler, but has more in¬ 
curved crimson florets and old gold on the reverse. 
A curious sort is Kioto with twisted yellow florets 
resembling those of Golden Dragon, but the plant 
varies from 4 ft. toff J ft. high. Besides the above 
Japanese varieties, a large number of Pompons are 
grown for cut flowers, and amongst them we noted 
the popular Mademoiselle Elise Dordan, flowering 
very freely, but the flowers were small owing to 
their not having been disbudded nor cut back. 
In one of the low, span-roofed houses is a fine lot 
of Ccelygyne cristata in large pots and pans, already 
showing their flower spikes strongly in large num¬ 
bers. That as well as Cypripedium insigne are grown 
for the sake of cut flowers. Clivia miniata, Azalea 
indica alba, and A. Deutsche Perle have already 
commenced to bloom, and will continue till early 
summer. Large batches of Nephrodium molle 
corymbiferum and Polypodium aureum are grown 
for filling ornamental vases. The spaces under the 
benches are utilised for the cultivation of Mushrooms 
which prove a profitable crop. 
THE DESERT FLORA OF 
EGYPT. 
In a lecture recently delivered at Ealing, the Rev. 
George Henslow, M.A., F.L.S., said the Desert Flora 
was perhaps the most interesting department of 
Egyptian botany, as the plants in that flora showed 
very remarkable adaptations to maintain their exis¬ 
tence against conditions arising from the intense 
heat and drought which prevailed during ten months 
in the year in that country. The general appear¬ 
ance of Egyptian desert plants was that of stunted 
bushes and herbs of a blue-grey colour ; this colour 
was due to the dense hairy covering so many of the 
plants in this class of Egyptian flora possessed on 
the foliage, or to the waxy secretion over the surface 
of the leaves which distinguished others. The roots 
of the desert plants were often of extraordinary 
length, this extreme length of root being one of 
the provisions with which nature had furnished the 
plant to seek for and obtain water below the sand ; 
the surface of the latter was sometimes heated to a 
degree of 140° F. The desert plants obtained water 
from the sky in only two months of the year—in that 
period rain descended in a deluge—consequently 
they had to exist the remainder of the year without 
further rain. They had in those ten months in which 
